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Deconstructing Free To Play
In this talk I discuss some of the precise mechanisms by which F2P games are most successfully monetized, and the psychological tradeoffs and consequences involved.
1 Min Read
Deconstructing Free to Play is a talk I delivered at Phoenix IGDA. It's long, so here is an outline of the topics covered:
How Jetpack Joyride Jacked Learning
Learning Curves and how F2P monetization manipulates them.
Details about how Jetpack Joyride statistically constrains progress for monetization.
The Pay Wall Dynamic
How successful F2P games create situations to compel real money spending.
Jetpack Joyride, Real Racing 3, Candy Crush Saga, Puzzle and Dragons examples.
Gameplay Depth & Monetization
How monetization techniques are really independent of gameplay depth.
How PAD's basic gameplay design is good, deep and accessible despite coercive structures.
How random factors can dismantle a game's depth.
Puzzle and Dragons' Compulsion Devices
How manipulations of resource availability confound players' impressions of abundance.
How free rewards actually catalyze player anxiety and subsequently lead to real money purchases.
The effects of complex special limited-time event schedules.
The conventional F2P Stamina/ Energy meter and how it psychologically works.
How the true nature of various systems are deliberately obfuscated.
Concluding Thoughts
Buyer's Remorse.
F2P as dopamine hacks.
Learned Helplessness.
Long term implications, Q&A.
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