Strategies Online Games Use to Keep Players Hooked
Nick Shively Updated: Posted:
Category: Editorials 0
Have you ever continued to play an online game after it stopped being fun or simply put more hours into a gaming session than intended despite not really enjoying yourself? It’s no accident. Video game companies have spent a lot of time and money researching ways to maximize player engagement. Essentially, certain games use psychological manipulation to trick players into logging on more frequently, or for more hours, than they intended.
I’ve personally been hooked on video games ever since I was a young child and gravitated towards online gaming as soon as my family bought its first PC. I spent countless hours playing games like StarCraft, Diablo II, MechWarrior, RuneScape, and eventually World of Warcraft. Gaming sessions that were more than 5 hours weren’t uncommon, especially on the weekends, but I was always having a good time and usually working towards some type of goal.
As someone who still plays a lot of online games, that feeling has changed. There’s a pressure to login and collect your daily rewards, complete your daily quests, and maximize resource usage or risk missing out on precious rewards and fall behind other players. These tricks and tactics have gotten worse as strategies from mobile games have started to spill over into console and PC games, and vice versa.
The Subscription
Requiring a paid subscription is perhaps one of the oldest ways to keep playing consistently engaged, however, it’s also one of the least offensive. Historically, players would purchase a copy of an online MMORPG and be required to pay an additional fee each month.
Since the days of EverQuest, there have been multiple variations of the subscription including optional subscriptions for buy-to-play games (The Elder Scrolls Online), and premium subscriptions for otherwise free games (Albion Online, RuneScape, EVE: Online).
The latter has become significantly more common and creates a balance between being highly accessible but still relatively fair to both free and paying players.
The psychological effect that subscriptions tend to trigger is the “sunk cost fallacy.” If a player has already spent that $15 for a game’s subscription, they’re more likely to play it than other games in order to maximize their value from it. They’re justifying spending more time because they’ve spent additional money on the game, and the idea of throwing away money tends to make people feel stupid. I’m probably not the only one who has continued to play an MMO until its subscription ran out, despite not having fun anymore.
Even though subscriptions can push people to play a single game, they’re not very harmful overall. The most positive aspect is that by themselves, their hold over players isn’t terribly strong and the only monetary requirement is a small, monthly fee. Compared to other monetization and manipulation strategies found in games today, subscriptions are far from egregious.
Battle Pass
The Battle Pass concept was initially popularized by Dota 2 during The International tournaments, where players could unlock prizes for participating in games and predicting match outcomes. However, battle passes became more mainstream after Fortnite exploded onto the video game scene, and since then many other online games have adopted similar systems including Albion Online and ArcheAge: Unchained.
Typically, a Battle Pass will contain two tiers: paid and free. The free tier usually has some mediocre rewards but nothing compared to the paid version. This is a way to introduce players to the system and hopefully influence them to purchase the better, shinier version.
Depending on how it’s handled, the Battle Pass can be a fair design that rewards both free and paying players. In games like Fortnite where only cosmetic items are rewarded, the system doesn’t provide any additional power or advantage to paying players. However, in most MMOs, these passes usually provide some type of in-game currency or even powerful items that can’t be bought elsewhere.
Even if trading is possible, this has an influence on the economy of the game.
In terms of influence, the Battle Pass is very similar to the monthly subscription except that players can objectively measure their progress. This will likely push certain players to spend even more hours on a game than a typical subscription because the rewards are more tangible. Furthermore, it combines sunk costs (paying for the pass) with a fear of missing out (FOMO) because these passes usually contain unique or difficult to obtain rewards near the end of their reward tracks.
Flash Sales
There are a variety of different flash sales when it comes to online gaming. These can range from a discounted subscription for EVE Online to 90 percent off Artisan Memories in Black Desert Online. How these are presented in a game will determine the likelihood players are to buy them, how immersion breaking the advertisement can be, and the psychological impact on potential purchasers.
