作者：Zoya Street

目前，游戏领域对免费增值模式的运用仍存在许多争议。

然而，《Pocket Planes》似乎并不在意用户是否在游戏中付费。当然，它也并未试图怂恿玩家购买任何物品。

虽然其它游戏会为新道具打出广告，表示只要用户付费，便可加快游戏进程，因此总能把你吸引到商店中，但《Pocket Planes》这款游戏并没有积极鼓励玩家扩大航空公司规模。

隐藏价值

实际上，游戏一开始，玩家并不能购买最具优良品质的飞机——我不能购买一些Bux（游戏邦注：这是游戏中的虚拟货币），然后用它们购买大批Cloudliners飞机，并迅速获得配备最出色的航空公司。

商店内甚至不会出售这些飞机。

这就好像，我的Bux数量十分有限，因此看不到那些超过付费能力范围的物品。为此，我不得努力赢得能够为游戏花钱的资格。

事实上，《Pocket Planes》控制玩家购买物品的方式，以及它在定时活动中提供特殊飞机作为奖励品，都与目前许多免费游戏的商业运作模式存在差异。

接下来，我们将针对某些独特飞机进行具体阐述。

1.Bearclaw

Bearclaw(from pocketgamer)

游戏一开始，你拥有四架基础飞机，其中包括Bearclaw。

Bearclaw是一架昆虫造型的迷你飞机，它体现了你在游戏中的最初状态。它无法长途或快速飞行，同时也无法装载大量物品。拥有Bearclaw，你不过是一家卖苦力的航空公司。

因此，你可能会认为，鉴于Bearclaw的普通性能，其低廉价格并不具有实惠性——因为明智的高级玩家可能会将飞机升级为更高档的造型，借此通过运载更多货物与乘客，获取更多利益。

但情况并非如此。

只有在需要长途旅行时，玩家才需要高性能的飞机，但没有哪个机场可以为它们提供足够的劳动力，以便它们从旅程中获利。同时，大型飞机执行每次任务所需成本也较高，因此，玩家应制定更有效的计划，才能从这些旅程中获利。

结果，《Pocket Planes》的道具使用方法与RPG的完全不同：我不能只是升级装备，抛售旧装备，因为我仍然需要小型飞机从周围机场获取任务，以此满足大型飞机的飞行需求。

2.Cloudliner

Cloudliner(from pocketgamer)

当玩家达到28级时，随着航线逐渐扩大，Cloudliner是玩家必须持有的一架大型飞机。

它是所有飞机中，能够飞行最长距离，具备最快速度，拥有最出色性能的飞机。

尽管Cloudliner具备先进水平与高昂价格，但它的整体外观并不花哨。其机体是个可以容纳大量负载的膨胀形状。它与Bearclaw一样，并不具备高效的飞行能力；其每次飞行所需成本却是所有飞机中最高的。

《Pocket Planes》并非一款支持玩家通过购买高档装备从而获得升级的游戏。Cloudliner并不高档，其外观也不可爱，它如同一个巨型婴儿，表面布满大量用于填充任务的洞口。

在这款游戏中，没有哪件物品是多余的——玩家所搜集的每架飞机都有其独特价值。

3.Concorde

Concorde(from pocketgamer)

作为游戏中的最理想装备，Concorde可谓是《Pocket Planes》中最称心如意的道具。

Concorde具有敏捷、出色且外观惊艳的特点。其飞行速度与距离均超过Cloudliner，但玩家不能用Bux购买这种飞机。

但玩家只能在定时活动中赢取Concorde。这意味着，只有某个十分投入的铁杆玩家才能拥有它。在《Pocket Planes》中，玩家无法用金钱购买出众的装备，它需要玩家付出自己的努力。

总之，《Pocket Planes》并非一款坐着飞机四处飞行的游戏。它要求玩家必须是个投入的收集者、熟练的管理者，以及明智的管理人。

《Pocket Planes》并不是让玩家通过付费取得出色体验，而是让玩家自己去争取。

榜单情况

虽然《Pocket Planes》已大获成功，但它并不属于最具盈利性的免费游戏。而且，该游戏也不是开发商NimbleBit最成功性的作品——《Tiny Tower》才是（下载量超过1400万）。

2012年6月，《Pocket Planes》在美国iPhone畅销游戏榜单排名第7，但在8月已跌出榜单前200位。

10月份，《Pocket Planes》更新版本推出时，游戏便回归榜单前200位，但截止本文撰稿，它已跌到接近第300名的位置。

pocket-planes-top-grossing(from app-annie)

不过，它的表现情况仍十分稳定。（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）

Virtual value analysis: How Pocket Planes turns the F2P model on its head

by Zoya Street

There’s still plenty of debate about how the free-to-play business model should be operated.

