Angry Birds Star Wars does something like this and so I get asked for money to buy extra ships to shoot Storm Pigs. Fuckers.
This article, and others in the series Shokrizade has written on the ethics of business models in games, have been getting a lot of play on various gaming sites I visit, but I'll be amazed if he can get the companies that matter in this area (Apple Facebook, EA, Zynga, etc) to sign up to a meaningfully constraining code of conduct. Zynga in particular is built on deeply manipulative monetisation techniques and using players to market games (ie monetisation opportunities) to their friends.
Zynga is particularly evil in this regard. So is Electronic Arts, who have ruined the newest version of Plants vs. Zombies.
"Freemium." Purists hate or give way before its inevitability?
Brewster's Millions?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster's_Millions_(1985_film)
King.com was generous enough to point out that their target demographic for [Candy Crush Saga] is middle aged women. 80% of their players are women, only 34% of their players are under the age of 30, and only 9% are under the age of 21.
This jibes the general trend on my Facebook feed, which is that most of the Zynga invites I get are from middle-aged female acquaintances. I wonder if its because that demographic has been so poorly served by the traditional games industry, which is solidly targeted at 23 year old men.
Purists hate or give way before its inevitability?
Hate, if the Touch Arcade forums are anything to go by.
I am not entirely sure that "evil" is the right word for "they gave me free stuff and then said they wouldn't give me any more unless I started paying them!"
This jibes the general trend on my Facebook feed, which is that most of the Zynga invites I get are from middle-aged female acquaintances. I wonder if its because that demographic has been so poorly served by the traditional games industry, which is solidly targeted at 23 year old men.
Popcap (Bejewelled, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies) have also said this is their biggest audience.
10: clearly you did not attend the same elementary school anti-drug curriculum as the rest of us.
"What do you kids say if somebody offers you some horse or a free tractor for your farm?"
I am not entirely sure that "evil" is the right word for "they gave me free stuff and then said they wouldn't give me any more unless I started paying them!"
It's not just that, though. It's that combined with very deliberately creating addictive mechanics, and indeed conducting extensive research to maximise the addicting and hence monetising properties of the games. And then combine that with, for instance, making available extremely high value IAPs so that whales (whether rich or addicted), or children using their parents' phones, can spend hundreds of pounds at once on a game that in a more traditional business model would have cost at most £40 and in reality more like £15.
I really love well done casual flash games.
Zanorg's Jeu Chiant is great.
Excellent minimal flash games from Tonypa
Amanita's Machinatium is another one that I really like, also their earlier Samorost.
At their best, these are like clever sketches or very simple animations that you can play with. I like the closeness to the game's creator that's just missing with the soulless BS that makes money for Facebook. The immersive games like Half-Life or I guess GTA just seem too demanding, I'd rather play go or chess if I'm going to work-- A friend got me one a few months back, and I kind of had fun going through a few levels, but it's just less inviting to me than these little sketches.
I don't get the appeal of games like those in the OP-- too simple and too opaque for sustained analytical effort.
I'm surprised that players don't find this model instantly offputting (or, at least, I find it instantly offputting, and I'm always surprised when other people aren't me.) I'm generally a good candidate for casual gaming, in that I can get obsessive about very stupid, simple games. But the second the model is for you to pay extra to assist gameplay, that's the equivalent of someone saying "Having fun? I have total control over the game, and I'll fuck it up randomly unless you pay me arbitrary amounts when I ask. Skill, attention, and effort are completely pointless from this point forward." At which point I don't understand why anyone keeps playing.
I don't understand why I kept collecting bits of fur until I built a spaceship, but I did. Twice.
It did make me give in and buy a real game (Civ V).
That one, I got bored, but I might easily have kept on forever (I spent a lot of time lifetime playing nethack). But that game, pointless as it was, wasn't holding you up for money.
Civ V just feels wrong at times, like when I'm bombing Mecca.
I'd totally agree with 16 if you paid me a dollar.
1: Huh. I thought Angry Birds Star Wars was evil because it produces the illusion of learning and skillful play but is in fact very easy. I never got to the monetized part - I just played for one day straight, realized what it was doing to my soul, and deleted it from my phone.
24: Makes sense. They are the cows of the sea after all.
23: It's pretty hard for a first grader.
I really love well done casual flash games.
This isn't about casual and/or flash games per se. There are many, many brilliant, non-manipulative (or manipulative in a good way) casual games. It's about a specific businesss model, and the way it preys on the vulnerable. Incidentally, if you like those Amanita games, you should check out their latest, Botanicula.
I'm surprised that players don't find this model instantly offputting (or, at least, I find it instantly offputting, and I'm always surprised when other people aren't me.)
