作者：Anna Marsh

从Twiiter上的争论来看，人们对免费模式（F2P）的看法不是否定就是推崇这两个极端。

我个人对此则充满矛盾。我并不认为免费模式天生就邪恶，但同时我也并没有真的喜欢过一款F2P游戏。事实上，我自己移动设备上的付费游戏数量远超过了F2P游戏。

然而，在过6个月中，《Clash of Clans》却让我真正明白免费增值模式究竟如何真正与游戏设计融为一体。

clash-of-clans(from finalcheckpoint)

盈利机制

《Clash of Clans》从许多方面来说都是佳作，我认为只有真正死硬的F2P仇视者才会觉得这款游戏一无是处。

我喜欢这款游戏有多重因素——我喜欢布置自己的村庄，设置坚固完美的防御工事。我喜欢看到自己的小战士坐在营地篝火前，也喜欢游戏中最小交流需求的多人模式。

我太喜欢这款游戏了，以至于在其中逗留了6个月，它也成了为唯一为其掏钱的F2P游戏——至今花了2.99英磅，相当于我买过的最贵的付费手机游戏价格，而我玩《Clash of Clans》的时间却远超过那款付费游戏。

我说不准哪天可能再为它掏出2.99英磅。

此前已经不乏关于这款游戏的深度分析。作为游戏设计师，令我印象最深的是其付费货币的运行方式，它不但是一个付费墙，还是一个能够让人与之互动的游戏系统，丝毫无损于其他游戏机制。

混合支付方案

游戏设计归根到底，就是让一系列系统相互重叠以创造一种产生可预期、模拟结果的体验。

例如，在一款射击游戏中，其系统支配武器、瞄准、弹药、AI和环境等要素合为一体，当我扣动扳机时可以预测发射范围和方向，但实际开枪结果（游戏邦注：包括击中、致命的爆头，或者失误）却要取决于我开枪时这些结果相互整合的情况。

这样游戏才会有趣味、深度和进程感。

在我之前玩过的F2P游戏中，付费货币选项通常以极为数字化的方式呈现——付费，或者不付费。相反，《Clash of Clans》却使用了那种并不模拟化的付费货币（宝石）。

当然，我可以直接用宝石购买一项道具，或者迅速完成一项基于时间的任务。或者也可以一文不花，坐等时间到来就好。但还有第三个选择，那就是将这两种选择结合在一起。

我需要用于购买或完成一个目标所需的宝石数量，取决于我目前已经拥有的软货币数量。

无需支付500个宝石或坐等8小时，我可以选择等待6个半小时并支付150个宝石。或者收集四分之三的黄金，并抵消其余的宝石价格。

多人模式

这一点与多人模式系统相融合时则更为有趣。

玩家攻击你的时候总会盗走一部分资源，但如果他们大获其胜，你的防御盾就会自动激活一段时间。在你的防御盾激活期间，你的资源不会受损。

现在，假设我的防御盾处于激活状态，我的金矿已经提升了90%的升级所需成本，当防御盾解除激活时，我可以选择用其余的10%来抵宝石，或者再等待片刻，待另一名玩家再来攻击并盗走我刚刚生成的黄金。

此外，因为我能用宝石人为地激活防御盾，更有效率的方法是让我的黄金和冶金矿持续运作24小时，直接用宝石购买物品。

之后，我可以使用一些宝石来提高金矿的产量，如果我的防御盾自动激活，这也许就是最佳选择。或者将宝石转化为资源。并且这一切都要取决于我的村庄不同元素的升级水平。

不同的设计

总而言之，我的付费货币不只是支付或不支付这两种选择，这些选择改变了其他系统对我的游戏世界的影响。

这意味着，你可以选择进入游戏盲目地花钱，但如果略施小计，制定些计划，就可以只用一些宝石支撑到很久。这种对货币的用法也成了游戏玩法的一部分。

决定如何最大化付费货币的用途也成了我喜欢这款游戏的因素之一——找到一个尤其有效的花钱方法来解琐升级内容，可以让我在旅途中获得兴奋感，没错我就是那种小气鬼。

我并不认为自己是通过花钱在游戏中作弊或逃避“真正的”游戏（游戏邦注：有许多硬核玩家却有此类看法），而是觉得自己更像是在分散玩游戏的时间成本。

这款游戏当然并不完美，但对我来说这已经是难得的佳作，它真正让F2P这一商业模式移除了新玩家的准入门槛，并通过盈利机制增强了他们的游戏体验。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Playing with paying: How Clash of Clans makes a game out of monetisation

Anna Marsh

Anna Marsh is design director at Lady Shotgun Games, a co-operative of freelance game developers.

