作者：Will Luton

免费模式是游戏业务中的一大改革，并创造了许多在10年前并不可能存在的十亿美元身价的大公司。

然而，许多人却未能真正理解这一模式下的基本原理。在我自己关于这一话题的书籍《Free-to-Play: Making Money From Games You Give Away》中便划分了5大块内容，即分别关于免费游戏的经济，游戏玩法，盈利，分析和市场营销，并从理论到实践进行了完整的分析。

free-2-play（from entureBeat）

以下是来自这些内容中的5大建议。

经济：无需花费成本

对于早前的游戏，我们是创造一个磁盘并将它装到盒子里，摆在架子上进行销售。每个玩家都需要付给我们金钱，也就是我们需要提前跟他们收钱。而今天，我们几乎不需要为每一款游戏花费成本：通过网络将一份文件从一个机器传递到另一个机器几乎不需要花费任何成本。

与大多数网络业务一样，免费游戏的成功秘诀也是用户，当产品或服务是基于免费模式时，它便能够吸引更多用户的注意。用户无需纠结“这是否值得我投入时间？”或者是否会掏空他们的钱包；他们可以很轻松地开始游戏。而当玩家进入游戏后，我们就需要想办法让他们更长久地待在游戏中。

游戏玩法：目标系统中的核心循环

在任何游戏的核心中，一组无限重复的行动便是所谓的核心循环。这是关于玩家反复尝试，并吸引他们短期沉浸于游戏中的内容。例如在《FarmVille》中，这便是关于种植庄稼，等待，丰收，然后获得虚拟货币奖励的过程。

尽管核心循环能够每时每刻确保玩家沉浸于游戏中，但是你真正希望看到的是玩家能够长达数月（甚至数年）都还留在游戏中。因此你需要为玩家设置目标，并在他们实现目标时给予奖励。我将其称为目标系统，并包含了收集物，关卡和故事等内容。故事目标系统是瞄准特定的玩家和长期粉丝，而缺少引人注目的目标的系统则是指向那些开始变心的玩家。一旦玩家沉浸于游戏中，你便可以开始考虑从他们身上赚钱了。

盈利：四种应用内部购买(4C）

如果玩家在游戏中很开心并且专注于其中，他们便会想用钱去奖励你，但前提是你的游戏中具有他们认为有价值的内容。玩家在游戏中购买的内容（即时是通过虚拟货币等代理方法购得）都是属于四种类型中的一种，我将其称为应用内部购买的四种Cs。

内容（Content）——如关卡或扩展包等内容都能够提供给玩家他们想要进一步探索而需要的内容。因为它们具有耐用性（游戏邦注：不需要重复购买），所以它们的赢利点便很弱，甚至有些游戏会为了留住玩家而免费提供这些内容。

便利性（Convenience）——让玩家在游戏中能够更轻松或更快速地获得某些内容便是一种便利性。拥有更多钱（而不是时间）的玩家通常都更愿意花钱去赚得时间。而便利性购买则具有很大的吸引力并且通常都是可消费的，这便意味着玩家能够反复购买这一内容。

定制（Customization）——有些玩家类型喜欢在游戏世界中使用自己的特定形象作为一种自我表达方式，所以他们很乐意去定制角色的外观。定制将创造一种强大的情感欲望，从而使其变成一种常见且成功的盈利机制。

竞争优势（Competitive advantage）——想要获胜也是同样强大的一种情感。甚少有成功的免费游戏会让玩家直接购得优势，因为这有可能会摧毁游戏的平衡并赶走非付费玩家，但是这种情况确实存在。通常情况下，这也是一种便利模式。

为了确保游戏的成功，你需要检查游戏中的购买是否符合这些Cs，并且你至少需要在游戏中添加其中的2个内容，否则你便很难带给玩家具有吸引力的IAP。但是如果你们在发行时还未将其设置好，你也仍有挽救的机会。

分析：使用科学方法

立刻设置好游戏玩法和盈利机制几乎是件不可能完成的任务，但幸运的是我们有数位发行渠道，即意味着你不是一次性发行所有的游戏内容，你可以在之后频繁地进行更新。

这种永久性的测试状态意味着你可以不断改变并完善游戏，除此之外你还需要追踪玩家的行动，以此确保你所创造的改变具有数据支持。分析和实时更新让你能够使用科学方法围绕着游戏创造理解：创造假设，测试，收集结果，解释结果并做出合理的改变。

通过准确且严厉地执行这一过程，你便能够有效地提升玩家的游戏体验。甚至能够将其用于市场营销过程中。

市场营销：没有玩家是相同的

许多市场营销都是专注于量：众多玩家固然重要，但是一个具有较高用户粘性且愿意花钱的玩家比一百个连续几个小时待在游戏中却不消费的玩家好多了。

想象你通过两个来源将玩家带到你的僵尸游戏中：代理A每带来一个玩家收费0.2美元，代理B一起收1.4美元。从表面上看来我们会毫不犹豫地选择代理A，但是如果代理A是通过一个可爱的标题去推动玩家安装你的游戏的话又会怎样？这说明他们带来的玩家可能较为年轻，对你的游戏主题并不感兴趣，所以便不是很乐意购买游戏，而代理B所带来的玩家则更加成熟且具有更高的用户粘性。如此看来代理B才是更好的投资选择。

