从产品体验的角度聊《选择：故事你决定》是如何盈利的

原文作者： Matt Suckley 译者：Megan Shieh

欢迎回到In-App Purchase Inspector，在这里我们会以消费者的视角，定期测评一些F2P游戏。

每期文章，我们都会考虑游戏中IAP的诱因、压力、它们的感知价值、IAP带来的扩展内容还有整个游戏体验的评估。

最终目的就是看看这游戏究竟值不值得我们砸钱，不花钱的游戏体验是否也能让玩家感到满足。

这次我们要聊的是来自Pixelberry工作室的一款剧情丰富的文字互动手游——《选择：故事你决定（Choices: Stories You Play）》

Choices: Stories You Play（from pocketgamer.biz）

Pixelberry工作室在PocketGamer.biz的2017年Top 50开发商名单中排名第38，该工作室近期被韩国网游巨头Nexon收购。

《选择：故事你决定》是Pixelberry工作室的龙头产品，自2016年8月推出以来在美国App Store营收榜上一直保持着前30名的位置。

涵盖多种故事类型

就像Episode Interactive工作室的《Episode:Choose Your Story》一样，《选择：故事你决定》涵盖的故事类型相当广泛，从“高中生恋爱”到“恐怖谜团”，甚至包含了类《权力的游戏》的奇幻故事等等。

单单从独创性或内容方面来看，这些故事并不存在什么决胜性优势，但Pixelberry叙说它们的方式却十分适合手机游戏：章节虽短但却充满了行动，易懂的同时偶尔也会出现有意义的选择。

盈利模式

本作的盈利模式相对简单。首先，每个章节开始前都会有一条“这一章是由……带给你的”促销信息和一段30秒的广告视频。

游戏中有两种货币：钻石和钥匙。没有传统的软/硬通货之分，这两种货币都可以用真钱付费购买。

使用“钻石”的机会出现在游戏中的某些特定时刻，比如，在奇幻故事《The Crown and the Flame》的开篇章节中，玩家可以选择“拿起一把普通的短剑（免费）”或“拿起一把威力强大的双刃剑（17颗钻石）”来击退邪恶国王的侦察兵。

钻石的使用不是强制性的，但是如果玩家十分沉浸于故事中（特别是在后期阶段）可能就会想要使用钻石。

“钥匙”遵循的也是一样的基本原则，如果玩家后悔自己之前做出的选择，可以使用钥匙来重玩这个章节从而作出更好的决策。举个例子，在《The Crown and the Flame》中，后期游玩的好坏取决于玩家之前招收的兵种/角色。在每个章节结束后，玩家可以选择直接开始下一章节，或重玩这个章节以达到最理想的通关体验。

钥匙的价格从1.99美元（5把钥匙）到48.99美元（150把钥匙）不等。和绝大多数游戏一样，套餐越大折扣力度就越大——最贵的套餐等于是在标准价格的基础上打了5折。

钻石套餐的价格从1.99美元（20颗钻石）到99.99美元（1500颗钻石）不等，同样，最贵的钻石套餐也是比标准价格便宜了50%。

有些人认为这两种货币的存在损害了游戏的完整性，因为开发者把最好的选项留给了付费玩家，而免费玩家只能被迫选择那些更糟糕的选项。

其实这样说也不无道理，但是除了给这些故事建立起一堵“付费墙”之外，这类游戏好像也没有更好的赚钱方法了。

平衡是关键，虽然我没有玩过《选择：故事你决定》中的全部故事，但就我的经验而言，游戏中有足够多的关键决定可以在不花钻石的前提下完成。

到头来，“是否花钱”这一决定也只是游戏中众多选择题的其中之一罢了。

结论

《选择：故事你决定》为付费玩家提供了足够的动力去花钱，同时也没有让免费玩家感到完全被冷落。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Welcome back to the In-App Purchase Inspector - our regular look at free-to-play games from the consumer’s perspective.

In each instalment, we consider the incentives or pressure applied to make in-app purchases, their perceived value, the expansion offered by IAPs and the overall value of the experience.

The end goal is to see whether the game makes a good enough case for us to part with our cash, or whether players are content – or engaged enough – to ‘freeload’.

This time we’re taking a look at Choices: Stories You Play, the interactive narrative portal from Pixelberry Studios.

Pixelberry Studios was ranked 38th in PocketGamer.biz’s Top 50 Developer 2017 list, and was recently acquired by Nexon.

Choose your own adventure

If there’s one aspect of game design that’s most notably fallen by the wayside in the world of mobile free-to-play, it’s narrative.

In the pursuit of smooth, frictionless experiences, many major developers have seemingly concluded that any meaningful commitment to storytelling – at least in the traditional sense – is seen more as an inconvenience to players than a boon.

But stories are powerful, and it was always inevitable that developers would learn to harness them within a free-to-play framework.

Choices: Stories You Play, along with Pocket Gems’ Episode, have thus far been the two best examples, owing more to the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks of the 1980s than Candy Crush or Clash of Clans, yet thriving in the crowded mobile games market.

Choices has been the flagship game for its developer Pixelberry Studios, consistently maintaining a top 30 grossing position on the US App Store since its August 2016 launch, but how does it make its money?

Mobile library

Like Episode, Choices doesn’t limit itself to a single type of story. Its offerings span high school romance and horror mysteries, to Game of Thrones-lite fantasy.

The stories themselves won’t be winning any prizes for originality or flair, but it’s how they’re told that makes them so well-suited to mobile play: short, action-packed chapters with accessible writing and punctuated by meaningful choices.

Monetisation-wise, things are kept relatively simple. For starters, each chapter is preceded by a ‘This chapter is brought to you by…’ promotional message and a 30-second video ad.

Then there are the two currencies: Keys and Diamonds. Lacking the usual soft/hard currency divide, both are premium currencies that can be bought using real money.

Opening doors

The opportunity to use Diamonds comes along at specific moments in the stories of Choices, with particular decisions – clearly superior to those without the price tag – only available to the player who forks over currency.

One example in the opening chapters of fantasy story The Crown and the Flame is the choice of whether to pick up a regular short sword (free) or a powerful double-ended blade (17 Diamonds) to fight off the evil King’s scouts.

There’s no obligation to use Diamonds for a better outcome, but players invested in the story and characters – particularly in the latter stages – may be tempted to do so.

The same basic principle applies with Keys, which can be used to restart chapters and make different decisions. Otherwise, you’re stuck with what you did the first time around.

And given that each chapter concludes with a progress report – in The Crown and the Flame, for instance, that is based on the characters you recruit to your cause – it’s easy to see the appeal of using Keys to achieve an optimal play-through.

Happily ever after?

Keys come in bundles ranging from $1.99 for five to $48.99 for 150. As usual, larger packs offer increasing levels of discount – the most expensive representing a 50 per cent discount on the standard rate.

The same principle applies for Diamond packs, which range from $1.99 for 20 to $99.99 for 1,500 – again, at a 50 per cent reduced rate.

It could be suggested that the very inclusion of these currencies hurts the integrity of the decision-based gameplay, railroading non-paying players into transparently worse choices than those willing to invest.

And yes, there’s truth in this, but short of simply putting stories behind a paywall it’s hard to see the format working any other way.

Balance is the key, and while I can’t claim to have sampled all of Choices’ many stories, in my experience there are more than enough key decisions to be made without spending Diamonds.
In the end, then, whether or not to spend money is just one of the many titular Choices.（Source: pocketgamer.biz ）