"I'm gonna get your wallet, sucka!"

Clash of Clans

Long-Term Review

By now if you a smartphone, and like games, you probably know about a little freemium game called Clash of Clans. Like that the developer, Helsinki-based Supercell, pretty much makes so much money off of in-app purchases (IAP) over CoC, that they can take money baths every day. 

I first started playing Clash around 6 months ago. Despite my best intents, I am  now very guilty of contributing to their IAP bottom line. I've bought many, many in-game virtual items for hard currency. The very nature of the compelling and addictive gameplay makes it almost a requirement. As in World of Warcraft addictive. But the game does pretty much almost force you to buy stuff after a certain level. Your fort becomes your avatar, and if you have played the game a while, you start to feel very protective of it. Other players can attack you, and steal your hard-won resources. You obviously have military defenses to protect yourself, but sometimes they aren't enough, and gold and elixir you've been hoarding for days gets stolen from your coffers.

So what is a player to do? Build stronger, and increasingly more expensive, defenses. Which can take days to upgrade. And when your defenses are upgrading for days, that don't work. The only protection, is a Shield. If you get really badly mauled in an attack, the Shield will protect your fort for up to 16 hours to give you time to repair and rebuild. But a reasonably strong defensive cannon takes days to upgrade, and costs and atrocious amount of gold. Gold that takes days and days to gather. But once the 16 hour Shield expires, other players can attack, steal your gold, and prevent you from getting enough resources to strengthen your fort. 

So what's a player to do. And this is where the real world, hard currency comes in handy. You can buy a

Shield from the App Store, that will last for up to a week, gather resources and upgrade. Beyond, say, Level 40 in the game, making an IAP is not a luxury, but a requirement if you want to advance. 

But Clans is such a fun game, I don't begrudge or resent the money I've paid over the past months. I've spent much more on PC or console games that were terrible. I've played freemium games that were beyond obnoxious in time-gating the most trivial things for an egregious amount of real money. Clash of Clans is a happy addiction worth the cash. 

Skylanders: Lost Islands

What Do Skylanders And The Island of Dominica Have In Common?

Part I

Perhaps you've heard of a little 'ole game franchise called "Skylanders"? You know, the one that made $500 million dollars in the US in 2012? To put that number in perspective, the island of Dominica, located in the Caribbean, has a GDP of $490MM USD. That's a lot of Skylanders for 1 little island. Eric Kain over at Forbes called Skylanders "Diablo for Kids..." That is an honorific that is not lightly bestowed.

Anyhow...onto the latest incarnation in freemium app crack: Skylanders: Lost Islands. On the surface, there's nothing about this game that is that much different than your average monster breeding and farming game, like say, Dragonvale. But the Skylanders personalities, perceived attributes, and the rich environments, while mostly just window dressing, serve to enhance and vary the game experience. Skylanders come in different elemental forms (Fire, Air, etc), sizes (Regular and Giant), Experience levels, which is sufficient to mix up the missions, quests and the tasks that can be performed under these constraints such that the game never feels repetitive. New Skylanders are gained every 5 levels, which is probably the most tedious part of the game, if you're not willing to part with real world cash to buy Skylanders, which is a real temptation. With 55 possible Skylanders that can be acquired, that's 275 levels at a minimum you'd need to acquire them all.

There are two primary resources in Skylanders: Gold Coins (from Missions), and Energy (from Farms). It costs Coins to grow Energy plants, and Energy plants to go on missions to acquire Gold Coins. Sort of a perpetual motion Ponzi scheme of in-game economics. So let's start off by looking at maximizing Farm output:

CROP		TIME		COST		ENERGY		COST PER NRG		NRG PER MIN
Floats		1		10		4		2.50		4.00
Ambrosia		3		30		11		2.73		3.67
Cloudlings		10		105		37		2.84		3.70
Luminaries		30		320		110		2.91		3.67
Eufirbia		60		650		215		3.02		3.58
Grave Diggers		120		1,300		425		3.06		3.54
Moss Stash		240		2,700		840		3.21		3.50
Domedelion		420		4,800		1,450		3.31		3.45

 Obviously, you get the highest per-minute return on Energy for 1-minute Floats, but that that would take forever to amass enough Energy to take on the big 5,000 Energy Sanctuary missions, so Cloudlings seem to be the best choice. They provide a livable time-frame and balance for maximizing production while minimizing cost. I still like to mix it up with Luminaries and Eufirbia as well sometimes, or perhaps Domedelion right before I go to bed, just for a big instant Energy inventory boost upon harvest.

So that's it for Part I. In Part II, we'll take a look at maximizing mission return on Gold Coins. Can you feel the excitement?!

Freemium Price Compare!

a.k.a. ARSE

Abstract Resource Stock indEx

I recently read an old article on Mental Floss about the Toadstool Exchange - it compared the relative prices in-game, and in real-world dollars, the cost of a grenade. This, in turn, reminded me of an annual column The Economist used to run - The Big Mac Index. Both are genius, and well worth a read when it comes to comparing relative values of things that either are digital or seemingly dissimilar i.e. a burger in a Norway vs. a burger in Tuscaloosa.

Anyways....in that vein I was inspired to create the ARSE. Most (90%+) of freemium or free-to-play app games out there, allow you to speed up the game, and thus gain an advantage, by purchasing some sort of of in-game currency. The important part, as it pertains to ARSE, is that in general, 1 in-game resource, be it gems, or gold, or smurfberries, equals 1 hour of game speed-up time. And thus, a comparative real-currency value can be assigned to these seemingly intangible virtual items.

Game		Resource		Units		Cost		Cost Per Resource
CityVille		Cash		50		$4.99		$0.10
Clash of Clans		Gems		1200		$9.99		$0.01
Dragon Story		Gold		120		$4.99		$0.04
Dragonvale		Gems		130		$4.99		$0.04
Gizmonauts		Crystals		130		$4.99		$0.04
Hay Day		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Jurassic Park Builder		Bucks		120		$9.99		$0.08
My Little Pony		Gems		120		$9.99		$0.08
Restaurant Story		Gems		105		$19.99		$0.19
Simpsons: Tapped Out		Donuts		132		$9.99		$0.08
Smurfs' Village		Berries		125		$9.99		$0.08
Tiny Monsters		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Tiny Tower		Tower Bux		100		$1.99		$0.02
Tiny Tribe		Diamonds		100		$9.99		$0.10

 Several caveats:

1. I tried to go for similar Resource Units or USD ($) amounts. It's not precise, clearly.

2. Some games, like Clash of Clans or Simpsons, use a different metrics to apply against 1 hour of in-game progress. 'Clash' is pretty easy to decipher; 4 gems = 1 hour. Simpsons has no discernible pattern.

3. Unsurprisingly, the mercenary black souls at Team Lava have the highest comparative ARSE cost via Restaurant Story.

I'll be updating the ARSE as the mood strikes, new games make the list, or a cost moves dramatically.

Ever Wonder How Free Games Make Money?

Then Meet These Guys...

Anyone who plays free-to-play games on a regular basis will wonder, on occasion, how companies that charge nothing stay in business. Well, wonder no more. Wired has a great article on the sugar daddies who will spend hundreds and thousands of cold, hard, real money to be the best in their game(s) of choice. Some of them even justify it by saying they are actually saving money. Regardless of the motivation or rationale, it's a fascinating peek into the economies of F2P gaming, and why games like them keep getting made.

Update

Interesting counter-point article over on The Verge about PunchQuest, a game that has received critical acclaim, but apparently isn't making much money at all.