Game Economist Cast

Send us a textMatthew Melnyk joins the crew to finally tell us what's social about social casinos. Eric discovers a genre outside of CCG roguelikes...Psych, this time, it's Cobalt Core. Chris bends the supply survey backward to explain progression windfalls, while Phil tries to connect the dots between leaderboards and auction systems.

Send us a textNo Palword take is too late; something is not lost on the Game Economist Cast crew. Eric beguiles us with Cassette Beasts' analysis, while Chris reminds us of web3's oft-forgotten but newly popular Airdrop mechanics. Bonk? Phil can't get over the post-COVID decline in weekly gaming hours, but Eric cooks on a theory that a growing leisure pie might save us all. [1] Sub to Eric and Chris's Substack! [2] It's a bubble, it's a market, it's an Airdop![3] The Tremendous Yet Troubled State of Gaming in 2024

Send us a textEric starts 2024 with a new paper on League of Legends published by leading researchers. Is there an optimal amount of excitement in matches, and if so, where is it? Chris returns from Italy, and holy cannoli, did he have a "time" while  Phil laments subscription-based pricing as the antithesis of game monetization.  The crew agrees to spend money on Magic The Gathering this year.

The podcast discusses the concept of game inflation and its impact on players, including their experiences with idle games. They explore the misunderstandings surrounding game inflation and the lack of steady state in game design. The speakers propose solutions like a staircase tax and emphasize the importance of understanding economic concepts in game design.

Bill Grosso, CEO of Game Data Pros, talks about price personalization at scale, community pushback, pricing power of brands, and the best things about game economists. They discuss challenges of regional and dynamic pricing in the gaming industry, optimizing game ecosystem, churn models, personalized treatments, and building a community of game data professionals.

Dr.Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, one of the world's first Game Economist, talks about the origin of EVE, his wins at CCP, the role of game economists, and the future of crypto in gaming.

Send us a textSomehow, the cast wrings another guest, David Nelson, the former VP of Experimentation at King. Christopher Kaczmarczyk-Smith runs a regression on negative price, while Eric Guan explains the economic dynamics of rewarded video - bots and all. The crew debates how to solve the F-99 monetization problem and checks out what the NEW Experimentation Group is up to.

Send us a textYou won’t want to miss this episode of Game Economist Cast.Guest! Finally! Dr.Julian Runge is here to add some much-needed seasoning to the regular crew, bringing the takes. We discuss the role of art, science, and academia, analytic organization structures, the role of flow in retention, the role of sales versus personalization, and the best theories of difficulty. We cover a lot of PUBLICLY published research in this episode (most by Dr.Runge!) that most industry venters haven’t seen![1] Getting ML-Based App Personalization Right: The Engagement Engineering Framework[2] Price Promotions for “Freemium” App Monetization[3] Why Free-to-Play Apps Can Ignore the Old Rules About Cutting Prices[4] Quantity discounts on a virtual good: The results of a massive pricing experiment at King

The podcast covers topics such as game economies, Pikmin as a complex strategy game, mobile games and gamification incentives, blockchain resource management game development, limitations of averages in tracking consumption patterns, employee leisure activities, and trading and crafting in digital card games.

Send us a textChris beguiles us with tales of Disc Golf, while Eric describes, in detail, the "fully modeled genitalia" of Baldur's Gate 3. Phil is too busy brushing up his Redditor voice which will surely get him canceled. The crew laments the declining utility of cosmetic economies but doubles down on the mechanics of emergent gameplay.