What works:

Display of locked items motivates continuation of play

Unlocking items for users as they level up in a game is a great way to keep the game interesting and new. While some games opt to not display the newly-available items until they’re unlocked, it’s more advantageous to show them from the beginning and indicate that a higher level is required to obtain them. For one thing, hiding locked items prevents a user from knowing of their existence, leading users to assume that the minimal array of goods they see in the beginning is all there is. For another, letting users know what’s to come entices them to keep playing– a sort of carrot-before-the-donkey– and makes them want to level up that much faster, which can drive up revenue if there are premium goods for sale that will enable such.

Essential goods can only be purchased with basic currency

Falling back on the premise that basic currency needs to remain valuable in its own way, progression in Enchanted Island relies on casting spells to grow plants and selling said plants. Casting spells requires a wand and growing plants requires seeds and pots; all three supplies (of which there are several variations) are only for sale using silver coins, which are only awarded through plant sales. In other words, advancement cannot be bought, it must be earned through activity.

What could be better:

Leveling requirements and pricing are unreasonable

In Enchanted Island, users have capacity for 4 energy units, and it costs 2 energy units to cast a spell, which may or may not result in successfully growing a magic plant. When energy is depleted (so, after 2 casts), the user either must wait 15 minutes before energy is restored or may use a dragon potion to instantaneously refill energy.

Leveling up relies on how many spells are cast, regardless of whether a plant is produced. To complete Level 1, a user needs to cast 8 spells. New users are equipped with a basic wand, enough silver to keep purchasing seeds (one packet only contains 5 seeds) and enough pots to stay in supply, and they also are given 4 dragon potions, which means users can complete Level 1 without having to wait, and upon level completion they are awarded 16 gold coins, the premium currency that can only be obtained by leveling up and through direct payment transactions.

To complete Level 2, however, a user has to make 42 casts. At 2 casts a go, this translates to 21 intervals of 15-minute waits, or a minimum of 5 hours and 15 minutes of being logged into the game. Dragon potions have to be bought using gold coins, which makes sense because they are premium goods which are meant to enhance gameplay by allowing users to complete tasks more quickly.

True, users by this point have $16 in gold to play with– but the cheapest items in the store cost $100 gold, and none of them are dragon potions, which cost $200 gold each or $1100 gold for a bundle of 6. Thus, if an impatient user wanted to get through Level 2 as quickly as possible– and this is only Level 2– the cheapest it could cost would be $3900 gold. At the game’s currency exchange rate of 0.01 USD to 100 gold coins, Level 2’s wait-free pricetag is thus nearly $40. Put another way, a user would have to spend $2 USD to progress barely 5% in the level.

Furthermore, the cast requirement goes up to 70 for Level 3, reducing a dragon potion’s effectiveness to less than 3% at the same cost.

Lack of social elements leads to minimal player activity

The reason dragon potions– the cost aside– hold so much appeal is because the 15-minute wait intervals are near-unbearable. Why? Because there’s nothing else to do during that time except wait. Despite Enchanted Island’s purported ability for users to “travel to new towns and start a magic circle with friends”, in its current stage of development, there aren’t even hints of such features. There are no scoreboards to see how others who play the game are doing, no list of friends and subsequently no way to visit, or even message, others in the game.

For the non-paying user, then, gameplay quickly amounts to opening the game (15 seconds), casting 2 spells (10 seconds), and closing the game to do something else, perhaps or perhaps not remembering to return in 15 minutes. (occasionally purchasing or selling items only tacks on 30 more seconds of user activity).

As detailed above, the benefits of using a dragon potion are hardly worth the cost, so motivation to become a paying user is lost, and without social features to keep users busy during the wait times and encourage returns, motivation to stay active in the game drops off. Because there are absolutely no differences to the game whether users come back every 15 minutes or every 15 weeks, users must individually motivate themselves to want to return, and in an industry where competition for a user’s attention is fierce, putting 100% of the burden to remember to return on the user is not a winning strategy.

What to keep in mind:

• If users will be able to unlock new items as they progress through your game, make sure they’re aware of this ability and strongly consider giving them sneak previews of these items so they know what they’re striving for. Keeping the items hidden suggests that they aren’t worth the effort required to get them, in which case, you need to redesign them so that they are.
• Set premium items at prices that reflect their overall value in contribution to gameplay. In the simplest of terms, items that don’t do much shouldn’t cost much, and items that are priced high ought to provide a high amount of value.
• Implement features into your game that keeps your users active and wanting to return. Making it so that your users only play for 1 minute per session is not a sustainable game design; neither is one that encourages indifference as to whether or not the users return. If the game isn’t designed to make users care about coming back, they generally won’t.

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Name: Enchanted Island (http://apps.facebook.com/enchantedisland)
Monthly active users: 17,586 (Facebook, 7/17/09)

VPN is a character customisation action game where you take control of your very own Viking, Pirate, or Ninja and send them on fun and exciting adventures. Earn money by completing various [quests] to customise your character just the way you want. Challenge your friends to a duel. Work together with your fellow adventurers to conquer new lands. Do you think you have what it takes to become the best?

