Don’t Forget that Time is a Resource

Time is a hard concept to wrap your head around in games.  At its simplest, Time is cast times, cooldowns, crop grow rates and when you get your next heart for a Match3 Puzzle game.  But Time is also super important to think about when designing the player experience, or figuring out how to exchange Time for money in sales.  Free to Play Games normally allow Spenders to spend money in exchange of time spent grinding. This has been a mainstay of Free to Play Games in a world where we all have jobs to go to, friends to hang out with, errands to run, etc.  

But as we Shelter in Place for the foreseeable future in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, we suddenly find ourselves with more time than we know what to do with.  Games as a form of entertainment is an obvious choice to occupy some of that time. But given that typical Free to Play Monetization Strategies are built around Players having a scarcity of time, what should Game Developers do when Players have an excess amount of time to play their games?  Similarly, what should Players look for in a Game to get tons of entertainment without breaking the bank? Check out my blog post to find out:  

After years of aggressively gating content behind spend, F2P games have settled on a fairly-nice equilibrium of exchanging grind for spend.  Grinding involves making progress in a game by playing the game a lot more than the average Player. Players who log into a Game more times a day and have higher session lengths are expected to make more progress in that game than Players who just log in once or twice a day and play for a few minutes.  Many genres of games have Grinding elements to them, including Strategy Games, RPGs, Sims, Idle Games, Battle Royale Games (with the Battle Pass), certain Sports competition games, etc.

With more people being stuck at home during Shelter In Place, presumably players will have more time to grind out content in Games.  But depending on the game, playing longer to grind more can be very expensive to players. When deciding which game to choose to play more on a budget, here are a few things to consider:

1. What does the Grind entail?
2. If I have to spend to Grind more, how expensive is that Grind?  Will that spend allow me to play longer?
3. What is the value of the additional Grind?  Am I helping myself by playing more today?

These are not necessarily clear nor easy things to answer.  But i’ll give a few examples for each:

• What does the Grind Entail?
  • This varies depending on the Game and the Genre
  • Grind in RPGs is pretty easy to spot

• Grind in RPGs is typically defined by playing content to earn inputs for various systems.
• Many RPGs directly take Players to the exact location where they can Grind for a specific Input
• Marvel Strike Force clearly shows what the Player can get in each PvE Stage, so Players know exactly what they are Grinding for.
• Grind in other Games may be harder to Spot
  • What does Grind look like in Clash Royale?

• Grind in Clash Royale is arguably the acquiring and opening of Chests through Matches
• Players who want to Grind for awhile in Clash Royale have a limited time to Grind freely while they fill up all the Chest Slots.  But once all Chest Slots are full, Grinding becomes more complicated, requiring both paying Hard Currency and winning Matches to continue to Grind.
• If I have to spend to Grind more, how expensive is that Grind?  Is that cost allowing me to play longer?
  • Once you understand the Grind, you are in a better position to understand the costs of the Grind.

• Going back to Clash Royale, once all the Slots are full, a Player will need to open a chest to continue Grinding.  The cost of opening a Chest in Clash Royale is 6 Gems per Hour.
  • With Chest Costs ranging from 3 Hours to 24 Hours, thats a Gem Cost Range of 18-144 Gems per Chest.
• Given that cost, how much does it cost to Grind in Clash Royale?

• $5 gets you 500 Gems, which is 83.3 Hours worth of Chest Speedups.  That is not that bad from a Grind Perspective. It can buy you anywhere between 4-27 Matches
  • Essentially more than 4-27 Matches because the Player isn’t going to win every time.
• Given the Chest Speedup Economy, a little money in Clash Royale can get you several hours of enjoyment.
• How about RPGs like Marvel Strike Force?
  • Marvel Strike Force isn’t a great game to spend time in, at least when it comes to Grinding.
    • Because Marvel Strike Force has auto-complete, the Player can spend a lot of Energy in a short amount of time.

• This may be good in normal times, when a Spender doesn’t have much time to play but wants to make a lot of Progress.
  • But it doesn’t quite work in the days of Shelter In Place.
• Moreover, Energy gets more expensive the more you buy it.

• Energy Refills have a progressive costs, so while Energy starts out at 50 Hard Currency, the cost will eventually get higher.

• Given the cost of Hard Currency, spending $5-$10 will get you maybe minutes of Grinding for Materials and Hero Shards.

• The progressive cost of Energy, combined with how quickly energy is consumed, makes RPGs like Marvel Strike Force not a great game to spend several hours Grinding in.
• Even if spend in games like Marvel Strike Force and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes doesn’t get you much more play time, other RPGs may.
• RAID: Shadow Legends’s Energy Economy and Gameplay are such that buying energy buys you a TON of Game Play Time.

