Eco-system is a term first used in 1930 to describe living organisms in their environment. Although used to define a naturally wealthy self-sustaining environment in which survival strategies among the individual species that live there because of the abundance of food, function as single unit within the burgeoning physicality of the landscape.
An eco-system can be likened to a medieval township with their products developed in relationship to the chosen landscape of their particular habitat. It is used to describe a business model, its various participants and customers. Speed of delivery, instant access, is now the important thing in the market place; a customer needs to swiftly access their products. Competition increases as do the demands and numbers of customers also increase.
Clearly then, as per the outline above, the basic eco-system principles are entirely applicable to the gaming industry as well.
Background
Vivital Enterprises is a fresh, dynamic and highly innovative company in the gaming and casino industry. Vivital believes that the gaming industry needs a disruptive approach, one which will empower the players. Casinos, games, players, educational books, televised tournaments and games and more are all part of the gaming ecosystem. So far, each part of the ecosystem has developed in isolation and in autonomy and most relationships are either isolated or unintentional. We plan to reduce the basic unit of the ecosystem to the players. By positioning them at the center with the eco-system revolving everything around them for their benefit, we will affect the entire industry in more ways than can be imagined.
If anything every ecosystem, known to man, has shown that the “tipping point” has been the creation of various communities. From biological to financial and even internet all of them have experienced a multiple order of magnitude in effectiveness and usefulness. Casino and gaming industry is a very slow and conservative sector. The testament is how they missed the Internet gaming by miles and how they are still neglecting the power of online communities and new technological advancement. On top of it all, the limited number of potential customers, the war of standardization and old rivalry is hurting the industry even more. It needs to open up and allow everybody to grow. This cannot happen under traditional approach to the gaming by the major companies. A disruptive technology and business approach with desirable applications is the key. Vivital Enterprises has been poised to take the lead on this very crucial role.
Figure 1 Existing poker ecosystem
What is wrong with the existing eco-system?
The status quo is that operators (online or land based) provide gaming opportunities for the consumer/player. The manufacturers are the main suppliers of games, devices and back office support system to operators. Players’ loyalty is cultivated per operator. Think about the massacre of dolphin and whales in Japan, global warming and meltdown of both Poles and destruction of rainforests. These are all done because of short-term thinking and profit making, in the long run, it will come back to haunt the very person who is benefiting from it now. Corporate culture and quarterly assessment of a company in western hemisphere has the same attitude towards its ecosystem.
On the face of it, players go to casinos for entertainment and/or money making opportunities. Casinos provide gaming opportunities. Their gain is either mathematical upper hand or collecting rakes for furnishing the gaming opportunity (tables, dealers, pit bosses, etc) and cross-sell to other revenue centers like hospitality, entertainment, food & drink and even retail. Manufacturers are in constant race to develop more interesting products in a bid for more players and more player loyalty. A Manufacturers’ lifeline is closely dependent on how well they can convince the operators that their products will be used by the players.
However, apart from the odd focus groups and marketing analysis the ecosystem has a complete breakdown. The existing ecosystem circle is broken with no direct connection between the manufacturers and the players. A few major operators influence the entire market. This could be for due to a limited vision and/or market understanding. But the most probable reason why the ecosystem is broken is that the operator may have a good hold on the operation side of the business and not the creative one.
Players are limited. Helpful information on the best gaming practices is scarce and scattered about over the Internet and found in few good books. The “player compliment” Player comp. is designed to identify high rollers and does not encourage operator and game loyalty amongst the ordinary players due to a number of reasons like high cost of sales or time consuming business processes. In many cases, the player comp. participation only makes sense for regulars and/or high rollers who get tangible rewards. There are no “real” responsible gaming initiatives. In many jurisdiction and most casinos it is just a dog and pony show. Our products and services can change it all.
Most tourists and casual players have put aside a few dollars for a night to go to a casino gamble and have fun.
What would be the best result?
The problem has never been a shortage of tables; it has been the shortage of players. By helping the player to make better decisions, we might prolong the game a bit but more importantly we have prolonged the enjoyment and sense of accomplishment. The player has played longer, he has understood why he lost and he would want to learn more. It is natural for a player to want to aim for excellence and become a better player. Better players mean more player turn over and recurring business. Along the way, the player begins to trust an operator who did not want to ruthlessly take his money. In our ecosystem by preserving the most valuable entity we would ensure the increased abundance and longevity of of the system..
