A lot of casino experts are asking themselves if the satisfaction of players actually matters. In the case of Scott Rigby, his answer is a definite yes. He has just created the PENS (Player Experience of Need Satisfaction) model, which takes a look at how are satisfying a player’s basic psychological needs.

“Those would be needs for confidence. We all have this basic psychological need to feel efficacious to feel like we’re growing, to feel like we’re increasing in our skills and abilities. The second need is the need for autonomy, and that’s the desire we all have to feel volitional, that we feel like we are writing our own story and the things that we’re doing, we endorse. When those needs are satisfied, what we find is we feel more thriving, and when we’re not satisfied, we tend to atrophy. And because of that, people implicitly value experiences in games that satisfy these needs. As a result, they’ll play games longer. They’ll spend more money in those games. They’ll tell more people about those games. They become enthusiasts for those games. It’s a model that’s both satisfying people and also helps game development companies make more money and achieve their business goals.”

This is all coming in a period when the United States are currently in the process of getting online gambling regulated, and a lot of those companies are now offering free to play sites. Rigby has one advice for these companies: create experiences to ensure player satisfaction.