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What works:

Numerous, varied components of the game maximize user engagement

As with many other games, there comes a point in VPN where your avatar has to take a break in order to recoup some vital quality– here, either energy or health. The impatient user can eliminate this wait time by purchasing items that award replenishment, but for users who can’t afford these items (or who simply don’t want to buy them just yet, or perhaps even aren’t aware of this solution), patience is the key.

The blue box in the lower right hand corner indicates how long it will be before an increment of energy will be gained, which can be anywhere between 3 and 20 minutes.

Typically, the user who chooses to wait must find something to do to pass the time. If the time period is short enough and the game designed to encourage such, this can easily be accomplished by visiting other users in the game and interacting with them or their environments (such as in Farm Town or Pet Society). If it’s longer, however, users will often turn to external sites for preoccupation, which leaves open the risk of users failing to come back.

In VPN, however, users are provided with outlets for distraction that keep them firmly within the game, such as:

• Multiple avatars/adventures: a single user can create up to three avatars (one per character type), and thus can switch effortlessly between adventures at any moment. If a ninja quest looks like it’s going to be on hold for another 15 minutes, the user can start completing viking quests instead.
• Mini-games that also provide rewards: users can play VPN-themed arcade games that each have their own goals and rewards (e.g., win a special item for achieving a particular high score). By the time a user finishes playing a mini-game or two, their avatar is bound to have regained full vitality.

“Fame” points = reward system for users who help VPN acquire more users

Fame in VPN won't make you live forever, but it will allow you to purchase exclusive items that indicate just how famous you are.

Getting active users to rein in other new users is never an easy feature to work into a game– on the one hand, the developer doesn’t want to make this necessary to play or succeed in the game; on the other hand, this method brings in users who have $0 in acquisition cost.

What VPN did was treat this feature the same way as they did purchasing Meteor credits, VPN’s high-level currency: You don’t have to do it in order to have fun in the game, but if you do, you’ll be rewarded with cool stuff that the other users can’t access.

Fame points are required to purchase certain items, so users swayed by the idea of status and exclusivity will be more prone to encouraging friends to sign up through their invitations. Additionally, users get more Fame points whenever their friends level up (and can even be rewarded with Meteor credits whenever a friend purchases them), giving users incentive to keep their friends active within the game.

What could be better:

Opportunities for social interaction could be more prevalent

The major incentive for a user to buy premium items– clothes or accessories for an avatar, unique hairstyles or avatar features, furniture for an avatar’s home, etc.– is to express identity and status. The motivation to express these things, however, is to stand out from or show off to other users in the game, so if there’s never any (or only highly limited) chance for social interaction, users lose interest in buying premium items and fail to see the appeal of purchasing Meteor credits.

Taverns are graphical chat rooms where users can meet and interact with others... provided others show up, or even know about the Taverns in the first place.

Currently, in VPN, opportunities for social interaction are limited. The only way to make new friends is in the chat room, which is not quickly or easily accessible in the game, and then once you have friends, there’s isn’t much you can do with them. The site (see above introductory description) claims you can “challenge your friends to a duel”, but the only thing you can challenge any other user to do is play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, from which winning garners nothing.

What to keep in mind:

Design the game as best you can to keep users in the game

The Internet fosters and nurtures a short attention span in users that constantly requires stimulation; if users are at a lull in your game and cannot do anything further in their own environment for a considerable amount of time, try to let your game provide them with other things to do that will keep them from automatically switching to a new window– and if it can’t, then make whatever it is they’re waiting for valuable enough that they will be motivated to come back to your game to reap that reward.

Give your current users incentives to both attract and retain new ones

New users who sign up through their friends are worth their weight in silver. New users who then continue to come back to the game and stay active are worth their weight in gold.

If the virtual goods you’re monetizing have only social value, don’t let your game skimp on social features

Users love to show off and customize their avatars and will happily spend the money to do so– as long as there are others around to witness and be impressed by these efforts. Games which want to focus monetization on virtual goods that only enhance identity need to have a solid implementation of community interaction within the game; without a community, who can users hope to impress– and why then should they try? If a tree grows taller in a forest and there’s no one around to notice, the change is hardly remarkable.

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Name: Vikings, Pirates, Ninjas (http://apps.facebook.com/vpnwars/)

Monthly active users: 179,220 (Facebook, 6/26/09)

Developed by: Meteor Games (http://www.meteorgames.com/)

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What works:

Visitor satisfaction scorecards help users achieve success in the game

My Zoo scorecards help guide users toward achieving success in the game, indicating what the user is doing right and what could be better.

As users play with the structure of their zoo (deciding which animals to buy, how much property they need, which facilities, amenities or habitats to build, how many employees to hire, etc.), they can see immediate feedback from their zoo’s “visitors”. Using a scorecard layout, visitors rate in percentages and on four levels of satisfaction various aspects of the user’s zoo: parking, restrooms, cleanliness, food, shopping, animals, value. Based on these ratings, users are able to adjust their zoo appropriately to increase their overall score, which affects the zoo’s “acclaim”, which in turn determines how many visitors the zoo receives each day (more visitors = more daily profit for the zoo).

By providing this feedback to users, gameplay is smoother and encourages users to keep playing, as nothing hooks a user in like the validation of in-game achievements.

