For two years now, I have not worked in game dev. Accordingly, there was a time and desire to generalize thoughts about this business of disgrace. From frankly hooligans to applicants for research.

Nevertheless, I’ll start with the hooligan only partly: the classification of players according to what they want in the game and from the game. It is not complete and controversial, but it is supplied with entertaining comments and ends with a grandiose mental experiment using the example of a famous anecdote.

Yes, and I will write about monetization rather cynically. I would say extremely cynical, albeit with a great deal of irony and black professional humor. In fact, everything is possible and not so scary.
')
Go?

So, we meet (first briefly, further more)

Dominator (nibibator), where do without him. His calling to be a star, superhero, lord of the world, finally. At least he thinks so. And, accordingly, it constantly proves the right to the place of the alpha male in this world (or the alpha of the female, which also happens, but less often). Wins at any cost! In the sense that the cheaper the better, but if it is really impossible to do otherwise, then at any cost. And more. He invests in the game with great reluctance, because he believes that the whole world owes him so much for his works of enslavement. But the desire to dominate conquers the toad. Partly with a big advantage.

Munchkin (zadrot, pawn, record holder, chameleon) - it’s wrong to call Munchkin a zadrot. Zadrot is rather casual (see below) and sways because it can sway. Munchkin is swinging to fill his own ChSV. It seems to him that growing tsiferki and cool pictures increase its importance to others. When it turns out that this is not the case, the munchkin decides that he still does not look so cool and ... rushes to rock again. Monetized badly, because character development is a means for him, not a goal. Yes, and as a dominator, he believes that the whole world underestimates him. With even less reason.

Cranker (adrenaline, athlete, fighter). The term kranker does not exist, so I had to invent it. For the cranker, the whole life is a struggle. In the game especially. He needs to live fast and bright, need true friends and strong opponents. Cranker is a winner by nature, he, like the dominator, will gnaw victory with his teeth. But the main thing for him is the process, not the result. A good but lost battle for a cranker is more valuable than a series of victories over a weak opponent. Actually, the noble pirates from books read as children are the essence of crankers. Crankers are well monetized, if you give them adrenaline, excitement, the opportunity to test themselves and their friends.

Farmer . The kind of player is also the first time (I hope) described in this article. Farmer, like the munchkin loves to swing, but not for the sake of dropping dust in his eyes. He is interested in the fact of character development, moreover, the development of a comprehensive. Farmer doesn’t particularly like to fight, but, as an opponent in PvP, is strong and unpleasant. After all, his favorite single-player games are strategies. And it suits the battle as well as the buildup, calmly, thoroughly, taking into account all the known nuances. Do not climb on the rampage as a craneer, do not spend on super-expensive consumables as a dominator, but the descent will not give even in a hopeless battle. Unless, of course, in this battle for himself suddenly. For monetization as attractive as craneers. Actually, farmers and crankers bring the most income to games.

Researcher . This is a player who loves puzzles. He wonders what the creators of the game want to surprise him with. And he is ready to surprise the creators in response. Uses improperly everything that can be used. What is impossible, also uses, with particular pleasure. Alone it overthrows bosses, calculated on the pumped party, often unnatural way. Finds a bunch of errors in the game, including the balance, which could allow him to become the coolest, if that were the goal. But everything is much simpler: “we do what we do, because we can”. Not for all of us, just for fun. Monetized badly, because he and so almost everything is. And if the researcher has invested money in the game, it means that he is preparing some kind of mischief and may soon have to correct the imbalance in the balance sheet.

Casual Just a player. The person entering the game to kill time, thoughtfully and thoroughly do procrastination. There are no special goals in the game. I went into the game, killed the monster, talked in chat, and then the working day came to an end. But do not underestimate the casuals. Casuals create extras. Mass and fun and quality. Without casual games, a rare game can be attractive. Therefore, although wool with kazualov is small (they are rarely invested and carefully), it is necessary to breed, groom and cherish them. Moreover, the casuals and so scatter on single player games in mobile phones. Bad trend ...

Social worker For this player, the relationship with the team (friends, party, clan or the whole world) is important. Immediately realized the desire to help the little ones, to share experience, to protect the offended. Well, communicate. The game itself is in second place, but tries to meet a decent level of development (leveling). Because the social worker understands that the homeless people take the place of the homeless in society. Therefore, monetization is not particularly elegant, but a penny drips from it regularly. In addition, they are happy to volunteer.

