作者：Brandon Sheffield

Ethan Levy是《龙腾世纪》的开发者，现在是一名免费游戏的开发顾问。他服务于若干工作室，正如他所说的，他的工作是那让些不认同免费模式的人认识和使用这个模式。在GDC China大会上，他提出了几点关于免费模式的技巧。

他认为，最大的问题是“UI设计得不好，导致想花钱的玩家很难花钱。玩家有钱，也想花，但不知道怎么花。”

这个问题也出现在《龙腾世纪》中——EA的员工告诉他，他们喜欢这款游戏，但不知道商店在哪里或者怎么买东西。

以《宝石迷阵》为例，这是一款免费消除匹配游戏。当你完成一个关卡时，你会看到排行榜，上面显示着你和其他玩家的排名情况。点击跳过后，你会看到一个道具页面，你可以在上面花钱购买道具。非常快，非常直观。

在《重拳出击》中，你追着怪物打打闹闹，当你完成一个回合时，你会看到一个任务页面，点击后可以看到得分。Levy解释道：“这个页面不好，数字、数值、按钮一堆，我却不知道要做什么，我不知道要在哪购买道具。如果想花钱买道具，我必须点击商店按钮，然后再点击另一个按钮。”

Punch Quest(from play.google.com)

在《宝石迷阵》中，你在同一页面上就可以知道自己有多少金币，并且在金币数旁边就有一个商店按钮。在《重拳出击》中，商店按钮躲在菜单里，金币数字也没有显示出来。Levy评价道：“这款游戏将消费边缘化了，将其隐藏在游戏中。”

“会花钱的人一般是玩游戏50次或以上的玩家。确保与玩家维持良好关系达数月甚至数周。”他认为玩家忠实度很重要。

“我认为赢利的关键是情绪。你必须通过激发玩家的某些情绪让他们花钱。比如，《龙之谷》在核心循环中让玩家释放情绪，做得非常好。让玩家不耐烦，渴望高级，为稀有道具感到兴奋。有张有驰，配合得非常好。”

最重要的是，花钱买到的乐趣必须与所花的钱相当。他解释道：“假设有一种道具，你购买它，它就应该让你玩得更高兴。如果你总是发现你购买它，它却不能让你玩得更高兴，那么你就不会再玩那款游戏了，你会玩其他游戏。”

“让玩家知道如果他们购买道具，将会得到什么。”告诉玩家如何花钱，以及花钱能买到什么效果。以《CSR赛车》为例，它让玩家试玩强大的赛车，以刺激玩家购买。

永久性道具与消耗性道具相结合。Levy指出：“我认为游戏在永久性和消耗性道具的结合方面要特别谨慎。消耗性道具不足可能直接拖垮免费游戏。”

（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）

Dragon Age Legends developer’s tips and tricks for free-to-play

By Brandon Sheffield

Ethan Levy, formerly developer on Dragon Age Legends, is now a free-to-play consultant. He travels to various game studios, and as he says, gives people who feel uncomfortable with the idea of free-to-play permission to make a game using the model. At GDC China, he gave audiences some tips.

One of the biggest problems, he says, is that “quite often the user interface doesn’t make it easy for a player who wants to spend money to spend money. They have money in their pocket, they want to spend it, but they have no idea how.”

This happened on Dragon Age Legends, he says, where others in the EA office told him they liked the game, but weren’t sure where the shop was, or how to even pay for things.

Bejeweled Blitz, for example, is the free-to-play version of the match three juggernaut. As soon as you complete a game, you see a social leaderboard. So you rank yourself against other players immediately. Click past that, and you see a consumables screen, where you can spend money for boosts. It’s very quick, and very straightforward.

In Punch Quest on the other hand, you fight, run, punch monsters, and when you complete a round, you see a missions screen, and then click through to a points screen. “This screen is not great,” he says. “It has a lot of numbers, a lot of stats, a lot of buttons and a lot going on, and I don’t really know what to do, and I don’t know where to spend money. I have to click the shop button, then click another button, if I want to spend money or my coins on consumable items.”

In Bejeweled Blitz you know how many coins you have on the same screen, and there’s a button to add them right next to it. In Punch Quest, it’s nested in menus, and your coin balance isn’t shown to you. “Shopping is marginalized, it’s hidden within the game,” Levy says.

“The people who spend money are the people who play 50 sessions or more,” he says, so commitment really matters. “Make sure you can have a long term relationship with players that lasts not only weeks, but months and years,” he says, but don’t put up frustration gates.

“To me the key to monetization is emotion,” he says. “You’ve got to unlock some emotion in a player to get them to spend. Dragonvale does a great job of creating an emotion in its core loop,” specifically impatience, to things up, but also exhilaration with rare drops. “It’s a very good moment of tension and release,” says Levy.

Most importantly, spending money has to equal more fun. It should be like this, he says; “Here’s this thing. If you buy it, you will have a better time. A lot of times, you spend money and it doesn’t fulfill the promise, and it that happens they’ll stop playing you game, and start playing another.”

“Let people know what it will be like if they spend money,” he says. Show them how to spend, and the effects of it. CSR Racing, for example, lets players test drive powerful cars they could potentially buy.

Mix permanent goods like that, with consumables, and you have a recipe for success. “I think it is prudent for a game to have a mixture of both permanent and consumable goods,” he said. “I think not having the right amount of consumable goods can doom a free to play game.”(source:gamasutra)