This reminds me of one of my favorite South Park episodes of all time, Season 18, Episode 6, Freemium Isn't Free. For anyone not familiar with it, do yourself a favor and check it out. They break down the economy of mobile games.
With that in mind, what are your favorite tricks that CG uses to squeeze money out of players and exploit gambling addicts / create addicts?
I think for me it's the general idea that the customer loses to every bug. Heads I win, tails you lose.
For instance, a couple months ago I reported a problem where the game would freeze but register taps, so if you were unlucky enough to tap on something expensive, you'd lose, I dunno, ~3k crystals. Oh sorry, we can't reverse an error like that.
And just look at their response to Malak today.
I know not everyone is a fan of South Park, but the most recent episode explores some interesting topics in game design (while also being pretty funny). They focus on mobile games and micropay techniques, but the same ideas can also be seen in other types of games that revolve around conditioning behavior rather than creating fun gameplay. They even mention Skinner Box, something I find personally really interesting to consider while designing.
Here's the link to South Park Studios : Freemium Isn't Free
Additionally, I know Extra Credits did a nice video on the same principle: The Skinner Box
Now that the episode has aired and everyone's had time to reflect on it:
- Highlights? Any scenes that stand out? Any hidden trivia you think others may have missed?
- Lowlights? Did your dick fly off?
- What did everyone think of it overall? Episode grade (1 - 10) relative to the entire series? And this season?
- What do you want to see them cover next week?
Please try to make your top-level responses somewhat in-depth (at least, say, three sentences). For the previous discussion thread see here.
I never noticed how much phone/mobile games advertise: hey, spend real money! Until I played South Park: Phone Destroyer.
I recently started playing DisneyEmoji Blitz and, I think they’ve got Phone Destroyer beat with the: Hey, spend $20 for the chance to get such and such emoji!
And yes,the chance not for the emoji itself 😂😂😂
It really makes me laugh.
Anyone else play other mobile games that try and get their hard earned money?
I'm watching one of my favorite South Park episodes after dropping my husband off at the airport and the gremlin started rustling around some. But I can't do anything crazy tonight, I'm getting my first tattoo tomorrow morning, after thinking about it for five years! So I'm staying hydrated so it doesn't hurt as much, fingers crossed. I mean people do it all the time right? Can't be that bad.
This episode made me pretty uncomfortable when it first aired because of Randy and his justifications for drinking absurd amounts of alcohol - that it's 'fancy' and he's 'sampling' and it's 'elegant and classy'. Of course, the same justifications I told myself while drinking craft beer every day. The implication in the show is obvious - he's just as addicted as his father is to gambling and Stan is to the freemium game. It goes thru a bit about the alcohol industry and how it doesn't care that 10-20% of the population is going to get addicted - they're counting on it, because that's where 80% of profits come from. I just shook my head knowing I was one of those chumps.
Now I think it's a pretty fucking funny episode. It's uncomfortably on point and stupidly absurd, like all good SP.
Cheers to Friday night at home, iwndwyt
The episode's explanation: This may not be news, but just to enlighten a thing or two
A five step plan to make the player spend endless amounts of money on the game, called the principles of success:
- Step 1: Simplicity - performing the same actions over and over again, a simple repetitive game loop
- Step 2: Compliments - lots of flashing stuff to make the player feel awesome about them self. We all know that feel' when lightning pops from a scroll we spend money on
- Step 3: Fake currency - give the player a small amount of the in game currency, so that they feel the need for more
- Step 4: Switcharoo - offering the players the option to exchange real money for the in game fake currency, so they forget they spend money in the first place
- Step 5: Making the game about waiting: Letting the player pay not to wait.
Furthermore:
- Profits: Very few people actually pay for the game (f2p). It's all about reaching the heavy payers.
- High amounts: It's all about finding those players, and extracting the most amount of money from them
- Thus: That's how they get 1% community base to pay $200 for a game that is barely worth $0.20
- Conclusion: Com2Us makes all their money from a small amount of the player base. These players most likely have very serious game/gambling issues irl. Just a theory though. Damn.
The series conclusion: Satan runs Com2Us.
Holy fuck, I feel like I just leaked Com2Us marketing/company plan. Shit. Is. About. To. Get. Real. SATAN PLS.
EDIT: You guys react like I am an idiot and didn't know this already. Of course I did. I just thought it was hilarious, how accurate southpark was able to describe it. That's all. Cheers
This game is becoming exactly like the Freemium isn't Free episode, this is totally created by the Canadian Devil.
Name speaks for itself, as a "hardcore casual player" I enjoyed this episode.
Did anyone happen to watch South Park's latest episode last night? Though it dealt with phone game apps, I felt it spoke volumes about LoP in its general undertones. And now the peasants want South Park to do a league parody, BAH!! It was on already, I say!
What's the benefit of paying for it while other online banks give it for free?
I splashed this cash and am in the process of using my tokens to get 23 premium characters, and I haven’t even begun to think what I will do with my 900 donuts.
Although - I don’t know what good the tokens are if you already have these characters unlocked.
Am I missing something?
I loved the original Plants vs. Zombies, and I'd like a similar game, but the sequel is just a repulsive EA cash-grab. Can anyone recommend a similar lane-based tower defense game that isn't full of awful microtransaction/freemium shit?
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