Receiving an email or two about a discounted monthly subscription cost for an MMORPG isn’t terribly intrusive. Sure, it’s bound to grab a few individuals who were on the fence, but anyone who wasn’t already interested in the game is probably going to ignore it.
On the other hand, in-game item sales and popup ads are not only annoying but can influence players to buy items they wouldn’t normally. Many MMORPGs, and almost all mobile games, have in-game item shops ranging from cosmetics to functional items and character boosts. Offering a highly coveted item at a low cost is going to get the attention of a lot of players, even those who might not have been previously interested.
Having a limited amount of time to purchase a discounted item triggers the fear of missing out (FOMO) in many people. This tactic is used in most areas of sales, especially during times of steep discounts like Black Friday, and it tricks people into thinking they’re saving money by purchasing an item.
However, no matter how steep the discount, if you weren’t intending to purchase the item before the sale then it’s still costing you money that wasn’t intended to be spent.
Daily Quests
Present in nearly all types of online games, the goal of daily quests is to create a routine for players and influence them to login every day. There are a few ways daily quests are setup, but they typically follow two patterns: true daily and cumulative.
The ‘true daily’ quests are typically found in MMORPGs and consist of quest hubs where players grab multiple, repeatable quests, such as ‘kill 10 rats’ or take this item to that person on the other side of the continent. There are also usually daily random dungeons or PvP battlegrounds. The incentive is gold, gear, reputation, or increased experience depending on the game and type of quest. The goal of developers is to increase login frequency but also improve play style diversity. Without incentive for random dungeons or PvP, those modes might not be as popular in certain games.
Magni looks down on you unless you do your dailies
The ‘cumulative’ daily quests are those where multiple can be obtained over time and then completed all at once. These are usually found in online card games, such as Hearthstone or Magic: the Gathering Arena, and allows players to collect multiple daily quests that can be completed separately or together. While this might encourage players to login less often, it rewards longer play sessions.
Some games combine both of these methods to maximize engagement throughout the week. Depending on the expansion, World of Warcraft typically has end-game daily quest hubs that reward gold and weekly dungeon/raid locks, which are an important time gate to progression. While daily quests can be annoying, there isn’t usually a monetary impact, the amount of time required is generally limited, and they can potential increase play interaction.
Energy
One of the most disliked mechanics in gaming is Energy.
Usually found in mobile games, energy can limit the amount of time that a person can play a game. Often, energy is plentiful during the beginning of a game and costs increase over time while access to ‘free’ forms of energy diminish. This encourages players to purchase energy, either with real money or in-game items, or have their progress halted.
There are two main problems with energy systems. The first is attempting to manipulate players into spending money to continue playing. In many games, the more energy you have the further you can progress and the more equipment you can grind. This incentivizes players to buy as much energy as possible, which is likely why most games have a cap on how much can be purchased using real currency in a single day.
The other problem is that it incentivizes players to login multiple times a day in order to not ‘waste’ energy. This is exacerbated by push notifications reminding players that they are full on energy or that bonus energy has been sent to them.
Instead of logging in and playing for an hour a day, players are now encouraged to login multiple times at various point in a day in order to maximize energy.
Consequences
The in-game systems that I’ve mentioned in this article range from mildly annoying to ethically questionable. It’s reasonable to expect a company to want compensation for its game and servers, whether that’s through slow, steady income or sporadic waves of purchases. However, once games start manipulating player to do or purchase things they might not have wanted, we wade into a morally grey area.
While I might have a deep understanding of video game systems and a background in business, I’m not a psychologist. Therefore, I reached out to Chris Ferguson, who has a doctorate in psychology and is the author of Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong, to discuss whether these strategies are potentially dangerous to players.
According to Ferguson, there’s no denying that companies do employ strategies to increase engagement, but the focus should be on whether it’s a big deal or not.
