Monetisation in F2P games as exemplified by Allods Online

1. Allods Monetization:
designer’s experience
Ilya Maryasov, game designer, Allods Team
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2. What is Allods
• Allods Online is a F2P MMORPG in an original
universe. Commercial launch: October 2009
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3. Economy Flowchart

4. Economic System
• Multiple currencies
• Several models of item ownership (BoP, BoE, BNone)
• Open market of in-game goods with a lot of participants
• Internal convertible currencies
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5. Currency Exchange in action
30.5
25.5
20.5
15.5
10.5
5.5
20-30k transactions per day
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6. Social and Economic Value of Runes
Any system needs economic regulations. In
Allods runes regulate the economy. Their
mechanics allow to remove the excess any kind
of currency: game currency, premium or promo
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7. Promo Currency
Main feature of the promo currency (“premium
crystals”): it is account-bound.
• Obtained during special events or by
converting normal real-money currency.
• Prevents from economy exploits when
bonuses and gifts are given away.
• Ensures that the currency will be used only by
player for whom it was intended.
• Has lower liquidity.
• Requires additional support in the IM
assortment
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8. Audience Interaction
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9. Customer Behavior
Demand generated
Need more bag space
Search for solution Create twink
Expand bag Expand bank deposit Discard items
character
Choosing a tool
IM purchase
Category search
Subcategory search
Item search
Choosing item
Purchase
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10. Customer Behavior and Conversion
100.0
Demand generated
25.0
Purchase decision
Choosing a tool 22.5
Category search 20.3
Subcategory search18.2
Item search 16.4
Choosing item 14.8
Purchase 13.3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
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11. Item Shop Progress
• Customer thinks of item categories instead of
specific positions.
• Customer does not know the assortment.
• Customer has demands they are unaware of.
• Customer does not think in “bank notes”.
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12. Assortment Management Basics
• Convenience – fast access to required
category or goods
• Transparency – logical assortment structure
• Clarity – descriptions of goods and categories
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13. Assortment management
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14. 6 customer groups
• Utility-oriented
• Fashion-oriented
• Reliability-oriented
• Variety-oriented
• Pastime-oriented
• Emotion-driven
(С) McDonald
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15. Item Sales
• Every month several positions are sold at a
discount
• Usually not revenue drivers
• Revenue driver sale is followed by
overwhelming demand
• Brings little to none revenue but generates
hype and news topic
• Allows to reveal overpriced goods
Audience:
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16. Currency Sale
• Real money currency (“Crystal”) is on sale
• Sets expectations among consumers
• Increases revenues significantly: +10-15% to
monthly revenue
Audience:
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17. “Magic Lamp”
• Event encouraging non-paying users to pay
• Gambling elements
• Individual offer
• Without a character-bound currency, results in
incorrect behavior pattern (“army of low-level
twinks to receive bonus”)
• +5-10% to monthly revenue
Audience:
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18. Box of Crystals
• Temporary “money sink” event for premium
currency
• Gambling mechanics
• Binding status must be transferred to
generated bonus
• +2-5% to monthly revenue
Audience:
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19. Individual Offers
• Special kind of crystal sale
• Targeted only at active audience
• Gives benefits to certain player categories
• Accepted negatively
Audience:
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20. “Happy Million”
• Special kind of crystal sale
• Limited offer
• Sells a given amount of currency in short
period
Audience:
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21. Sales Points
• Any sale affects future purchases.
• Sales on a regular basis form behavior
patterns.
• Bonus must be bound to character.
• Any giveaways stimulate incorrect behavior
patterns.
• Available payment methods greatly affect
sales.
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22. Lottery Events
• Run every month
• Why players are excited:
– Limited-time sale
– Exclusive content
• Any gambling event decreases lifetime of a
customer
Gambling audience:
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23. Lottery Models Tested
• Zero lottery – on large numbers average
cost of all dropped items equals to the
price of all lottery boxes
• Zero sale – average cost of dropped
items is equal or higher than the lottery
box price at each attempt
• Exclusive sale – there is only exclusive
content in the lottery box, it cannot be
acquired from other sources, but price
of this content cannot be determined
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24. Lowering Attrition Generated by
Gambling
• Collector’s coins– each opened box gives one
coin used to purchase base-level exclusive
prizes. This is positively accepted.
• Rewards are still useful after single use – non
binded rewards, players can stack few lesser
reward to get more valuable prize
• Each attempt of lottery activity is getting user
closer to top-prize. No “common” fillers-goods
in the box
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25. Increasing Attraction of Gambling
• Grand Prix – players who opened a certain
number of boxes automatically participate in
daily lottery
• Jackpot - each opened box adds some gold to
Jackpot pool. There is a chance to win the
whole pool every time a player opens a box.
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26. Feedback
For each event, the following feedback must be
collected and analyzed:
– Audience impressions
– Statistics
– Experience of playing developers
– Sales before, during and after the event
It allows to make a conclusion about customer behavior
and results of the event.
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27. Conclusion
Main monetization steps:
• Generate a demand
• Provide the tools to satisfy it
• Cover all participants by these tools
• Provide reasons to re-evaluate demands
• Collect and analyze feedback and statistics
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28. Thank you!
Ilya Maryasov
Game Designer, Allods Team
maryasov@corp.mail.ru
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