A portion of the game’s profits are donated to a related charity

There are two great things about this: First, because the users know that by spending money in this game, they can simultaneously assist in making a charitable donation to a good cause, they become more willing to spend. Second, the game’s developers pick the charity recipients based on a discussion topic in which users can suggest recommendations, which means the users can actually have a say in to whom some of their money goes, resulting in users feeling more involved and, again, being more willing to spend.

There is, however, one enormous problem…

What could improve:

It is staggeringly easy to turn profits in this game, leaving users with no motivation to ever purchase currency

See: upper right corner, compared to that in the previous picture. Three days of being absent from the game earned me over $500,000, most of which I spent in 10 minutes to progress through 4 levels. Two days after that, I opened the game and had over $1 million cash.

In the beginning, assuming a user has set the ticket price appropriately and kept overhead costs as low as possible, profits exist but are minimal– hardly enough to recoup the amounts spent on building the zoo in the first place– and at some point, the user is not going to have enough cash left to build or buy anything else. Luckily, each new user starts with 10 “Benefactor Donations” (unluckily, the user has to take the initiative to explore each tab in the game and discover this only when clicking on the “Patron” tab), which is redeemable for $25,000. Once this is spent, however, the user must either patiently try to make money by accumulating the zoo’s daily profit (with one zoo day taking just under 5 minutes to complete)– or acquire the currency through either direct payment or offer completion.

The idea is that by this point, the user is invested and engaged enough in the game to be willing to buy the currency (or do offers) instead of wait an excruciatingly long time to progress in the game. It’s a standard strategy, in fact, and one which typically works– except in this case, where all a user has to do in order to get ahead in the game is, ironically enough: leave it.

When a user is active in the game, once a zoo day finishes, the user must remain active (e.g., clicking buttons) in order for the next zoo day to begin. This prevents users from leaving the game open in a tab or window and steadily gaining the daily profits without actually playing the game; yet this is exactly what happens once the user closes My Zoo. As soon as the user has left, the clock appears to count through days automatically– so if a user quits when the zoo is making $100 a day in profit, then doesn’t return to the game for 24 hours, that user will be pleasantly surprised to discover a sudden appearance of $32,000 in their cash account (24 hours * 60 minutes / 4.5-minute zoo days * $100). At profits of $6500/zoo day (not difficult to achieve), a user need only log out for 6 hours to make over half a million dollars.

Users, of course, love this effortless source of income, as it removes the number-one limitation to game progress (cash flow) and allows them to level up at a considerable pace, unlocking new items and enabling them to begin participating in the breeding and rehabilitation programs that much sooner. The further along in the game they get, the more hooked they become, returning again and again to be rewarded with more cash and more options.

Yet what all this ultimately culminates in is a worthless currency. When users find they have more cash than they know what to do with, instead of forming strategies as to which selective purchases will result in higher success, they spend blindly, in turn devaluing gameplay and turning it into thoughtless button-clicking. And though they are devoted, active and persistently returning users (what every developer hopes for)– none of them are paying users (what every developer hoping to monetize a game dreads). And why should they be? Where is the appeal of paying for additional currency they clearly don’t need?

What to keep in mind:

Popularity and loyal active users are not necessarily indicators of profit; not every game can or should be monetized

For only being in initial beta, My Zoo’s numbers are impressive– nearly 300,000 MAU and a 4.4/5.0 rating by its users. Unless my Facebook account was an exception to the rule, however, it’s highly unlikely that My Zoo is pulling in a significant amount  of (if any) revenue, making the point that popularity and profitability are not always bedfellows. Creating a popular game and then tacking on a monetization system as an afterthought is not a successful model; if said monetization system cannot be integrated into the gameplay strategy, it’s useless. By way of example, Chain Rxn was ranked the #11 Facebook app for June 2, 2009 with nearly 4 million MAU, but monetization is markedly absent from the game. Why? Because it can’t be applied to the game’s structure.

If you want your users to pay for something, you can give it away for free in small amounts, but don’t throw heaps of it at them to no end

For My Zoo, keeping the currency valuable is simple enough: Only count zoo days while the user has the game open and is active (furthermore, only let the user pass through so many zoo days each actual day in order to encourage more long-term play). Limit the amount of currency users can get without paying, and it will retain a real monetary worth.

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Name: My Zoo (http://apps.facebook.com/myownzoo/)

Monthly active users: 297,512 (Facebook, 6/19/09)

Name: Bar Fight! (http://apps.facebook.com/bar_fight/)

Description: Become a bar fighter and battle others for rank and peanuts. Use peanuts to buy better fighters or upgrade items like bottle openers, bar stools and hard liquor to increase your power and your odds of winning. Invite friends, create or join a pub and strive for the top ranks!

Monthly active users: 26,200 (Facebook, 6/5/09)

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What works:

Initial pricing structure enables but doesn’t spoil

Users start out with 100 peanuts, which is just enough to allow them to either choose from three slightly better fighters or stick with the most basic fighter, which would enable them to afford an upgrade item. This gives users 6 possible configurations to start with, but still requires them to play a lot before they can improve their character.

