EA chief Designer: The success of free games stems from human weakness

"The success of free online games lies in exploiting the weakness of human nature," Theutwedemann, chief designer of Settlers Online, the Bluebyte Studio in GCD Europe. In essence, it is found that some of the players can be fully profit-making, and in these areas to do their best, mercenary. "As a caveat, Widman says, first and foremost, developers have to make interesting games to attract players." Then, once a user is there, the job is to monetization the game or the game will not go on.　　This is an unusual and candid discussion about the use of human psychology as a means to profit. Widman the beginning of the conversation as a topic for the different worlds of games and massively multiplayer online games, "Settlersonline" is a two-week or one-month update, PVE and PVP free games.　　"As a single player, you have to completely control the environment in your game, and you don't need it in the game, and you can't just think about the fun," he says, "You have to consider the monetization and fun of the game at the same time." For me, the work that we have done before, this is a huge task is also a huge change. We have to get them started and addicted, they can continue to play.　　The advantage of this kind of sale looks very evil, this is the truth of free game. Monetization has become a key component of game design, ' developers have to think about this from scratch, and in your game, the process must be quantified, ' he says, ' the most common quantization is rank--something that everyone can grasp, and you can use the high speed experience to widman the scale, But you have to make sure that the paid players can't be easily identified.　　If the cover-up doesn't work out, you can't make more money from disgruntled players.　　According to Widman, some of the different kinds of things can be sold, some rare achievements, early entry into the newer stage, earlier entry into new maps, faster exploration and earlier comfort, all social elements such as avatar customization, facial expressions, and larger unions.　　Using the original sin of man we monetization all human frailties, widman his conversation to the level of the seven original sins of the so-called fundamentalism and how to turn these weaknesses into cash. Vanity！ "I'm the best--that's how they want to feel," he says, but in a strategy game, it's hard to get people to see their posturing, which usually looks like an advantage to others. In "Settlersonline", the game allows the player to let their friends see him within a controlled range.　　Here, customizing a trade union can be monetization, in other words, they get money to build a union that everyone can see. Jealous！ "To make this work, you have to let the players see their neighborsof property. "In China, black gear is very popular from other players," says Widman.　　"I believe that in the near future we will be able to see this phenomenon in the West," he said. Binge eating! Here, the goal is to let players spend more. Set up consumables (such as the treatment of traditional MMORPG) and sell it directly to the player, "it's actually an indirect way to save time," he says. "If you want to upgrade to the next level, it takes time and resources, but you can buy an instant-upgraded consumable instead." Sexual！ In "Settlersonline", you can quantify pleasure. As a substitute for bitterness, players can instantly unlock everything they want.　　"This player's money is best earned," Widman said, "because everything has to be fast, everything is pleasurable, and that's what he wants." A good example of this is the immediate recruitment of troops, not the long waiting numbers. Irritable! "You hate your enemies, and in your anger, we make money." He said, this player is the easiest to use, because they want to get the best props immediately, in order to bash other players.　　Games can be sold to them during combat, and give them the best battle and more experienced units to pay for. Greed！ This refers to the building's increase and gain effect. "Buyers are those who are sensitive to unfairness. So if he wants to be rich, he won't buy gold directly, "Widman said, because he won't have any sense of achievement," never sell money directly to players, must come indirectly. Lazy！ The most representative is that the player does not want to do anything. Player is lazy, so sell "comfortable" to him. Give him the expansion of the building, automatic repair and automatic processing of overproduction.　　What businesses do is to save clicks, this is what businesses have to do, not to mention the players are paid, we do not do it? No amount of cash to deal with. Game design has nothing to do with game design--it's all business at the moment. Bluebyte executive producer Christopherschmitz says we do use them, but they don't feel bullied or abused, and if they don't, they don't like developers. If you think you'll have the same outfit this year and next year, you're wrong, you have to be in the Super store. Buy anything you like, Widman said, and the designers should ask themselves how they could sell you the same thing in a new bottle of old wine when the major brands in the grocery store came in.　　With these things to give you an advantage, in fact, your consumption mentality has already been figured out well. As the designer of an online game, you have to learn to find a balance in a more chaotic situation where a player is more controlled than before. The difficulty is that they are trying to black out your game, "Settlers Online" in the first five seconds of the test was a hacker attack. On the other hand, Widman reminds us that there are times when players do things you don't think about, but sometimes you can say, "Hi, we didn't know we could do this in the game before." "And why should you care about the existence of such accidental play?" Because, of course, you know, because you can make money from it.