Its easy to think on Twitter that free to play is one of those things that you must either love or loathe – if you’re not for it you’re against it and vice versa.

Making a comment either way seems a sure fire way to trigger a heated debate.

Personally I’m ambivalent. I don’t think free to play is inherently evil, but at the same time, I’ve not (up till now) really enjoyed a F2P title for any length of time. In fact, I have far more paid than F2P games on my mobile devices.

However, over the last six months, Clash of Clans has begun to demonstrate to me how freemium can be really become part of the game design.

Cash of Clans

Clash of Clans is, of course, a fantastic game on many levels, and I reckon only a real stubborn F2P hater will find nothing to like about it.

There are many aspects I love about it – I like laying out my village trying to get a perfect, impregnable arrangement of defences. I like seeing my little warriors sitting round their camp fires. I like the minimum-communication-necessary multiplayer.

I like it so much that I’ve been playing for over six months and it’s become the only F2P game I’ve ever monetised – £2.99 to date, which is equal to the highest priced premium game I’ve bought on mobile and I’ve played it a heck of a lot more than that title.

I may even put another £2.99 in someday.

Clash of Clans

Several commentators have already examined why Clash of Clans is a great game in depth.

The stand out thing for me as a game designer is how the premium currency works not just as a pay wall, but as a proper game system that intersects with, not disrupts, the other game mechanics.

Mixing it up

Game design boils down to having a collection of systems that overlap with each other to create an experience that yields predictable results, but analogue outcomes.

For example, in a shooter, the systems governing weapons, aiming, ammo, AI and environment come together to create a game where I can predict the range and direction I will fire in when I hit the trigger, but the actual result of shot – hit, fatal headshot, miss – is analogue collusion between all those systems at the moment I fired.

Therein lies the fun, depth and progression of a game.

With F2P games I’ve played previously, the premium currency options have appeared rather digital – pay, or don’t pay. In contrast, Clash of Clans’s use of premium currency (better known as gems) feels far more analogue.

Of course, I can directly pump gems into buying an item I don’t have the resources for or instantly completing a time-based task. Or I can simply wait – for free. But, there is also a third option, and that’s to combine the two.

The number of gems I need to put in to buy or complete an object goes down according to how much of the soft currency I have available or (in the case of time) have already put in.

Rather than pay 500 gems or wait eight hours, I can choose to wait six and a half hours and pay 150 gems. Or raise three quarters of the necessary gold and subsidise the rest of the price with gems.

Multiplayer madness

This gets more interesting when it interacts with the multiplayer system.

A player attacking you can always steal a certain portion of your resources, but if they are victorious your shield will activate automatically for a set time. Whilst your shield is active, your resources are quite safe.

Now, lets say whilst my shield is active my gold mines have raised 90 percent of the cost of an upgrade. When the shield deactivates, I can take a decision to subsidise the remaining 10 percent with gems, or wait and take the risk another player steaming in and nicking some of that gold I’ve just made.

Plus, since I can use gems to manually activate my shield, it may be more efficient to do that and let my gold and elixir mines do their thing for 24 hours than to put the gems directly into buying objects.

Then again, I can use just a few gems to boost my mines’ output which, if my shield has activated automatically, may be the best option. Or I can convert gems to resources. And all of this is dependent on how far I’ve levelled up the various parts of my village.

Different by design

The upshot, anyway, is that I have far more options with my premium currency than a simple pay or don’t pay choice, and the outcome of those options changes analogue to how the game’s other systems are affecting my game world at any particular time.

It all means that, yes, you can go in and mindlessly blast a load of premium currency willy nilly. But, with a little planning and skill, you can make a few gems go a very long way. The use of currency becomes a form of gameplay in itself.

Deciding how best to use my premium currency is something I enjoy in Clash of Clans – finding an especially efficient way of spending it to unlock an upgrade gives me the same kind of thrill as day trips to London when I make lots of journeys and get my money’s worth out of a one day Travelcard – and yes, okay, I am a cheapskate.

I don’t feel like I’ve somehow cheated or copped out of the “real” game by monetising (as I think many core gamers tend to feel about putting money into a F2P), but more like I’m spreading the cost of a game I enjoy over the time I’m playing it.

It is not perfect of course, but for me this is the game which has really started to put that often lofty sounding promise of freemium – a business model that removes barriers for new players and lets fans enhance their game by monetisation – into practise.（source：pocketgamer）