Achievement badges, individual and team rankings + leaderboards

Users enjoy recognition, and thus are more likely to strive for goals which will give them just that. In Bar Fight, badges are awarded for racking up wins, power, peanuts, friends, and even reward points (a sort-of second currency within the game, attained only through direct payments or offer completion). Similarly, dedicated tabs for leadership boards that show the top-ranked players and teams provide further motivation for users to compete and do whatever it takes to make it to the top (which realistically necessitates the user to make purchases).

The leaderboard page for individuals shows the top players ranked according to total power and total wins.

Exclusive items that can only be purchased directly

“Powerups” are items that increase a user’s standard daily fight limit, odds of winning a match, or odds of beating a hangover (something a user is sporadically allowed to do to get bonus peanuts). They essentially work like subscriptions, where the user is allowed to buy the powerups individually or in a three-fold package, for a duration of either one month or three months. These are beneficial to the user in that they enhance play, and beneficial to the developer in that they can only be obtained by direct payment.

What could improve:

Promote game store, powerups better

Right now, the store page is almost an afterthought in Bar Fight!. Instead of waiting for users to take the initiative to think of visiting the store on their own, the game should drive them there by linking to it on other pages. On the fighter and upgrade pages, for instance, a simple link reading: “Want more peanuts? Visit the rewards store!” would remind users who are looking at items they can’t yet afford that there’s an easier, faster way to get what they want.

As well, powerups aren’t mentioned anywhere in the game other than on the home page, where they’re tucked quietly away in a side column. Though these items have value to the user, if they aren’t made known to the users, they aren’t doing either party much good. Again, promoting these on relevant pages– e.g., when you’re shown your odds of beating a particular user, append a link (”Want better odds?”) to the powerups purchase page– would increase user awareness and item sales.

An example page where text could be added to promote the store or powerups.

Either make the secondary currency more valuable or do away with it

Speaking of promoting: there’s a link to the store on the home page, but it reads: “earn more points by checking out the rewards page”. This can be confusing to users who only know they’re trying to get more peanuts and power– what are “points” for?

If a game is going to have two currencies, there needs to be a good reason for it. In Bar Fight!, reward points can only be redeemed for the execution of three actions– gain more peanuts (the base currency), gain more fight attempts (which, if successful, builds rank and earns peanuts), and allow a user to increase their total collection of personal bar fighters by 1. The latter is mostly useless– users can’t even have more than one bar fighter until they’ve reached a power level of 100, and even then, it would take a fair amount of time and currency before they hit their standard limit of 10 fighters. Participating in more fights can actually be detrimental if the user loses them, and the only way to increase success in a fight is by obtaining a better fighter or more upgrades… which requires more peanuts. So really, the only valuable redemption for rewards points is more peanuts. This means users are being asked to purchase currency so they can use it to purchase another currency, which is overly complicated for such a simple game.

The dual-currency model can be extremely successful in more complex games, but for Bar Fight!, it just doesn’t make sense because it isn’t necessary. Let the users pay instead for peanuts, and make the other actions purchasable with peanuts (”20 more fights for 600 peanuts”) at comparable pricing points.

Implement “levels” based on game play and use them to unlock items

By requiring users to reach a certain level of play before they can access (regardless of affordability) certain fighters or upgrade items, longevity of play and user return are increased.

Make social activity more valuable

Having Facebook friends join Bar Fight! is only beneficial to a user in that the more friends they have in the game, the higher a percentage of “bonus peanuts” they earn whenever they win a battle. Before any friends have joined, the game informs the user: “Against your friends, you can win up to 10 peanuts.” You can win up to 10 peanuts, however, against total strangers– and the “bonus peanuts” numbers don’t seem right. If 15% is the maximum bonus (100 friends required) and the maximum amount of peanuts to be won in any battle is 10, the maximum number of bonus peanuts is therefore 1.5? This is hardly an incentive for a user to grow their in-game friend base.

Furthermore, there isn’t a readily apparent benefit to joining a pub, other than being able to display your membership on your Bar Fight! profile. Theoretically, joining a pub should improve game play in some way and induce camaraderie, making the user more likely to keep playing the game (also making the user that much more likely to spend money in the game), but it appears that participating in social activity within the game instead does nothing of any consequence.

What to think about:

Promote actions that lead to users buying

Don’t wait for your users to seek out the store on their own accord, and likewise don’t force your users to have to figure out why going to the store (or making a purchase in general) would benefit them. Make the value of buying immediately clear and remind them where appropriate of the buying options.

Use game levels to keep users coming back

A user who plays 10 minutes at a time over the course of months is worth more than a user who plays for 6 hours the first time and then never returns. Game levels keep users from burning out on a game and as well give you the ability to “lock” virtual goods until a certain level has been reached, further incentivizing users to return and keep playing.

Make growth valuable to your users, because it’s valuable to you

You want your game to grow in user base, and you want your users to get their friends to join as well; make your users want this, too. Give them valuable incentives to get others to play– either through awarding of extra currency or simply through an enhanced experience (i.e., make the game even more fun to play with friends)– and they will.