Former (forum ghost). Does not play, but enters the chat and the forum. Basically, to explain how cool it was before in the game, and why he is not playing now (which is basically the same thing). He participates in the discussion of news and situations, but quickly falls into explanations that used to be better. Money from him can not wait, except to make the forum paid for non-playing users.

There are few pure classes - basically they are Munchkins, Dominators and Ghosts. All other classes can be mixed, including those with Munchkin and Dominator impurities. In addition, there are temporary stasis. When the casual gets to the tops of some rating, even in it the dominator and the munchkin wakes up.

In order to understand what class a player belongs to, one needs to understand what he gets pleasure from. The same is extremely important for monetization. Players do not pay for the opportunity to play the game, not for the "expensive pictures" of virtual armor. And for the pleasure they receive from investing in the game of their time, abilities and, all the more, money. If a player, having invested real into the game, will get a little endorphin from this, then, with a high probability, he will soon come running after the next dose.

Take PvP. Farmer and the munchkin get pleasure from the fact that victories are filling their reputation, the dominator from the very fact of victories, the craneer from the struggle against worthy opponents, the researcher from testing new tactics, the social worker from participating in the group, and the casual man simply because he currently plays, but, say, does not write a tedious report on the work.

The thin line between farmer and munchkin just seems thin. Farmer bobs for himself, a munchkin for others. Farmers do not force the buildup, it is important for them to achieve a certain level of development. Munchkin is in a hurry to fill more. Farmers are social and, in team trips, it is easy to spend money on obkast and take complex goals. The Munchkins are trying to get through for free and quickly. And, most importantly, the farmer enjoys the whole process of the buildup, while the munchkin, when receiving the result in the form of a drop piece or adding a dial.

This side needs to be subtly understood, as farmers are the easiest to monetize, and are only inferior in terms of investments to crankers. Munchkins are monetized worse by slightly different methods. But it is below.

About consoles

For each class, you can add a prefix. Tru or pseudo. "Tru" means that the player best matches the class. "Pseudo" - wants to match, but alas.

For example: Tru dominator is a dominator who fights for the sole and absolute leadership in the game. For him there should be no players whom he could not defeat by force or cunning. If there are such, then the rub-dominator must do everything to lime or strengthen himself. A simple dominator is satisfied with the fact that he bends everyone in the absence of a labor dominator. Yes, and in the absence of tru cranky, which is already there. And if frankly, then in the absence of labor farmer. The pseudo-dominator in the conditions of resistance gives up and either tries to find a niche for bending (for example, it drives the strongest twinkle on a certain low level), or it degenerates into a forum ghost.

But let's learn more about monetization

Dominator (This is my cow and I will milk her)

A typical mistake is a bet on monetization of dominators. Although why a mistake? For an investor (a person with money and, most likely, a dominator in real life), any business plan designed for “haircut of dominators” is quite understandable and attractive. But in reality it will be difficult to implement it.

Problem: there are not many tru-dominators. Even in life, not so much in the game. Especially in one particular game. And niche and pseudo-dominators are monetized badly. If the balance of the game allows you to dominate zadrotam, then zadroty-dominators will quickly occupy all possible niches and as a result domintar-realtors, on whom there were so many hopes, quickly break down and go to look for their money for another use.

Even realtor dominators are a one-time resource. They can invest in an expensive one-time purchase, but will try to avoid over-spending on consumables. Dominators generally tend to spend just as much money as is required for domination. Not more. At least not much more. Preferring to lay a stock of advantages with zadrotstvo and social mechanisms (integration into clans, friendship with admins, strong krankerami, control (monopolization) over resources in the game). Accordingly, only the labor-dominators, and then, provided that there will be at least two of them, will be invested decently. Niche dominators will limit themselves to investments in maintaining their niche. And pseudo-dominators, in general, would prefer to invest in a jaguar can (beer / energy), which they have every chance to bend.

The problem is also that the labor dominators with strong opponents prefer not to fight, but to negotiate. Yes, a couple of three epic battles with their participation, and throwing money into the wind, take place necessarily. But, most likely, these battles take place either for the cynical pumping of one of the parties, or to reveal the balance of power. Then begin the diplomatic game.

