Learning from trad game economies & player motivations | Skill Tree #35
Analysis of Payday 3’s C-Stacks Currency
I took a look at C-Stacks, Payday’s in-game currency with a variable exchange rate
The Economy of Entropia Universe
Currency: PED
in-game currency that is tradable for real money
fixed exchange rate at 1 USD = 10 PED
P2E
boring activities pay out <$1/hr
most important activities cost PED and have a negative expected return (~4-10% “house edge”)
but there is a chance to hit it big - like in a casino
scoreboards incentivize spending
Investments
sold assets for up to $6m
people can buy land and build businesses that give them a share of the casino
e.g. buy land, sell homes on it and tax resources found
e.g. shopping malls, space stations, motherships (transportation), players can buy licenses to open banks (basically pawn shops), land deeds (stocks in planets/land)
even sold planets to other game studios (basically a franchising business for others to open casinos)
haven’t been regulated as they were be able to show that the game is skill-based
The 9 Quantic Gamer Types
12 Gaming motivations
Community
Competition
Excitement
Destruction
Completion
Power
Strategy
Challenge
Fantasy
Story
Discovery
Design
9 primary gamer types
Acrobat: solo gamer looking for challenge, thinking, and figuring out game mechanics on their own. don’t care about world-building & window-dressing
Gardener: looks for relaxing task completion. look for clear gameplay rules
Slayer: want to be the hero in a cinematic story. slower-paced, accessible gameplay
Skirmisher: looking for fast-paced team arenas that aren’t too strategic or challenging
Gladiator: hardcore gamers looking for everything
Ninja: similarly to Acrobats, they’re looking for challenges but with more strategy, fast pace and competition
Bounty Hunter: wants to explore a game world they can make their own. want to grow in power
Architect: wants planning and decision-making that leads to progression and task completion in the game
Bard: social players who want to chat and interact with other players in rich worlds
Discover your gamer profile
The Player’s Journey
Player’s Journey
giving the player a grand aspiration and a series of steps to get there
aspiration is different by player type/motivation
Mechanics
FTUE introduces the premise e.g. king that builds his castle
Not showing all of the customization options all at once and overwhelming the player with a long task list. introduce customization at a later level
Showing what will be possible in the future (e.g. levels & items greyed out)
leaderboards
Creating goals
intrinsic and extrinsic goals
given by the game (e.g. daily missions - check lists/formal targets) vs internalized (e.g. reach highest rank, collect everything)
intrinsic can work to get people motivated within a session or multiple sessions but not long-term
best: link extrinsic with intrinsic goals. e.g. player wants to ean new character, game gives quests which lead the player towards unlocking the character
step by step
give players time to understand the game, guiding them with quests
give players a glimpse into the future - what can they achieve e.g. camera zoom on ladnmark in the distance, scroll along the battle pass and see rewards
divide journey into chunks so player is not overwhelmed (short-, medium-, long-term goals)
short: can be achieved in 1-2 sessions
key: creat goal chains - completing short-term goals should lead to medium-term goals which lead to completing the long-term goals e.g. battle pass
goal density & variety
provide players with multiple avenues for growth e.g. mechanical skill, understanding character skill set, meta game
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