Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian's brain worked quickly. The professional knowledge he had learned about game design came in handy now.

The secret to making money out of games with paywalls was to first use the game to lure gamers in for free so that gamers would become attached to the game. Then, they would slowly use some methods to force players to work hard and paywalls so that the rich could support the funding and the poor could support the individual market. Finally, the game would become a money tree.

Basically, all games with paywalls would not be able to escape this inner core: If players wanted to obtain a complete and best gaming experience, they would either have to spend time, money, or both.

Thus, games with paywalls could not generalize all players to the same type.

Players with paywalls had their own way of playing. Those who did not engage in paywalls had their own way of playing. Those whales who spent tens of thousands of yuan trying to spend money on the game's ceiling had never been in the same gaming group as middle-class players who only spent tens or hundreds of yuan.

Therefore, the game developers had to treat them as three types of people and formulate different strategies.

The secret to making money in games with paywalls was to allow free games to run comfortably, induce mid-tier gamers to spend as much money as possible, and give whales a sense of achievement.

There would be many ways to spend time and effort in the game. To a certain extent, as long as the free players spent enough time, they would be able to obtain some substitute coins. They might even be able to obtain relatively generous returns, allowing them to persevere with their strong liver even if they did not have to spend money.

Of course, free gamers would never be able to enjoy more things than the whales. Otherwise, the game would become the studio's world.

If these free gamers were able to produce results by playing, they would feel that the game had a conscience. Then, they would continue playing the game. Be it being friends with whales in the game or being beaten up by the whales as punching bags, they would all become whales' game experience.

For mid-tier players, the gaming company knew that these people had money on them, but not much. Their consumption was relatively rational. This group of people often combined their liver and paywalls. Some games were more cost-effective, so they would paywalls.

Thus, the game company would offer discounts and promotions regularly. The whales would spend the original prices to buy good items, and then set up gift bags for discounts or lucky draws in order to encourage these mid-tier players to continue spending.

They might be mid-tier gamers but it was still an income that could not be ignored for gaming companies as they spent in multiples of ten or even a hundred yuan per month.

Finally, it was the whales. This group of people might have occupied less than 1% of the gamers but they occupied the majority of the income of the game companies. Serving whales was the mission of most games companies.

The game had to have a deep paywall to satisfy whales. They would lose interest very quickly if the whales only needed to spend tens of thousands of yuan.

The game company would continuously release better characters, weapons, and equipment, constantly upgrading the goods that they spent money to purchase.

The eliminated equipment could be sold to mid-tier players at a discount.

Whales had to continue spending money if they wanted to remain on the top.

However, the good thing was that whales were all very rich. They did not lack money. whales who were willing to spend tens of thousands of yuan on the game would not mind spending tens of thousands yuan more.

Thus, the entire game formed a perfect closed loop. Free games, mid-tier gamers, and whales had their own way of playing and they could obtain their own pleasure from the game.

The game developers could also continue to take money from everyone and everyone would be happy.

Those games with paywalls that earned a lot of money were basically the same.

He had to jump out of this trap if he wanted to earn less money.

Of course, Ghost General had also jumped out of this trap. However, it had gone a little overboard and taken a different path.

Ghost General only had one entry requirement for purchasing games and a permanent membership card. In fact, it was equivalent to turning games with paywalls into a buyout system.

There was nothing strange about the buyout system in itself, but it was very unique among the mobile games that forced people to spend money. That was why it stood out.

The reason was that Ghost General did not actually have a very good area to categorize these three types of gamers. Instead, it proposed a solution that was especially friendly to most gamers. It was really worth it. That was why it achieved the effect of 'small profits but quick turnover'.

Of course, the key was still the restrictions of the system.

Pei Qian could not directly set the game as 'completely free'. Instead, he wanted it to have a theoretical possibility of making profits. Thus, if there was no internal purchase, he had to set a higher threshold for purchase. If he wanted to enter without a threshold and for free, the pitfall of internal purchase had to be deeper.

This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of incurring losses.

Pei Qian felt that he had to pay attention to two things this time in order to prevent the tragedy of Ghost General from happening again.

First of all, he could not set a buyout threshold. If he said that it must really be free. He had to allow ordinary players to play the game without spending a single cent. This way, they would be completely paying for free There would not be "small profits but quick turnover".