Many, many people do, and for a long time while it was being pioneered in Asia it was considered a non-starter in the West, for precisely the reasons you give. Yet once it hit a critical mass it rapidly became the dominant business model for everything but (and even including some) AAA games.
14: Whales?
As in JPMorgan's London Whale, the big spenders. The tiny proportion of an F2P game's player base that spend the vast majority of the money. Something like 5% of a typical F2P game's players pay anything at all, and 5% of those spend practically all the money.
Cow Clicker isn't around anymore, but it was a great example of intentionally addictive Facebook game design.
You get a cow. You can click on it. In six hours, you can click it again. Clicking earns you clicks. You can buy custom "premium" cows through micropayments (the Cow Clicker currency is called "mooney"), and you can buy your way out of the time delay by spending it. You can publish feed stories about clicking your cow, and you can click friends' cow clicks in their feed stories. Cow Clicker is Facebook games distilled to their essence.
The designer eventually had to take it down because, even though it was conceived as satire, too many people were taking it seriously, and he felt it was immoral to encourage people to waste away their lives by clicking cows on Facebook.
15: Also, very much in the same vein as Amanita's games, aesthetically and design-wise, is The Tiny Bang Story.
This isn't about casual and/or flash games per se.
I understand, I am bringing up a topic related to the OP that leaves me feeling good rather than bad about other human beings.
The article linked in the OP reminds me of reading Cialdini in school and realizing that a surprisingly large number of things in my environment were deliberately pushing buttons in ways that I hadn't previously thought about at all. Helpful but depressing.
Can I trade my collected mouse orgasms to buy a front page post?
conducting extensive research to maximise the addicting and hence monetising properties of the games
realizing that a surprisingly large number of things in my environment were deliberately pushing buttons in ways that I hadn't previously thought about at all.
That was what struck me about the article -- the immediate recognition that if I had gotten hooked on a game that technique would be very effective (on the other hand, it reminds me a bit of the Collectible Card Game model. I did get sucked into MtG, for a while, when it first became big, but I burned out pretty quickly precisely because spending more money to keep playing just disgusted me on some level).
I played a game for a while (Tiny Tower) that was this kind of F2P. But the tradeoff was always just time (a little of playtime, a lot of waiting time). So as long as I didn't care that it would be a week before the next thing happened, there was no reason to give them any money, and I "completed" all the content in the game without giving them any money. Probably would have given up a lot earlier if there hadn't been so much baby-oriented downtime.
(I am grumpy that the new Plants vs. Zombies is going to go this way. Shut up and take my money and then shut up!)
Weekend and evening commenting. For slow periods, we can increase the frequency of comments, drawing on the surplus accumulated during the periods in which comments were throttled.
I think that some recognition of the work of the Night Shift might be in order here. By that I mean alameida, ttaM, Ginger, Alex, myself, and above all Keir, who basically has the blog to Keirself between teo stumbling off to bed in his igloo and alameida concluding her grande levée. We demand preferential treatment! If not we will take industrial action including but not limited to commenting entirely in Lallans, withdrawing our supply of weird family stories, and/or kicking people in the head.
Maybe call them Bitgasms? (Similar to mining, Bitgasms can be accumulated with incontrovertible video proof from commenters of orgasms induced in actual mice.)
New meaning to "These rats (or mice) ain't going to fuck themselves!"
38: I think you've engineering the cash option in a sub-optimal manner. The way it should work is that an Ask the Mineshaft costs 2600 mouse orgasms, a heebie guest post costs 3750 mouse orgasms. But mouse orgasms are only available for purchase at a cost of $125 for 5000.
So if you purchase 5000 mouse orgasms, you have enough for a heebie guest post, but you are left with 1250 mouse orgasms in your account. Naturally, you don't want to waste those mouse orgasms, so you will be encouraged to buy another 5000 to get another heebie post. This will leave you with 2500 left over mouse orgasms, which is almost, but not quite enough to get you an anonymous Ask the Mineshaft. And the cycle continues...
Yeah, I've fallen for that one before...
The problem with mouse orgasms is that afterward the mouse won't pay any attention to your needs.
Do I get paid in mouse orgasms?
The budget is, " two cheese sandwiches, a firkin of salt and a buffalo nickel." You and Knecht will have to split that in some way.
What's the rate difference between a "great" from Moby and an "appreciative chuckle" from neb?
48 was great
51 was great
55 made me laugh
Scratch my back too, eh guys?
My calculations show the success of knecht's scheme will hinge on an increase in the rate of acceleration in participation over time -- in other words, the mouse jerk.