If the dominators succeed in provoking a permanent probing (the balance of power is approximately equal, and domination gives rulezi) and prevent the possibility of collusion (agents of influence, a large "uncontrollable" audience, then ... Then you are lucky and the monetization of the dominators is real and beneficial. Especially if you give the opportunity to climb in their disassembly of the craneers. It remains to consider how to create such a situation.

In words, everything is simple. Gather a large audience (easier to say than to do, right?), But in the meantime it is recruited, try to remove niches for “cheap” dominators from the game or make dominance in any niche expensive. As much as possible expensive. And do not be ashamed to show it. If a man came into the game with money, he should see the opportunity to “buy everything”. Only not at the younger and possibly middle levels. Give them to better crankers, and give the dominators the opportunity to quickly reach high levelers. By the way, the dominator himself for fast pumping is often not against surcharge.

Munchkins (Another 65536 mobs and you can sleep)

The most harmful part of the audience. The cat poured enough money from them, and boast, demands and problems are in abundance. The main problem from munchkinism is “consuming content”. Because of the players playing a little less than around the clock, in four windows, players will get the impression that the development team is simply not able to quickly produce content. What will affect loyalty.

You will try to stretch the content, “quickly” replacing quests for 10 mobs with quests for 100 mobs and ... this content will also be eaten by the Macchini. And other players have the impression that it’s not realistic to jump to a more or less decent level in the near future. And swing stupidly boring. And it's a shame to rock, killing 100 mobs to the quest, when someone once needed 10. Again, loyalty suffers.

Therefore, restrictions on pumping (explicit and hidden Cap), including financial ones, do not remove the Munchkins from the game at all, but lead them to the most harmless forms.

Let's take a quick look at the subtypes.

Zadrot

Zadrot swinging, because it can swing. A person has a lot of time and few interests. This is an asocial casual wear. But he is casual and, like any casual, when faced with problems, he will retreat and become pure casual wear. Accordingly, a bit harder for him to live and read about him in the appropriate chapter (about casuals). To monetize it is difficult and not worth it. Easier to lime.

Athlete, record holder, etc.

"We want to give all the records our proud names." Who will take the first level, reputation, achivku.

I played a lot of time on one of the then popular TF-server, when I found features in the accrual of rating points (a lot could be obtained by playing with unpopular classes, in one of which I was also an overskiller). As a result, viewing the rating in the intervals between the cards was one of my favorite activities. When I stumbled into obviously not my 3 rd place on the server, without growth prospects, I first slipped from grief on the 7th, then I started to go for half an hour once a week.

Everyone plays this game with pleasure. The main thing is to ensure growth in the ratings, at least at the initial stage. A beautiful rating is interesting only taking 5-10% of the top places (or having the opportunity to reach the top). And for the rest, its growth is just interesting. For the sake of rating, quite a few start at least playing a little more. And this is, if not an increase in income, then an increase in online, at a minimum.

But with pure champions money can be taken, but difficult. And a limited number of times. Fortunately, players quickly forget useless information, such as who exactly was the first to take level 60 on the server and focus on their numbers.

Chameleon

The image is nothing - Ponte everything. This is about him. When on a subway your neighbor with a bad haircut proudly pulls out the last iPhone from the pocket of a cheap feather jacket, you can confidently call its game paradigm: “more brilliance for less cost”. Chameleon tries to look "no worse", but he tries to invest in the game at a minimum. Both financially (although this subspecies of monetization lends itself) and in terms of play effort. But chameleons are only slightly inferior to researchers in finding the path of fast and easy pumping. Therefore, it is necessary to observe them and break off these paths. Then the chameleon will have to climb into his pocket for the money for breakfast, or tie with the game, which is also a good game.

So, the dry residue from the Munchkins

Munchkin is not the best customer. In Munchkin the arithmometer is constantly ticking in the head. Expo time is money. It is in this sequence. If the munchkin does not go on record (and the stock of records is small), then he will swing extremely economically. Buying additional pumping only if investments give a very noticeable increase. Nevertheless, it is necessary to milk the Munchkins, at least, because there is no indirect income from them. They are weakly social, provoke conflicts with the weak, but avoid conflicts with the strong. At the same time, content is quickly “eaten away”.

