法增居士 法增居士
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The Top F2P Monetization Trick The following blog was, unless otherwise noted, independently written by a member of Gamasutra's game development community. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Gamasutra or its parent company. Want to write your own blog post on Gamasutra? It's easy! Click here to get started. Your post could be featured on Gamasutra's home page, right alongside our award-winning articles and news stories. Coercive Monetization A coercive monetization model depends on the ability to “trick” a person into making a purchase with incomplete information, or by hiding that information such that while it is technically available, the brain of the consumer does not access that information. Hiding a purchase can be as simple as disguising the relationship between the action and the cost as I describe in my Systems of Control in F2P paper. Research has shown that putting even one intermediate currency between the consumer and real money, such as a “game gem” (premium currency), makes the consumer much less adept at assessing the value of the transaction. Additional intermediary objects, what I call “layering”, makes it even harder for the brain to accurately assess the situation, especially if there is some additional stress applied. This additional stress is often in the form of what Roger Dickey from Zynga calls “fun pain”. I describe this in my Two Contrasting Views of Monetization paper from 2011. This involves putting the consumer in a very uncomfortable or undesirable position in the game and then offering to remove this “pain” in return for spending money. This money is always layered in coercive monetization models, because if confronted with a “real” purchase the consumer would be less likely to fall for the trick. As discussed in my Monetizing Children paper, the ability to weigh this short term “pain relief” vs. the long term opportunity costs of spending money is a brain activity shown by research to be handled in the pre-frontal cortex. This area of the brain typically completes its development at the age of 25. Thus consumers under the age of 25 will have increased vulnerability to fun pain and layering effects, with younger consumers increasingly vulnerable. While those older than 25 can fall for very well constructed coercive monetization models, especially if they are unfamiliar with them (first generation Facebook gamers), the target audience for these products is those under the age of 25. For this reason these products are almost always presented with cartoonish graphics and child-like characters. Note that while monetizing those under 18 runs the risk of charge backs, those between the age of 18 and 25 are still in the process of brain development and are considered legal adults. It seems unlikely that anyone in this age range, having been anointed with adulthood, is going to appeal to a credit card company for relief by saying they are still developmentally immature. Thus this group is a vulnerable population with no legal protection, making them the ideal target audience for these methods. Not coincidentally, this age range of consumer is also highly desired by credit card companies.
分析:《智龙迷城》如何“强迫”玩家消费   开发商GungHo Online Entertainment通过该公司的移动RPG游戏《智龙迷城》每天获得的收入大概在250万美元左右。最近,策划Ramin Shokrizade在博客上解释了这家日本开发商赚钱的秘诀。   Shokrizade讲了几个方面,比如付费货币,奖励的去除以及用户量大增长等。他说,这些技术通常会阻挡玩家想起有关抵制消费的信息。   像GungHo和King这样的开发商都使用这种方法来制造“有趣的痛苦”,即游戏策划定义的,当玩家遇到“不自在”的时刻并给予他们付费机会来摆脱的情况。   “据对于人类大脑的调查表明,衡量短期解决方案和长期消费机会的能力是大脑活动能力的一部分”,Shokrizade说,“这部分大脑的发育通常在25岁左右趋于成熟。因此25岁以下的消费者对这样的消费的抵抗能力会稍弱,越年轻的消费者遇到这种情况花钱的机会越大”。   《智龙迷城》刚开始是需要技巧的,玩家们觉得很好,Shokrizade说,因为他们认为自己在依靠自己的的技巧不断推动游戏进度。不过,等时间稍微久一点,该游戏的节奏就开始减速,变成了一款Pay-to-win游戏,或者说是“拼钱游戏”。   “如果从技术型游戏向拼钱游戏的转变足够平稳,消费者们就不太可能意识到游戏规则的变化”,Shokrizade说。“如果做的足够好,消费者会认为他们仍然在体验技术性游戏,只是需要一点点帮助来加速完成。这种方法的结果就是随着开支的不断增加而出现了歧视性定价,直到消费者意识到他们在玩的是一款‘拼钱游戏’”。   开发商可以通过付费货币的方式减缓消费者的反应速度。如果你曾经玩过免费游戏的话,或许你会知道开发商们使用了特殊货币,比如宝石或者能量,玩家可以用真钱购买更多。游戏中的所有东西都必须通过宝石购买。   开发商之所以这样做,是因为用户们通常不会直接的把这些付费货币和经济方面的担忧联系到一起。“如果用真钱的话(成功的游戏开发商从来不这样做),之后消费者就会发现他们的钱会随着游戏的进度而减少,并且变得越来越明显”,Shokrizade说。“这样的话会给消费者们更多的机会来思考消费成本并减少游戏的收入”。   Shokrizade还说,《智龙迷城》淡化了运营增长的方式,这样玩家们就不会意识到他们不花很多钱就没法获得最佳物品的现实。   玩家们可以用5美元购买随机的稀有怪物,这样可以使游戏变得更容易,但玩家们还可以通过合并付费怪物的方式获得更强大的物种。   “因此这类游戏中最佳的增长方式通常是要消费数千美元,而且这样的方式往往是玩家们已经消费了数百美元之后才意识到的”,他说。“这样的话,玩家们就会处于进退两难的地步,如果停止消费,之前购买的优势等于自动消失了,不然就要继续消费,直到进入游戏的排行榜之中”。   Shokrizade还提到了《智龙迷城》的奖励去除艺术。在该游戏中,玩家们通过地牢进行战斗,在最后会遇到一个很难打的BOSS。大多数情况下,玩家们会死在BOSS手里,这个时候,玩家们需要花1美元来保留之前在地牢中获得的物品,否则的话整个地牢战斗过程中获得的物品将会丢失。   “对于玩家们来说,丢失物品浪费的并不仅仅是时间”,Shokrizade说,“如果我用了一个小时的时间写论文,突然我写的东西都消失了,这比浪费一个小时的时间更让我痛苦。同样的成就丢失也会起到这样的作用。只需要通过这样的方法就可以让消费者们继续花钱了”。   如果玩家们意识到免费开发商们为获得更多的收入而忽视了最佳的游戏体验的话,这种情况是十分危险的。   这些方法并不适用于所有的免费游戏。Shokrizade指出,技能型游戏可以使用对技术更加重视的方法鼓励消费。我们所熟知的例子就是Riot的《英雄联盟》。
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