But Pocket Planes doesn’t seem to care whether or not you spend money. Certainly it doesn’t try to sell you anything.

While other games advertise new items, demand you spend money to make things happen faster, and always lead you to the store, the gameplay of Pocket Planes doesn’t actively encourage you to extend your airline.

Hidden glories

In fact, the best planes aren’t accessible at the start of the game: I can’t buy some Bux (the in-game currency), spend them on a legion of Cloudliners and immediately have the best-equipped airline.

These planes aren’t even on display in the store.

It’s as if my Bux-strapped status has afflicted me with a special kind of poverty vision that blinds me to things outside of my price range. I have to earn the right to spend money on this game.

Indeed, the way Pocket Planes controls what you can buy, as well as restricting special edition planes to winnable items in timed events, turns much of the current thinking about free-to-play games on its head.

It’s something we can see more clearly as we discuss some of the individual planes.

1. Bearclaw

You start the game with a set of four basic planes that includes the Bearclaw.

A tiny little bug-like thing, the Bearclaw epitomises your starting state in Pocket Planes. It can’t go very far, or very fast, and it can’t carry very much. With the Bearclaw, you’re not so much an airline as a flying rickshaw service.

So you might expect, given the Bearclaw’s unimpressive capacity, that its low price is a false economy – that smart and accomplished players would level up to a more expensive plane and end up making more profit by carrying more cargo and passengers.

But this isn’t the case.

Larger capacity planes are needed in order to make longer trips, but no individual airport has enough jobs to fill these planes and make they journey profitable. Larger planes also have a higher cost per item per mile, so it takes more efficient planning to make flights turn a profit.

The effect is that in-game items in Pocket Planes contradict the method I learned playing RPGs: I can’t just upgrade my equipment and sell off my old trash, because I still need small planes in order to feed in jobs from surrounding airports to the large planes.

2. Cloudliner

Available to players at level 28, the Cloudliner is a stand-out example of one of the large planes that become necessary as your airline expands.

It has the greatest flight distance, speed and capacity of any plane in the game.

But despite its advanced level and high price tag, the Cloudliner doesn’t look sporty at all. Its body shape bulges to fit in its enormous load. It isn’t efficient either; it has the
highest cost per carrying slot per mile.

Pocket Planes is not a game that rewards levelling up by allowing you to buy flashier equipment. The Cloudliner is not flashy. It doesn’t even look interesting. It looks like a giant baby, with cavernous holds that need to be filled with jobs brought in by the smaller planes you’ve had since the start of the game.

Nothing is thrown away in Pocket Planes – everything has value in your growing collection of hungry flying machines.

3. Concorde

As the most desirable plane in the game, Concorde should be Pocket Planes’ most expensive item; at least that would be the case if Pocket Planes was any other free-to-play game.

In one manner, this is the case, however. Concorde is sharp, famous, and looks impressive. It travels faster and further than the Cloudliner. It cannot be bought for Bux.

Concorde can only be won in timed events. This means that only very dedicated players will get one. Money will not buy you beauty in Pocket Planes – you really have to earn it.

In conclusion, then, Pocket Planes is not about flying around in a fleet of pimped-out machines. It’s about demonstrating you’re an obsessive collector, a skilled administrator, and a smart manager.

It’s not about pay to be cool. It’s about earning cool.

Post-script

While Pocket Planes has been a successful free-to-play game, it’s not one of the most lucrative. Nor is it even developer NimbleBit’s most successful game. That’s Tiny Tower, which has been downloaded over 14 million times.

Pocket Planes peaked in the US as the #7 top grossing iPhone game in June 2012, dropping steadily out of the top 200 in August.

The release of an update in October boosted it back into the top 200, but at time of writing it’s sliding back towards #300.

It remains a very solid performer, however.(source:pocketgamer)