因此通过不同来源去追踪玩家行为非常有用，这能帮助你理解市场营销能够生成怎样的投资报酬率，并提供给你有效的数据去决定自己的营销活动。

但是对于你来说更重要的还是创造一款足以让玩家愿意口口相传的优秀游戏：比起看广告知道游戏的玩家，因为好友的推荐而选择游戏的玩家更愿意相信游戏。

然而创造一款优秀的游戏需要采取进一步的行动：免费模式的成功是关于呈献给玩家一段美好的时光，并提供给他们愿意花钱的内容。因此，你需要将全部经历投入产品中，并爱护你的玩家——他们会因此感谢你的。

（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）

Top five tips for making money from free-to-play games

Will Luton

The free-to-play (aka F2P or freemium) model is a revolution in the game business, one that has created billion dollar companies that didn’t and couldn’t have existed 10 years ago.

Yet, what underlies it and how it actually works is so misunderstood that I wrote a book on the subject. Free-to-Play: Making Money From Games You Give Away breaks down in to five chapters covering the economics, gameplay, monetization, analytics and marketing of F2P games, giving a complete picture from theory to practice.

Here’s five tips, one from each of those chapters.

Economics: Bits aren’t atoms

In the old days of games, we had to create a disc, put it in a box, and get it on a shelf so someone could play it. Each player cost us money, so we had to charge them upfront. Today, however, each copy of a game costs us almost nothing: Getting a file from machine to machine via the Internet is so close to zero costs that we might as well consider it as nothing.

As with most Internet businesses, the secret to success in F2P games is an audience, and the largest audiences are created when the product or service is free. The consumer doesn’t have to think “is this worth my time?” or get their wallets out; they can just start playing. Once they’re playing, we want to keep them doing so over long periods.

Gameplay: Core loops in to goals systems

At the heart of any game is a set of infinitely repeatable actions known as a core loop. These are the things players do over and over, keeping them engaged in the short term across a game session. In FarmVille, for example, this is plant a crop, wait, harvest, and then get a virtual currency reward.

While core loops keep players engaged minute-to-minute you really want players to play over multiple session for months, if not years. Therefore, you need goals for your players, along with ways of setting them and rewards once the goals met. I call these goal systems and include things such as collections, levels, and story. Strong goal systems lead to dedicated players and long terms fans, lack of compelling goal systems lead to players drifting off to other titles. Once engaged, you can then begin thinking about making money from your players.

Monetization: The four Cs of IAP

If your players are happy and engaged, they reward you with their cash, but only if your game offers something they see value in. The things players buy in a game, even if it’s through a proxy such as virtual currency, belong to one or more of the four archetypes, I call the four Cs of in-app purchases, or IAP.

Content. Content, such as level or expansion packs, are simply more of the game, offered for players that want to explore more. They’re some of the weakest monetization points owing to the fact that they are durable (nonrepeatable purchases) and something some games offer for free in order to retain players.

Convenience. Getting something easier or quicker in the game is a form of convenience. Players with more money than time often make a value judgment in favor of paying to make the time they spend in the game more enjoyable. Convenience purchases are strongly compelling and often consumable, meaning they can be bought over and over.

Customization. Certain player types like to use their presence in a game world as a form of self-expression and so customize their avatars. Customization creates a strong emotional desire, making it a common and successful monetization point.

Competitive advantage. Equally strong emotionally is the will to win. Very few successful F2P games enable players to straight-up buy advantage, because it’s hard to stop it from disrupting a game’s balance and driving away nonpayers, but they do exist. More commonly, these are a form of convenience.

To ensure success you need to check that your purchases fits with one or more of these Cs and that you cover at least two in your game, else you risk not offering compelling IAPs. However, if you don’t get them right at launch, not all is lost.

Analytics: Use the scientific method

Getting gameplay and monetization right straight off is a near impossible task, but luckily, digital distribution means you don’t just have just one shot, as your game is always updatable.

This eternal beta state means that you can constantly change and tweak, but more than this, by tracking the action of players, you can ensure that the changes you make are backed by data. Analytics and live updating allows you to apply the scientific method to build understanding around your game: Create a hypothesis, test, collect results, interpret results, and make an appropriate change.

By applying this process rigorously and correctly, you can evolve an experience around your players. You can even apply it to your marketing process.

Marketing: No players are the same

Much of marketing focuses on volume: The sheer numbers of players are important, but one highly engaged and spending player is better than a hundred that churn through in a matter of hours.

Imagine you’re bringing players to your gory zombie game through two sources: Agency A brings in players for $.20 each, and Agency B brings them for $1.40. It seems like a no-brainer to double down on Agency A, but what if Agency A was incentivizing players to install your game from inside a pony-petting title? Those players are likely to be young and disinterested in the theme of your game, so have a low propensity to spend, while players from Agency B are more mature and engaged. It maybe that Agency B is the better investment.

Therefor tracking the behavior of players from different sources is very useful, as it lets you understand what marketing yields a return on investment, giving you data to base your campaigns on.

But even more important is making a game that is good enough to generate word of mouth: A player coming to a game from a friend’s recommendation is like to show more good will than one brought in through advertising.

Yet making a good game goes even further: Success in F2P is about showing players a good time and through that engagement provide them with things they want to spend their money on. Therefor, pour your heart in to your product and love your players – they’ll thank you for it.(source:venturebeat)