Where does it fall “on the scale of ‘kind of annoying thing that gets me playing a bit more than I wanted’ to ‘my entire life is upended and I can’t function as a human being.’”
For the most part, current evidence suggests that the danger is quite weak, but it shouldn’t be ignored completely. “Even highly engaging games aren’t going to hook someone like cigarettes or heroin will,” said Ferguson. For the most part, susceptibility to pathological gaming is the result of an underlying, preexisting condition such as depression, ADHD, or even autism.
Based on a study conducted by James Sauer, Chris Ferguson, and Lauren Hall, even one of the most controversial topics in gaming, loot boxes, did not have a major effect on those with a preexisting gambling addiction. Data pulled from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, suggested that (on average) problem gamblers spent approximately $13 (1300%) more a month on loot boxes than non-problem gamblers.
While this increase technically shows that individuals with gambling problems are more susceptible to loot boxes, the real-world effects for the average person should be minimal.
Therefore, it should be up to companies to minimize the harm of their monetization techniques and be clear about things such as loot box contents and drop rates.
In conclusion, there are a lot of strategies that game companies implement to increase engagement and spending from their players, but for the typical gamer this isn’t particularly harmful. However, the next time you login to your current MMO or MMORPG, think about whether you’re truly enjoying that experience or being motivated by something else.
Tags
mmorpg
mmoside chat
subscription
gaming addiction
Strike of Nations | WW3 MMO on the App Store
Description
Forge alliances between empires and command your army into this modern World War strategy game full of action. Launch massive military campaigns to nuke your enemies and terrorists militia to eventually capture the nuclear base. Battle nations and conquer with empire alliances, build an army base with modern tanks, aircraft and missiles and march into enemy territory with force and power.
Strike of Nations — Alliance World War
Lead your army as the Commander in Chief
Posses the nuclear button to launch missiles and atomic bombs
Plan military operations — Call Army for Duty
Construct 20 defense walls, shields and panzers
Mine nuclear and radioactive substances for reactors
Join partner alliances from 192 countries
Upgrade and research for solar energy and wind energy
Nuke PVP enemies with chemical weapons on aircraft carriers
Conquer nuclear base with machine guns, panzers, radioactive bombs and war tanks
TRUE MILITIA EXPERIENCE — NEVER SEEN BEFORE
Plan your strategy -> Mine resources -> Construct base -> Develop deadly weapons ->Join alliances and empires -> Locate Enemy -> Strike with full force of army -> Defend base & claim conquered territory
Destroy over 1M Players Forces and Rogue Nations in Joint Operations
MASSIVE CHOICE OF WEAPONS
Get hands-on experience with futuristic dirty weapons and design them for best attacking competence.
Use a mixture of tear bombs, biochemical lethal substances of mass destruction, hydrogen bombs, tanks and thermonuclear reactors to wipe out cities in seconds. Introducing US aircraft carriers with fighter jets and trained combat pilots to fight until death. Train a fleet of submarines with ballistic weapons to target terrorist campaigns stealthily.
WORLD WAR ALLIANCE
Britain won the WW1 and WW2 with strong alliances of USA and Russia. Join forces and weaken enemies with your in-game strengths. Collectively combine armies and equipment to play safe. Order nuclear strikes together to annihilate rival nations.
RESEARCH ON TECHNOLOGIES
Superior high-tech ammunition can be engineered for increased capabilities and domination in the battlefield.
Mine Uranium, Plutonium, Radium, Thorium and Caesium and other hazardous radioactive minerals
Convert plant, solar and water resources to high-voltage batteries
Train the largest army the world has seen in combat mode and develop their skills
WAR EVENTS AND UPDATES
Take part in all sorts of tides to increase your power and collect fantastic rewards as war bounties.
Join worldwide events, where all the players must collaborate to succeed or join the cross-server fights and prove your server’s superiority, with constant updates and new features. The fun in destruction and occupying new lands never stops!