The most optimal strategy for their monetization is the protection of investments. Munchkin, who has reached a certain level, cannot abandon a project to develop himself. If it is hard to get low money from a munchkin, it is much easier at high levels. The main thing is to transfer pumping to a competitive plane, where pumping implies competition (the winner gets an exp, the others smoke). This may be pvp and the requirement of scarce (limited on the server) resources for pumping. All sorts of races work just as well (an additional reward to someone who, for example, is swinging the most, for example).

Scenarios of monetization: restrictions on pumping per unit of time, surmounted by money; the need for investments (things, reputation) for optimal pumping. Competitive pumping at senior levels.

Cranker (Dear Sir, allow me to attack)

Adrenal is too long a word. Therefore, let's call them krakkerami (from crank), anyway (do not forget the article hooligan) there is no established term.

In games with developed PvP, the most tasty part of the audience for monetization. Cranker is always ready to cut, then casted (or has obkast in stock) almost to the maximum. It is stupid to merge because of their own greed - a serious emotional trauma for the craneer. Anyone who shouts that unfairly with obkastom, and wants a fair fight - not kranker. Although the craneer may not obkastovatsya to give chances to a weak opponent, but against the strong, he will charge to the maximum and fight to the last. Often not even for the sake of victory, but in order for the opponent to win the victory as dearly as possible. And not because of meanness - it's just so cool to him.

In addition, Cranker is interested in fighting the strongest rivals (to a reasonable extent), therefore, without frustration, he invests in his own gain.

Cranker hates dull monotonous quests, where everything is clear at the time of the quest, so often prefer to make money in real life and buy the necessary items or consumables. It would be foolish not to use it.

In addition, for the crane, it is not superfluous to create separate “parallel” quest lines, with fewer, but more expensive, actions. Cranker prefers to kill one lion than twenty sheep, even if hunting for a lion is associated with transportation costs to Africa.

So, “milking” the crankers is easy. The problem is that the craneers start in your game. Cranker needs a constant action. If everything is decent, nice and boring - you will not have cranes. Accordingly, ... will have to rely on the Farmers.

Farmers (I'm slim, pumped up, moderately plump hamster)

Farmers prefer to “slowly go down the hill”. Those. First, develop the character to the max level, but then ... But "then" most likely will not come - the development process becomes more important for them.

Farmer wants to hit the world with his perfection. Smooth and maximum tsiferki, the ability to apply at a low level Haye gadgets. Show everyone "look how I can." The question "why?" They better not ask. They will not answer, they will only look at you like an idiot. It may seem to you that their life credo "suddenly comes in handy." But it is not so.

For farmer, any game is a strategy. The action is considered as a free application. Farmer does not agree with all just to win - he needs to win for a clear advantage. Not because it is afraid to lose without a margin of safety. And because the most buzz in the strategy is to save strength for a long time, to spend all possible resources on the map, and then come and kill everyone in 5 minutes. Moreover, these five minutes are the most boring - no one almost resists. Reptiles.

In principle, the true farmer thinks it is not comical to invest real. After all, he can (and should, in his opinion) farm everything himself. This is part of the strategy. But, in fact, the farmer part of the path passes “honestly and for free” and finishes the “last miles” with the help of the real, because the true farmer is still not zadrot. It is also fascinating to the farmer has a choice. For one line of his diligence is enough, others are “bought”. By the way, just such a tactic (one for free, two for money) works fine and not only with farmer.

Advance bet. Farmer wants to get any nishtyak as early as possible. Even if you can not use it normally. So that when everything runs behind this nishtyak, he calmly took it out of the bag, wiped it with a velvet and used according to the instructions. For farmer - this is the buzz. And for the buzz people and are willing to pay. Do not deprive them of such an opportunity.

True, there is another danger - the danger of advanced development. Players of almost all classes (especially if they are not playing the first time), strive to gain as many reinforcements as possible, as early as possible. It is desirable reinforcements designed for higher levels than those at which they can get. Especially in PvP games, to arrange a genocide for those who did not jump in on time.

Allowing this is a shoal of gamediz. This is a failure of the loyalty of the paying part of the audience, which will be grabbed, for their own money. Therefore, it is a good idea to make it possible to get a nishtyak early, but you should be careful to use it when nishtyak (or even a set of nishtyakov) does not give a decisive advantage.

In general, let the farmers grow in breadth, height, depth and side (things, achievements, reputations, pets, skills) and you have to spend money on a machine for the account of money. Just do not overdo it. For farmer, the loss of loyalty is usually associated with an attempt to embrace the immense. Farmers often quit playing (and, therefore, investing money) when it is impossible to get a trifling profit. Such situations should be avoided: everything that can be farmed should be possible to farm (albeit expensive).