Name: Farm Town (http://apps.facebook.com/farmtown/)
Description: Farm Town is a virtual farming community where you can grow and harvest different crops to earn money, make and visit friends, and send and receive gifts. (still in beta)
Monthly active users: 7,757,720 (Facebook, 5/30/09)

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What works:

Mandatory waiting times encourage long-term player retention

The crop with the shortest harvesting time (grapes) still takes four hours for completion, where other crops (like corn, or most trees) can take three days. This results in a user unable to accomplish much after spending more than, say, 15 minutes of play, but willing to return to the game every single day, or even several times a day. There’s a psychological motivation at work here: a player who has taken the time to plow a field, purchase crop seeds, then plant those crop seeds wants to see the fruition of that labor– even if that labor only took a few minutes to accomplish whereas that fruition will require a 2-day waiting period. In this way, Farm Town minimizes the risk of gaining users who play for an extended amount of time upon first signing up but then later fail to ever return.

Crops in Farm Town take between several hours and several days to reach harvest, driving users to continually return to the game. As well, many items (here, the sunflowers) are not accessible until a certain level of gameplay has been attained.

Items are locked until a player reaches a certain level

Much of a player’s advancement within the game depends on accumulation of activity points (which determine the player’s level), not currency; for example, you have to reach level 6 before you can purchase wheat crops, or level 15 before you can pay to upgrade to a larger farm. The desire to unlock new items by leveling up, then, continues to encourage a user’s gameplay (which, as explained above, tends to be more in terms of days than minutes or hours).

What could improve:

More limited awarding of currency within the game

Right now there isn’t a lot of motivation for a player to purchase extra currency, for two major reasons: 1) daily lotteries, the ability to sell the gifts that Farm Town friends send out, and harvest sales generate more than enough currency for a user to improve their game experience; and 2) even though certain items (buildings, larger farm spaces, ponds) cost an extremely large amount of currency that would take an extraordinary amount of gameplay to afford, users don’t even have the option of purchasing these until they level up, so the cost is irrelevant to new players.

High-end items aren't readily available to new players, which leaves them with little reason or need to purchase extra currency, resulting in higher percentages of free (vs. paying) users.

It’s never a bad idea to keep items affordable enough so that new players can get an enjoyable experience from the start, but by making everything overly affordable, or by making it too easy to earn large amounts of currency simply through gameplay, users have difficulty in seeing the value of making a direct payment or completing offers.

Use trophies to encourage users to spend more

Right now, there is no point to the trophies. You don’t get activity points or currency for getting a trophy, and out of 8, only 3 are spending-related. Make trophies that are spending specific that ultimately cost an exorbitant amount of currency (e.g. “Buy 5 greenhouses!”) and that come with an exclusive item (e.g., a peacock) that cannot be otherwise obtained in the game.

Sort friends order by levels and points

Users would be even further motivated to keep playing and to have an attractive or impressive farm (via owning the more expensive items in the store, like ponds and buildings, which realistically would require the user to purchase extra currency or earn it through offers) if they knew that the higher ranked they were in the game, the more likely they would be to show up in their friends’ “top eight neighbors” space (currently the order seems to be based simply on how recently the friend was added). More visibility leads to more visits, and more visits mean more chances to show off a farm’s wealth.

What to keep in mind:

Exclusivity sells

In the absence of a dual-currency system, you should still try to find ways to offer users certain items on an exclusive basis. Users love being able to stand out; exclusive items help achieve this, and as a result users are willing to spend a great deal in order to obtain them.

Keep your virtual currency worth more in terms of real currency

If you price your virtual goods too low or you make it too easy for a user to accrue currency within the game, you make it difficult for that currency to be worth purchasing. Find that balance so that your users can get enjoyment without having to spend real money (or without having to spend a lot), but don’t give away the whole game for free.

Think long-term retention

Always find ways to keep your players coming back. A game that is interesting and can attract or sign up thousands of users a day isn’t worth much if none of those users continue to stay active.

Name: Stardoll (http://www.stardoll.com)
Description (gathered from the site): Stardoll is a virtual paperdoll community site for everyone who enjoys fashion, design and making friends. The membership is completely free and most members are girls between the ages of 7 and 17. Stardoll is one of few places on the Internet developed with an emphasis on girls’ self-expression through fantasy and fashion play. Stardoll is a great place to spend time with friends and to meet other kids from all over the world.
Monthly active users: roughly over 1 million U.S., with over 31.7 million total members globally (Quantcast, Stardoll home page, 5/24/09)

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What works:

Catering to their specific audience

Stardoll knows what kind of members it wants to attract (young, fashion-oriented), and it has appropriately tailored its site to draw in and interest that audience. Nothing strays from the fashion and design world at Stardoll– premium members can even customize and create their own fashions and sell them to other members for virtual currency.

Easing new members into making purchases

Enough currency is awarded in the beginning (with the payouts in daily increments to encourage new members to return and emphasize long-term activity) to allow a user to get into purchasing items to customize and dress and style their avatar without having to spend any real money. The items available to standard members are appealing and priced low enough so that a variety of fun items can be purchased.

Persistently exposing new members to the perks of buying a premium membership

As users explore and participate within the Stardoll world, they are constantly shown the benefits of a Superstar membership– in the virtual stores, standard members see which items are only available for purchase by Superstars; when exploring the community, standard members can start to play around with certain features (e.g. the design studio), but are told that in order to continue or save their progress, they must upgrade. Standard members are still given an enjoyable experience, but by simultaneously exposing them to the premium member’s experience, there’s a greater likelihood that the standard member will be persuaded into upgrading.