• You can get a good deal on Energy through special Packs.
• Gems also convert into Energy at a pretty decent price
  • The value of Gems when it comes to Energy Conversion increases as the Player Levels up.
    • At Level 1, its 71 Energy for 40 Gems
    • At Max Level 60, it is 130 Energy for 40 Gems
  • So the above pack, at Max Level 60, gives you 1200 + (800/40)*130 = 1200 + 2600 = 3800 Energy.  Given that the most expensive Energy Costs in RAID is 18 Energy, that comes out to at least 211 Battles, which can last A LONG Time.
• RAID has now auto-complete, and its gameplay takes a long time to complete (1.5-3 minutes per match typically).  So if you pick up this $15 pack, you are buying yourself a long time of playing the game.
• What is the value of the additional Grind?  Am I helping myself by playing more today?
  • If Players are going to pay more to play more, they want to make sure that there is a good enough benefit to that extra play besides entertainment.  
  • Clash Royale more or less maintains the same value to the Player no matter how long they play.  RPGs like Marvel Strike Force and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes decline in value offered the more a Player plays.  AFK Arena has no concept of longer play, and would be a terrible game to spend hours on in these times. RAID: Shadow Legends seems to actually offer more value the longer you play in a day.  Because Energy is required for almost anything, from Hero Progression to Event performance, buying more Energy and playing longer in RAID will give you the biggest bang for your time.

I’ve discussed what Players show look for in a good grinding game to play during Shelter In Place, but what should Developers be doing?  I would argue that Developers should focus on the following:

1. Make it cheap for Players to continue Playing a game they like.  This could take the form of:
   1. Lucrative Energy Sales
   2. Temporarily lowering Energy costs
   3. Temporarily lifting daily limits on event systems
   4. Anything else that will let Players play the game longer for free/for a small price
2. Don’t let the additional playtime upend the game economy
   1. Letting Players play longer is great.  But if that additional Play gives Players a strong advantage to completing events or content you had planned for Players, you may find your monetization suffering.
   2. Make sure the additional Play you are giving Players is in content that can absorb the additional Play.
3. Balance current content with the additional Play in mind.
   1. This kind of ties to #2.  In order to prevent damage to the game’s monetization, current content that is released should anticipate the additional play time from Players and be balanced for it.  That way, Players don’t get too much value from the increased Playtime.

I’ve used RAID: Shadow Legends a lot as an example of a good game to play our current situation.  The incredibly cheap cost of Energy in RAID is also its long-term monetization problem. Because Energy can be used to Progress in so many areas of the game, making Energy cheap will hurt long-term Monetization.  But I’ll go more into detail on that in another post.

Not all games have a Grind though.  A big Genre that noticeably lacks Grind is Puzzle Games.  Games like Candy Crush, Gardenscapes, Panda Pop, etc., don’t reward players for playing more, and in fact limit excessive play through Lives or some other resource.  How much a Player progresses is more impacted by their success rate at clearing stages than by how much they play. As such, the cost for continued play is a lot less than games with Grind.  

Players who enjoy Puzzle Games have a lot of low-cost options for continued play:

• Asking Friends for Lives 

• This has been a part of Puzzle Games from the beginning, and in these times of Shelter In Place, being social online is just as important as being entertained.  So why not get some Lives out of it and maybe reconnect with an old friend?
• Join a Guild

• Speaking of being social, why not join a Guild (Team, Clan, Alliance, Club, insert social group term, etc.)?  Its a chance for you to find connections with other players who enjoy the same game as you, plus you can get free lives through it.  Not all Puzzle Games have Guilds.
• Watch Ads 

• Not all Puzzle games give Lives for watching an Ad, but if they do, take advantage of it!  With an excess of time, watching a 30 second ad is nothing. Plus, you can lay the phone down and go make yourself another cup of tea or change to a new song or podcast.
• Value-Driven Sales
  • If you’ve exhausted all the free sources of extra-lives, and you want to play more, look for awesome deals on Lives.  $1-$2 deals can get you a lot of entertainment, so be on the lookout for special sales.

• Especially look out for the unlimited Lives.  That is a solid chunk of time to play the game you love without worrying about running out of Lives.

What should Developers of Games without a Grind do for Players with an abundance of time?  The answer is provide them with more content. But content is expensive to produce. Game Developers should consider adding a little more depth than usual for the sake of Players with too much time on their hands.  More Depth means that the content will keep Players occupied for longer.

Here are some examples of good things for Developers to do in a grindless game:

• Have events give more playtime as a reward

• Using Unlimited Lives/More Lives as a reward will get players who want to play in the game for a long time to consume the content.
• Layer on Events to reward players to play more

• With all this extra play time, add more things for Players to make progress in to make them feel like the additional playtime is meaningful
• Don’t Reduce Rewards given to Players.  Just make it take more playtime to earn

• Because Players are going to be playing for longer, it might seem natural to lower the amount of Rewards they receive so that they don’t earn too much or make too much Progress. But instead of nerfing Rewards, it would be better to stretch out the content so that it takes Players more time to earn the Rewards.  In the above case with the Foxy Season Pass in Gardenscapes, instead of having there be 30 Levels, they should do 50 Levels or more.  

We don’t know how long this health crisis will last.  For better or for worse, this is a very dynamic period for Gaming.  My hope is that Game Developers will recognize the current plight of Players, and will adjust both content and sales accordingly to let Players play their games longer.  I also encourage Players to take a hard look at the games they try, and make sure that whichever games they are playing lets them play for as long as they want without asking for too much money.

That’s it for this week.  I’ll be back again for another post in ggDigest. Want to see my latest post? Go to ggDigest.com and subscribe.  Stay safe everyone!

Jeff Witt