以产品体验的角度谈Football Strike是如何盈利的

原作者：Matt Suckley 译者：Willow Wu

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。

这次我们来看看Football Strike。Miniclip以运动为题材的PvP游戏非常多，Football Strike就是其中一员。毫无疑问，Miniclip希望这游戏能够成为足球游戏中的盈利先锋。

Football Strike （from pocketgamer.biz）

漂亮的比赛

继8 Ball Pool成为手游界又一常青树之后，Miniclip将同样的配方应用到Soccer Stars, Bowling King, Archery King以及Basketball Stars上。

快节奏的PvP游戏模式几乎可以在所有竞技体育游戏中通用，但是随着时代的改变，开发者们也会对这种模式进行调整、提升。

Soccer Stars发行于2014年，但是从游戏的玩法来看，它只是将8 Ball Pool的配方略微提升罢了。游戏采用回合制与顶视角设计，利用弹射的方式操控足球，绕过你的对手得分。

然而Archery King和Basketball Stars就不一样了，Miniclip在原来的配方上增加了3D效果，并且提高了游戏机制的复杂程度，尤其是Basketball Stars。同样地，以世界上最受欢迎的运动为主题的Football Strike也进行了提升。

最关键的是游戏玩法依然遵循了Miniclip一贯的快速而简单的风格，包含三种模式。

Shooting Race就是你和一个对手在实时情况下比赛，看谁能够踢中目标。Free Kicks就是两个玩家轮流当守门员和定位球主罚者，看谁得分多。Career Mode混合了各种各样的挑战，面对的对手会越来越强。

一场博弈

玩过Miniclip其它游戏的玩家应该很快就能明白Football Strike中“风险vs奖励”的游戏机制。

每种比赛模式都需要入场费，赢了就会有奖励（二者都是用金币，也就是游戏中的软货币），随着级别提高，比赛难度自然也会增加。所以，奉劝玩家们不要过于心急，好机会也意味着高风险，虽然你的金币有可能会翻倍，但也有可能会一下子输掉你的筹码。

金币是非常重要的资源。玩家可以用真钱购买金币礼包：从1.99美元买2万到99.99美元买2百万。

然而，这游戏在很大程度上依赖的是玩家手头上的金币状况，没有金币的话他们自然就不会去玩游戏了，这对于玩家和Miniclip双方都没有好处。因此，每隔两个小时玩家就能获得免费金币。

盈利配方

在Miniclip的在早期产品中（例如Soccer Stars），金币算是唯一盈利手段，现在的Football Strike可不一样，有更多刺激玩家消费的方法。

在包含PvP成分F2P游戏领域，《皇室战争》中设定的四宝箱定时奖励系统似乎已经成为了各个游戏中必不可少的部分，Football Strike也是如此。

这样一来硬货币就有了它的用处——跳过等待时间，直接开包，这就跟《皇室战争》的宝箱完全一样的。

四个空位都填满了以后，玩家还是可以继续玩游戏，但是之后赢得的装备包会直接没掉，因为没有额外的空位可以用来放多余的包。

游戏中还有一种更直接的方法来限制流程长度——能量系统，这也是促进玩家消费的一种手段，虽然要等到玩家输掉比赛才会扣能量而且只能在Career Mode中应用。

就如能量瓶所示，每场比赛需要两小时后才能再次进入。3次挑战失败就会耗尽你的能量，你可以花费35现金（大概是0.35美元）补满能量。

或者你可以选择花费1.99美元开启无限制比赛模式，有效时间为24小时，这似乎是从First Touch Games的Score!Hero学到的。

Career Mode中每完成7场比赛系统就会奖励现金，金额会不断提高，能量消耗也可以由此抵消。

该升级了

Football Strike从《皇室战争》学到的不仅仅是定时奖励机制。

Supercell的卡片升级系统同样也应用到了游戏中的各种能力指标——力量、精准度、弧线曲度、守门技能——这些都能通过结合重复的卡片进行升级，卡片可以从足球装备包中获得。

同样地，你也可以升级足球，每个足球的设计都是独一无二的，力量、精准度、弧线曲度各有不同。

可以预想到，属性升级和足球升级也需要相当数量的金币。

如果你想加速升级过程，可以利用手头的现金去Ball Shop购买稀有道具（比如说稀有足球），商店中的物品是轮着换的。

Premium（190现金，约1.9美元）、Champion（390现金，约3.75美元）、VIP（900现金，约8.17美元）装备包也可以直接从商店买到，可以立刻打开。

一分钱一分货

游戏中还有付费套装。单纯从审美的角度来看，花费4.99美元就能让你的球员穿上巴塞罗那、多特蒙德、沙尔克或者是圣彼得堡泽尼特俱乐部的官方队服，简直酷毙了。

4.99美元也可以用来买新手礼包，包括500现金、50000金币和一个Champion Bag，这是3折的价钱，非常划算。

综合上述，Football Strike是Miniclip在盈利方式上的又一革新之作。游戏本身的PvP玩法有趣，再加上从《皇室战争》和Score!Hero借鉴的部分游戏机制，相信Football Strike的盈利策略一定能取得不错的效果。

至于Football Strike能不能带给玩家更加愉悦的游戏体验，这还不能完全肯定，但是值得一提的是游戏中的金币不会出现断流的情况，玩家能够在Shooting Race和Free Kicks模式中一往无前。

只要想要玩的话，这游戏对你来说就不存在什么缺点。而且也很难想出还有什么值得抱怨的地方。

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 Football Strike, the latest in a long line of sports-based PvP games from Miniclip, which the studio will surely hope can join a select group of highly-grossing football games.