An example of one of the many Stardoll clothing boutiques. Items are all reasonably priced, with those exclusively for premium members denoted by a star next to the price.

What could be better:

Encouraging viral growth

Most social games have an incentive for a user to either make friends with others already in the community or invite others to join. The former encourages retention of members (the more friends someone has within any community, the more likely that person is to stay active in that community) while the latter encourages growth; Stardoll provides an incentive for neither. And while naturally social users will automatically begin joining groups and making friends and telling other people about the site, these incentives are much like the initial free currency awards– they help ease a hesitant user into getting accustomed to participating within the community and reaching out to others.

Takeaways:

Help your users act as free marketers/publicists

While of course it’s important to have a good, solid and engaging product (no matter how many millions of people you can reach, if the product isn’t appealing, your active user base will never thrive), the quality of that product alone isn’t enough to maximize growth. Let your current users help you attract new members, but don’t wait for them to make the conscious decision to spread the word. Instead, give your users incentives (”popularity” awards for having so many friends or bonus currency for every friend who signs up through that user’s invitation) to get other people to join.

Find a balanced system between awarding free currency and encouraging your users to buy currency

On the one hand, giving out large amounts of currency (proportional to your price points) is good because it keeps new users active by giving them the ability to buy goods and spend more time within the game. On the other hand, give your users too much (or make it too easy for them to earn enough currency through gameplay) and it’s hard to motivate them to turn into a paying user. Make sure you find that right balance that gets your free users involved enough so that they feel motivated (as opposed to obligated) to either upgrade their membership and access premium features or pay money to acquire additional currency.

Name: Habbo (http://www.habbo.com)
Description: Habbo is one of the largest teen online communities and is live in 32 countries around the world. Here, teenagers can create their own virtual character and interact with other active players in the community. Habbo provides the means for self-expression, creativity, fun and social interaction within a safe and positive space.
Monthly active users: 6.8 million people, 11.1 million unique vistors

[Edit: these stats were only for one of Habbo's 16 active domains (see comment below); for the entire network, MAU is approximately 6.8 million people and over 11.1 million unique visitors]

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What works:

Virtual community engages users conceptually

It’s fairly easy to get sucked into the Habbo world and be enticed to return, especially as you grow your friends list with other Habbo members. Currently, you can find thousands of members online at any given moment, spread throughout numerous rooms and ready to interact. Everything is social in Habbo; there’s really not much for you to do if you plan on being a wallflower. Even if you want to play a game, you have to join forces with other players and work together to take out the other team (and one of the games– a snowball fight– is addictive enough that I actually signed in once just to play it. And I’m 7 years past teenage-status eligibility). And because everything revolves around interaction with other online members, there’s more opportunity to show off, and thus more incentive to acquire virtual goods.

The snowball fight game in Habbo is simple to play and easy to learn and embarrassingly addictive.

Club membership provides things users want

You don’t have to be in the Habbo Club to be a VIP, but being in the Habbo Club pretty much gives you a free pass to being a VIP. Exclusivity and status are always big draws, and Habbo makes both of those easy to obtain and heavily promotes the Habbo Club through the site and community.

What could be better:

Better ease of transition/introduction to the purchasing model

Habbo technically has a dual-currency system (pixels and coins), but it’s more accurate to say theirs is a single-currency (coins) as the items which a user can purchase using pixels is disappointing in both quantity and quality.

Left: the pixels store. Items cost either 120 (like this stool) or 160 pixels, and none of them are attractive. Right: my unimpressive room 280 pixels later (the table and stools came with the room).

It’s true that teens don’t need that much of a nudge to spend money and that in theory, limiting what a player can do without buying currency should result in more players buying currency– but for teens who can’t buy currency, or at least not right away, these limitations are discouraging and could actually result in the loss of new users.

Better promotion of the offers system as alternative payment

The Habbo card is apparently readily available and easily obtainable, but most teens prefer instantaneous transaction. But most teens don’t have their own credit card, and while they usually have their own (parent-funded) cell phone (or access to a landline home phone), Habbo makes it very clear that any unauthorized payments will result in the Habbo account in question being permanently banned. Which means any teen who relies on a parent as an online payment source (but whose parent isn’t exactly keen to approve spending money on pixelated virtual goods) has limited or no opportunity to really get into the Habbo world– unless they complete offers.

The offers alternative, however, isn’t promoted at all in Habbo. It’s listed at the very bottom of the payment options page, ranking only above “Money Order”. And even when teens finally find their way to the offers page, therein lie more obstacles.

Offers more suited to teens

Offers are supposed to be an “alternative payment” option, the “alternative” usually referring to “not having to spend money”. In a teenager’s case, offers would be the way to obtain currency in the absence of possessing a credit card– yet all of the offers available to Habbo users require a credit card submission (or a paid subscription to a mobile service), and what’s more, those purchase-required offers are typically for a completely different demographic.

The default offers page reflects the overall discrepancy between Habbo's intended demographic (teens) and the offer store's intended demographic (adults). The most obvious example of this is an offer for wine club membership under "Gifts & Gourmet".