I played a game for a while (Tiny Tower) that was this kind of F2P
The Nimblebit games are a really weird datapoint in this whole debate. On the face of it, games like Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes are very much using the pernicious F2P business model. They have premium currencies, severe and escalating time gates (seriously, by the "end" of Tiny Tower, you're waiting three days for floors to build). Yet I've played huge amounts of both games without spending a penny and never really feeling particularly pushed to. I think part of it is that, especially in the case of Tiny Tower, the gameplay is so mindless (really not much more than Cow Clicker), that there's no real point in pushing through the timegates. It's just about spending a spare 5 minutes every day tapping on things while enjoying the charming art-style. I find the model far more annoying and potentially dangerous where there's more meat to the gameplay (eg Real Racing 3 or the new PvZ), so being forced to stop is a meaningful withdrawal.
But the tradeoff was always just time (a little of playtime, a lot of waiting time). So as long as I didn't care that it would be a week before the next thing happened, there was no reason to give them any money
This is where the social network aspect comes in to play. If you have a lot of downtime, you're falling behind, or letting down the team, or whatever the model is.
I appear to have hit the level in Candy Crush (169) where it's essentially impossible to advance without buying power-ups (confession: I did spend a total of $3.96 to get there). So I think I'm done.
Actually, I thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever read here.
I thought that it was funny also. But all the out-loud nerdery (same as boffinry, or different? Are there other --ry formulations from nouns that are UK-specific?) was by guys.
It was noted at the DC meetup that I'm very likely to engage in that kind of jokey conversation in person but that I don't much on unfogged. I think it has to do with how I use my time at work, but probably also some worries about being thought unfunny or pointless or something, even though I admire the people who do joke here. But also work was too busy for me to comment much this morning and when I had time to talk online, I was spending it arguing with people about Trayvon Martin stuff elsewhere.
|| Speaking of nerdery, I just noticed that there are no ligatures here. Style sheet addition? |>
œ -> œ
æ -> æ
ff -> ff
Now, admittedly, this ligature technique is stoppable; it won't give you an s-t ligature or anything like that. But those guys are beyond fussy.
Yeah, 35 is a nice demonstration of why Knecht gets paid the big bucks. Well done!
I truly loathe the F2P model--possibly because, like NickS, I was briefly sucked into MtG (and Jyhad!) in late middle-school & into my first year of high school.
The plummeting of Zynga's stock price would be great for schadenfreude, except for the fact that everyone responsible for the direction of the company already cashed out. God, what terrible people.
worries about being thought unfunny or pointless or something
An affliction from which I apparently do not suffer.
67: Ligature icon fonts are the new hotness.
Friggin' brilliant hack.
I worry, but then I post whatever unfunny, pointless thought comes to mind anyway. And then, the regret.
An affliction from which I apparently do not suffer.
I obviously don't when nattering on about non-funny things. Just something about jokes and timing and fear of being pwned when there's no reason I should care. Maybe this is like how I felt unworthy to comment when I first started and if I start trying to be funny I'll be able to improve at it.
My family doesn't appreciate how funny I am, so I save all my best lines for you guys.
I'm starting out by hilariously fucking up html, it seems. My brain is not here today.
Everyone who is amused commenting in this thread at all, except Thorn and LB, is also male, afaik.
||
I'm not going to successfully make this stick, but I should get off the internet until about the beginning of September. Work just got very complicated and intense -- not in an interesting way, just in a random alignment of deadlines way.
|>
I should get off the internet until about the beginning of September.
Next you're going to ask us for money, right . . .
That sounds unpleasant.
Good luck. I recommend abusing your subordinates to make it easier on yourself. I suppose that's what your boss did.
70: And neither of us really talked about F2P games!
Heebie-style should come at a 25% discount if it includes heebie's wrong opinions about fashion.
Becks-style will remain as cheap as a bottle of Boone's Farm.
PLCB won't even sell Boone's Farm, the bastards.
It doesn't look suspicious to have the 700+ page PLCB catalog open when co-workers come in, does it?
I laughed out loud several times at 35, then laughed aloud again once I understood pseud in 79. I am male; Virgo; born at the very dawn of the Gerald Ford administration.
Woah, the PLCB catalog is 700 pages long? I had Pennsylvania all wrong.
Or, break a leg, if you've switched to acting.
88: Woah, the PLCB catalog is 700 pages long
Yeah, I had some friends from California come in for a function where they wanted some very specific New Zealand wines, and I was shocked to find them in the list along with specific availability and inventory numbers from nearby stores. It worked out very well, but I'm still suspicious of PCLB.
Somewhat relevant to the OP: Kevin Drum grousing about grocery store loyalty programs (does anybody know why Albertsons is ending their loyalty card? Knecht?).
Fingers crossed for Sir Kraab.
Senior colleague, to me: "I feel like I'm not pulling my weight in this project."