In a completely isolated way, publications and websites try to connect with the players. The attraction is to provide useful information to beat the casino or other players as in the case of poker. The player needs guidance. Most are confused as to whom to trust, what to path to follow. In the mind of serious player are many questions about what works and does not. We can provide this information and settle some to the discomfort for the players and in turn players will be more willing to return to the table.
In recent years, TV shows have been gaining a lot of traction from the poker players. TV shows are entertaining and educational. They provide a very valuable opportunity for branding and advertisements. The educational content can be interpreted very subjectively. The shows are produced for TV so do not broadcast most of the nitty-gritty of the player’s strategy, trap setting and opponent priming. They only show a few exciting hands which most of them are completely out of the context of the main flow of the game. This leads to more player confusion as player wants to imitate the pros on TV but fails miserably. The shows are expensive to produce and do not have any continuity.
Understanding the flow of energy in the eco-system
The growth and the well-being of the eco-system requires that it must have a central resource from out of which the different branches flow to the various communities in which the participants can restore their spirit. When the channel meets an obstacle it will branch off in a new direction. Think how Internet gaming has picked up in recent years. The biggest land-based poker tournaments can only attract around 8000 people at their very best where online tournament on weekly basis can attract more for their high-end tournaments. Players are turning their attention to an new direction, the Internet.
Due to the increased speed of the day to day activities people require instant access from a single source for each from every other entity in the eco-system. The key evolving move is to converge the branches so Internet and land-based operators work in tandem or at least under one big umbrella that provide and protects the most valuable entity; players.
The cycling of nutrients
The main obstacles are that the operators are simply unwilling to embrace the technology of the 21st century. The operators want to hold their position power as the main suppliers to the player. The players are the most important resource in the ecosystem limit the players options and you limit your resources.
Regardless, however much traditional playing methods or strategies will remain unchanged; the playing field has been transformed. The players are now the dominate force within a burgeoning eco-system in which the participants are constantly on the move, yet, players are limited by the availability of certain products and services and access to them.
Operators are dependent on a Manufacturers’ products and the Manufacturers’ lifeline depends on the players using their products. A serious problem for the players is that the channels between the manufacturers and others aspects such as publications and websites are off the beaten trail and in isolated areas either blocked off or obstructed.
Radiant energy from the sun
Vivital Enterprises’ has developed the solution to most of these problems. Our approach for improving the Game environment is to link up all the participants in the gaming industry eco-system. Our products and services are for the empowerment of the players. They will open new channels and provide many new opportunities for players, operators and every other service out there. The new gateway through the channel Vivital’s core technology, Dominic is an invaluable survival kit.
Figure 2 Proposed poker ecosystem
The central hub is our feedback system, a living organism that also known as Knowledge Discovery Engine (KDE). This close circuit of data-information-knowledge-data will improve and increase in value every time it is used. It will govern the flow of energy and the cycling of essential and nonessential materials. Players can customize the KDE, to obtain feedback on the best practices and different styles as it processes and evaluate a player’s decisions. Each time it dispense a feedback to a player, it would accept a “feedback” on the KDE suggestions. The player feedbacks are worked back into the rule-based engine to provide both customized and accurate feedbacks/suggestions the next time around. Vivital has found a unique technique to filter out the noise and nonchalant feedbacks and work harder on those rendered by experts, professional and advanced players.
The entire platform -will be useful for operators as it will aid with customer loyalty, increase player turn over and revenue, even 3rd party product and service providers may tap into our platform and offer different or improvised services and products.
Once a main repository is designated and used then small yet thriving communities would form around it. As societies and cities get bigger and bigger the communities will evolve and grow depending on their needs and wants. This is the tipping point for much larger trends and new usage patterns.
The Knowledge Discovery Engine (KDE) will fuse new energy and fuel into the gaming industry eco-system making it even more self-sustaining than before. The gaming ecosystem is influenced by the energy flowing in and out of it between the players and communities, operators and management of the various locals and by traditional attitudes and strategies which can be modified by technology.
The gaming industry ecosystem is not open ended, what happens in one area affects what happens in another and in turn affects the players. The gaming industry eco-system is worldwide. What happens at one point of the globe can and does affect the processes at all other points. Communities and the players in the communities will decide what type of TV shows they want to see or what they would deem as entertaining and what not. The ideas for the next killer application or game would outpour from the communities and knowledge increases in size and shape by every passing moment, creating an internet like network for passion, entertainment and gaming.
Vivital Enterprises’ sees a need for a more personal and organized central platform to sustain the health and well being in a seemingly diverse ecosystem.