Pei Qian's brain worked quickly. The professional knowledge he had learned about game design came in handy at this moment.
The secret to making money in games with paywalls was to first use the game itself to trick gamers into coming in for free and let them form a stickiness to the game. Then, they would slowly use some methods to force them to work hard and spend money. They would let the rich support the game, and the poor support the game. Finally, they would turn the game into a cash cow.
All games with paywalls could not break away from this core: If players wanted to obtain a complete and best gaming experience, they would either pay for time, money, or both.
Therefore, games with paywalls could not generally classify all players as the same type.
There were ways to play with paywalls, and there were ways to play without paywalls. Tycoons who spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to break through the game's ceiling, mid-tier players who were careful with their calculations and only spent a few hundred yuan, and pure free players who didn't spend a single cent no matter how tempted they were, were never the same gaming group.
Therefore, game manufacturers had to treat them as three types of people and formulate different strategies.
The secret to making money in games with paywalls was to make free players relatively comfortable, induce middle-level players to spend as much as possible, and let ballers have a sense of accomplishment.
There were many ways to play in the game that required time and effort. To a certain extent, as long as the free players spent enough time, they would be able to obtain some tokens and even obtain relatively generous returns. They would be able to persevere with their strong liver even if they did not top up the game.
Of course, the things that free players worked hard would never be more delicious than the things that ballers worked hard for. Otherwise, the game would become the world of studios.
These free players would feel that the game was more conscientious if they could work hard and produce results. Then, they would continue playing. Whether it was becoming friends with ballers in the game or being beaten up by ballers as sandbags, it would become the game experience of ballers.
The game company knew that these people had money on them, but they did not have much money and were relatively rational in their spending. These people often worked hard. Some games were more worth it, so they worked hard. If it was more worth it to work hard, they would work hard. If it was more worth it to work hard, they would work hard.
Therefore, the game company would regularly carry out discounts and promotions. The ballers would originally spend the original price to buy good things. They would create a gift pack discount or a lucky draw to encourage these middle-level players to continue spending.
They might be middle-level players, but each person spending tens or hundreds of yuan a month was also a significant income for the game company.
Finally, ballers occupied less than 1% of the players, but they occupied the majority of the game company's income. It was the mission of most games companies to serve ballers well.
To satisfy ballers, the depth of the game had to be deep enough. If ballers spent tens of thousands of yuan, ballers would soon lose interest.
The game company would constantly introduce better characters, weapons, and equipment, and constantly upgrade the goods that they bought.
The equipment that was eliminated could be sold to middle-level players at a discount.
If a tycoon wanted to remain the strongest, he would have to continue spending money.
Ballers who were willing to spend tens of thousands on the game would not mind. Most ballers who were willing to spend tens of thousands of yuan on the game.
Therefore, the entire game formed a perfect closed loop. Free players, mid-tier players, and ballers all had their own ways of playing the game, and all of them could derive their own enjoyment from the game.
The game merchants could also continue to take money from everyone's hands, and everyone was happy.
Those games with paywalls that earned so much money that their hands were tired were basically the same.
If he wanted to earn less money, he had to jump out of this routine.
Of course, Ghost General could be considered to have jumped out of this pattern as well. However, it was a little overboard and went down a different path.
Ghost General only had one threshold to purchase the game and a permanent membership card. In fact, it was equivalent to turning a mobile game with paywalls into a buyout system.
The buyout system itself wasn't anything special, but it was very unique in a bunch of mobile games that forced people to spend money, which was why it stood out.
The reason was that Ghost General did not differentiate between the three types of players. Instead, it came up with a solution that was especially friendly to most players. It was so cost-effective that it achieved the effect of 'small profits but quick turnover'.
Of course, the key was still the system's limitations.
Pei Qian could not directly set the game to be 'completely free'. Instead, he had to make it theoretically profitable. Thus, if there were no in-app purchases, the buyout threshold had to be set higher. If he wanted to enter the game for free without any threshold, he had to dig deeper into the pit of in-app purchases.
This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of incurring losses.
Pei Qian felt that he had to pay attention to two things this time in order to prevent the tragedy of Ghost General from happening again.
First of all, he could not set a buyout threshold. If he said that it was free, it had to be really free. He had to allow ordinary players to play all the content without spending a single cent. That way, everyone who could be free would be free. There would be no such thing as' small profits but quick turnover '.