In reality, there are so many offers in existence that don’t require any purchases: quizzes, e-mail submits, registration for another site or game, and surveys, just to name a few. The payouts aren’t high, but these are perfect for users who want to obtain currency but can’t do it through mobile or direct payments.

What to keep in mind:

-If you have a specific audience in mind, know that audience, and know it well. Habbo (unlike so many adults who just don’t understand) gets teens. They like to talk, so Habbo has countless visual chat rooms for teens to mingle and say what’s on their mind. They’re still fresh in their aspirations to become a star, so Habbo heavily integrates the “American Idol” concept into the community. And they like to stand out, so Habbo offers for sale “effects” which last around an hour and help put the spotlight (literally, in one instance) on a Habbo user in a crowded room. Because Habbo takes the time to research and provide what their audience likes and wants, they’re able to retain active users and appeal to new ones.

-Don’t shut out users who can’t or just don’t want to buy virtual currency right away– especially if you utilize a dual-currency system. The whole point of dual currency is to allow your users to still have a good time and stay active without having to spend real money in the hopes that as they become more saturated with the game or community, they will eventually be motivated to spend. Without that saturation period, however, you’re likely to lose them. Let your free currency actually be worth something, even if it means making a virtual good cost 3 days’ worth of play.

Name: Pet Society (http://apps.facebook.com/petsociety/)
Developer: Playfish
Monthly active users: 10,873,931 (Facebook, 5/4/2009)

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What works:

Constant reminders of payment options

Pet Society constantly affords users the opportunity to obtain coins through either direct payments or offers. Strategically placed underneath the user’s coin total in the top left corner of the game’s main window is an “add coins” button, which means that no matter where the users are in the game– in a store, at home, visiting another player’s home, etc.– at any given point, they are only one click away from being able to purchase coins.

As well, there are posters displayed in stores throughout the town advertising the game’s offers option, enticing new users who perhaps don’t yet know about this method of obtaining virtual currency.

Prices that help integrate users into the game’s full experience

A reasonable pricing and rewards system also allows users to enjoy the full experience of the game without having to buy coins or do offers. Thanks to a daily lottery that awards the user a variable amount of coins (50-100) just for launching the app, a 20-coin reward for visiting a friend, and a racing game that awards 30 coins for first place (with the opportunity to race up to 10 times a day), a user can earn hundreds of coins in one day just by playing. And while many of the items in the game have a high price tag (1400 coins for a basic sofa, 15000 coins for a luxury bed), many are affordable to the new or low-key player (400 coins for a loveseat, nicely designed floor and wall options at 500 coins or less). The only truly necessary item in the game is food, and most food items cost under 50 coins (with a number of items even under 10 coins).

Trophies motivate users to play and buy more

The trophy system provides feasible goals for the user, encouraging play and even purchases as with the receipt of a trophy also comes game points and coins.

Continually adding in new items

Most stores have a section of “New Arrivals” or “This Week’s Specials”. By consistently providing new items to the users, the game remains fresh and interesting and gives the users reasons to come back.

Pet Society's pricing on virtual goods allows its users to get into the game without having to pay for more currency.

What could be better:

Keep the players within the game

When attempting to purchase coins or complete offers, you’re taken to an outside site that loads in the same window/tab you had the game in– meaning, if you change your mind, in order to return to the game, you have to go back to Facebook and relaunch the app. Though it seems a minor inconvenience on the user, ideally, a game should strive to keep the user in the game as long as possible.

In contrast to this, another promotional ad Playfish has running throughout the game is for one in which the user can enter weekly draws (free coins being the prize) just by becoming a Facebook fan of Playfish. Upon clicking on this promotion, the user is instantly taken to the Playfish fan page, but in a new window/tab– meaning the users can return at any time to the game exactly as they left it. Simple, fast, convenient.

More social interaction

Additionally, the game could integrate more social incentives. Presently, there isn’t a whole lot to motivate a user to meet other players or encourage friends to add the app and create their own pet. There are trophies awarded for completing a specific number of “social visits” (25/100/300), but the visits are counted cumulatively, which means a user could have only 5 friends but still get the first trophy after 5 days of visits, and then only need 75 more visits to get the second trophy.

At the cafe, a user can meet strangers’ pets at random (who can also count toward the social visits count) but is limited to only 9 interactions, which makes it slightly more difficult to socialize within the game and make new friends– though, again, there just isn’t much incentive for a user to make new friends in the first place.

One motivation behind having a larger circle of friends is popularity– users like showing off how popular they are. A banner (similar to the one which displays a user’s friends in order of how many points each friend has accumulated in the game) displaying the most popular (based on total friends) players in the game would push users to want to grow their friend count so as to show up in the top 7.

Alternatively, there could be a banner or list displaying players who have obtained the highest number of trophies– or users could be allowed to vote on each other’s homes, and the banner could display the top-voted upon homes. These two options are more lucrative, as many of the trophies can only be obtained through purchases (e.g. “Spend 10,000 coins in a store” or “Buy 15 hats”) and the homes that get the most positive votes are the ones that have the most upgrades and purchases (e.g. flooring and wallpaper designs, furniture and electronics). If users want to make it to the top of those lists, they have to do it by frequently spending large amounts of coins– which means either buying them directly or completing more offers.