The beautiful game

After hitting upon a seemingly evergreen mobile hit in 8 Ball Pool, Miniclip has gone on to repeat the trick with Soccer Stars, Bowling King, Archery King and Basketball Stars.

The quick-fire PvP formula has been established as one that can be easily applied to almost any competitive sport, but it has also evolved significantly over time.

Soccer Stars launched back in 2014, but that was a relatively simplistic evolution of 8 Ball Pool’s gameplay. Turn-based and top-down, it revolved around flicking pucks at a ball to score past your opponent.

But with Archery King, and Basketball Stars particularly, Miniclip added 3D visuals and a greater level of mechanical complexity to the familiar format. Football Strike brings the world’s favourite sport up to the same standard.

Crucially, though, the gameplay remains quick and simple, with three modes.

Shooting Race has you and an opponent competing to hit targets in real-time, Free Kicks has two players swapping between goalkeeper and set-piece taker to see who can score the most, while Career Mode presents a mix of challenges against steadily tougher opponents.

It’s a gamble

Anyone with experience of Miniclip’s games will be instantly familiar with the essential risk-versus-reward mechanic at play in Football Strike.

Each game mode has an entry fee and a reward for winning (both in soft currency Coins), with the higher tiers naturally inviting a stiffer level of competition. So while you have a good chance of doubling your Gold, it’s also easy to lose your stake when attempting to go too big too quickly.

Coins, then, are an extremely important resource. They can be bought using real money, in packs ranging from $1.99 for 20,000 to $99.99 for two million.

However, as the game is so reliant on the player having Coins to play, it benefits neither them nor Miniclip for the currency to totally dry up. As such, free Coins are available every two hours.

A modernised formula

But while the flow of Coins was pretty much the only monetisation hook in older Miniclip titles like Soccer Stars, Football Strike has more ways to encourage spending.

First, as has seemingly become law among free-to-play mobile PvP games, the Clash Royale model of timed rewards in four slots is repeated here.

This gives hard currency Cash its primary function, that being to skip the timers and open these Bags – the equivalent of Clash Royale’s chests – straight away.

There’s nothing to stop the player continuing as normal when all these slots are filled, but any Bags earned in this time will simply be lost.

A more up-front way of limiting session length and encouraging spending is an energy system of sorts, albeit one that is only depleted by losses and applies only to Career Mode.

Each Match, as the energy currency is called, takes two hours to restore. Three failed attempts is enough to fully exhaust your supply, at which point you can spend 35 Cash (approximately $0.35) to fully restore Matches.

Another option, seemingly inspired by a similar system in First Touch Games’ Score! Hero, is to spend $1.99 to get unlimited matches for 24 hours.

The Career Mode’s energy gating is also offset by increasing Cash rewards for completing each seven-stage set of challenges.

Time for an upgrade

There’s more Clash Royale inspiration in Football Strike than just the timed rewards.

Supercell’s card upgrade system is also adopted for the game’s permanent stats – Power, Accuracy, Curve and Goalkeeping – which can be upgraded by combining duplicated stat cards, found in Bags.

The same system is used for upgrading balls, each of which are unique in their design and have different stats for accuracy, power and curve.

Predictably, the stat and ball upgrading process also requires a considerable number of Coins.

For those wanting to speed up this process, there is a Ball Shop with rotating stock that sells rarer balls for Cash.

Premium (190 Cash, approx. $1.90), Champion (390 Cash, approx. $3.75) and VIP (900 Cash, approx. $8.17) level Bags can also be bought and opened immediately from the store.

You get what you pay for

Then there are the premium kits. Purely aesthetic, $4.99 will let you kit out your player in the official kits of Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, FC Schalke or Zenit St. Petersburg.

$4.99 will also get you a Starter Bundle, containing 500 Cash, 50,000 Coins and one Champion Bag – a very solid deal with a total saving of 70%.

All things considered, then, Football Strike shows an evolution in the way Miniclip approaches monetisation. It now has a strategy to match its compulsive PvP gameplay, and worthy reference points in Clash Royale and Score! Hero will surely pay dividends.

Whether or not the result is a more enjoyable experience is less clear, but Football Strike crucially keeps the Coins flowing and allows the player to compete in Shooting Race and Free Kicks modes unimpeded.

All else can be ignored, if you really want to. And it’s hard to have any complaints with that.（source：pocketgamer.biz ）