Secondly, they had as much as possible to eliminate players' desire to consume while the pit of in-app purchases was relatively deep.

The reason why other games liked to carry out so many lucky draws was actually to use the randomness of the lucky draw to deceive players, making players pay far more than their actual value for rare heroes and rare items.

The lucky draw system was something to make an issue out of it if he wanted to curb the players' desire to spend.

Pei Qian quickly had an idea. He said to Chang You, "Make both shopping mall and lucky draw for the internal purchase of 'Fitness Battle'."

""All products should be marked clearly in the mall. At the same time, the corresponding probability is determined according to the rarity in the lottery system, allowing players to choose freely.""

"The quality-price ratio of the lottery is about 0.8. That means that players can only get about 80 yuan on average if they spend 100 yuan on the lucky draws."

"Of course, this would definitely not meet the expectations for some European emperors."

"The platform in the background will record the amount of each recharge of the player while the player recharges and wins the token lucky draw, the lucky draw result and the total value of these prizes. A new cycle will start every day from midnight to 23:59. If the player interested in the lucky draw in this cycle was not satisfied with the result, they can apply for a refund directly through the refund button. The system will automatically deduct the prize and refund, but the condition is that the player can no longer make any recharge for the next three days.

"In addition, all props in the game are supported to be obtained using game currency."

"The method of obtaining game currency is to exercise daily. The amount of calories expended is the number of game currency obtained. The more calories they expend daily, the more coins you obtain."

"These coins can be exchanged for all the props in the game, but they cannot be used for the lucky draw."

Pei Qian's design was to suppress gamers' desire to spend as much as possible.

The consumption model of the game had to be matched with the investment of the game according to the system's requirements. Simply put, Pei Qian could not make the game completely free. He had to have a moderate amount of in-app purchase. If there was no in-app purchase, he had to set a higher price.

Pei Qian had already tasted the bitterness of games with paywalls with Ghost General.

Thus, Pei Qian wanted to dissuade gamers from purchasing as long as the pool was deep enough!

Comparatively, the shopping mall would definitely be more profitable than the lucky draw.

The reason why many games with paywalls put rare characters and props into the lucky draw was because the lucky draw was a bottomless pit. When the probability of producing goods was low, the value that whales had to pay to obtain a certain character far exceeded its actual value.

Of course, many games companies would make the lucky draw seem worth it. The items that were drawn from the lucky draw would exceed the actual value of the items that were bought directly. However, the problem was that there would be many useless items added to the lucky draw. Therefore, players would still be at a disadvantage.

Pei Qian's plan was to add the lucky draw system and increase the theoretical upper limit of the game so that the game would be free. However, this lucky draw system was completely different from other games. It was definitely not worth it.

The quality-price ratio of this lucky draw system was very low. Moreover, it would give players the props and value that they drew out publicly. The key was that if players were dissatisfied, they could return and obtain a refund. Then, players would be given a period of calm. They could not recharge in three days.

This way, no one would be interested in the lucky draw. The whales would only spend a few hundred yuan to buy items that they were interested in. Even if middle-class players spent money to win prizes, they would only keep them if they were satisfied. If they were not satisfied, they would refund the game at any time. Thus, they would not spend much money. There was no need to talk about the players playing for free. They would definitely work hard to buy items using calories. They would definitely not spend a single cent.

All three types of gamers would not spend much money. How perfect!

Pei Qian was starting to admire himself. What a genius plan!

Chang You nodded repeatedly as he took notes seriously.

He did not know much about games with paywalls, but Boss Pei looked like he had everything under control. Obviously, he had to trust Boss Pei unconditionally.

In any case, no matter how complicated the system Boss Pei designed, it would definitely succeed. He just had to shout 'awesome' at the side!

After deciding on the game's payment mode, Pei Qian looked at Meng Chang, who was still working out. "How's the publicity plan? Any progress?"

Meng Chang got down from the smart fitness drying rack with beads of sweat on his forehead. "There's some progress!"

He did not dare to say that he had no idea. What if Boss Pei asked him to continue training after he said it?

He felt that Boss Pei could do something like 'torture and force a confession'.

"Alright, that's it for today. Let's wrap up!" Pei Qian was satisfied and left with Meng Chang.