Secondly, he had to dispel gamers' desire to spend as much as possible while the pit of in-app purchases was deeper.
The reason why other games liked lucky draws so much was actually because they were using the randomness of the lucky draw to deceive gamers and make them pay more than their actual value for rare heroes and rare props.
The lucky draw system had to make an issue out of it if he wanted to curb gamers' desire to spend.
Pei Qian quickly came up with an idea. He said to Chang You, "The in-app purchases of 'Fitness Battle' are both in the shopping mall and in the lucky draw."
"All the goods are clearly priced in the shopping mall. At the same time, the corresponding probability is determined in the lucky draw system according to the rarity of the item. Gamers are free to choose."
"The price-performance ratio of the lucky draw is about 0.8. In other words, gamers can only get about 80 yuan on average if they spend 100 yuan on the lucky draw."
"Of course, it would definitely not meet this expectation for some Lucky Emperors."
"The platform will record the amount of each recharge, the results of the lucky draw, and the total value of these prizes when players recharge and obtain the tokens for the lucky draw. Every day is a cycle from 0 AM to 24 AM. If players are not satisfied with the results of the lucky draw during this cycle, they can apply for a refund through the refund button. The system will automatically deduct the prizes and refund them. However, the price is that players will not be able to recharge for the next three days. "
"Apart from that, all the props in the game can be obtained with game coins."
"The way to obtain game coins is to exercise every day. The number of calories consumed is the number of tokens obtained. The more calories you burn every day, the more tokens you will get. "
"These tokens can be exchanged for all the props in the game, but they can't be used for the lucky draw."
Pei Qian's design was all to suppress gamers' desire to spend as much as possible.
According to the system's requirements, the consumption model of the game had to match the investment in the game. Simply put, Pei Qian could not make the game completely free. There had to be a moderate amount of in-app purchases. If there was no in-app purchase, he would have to set a higher buyout price.
Pei Qian had already tasted the bitter consequences of paying for games with paywalls during the Ghost General period.
Thus, Pei Qian wanted to dissuade gamers enough under the premise that the pool of in-app purchases was deep enough!
Relatively speaking, the shopping mall would definitely be more cost-effective than the lucky draw.
The reason why many games with paywalls put rare characters and props into the lucky draw was because the lucky draw was a bottomless pit. When the probability of producing something was relatively low, the value that ballers paid to obtain a specific character would actually far exceed its actual value.
Of course, many game companies would make the lucky draw look very worthwhile. The actual value of the props drawn from the lucky draw would exceed the direct purchase. However, the problem was that the lucky draw would add a lot of rubbish props that were actually useless. Thus, players would still suffer.
Pei Qian's plan was to add a lucky draw system to increase the theoretical upper limit of the game so that the game could be made free. However, this lucky draw system was completely different from the lucky draw system of other games. It was definitely not a cost-effective lucky draw system.
The price-performance ratio of this lucky draw system was very low. What's more, players would be notified of the props and value that they had drawn. The key was that if players were not satisfied, they could still go back on their word and refund it. Then, they would be given a cooling-off period. They could not recharge for three days.
That way, everyone would lose interest in the lucky draw. Ballers would only spend a few hundred yuan to buy props that they were interested in. Even if middle-level players spent money to draw the lucky draw, they would not go back on their word unless they were satisfied with the draw. If they were not satisfied, they could refund at any time. Thus, they would not spend much money. There was no need to talk about free players. They would definitely work hard and use calories to buy props. They would definitely not spend a single cent.
The three groups of players would not spend a lot of money. How perfect!
Pei Qian was a little impressed with himself. It was a genius plan!
Chang You nodded repeatedly as he took notes seriously.
He did not know much about games with paywalls, but he obviously had to trust Boss Pei unconditionally seeing that he had everything under control and that Boss Pei had everything under control.
In any case, no matter how complicated the system Boss Pei designed, it would definitely succeed. He just had to shout 666 from the side!
Pei Qian looked at Meng Chang, who was still training, after deciding on the game's payment model. "How's the publicity plan? Do you have any ideas? "
Meng Chang got down from the smart fitness drying rack. Fine beads of sweat were already seeping out of his forehead. "I have some ideas!"
He did not dare to say that he did not have any ideas. What if Boss Pei asked him to continue training after saying that?
He felt that Boss Pei would do something like 'torture'.
"Alright, that's all for today. Let's pack up!" Pei Qian was satisfied and left with Meng Chang.
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