Researcher (Oh, what a red button. Will I click?)

The researcher will only pay for his curiosity. Moreover, it is not a fact that the satisfaction of this will not result in financial losses for you. Researchers do not tremble over bugs and distortions. Having found a bug, the researcher is happy, exploits in different ways and, playing enough, forgets about its existence. While in a conversation with someone the word does not have to.

And, opachki, your income from monetization falls, and the entire server, for example, feeds some small quest, the passage of which in a special way gives the consumables, recently the former sales leader.

Monetize the researcher is not necessary. You need to be friends with him. Start up to beta test, ask for opinion, etc. It will not bring money, but it will save time. For which you can earn something to earn money.

How to be friends? First of all, to be friends you need to find him. It's simple. The researcher is perfectly visible on the forum with the naked eye. He brings a lot of bugs (unless of course he sees that you are processing the corresponding topic), pouring ideas, posting unexpected screenshots. However, from publicity, he eventually gets tired, so do not miss it. It can be useful (at least look through its logs - there often appears a lot of interesting things).

Casuals (I'm only five minutes long, I have a lot of work)

Casual lives in the game, not live in the game. And does not even live, but just comes. For him, the farmer's sadness is not clear that he failed to swing his reputation until the end of the level, the cranker who was late for the server-wide fiddle is strangely annoyed, and the tragedy of the chameleon who missed the chance to redeem a fashionable armor at an erroneous price at a sale, touches the most.

Gamedisks view casuals as "meat" for "paying" classes. Sales managers, like untouched, wild, overgrown with thistles, but for some reason promising, field for monetization. PR managers as an indicator of statistics indicating the success of their work.

Only the latter is more or less true.

Casuals have one virtue for which they need to be loved, cherished and nurtured. They absolutely sincerely like your game. Other classes like the game in which they achieve their goals. If the goals are not achieved, then the game - UG. And casuals have no special goals.

That kazualy are the best evangelists of their games. They do not say with foaming at the mouth, what cool possibilities are there in the game, what persistent battles, what a cool clan is there, in which the cool narrator consists. No, they just play with a happy face and willingly share their own, perhaps not deep, but sincere knowledge of the game. (I would like the real-life sales consultants to look like casuals, for that matter).

Now about the sad. Casual does not like obstacles. He does not want to overcome the irresistible. He just needs to do something that doesn’t bother him too much, gives a small but positive reinforcement and goes on as he goes. Attempts to rigidly monetize kazuals are failing (but they used to roll before when there were few alternatives). And the monetization attempts associated with saving time are ridiculous.

Squeeze and goodbye. Casual will get his phone number - that's all. It is lost not only for your game, but, perhaps, for MMORPG in general. MobileCool for kazualov now car and a small truck. In general, this sector is on casuals and works.
Likewise, the excessive corral kazuala in the "meat". Casual usually humbly treats failures, but only to a certain extent. A lack of powerful goals in the game does not mean a lack of self-esteem. A mockery of him is also disastrous, as the persistent extortion of money ...

But the casuals often mistakenly refer to the Munchkins and pseudo-classes (namely, pseudo-dominators, pseudo-crankers (and such are) and pseudo-farmers). Just because they classify "kazualov" on the basis of pays / does not pay (pays little). No need to interfere with everything in the overall pile. It is better to separate the casuals from this sample, and with the remaining slag in the sample (not casuals), do as you please: lure money and use it as “meat”. There are two reasons for this: (1) the slag is not so proud and can be blackmailed and start paying, (2) if the slag does not lead, but is offended and dumped, this is also a game only for the benefit.

I will be politically incorrect: children (especially boys) playing MMORPG with the Free2Play model are NOT casuals. On the one hand, I want to prove to the whole world that they can steer, at least in a computer game. On the other hand, money for breakfasts, even if they do not eat up, do not allow competing with adults, for whom, investing 10-30% of salary is not such a rarity.

Accordingly, children are trying to take offense and cheating. Here you have the consumption of content and loss of loyalty from players who can spend real money in the game, but can not play for days. More precisely, they can not play for days constantly. , , : ( , ) – , . . , f2p – .

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, mcLander: 25% , 5%, 40% , 10% , 20% .