5. 1. Expressions of identity & status
• Players want to present a positive
image to others. They will pay for the
opportunity to do so.
• Social elements are required for this
to be worth paying for. Design
“SOCIAL SURFACING.”
8. 2. Exclusivity
• Players are excited by items that are
rare, hard to earn, or available for a
limited time because they represent
exclusivity.
• Giving users a chance to have, do
and be exclusive is a great way to
make them feel more deeply involved
in your product, so you get retentive
benefits and not just monetization.
9. 3. Convenience
Some players have time to spare,
others have money to spare. The
players with money will pay so that they
can spend less time “grinding” to get
to where they want to go.
10. Convenience is really Important
• Non-payers still get to have do the
same stuff and get the same
rewards.
• There is nearly unlimited spend
opportunity.
• Doesn’t feel cheap to players.
• Allows for partial completion
11. The power of partial completion
• Partial completers are then more willing
to “allow themselves” to spend since
they’ve already put in some hard work.
• These players also are getting a
discount on the full price since they
have earned some of it via the “slow
boat.”
• Doesn’t feel cheap to players.
• The partial success they have already
achieved provide a momentum for the
player to engage with the experience.
12. 4. Competitive advantage
• Players are willing to pay for an
advantage in competition
(leaderboards or direct).
• However, this can go too far and
poison the community of the game.
(Pay to win.) The rules around how
far is too far vary by culture.
• One solution: provide a slow boat to
competitive advantages.
13. 5. Boosts and bonuses
• Time limited boosts speed up slow
boats but still make the player feel
like they’ve EARNED it.
• They bring another benefit: they drive
engagement during the time that the
boost is active. Awesome!
• Feels less like pay to win.
14. 6. Story resolution
• Players can get caught up in very
“simple” stories and will pay to
progress and see an outcome.
• FrontierVille players were engaged in
the lives of the game characters. And
the specific characters impacted
feature engagement and
monetization.
16. 6. Story resolution
• Players can get caught up in very
“simple” stories and will pay to
progress and see an outcome.
• FrontierVille players were engaged in
the lives of the game characters. And
the specific characters impacted
feature engagement and
monetization.
BEWARE OF THE
CONTENT
TREADMILL!
32. 12. Don’t Overdo it
From whatgamesare.com
If you sell to many ways to progress
the game can start to feel cheap and
confusing. Why buy a boost when the
player can just skip ahead?
Preserve the value of your content by
offering only one or two ways of
paying to progress
33. EXCERCISE 2:
1. Same Pairs
2. Use your own product
or any game you like.
3. Design two monetization features
using these techniques