Me, to myself: "At last! A glimmer of self-awareness!"
Senior colleague: "... so I thought maybe we should spend some serious time going through your code in detail so that you can teach me how to calculate things and then maybe I can do a bigger share of the work in the future."
Me: "....."
||
Hot day for fat folx!
Heat index:
Phoenix: 100
Minneapolis: 96
Dallas: 94
New Orleans: 93
Miami: 87
LA: 79
And how many of them other cities had 6" of snow on the ground a week before May Day?
||>
80: I'm not going to successfully make this stick, but I should get off the internet until about the beginning of September. Work just got very complicated and intense -- not in an interesting way
I should have been in that mode since about March (and I was actually in it for a while around that time). But I couldn't keep it up. Because cock jokes.
99 -- Appleton, WI probably has the record, at 148, and likely also had snow on the ground in April that year. Ha ha ha weather losers.
*Hat tip to well known yuppie soccer fan/climatology enthusiast JP Stormcrow, who previously linked this here.
101: Doubtful: highs were in the 50s and 60s that week in 1995.
On the day after that crazy hot day in 2011, I came in to work to find a giant puddle of condensed moisture from the air covering the concrete portion of the floor.
Here in the Boston area, Star Market/Shaws is also dropping their loyalty card program (in fact, they ran a promotion that gave you some relatively good coupons if you turned in your card). Albertsons owns them, so I guess that's not too surprising.
Theory: They're getting better data from in-store monitoring of shoppers with video cameras (Envirosell, Prism Skylabs, Agent Vi, Videomining, etc.).
That and if you don't have your card, the checker uses hers. So how good was the data really.
This is a big deal, though, because the Albersons card gets me a discount on gasoline -- 45 cents a gallon last week (which, with a 20 gallon tank, is real money).
Speaking of gamification and loyalty cards, I just got a Panera Bread loyalty card for the free pastry and I am very upset about their rewards system. "It's easy and free to join. There are no obligations and you'll enjoy surprises and offers when you least expect them." No promises, just "surprises." Fuck them if they expect people to hang onto this stupid fucking card for maybe-who-knows someday a discount on a shitty muffin. And fuck Panera anyway, I wouldn't even be at Panera if my hotel had wifi, and while we're at it fuck hotels that don't have wifi. It's not even a dump, it's the motherfucking Hilton, the "special event rate" is $140, and no wifi. Fuckers!
[This comment brought to you by the angry letter L.]
and while we're at it fuck hotels that don't have wifi
My girlfriend was telling me that at this recent conference, the hotel was going to charge $25k if the organizers wanted to have free wifi for their , the hotel was going to charge $25k if the organizers wanted to have free wifi for their <1000 attendees. The organizers turned it down, because that's a lot of money. But then the hotel forgot to actually turn off the free wifi, so it all had a happy ending.
Five-day conference, 1000 attendees, charge $10/day for individual wifi... $25k starts to look reasonable.
101.2: Thanks, but you forgot my credentials as a keen observer of the broader social context within which the law operates--someone who doesn't get bogged down in the minutiae of procedure and precedent, but can instead see through to a larger truth beyond.
I just got a Panera Bread loyalty card for the free pastry
I get generally grumpy about loyalty cards, but I will say that I went to a talk by the Supportland people a while back, and really liked their model. Hopefully they can export their architecture to other cities.
Dumpy motels have free Wifi. Really nice ones don't. Because capitalism.
I got a card from a local coffee place I like, but stopped using it soon after on general principles. A barista who recognized me recently marveled at the number of free coffees I could have had by now if I had a card, to which I had no substantive response.
I just got a Panera Bread loyalty card for the free pastry
Come on, this is a pretty open and supportive community but you can't just confess to everything. I don't want to start hearing about people's bunions, either.
111: to which I had no substantive response
You should have shot her. No jury would convict.
I play Candy Criush (as apo knows, since we're always trading extra lives and bonus moves), and keep a list of all of my store loyalty cards in my wallet. In short, I am a failure as an anti-capitalist revolutionary.
I would, however, be happy to hold your babies for you.
Just wait until someone comes up with a way to monetize holding babies. Then you'll be on the barricades with the rest of us.
103 Here in the Boston area, Star Market/Shaws is also dropping their loyalty card program
And removing their self-check-out aisles, which I find inexplicably annoying.
About the Unfogged business plan: if you're going to charge money for this, could you at least offer a free help line for people who need to quit?
The trouble with F2P is it takes game designer talent away from the task of creating great games, and focuses it on implementing mechanisms to squeeze extra dollars out of the game player.
Isn't the greatest game the one that makes the most money for the studio?!
Civ V is really buggy. Some designer should work on that.
