Ep 112: Understanding Player Needs

In this episode of the Mastering Retention Podcast, host Tom Hammond speaks with Antanina Livingston, a product manager and liveops extraordinaire! Antanina shares her insights on how to approach feature and event planning, the importance of understanding player needs, and how to manage burnout in the liveops team. She also discusses the challenges of managing burnout and the importance of understanding different cultures and languages in the gaming industry. 

Highlights:

• Antanina Livingston shares insights on how to approach feature and event planning, the importance of understanding player needs, and how to manage burnout. (0:20)
• Livingston talks about her background in business and how she transitioned to the gaming industry. (3:44)
• The importance of understanding different cultures and languages in the gaming industry is discussed. (8:47)
• Livingston shares her thoughts on how to approach feature planning and event planning in a way that maintains player retention. (13:07)
• The challenges of managing burnout in the live ops team are addressed. (19:13)

"Retention is one of those metrics that's really hard to influence...you need to create something that would be interesting to players to come back." (14:59)