Monopoly Go's Economy | Skill Tree #54
Last newsletter of this year. Taking a short break until January 5. See you soon in the arena 🫡
Today, we’ll be looking at Monopoly Go’s economy & the limit of esports.
Monopoly Go’s Economy 🔗
tl;dr: Monopoly Go’s economy makes gameplay feel competitive and risky — but actual losses are negligible.
Dice rolls (Monopoly Go’s energy system) trigger different actions depending on where on the board a player lands. In the end, they are sources (e.g. social interaction, rewards) or sinks (e.g. taxes) for money. As the gatekeeper to money, rolls are used to drive IAPs.
Faucets
As players progress, social interactions become the main faucet (~ 50% of rewards)
Social interactions are asymetrical. On average, players receive $20 for every $1 they lose to an opponent.
The other use of social interactions is retention. Players can easily earn shields against attacks which provides an incentie to log in regularly.
Sinks
Levels are by far the primary sink and goal in Monopoly Go
The Limits of eSports 🔗
There’s a difference between a game that can be played competitively, which is essentially any game, and titles that can become formal esports.
esports design focuses on balance, a level playing field. The challenge is that players often have a biased view and their suggestions tend to be subpar.
The second challenge of esports games is that they often only cater to the competitive crowd with little room for other audiences. That makes it difficult to build a financially successful esports title.
The third challenge is that esports has been proven to be loss leaders most of the time. And when a game’s esports scene is turning a profit, it’s often not the game capturing most of it.
“In order for any live service game to succeed and grow, there must be a pool of casual, core, and hardcore players in it. Without all three, you’re not going to have a game that is balanced for any kind of player”