A banner similar to this but used to display the Top Players in the game could stimulate users to help grow the game and make more purchases.

What to take away:

• Make sure that your game keeps your players within it as much as possible, for as long as possible. By sending them outside of your game, you risk the chance of them not returning. If you must send them out, try to do so in a separate window or tab in order to make their return to the game (precisely as they left it) as easy as possible.
• Ease your players into the idea of purchasing virtual items. By rewarding simple game play with enough virtual currency to allow them to make small purchases, you get them used to the whole experience and increase the odds that they will eventually purchase something much more expensive that requires them to either make a direct payment or complete offers.
• Remember that you are working in the social sphere. A game that is fun and engaging and nothing more is fine if it’s just a game– but a social game needs to emphasize (duh) social interaction. By encouraging your users to increase their in-game interactions, you can increase the viral growth of the game and (through competition) increase virtual sales.

Name: YoVille (http://apps.facebook.com/yoville)
Developer: Zynga
Monthly active users: 5,285,997 (as of April 9, 2009)

Description: A social virtual community where users interact with each other in real-time, go to work to earn currency, customize their appearance with new clothes and accessories and decorate their living spaces.

Demographics: 18-30 years old, approximately 65% U.S. traffic and 35% varied international traffic.

Earn currency by interacting with other avatars

Virtual currencies:

• YoCoins: each player starts with 500 coins upon adding the application to their Facebook profile. Coins are earned within the game by going to work at the YoVille town factory (starting at 200 coins per shift), interacting with Facebook friends through simple actions like telling jokes or dancing (up to 10 coins), or by challenging someone to a game like Tic-Tac-Toe or Rock-Paper-Scissors (10 coins). Coins can also be purchased directly, or players can try their luck at the slot machines at the YoVille Casino.

• YoCash: YoCash can only be acquired two ways: by completing offers or through direct payments. YoCash can be converted into YoCoins ($1 in YoCash = $100 in YoCoins), but not vice-versa.

Some virtual goods require the premium currency in order to be purchased

Virtual goods: Home furnishings, accessories, clothing, pets, food.

• Food is required to build back energy, which is depleted throughout the YoVille day. Energy enables a character to move faster and perform actions.
• All other virtual goods have widely ranging prices– many are affordable to a player just starting the game (e.g. a safari-print chaise lounge for 300 coins), while others are significantly more expensive (e.g. a hot tub for 7500 coins).
• Certain items (e.g. a red velvet pool table, pets, hula skirts) must be purchased using YoCash, while others are only offered in limited quantities for a limited period of time.
• New items are advertised in the game as being added weekly.

Recruiting additional players into your crew earns you more daily currency

User incentives:

• To buy: a user’s room gets ranked by other users based on appearance, motivating users to obtain nice furnishings and decor to move up to 1st Place. As well, setting aside certain items as exclusive makes them all the more appealing to users who have become invested in the game. A user’s avatar– in both appearance and possessions– becomes a representation of that user’s personal style, taste and interests, and premium items can serve as status symbols. Everyone wants to set themselves apart and stand out as an individual, and premium items help enable that.

• To return: A user can only “work” at the factory once every six hours. Because the effort required to go to work is so minimal and the payout so rewarding (200-350 coins per shift, depending on worker status), working is an easy way to acquire YoCoins. Thus, a player eager to amass more wealth can be persuaded to run the Yoville app once every six hours.

• To grow: By recruiting more players into YoVille, a user’s “crew” grows, and the more people in a crew, the higher a worker status is achieved (meaning higher wages).

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Also of note:
When Facebook users first access YoVille, they are immediately prompted to begin customizing their avatar. Upon completion of this, only then when the users choose to continue on to the actual game are they given the Facebook prompt to allow access.
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TAKEAWAYS:

• Give the user incentive to return to the game. The easiest incentive, of course, is more virtual currency. The more often a user plays, the more engaged they become, and the more engaged, the more likely they are to pay real money for virtual goods.
• Having multiple tiers of virtual goods is a beneficial strategy. Low-priced goods can be immediately purchased by brand-new users, who thus are able to develop an interest in continuing to buy more items. Mid-priced goods provide reasonably attainable goals for the user and incentivize them to keep playing in order to earn more currency. High-end goods that can only be obtained through payments or offers  allow for the deeply engaged users who are willing to pay to feel more exclusive and unique.
• Regularly offering new virtual goods to your users also motivates them to purchase goods regularly.
• For users who have never added a Facebook app to their profile before– by engaging them at the outset (e.g. asking them to develop their character, providing them with a “sneak preview” of the app, or having them play through a brief “tutorial” level), you are less likely to have them balk at the “Allow Access” screen because they’re already invested in the game and will be more driven to continue on. For users who have no hesitation in adding Facebook apps, it’s still a bonus to lock in their interest and curiosity before they run the app.

ALSO CONSIDER:

• If utilizing a dual-currency system, make the premium currency attainable only through direct payments. Completed offers can be rewarded using the basic currency. This gives the virtual goods that must be purchased using the premium currency even more exclusivity and appeal and encourages users to make more direct payments.