Do you have what it takes to seize the title of the Emperor and push the red nuclear launch button? Join the warcraft now and be the master of your destiny.
POWERFUL AND CHARISMATIC COMMANDER OF ARMY
You are the chief of death squad soldiers and must go in a bomb mode for war survival. Only a legendary team battle with good city defense can bring final freedom and allow your empire’s boundaries to be extended. Lead drones, chinooks, helicopters and missile plane fleets.
MACHINE GUN WAR
Use the empire world war 3 map to complete tasks with a personalized quest console and simulate attack clashes. Train your sniper guards in gun strikes for ultimate survival. Engage short range missile launchers in deadly wars.
FREE ACTION ALLIANCE WAR GAME
Strike of Nations is a completely free modern combat game to play with paid items for increasing the speed of resource collection and building activities.
Over 1M players actively fight for the largest empire but only strategic warriors conquer the world.»
Version 1.8.43
— Log in daily to get rich rewards from the Airport.
— The «Spring Festival celebration» Event is coming (Jan.20 — Jan.29）
— During the event, log in daily, attack Rebel Forces and collect resources to get the special item Rabbit Toys.
— Added new Support Officer in Military Academy: «Interstellar Hunter — Alecio».
Ratings and Reviews
6K Ratings
Worse game ever
Terrible customer service who doesn’t care how much money you spend on the game, they just don’t care about you the customers all they do is take you money.
The game have many glitches that causes you shield to drop and can cause you major lost, but when you write SONS about it, they act like it’s your fault you shield dropped and will not try to help you out, because all they care about is taking your money…. save your money and don’t spend it on this game, because you will end up being super mad at them.
Fun and addictive but can get very expensive
Pros
This is a fun game to play. You join alliances and battle for control of your server. Then you battle against other servers. You make friends and attack enemies while you grow your base and alliance stronger.
Cons
There is a lot of anti-American rhetoric in the game. I believe this game was originally made for Arab speaking countries and they love to mess with Americans.
The person with the deepest pockets grow strong fast and become virtually unbeatable.If you’re willing the fork out thousands of dollars you might enjoy the game. But who has that kind of dough laying around?
The game is glitchy. Especially when in battle, which is when you really don’t want that to happen. Four people in my alliance put on 24 hour shields last night and they all woke up to there bases being destroyed. Kind of disheartening when you put money into a game. Support had no answers for them.
Customer support/tech support is a joke. Even asking a simple question gets you some sort of strange non related answer most of the time.
Many people I play with have said they get double charged for things when they buy a pack in game or get charged for things that are supposed to be free.
I would give this 5 stars if it wasn’t so expensive to upgrade your base and if there was a limit on how much people can spend or if they actually cared to stop the blatant racism in the game.
Thank you for your kind words commander and please note that our game is available for everyone, and any player is capable of leveling up either they purchase or not,
We’re sorry to hear that you’re having a problem enjoying our game please contact us at: strikeofnations@babilgames.com with a full description of the issues you are facing so we can help you fix them and hope you change your rate to 5 stars🌹
Disappointed
Although the game is good I have to agree with the issue of not letting people on at least once a week game has to be deleted and reinstalled. A yet bigger issue in the fame is the racism against Americans I was told in game they (middle easterners) hate americans and we will be killed and run out of the game sad really. I contacted developer and they tell me just block them that is not the solution imo when you have half a server with this mindset.
Unless you are of arab descent I do not recommend this game, there is a huge amount of racism in this game against westerners. It is incredible that developers have done nothing about it. In our server we have a developer playing caught in a voice message saying what was going to happen before it did.
I didnt believe it at first until everything he said came true so unless he is psychic it is a very unfair playing field. I think apple should make this game available to arabs only as some of them have stated it is an arab game and american are not allowed
On behalf of our team, we would like to extend our sincerest apologies for the negative experience that you had with our game.
We definitely don’t encourage such behaviors, and we are thankful for your patience and the mature act of not participating in such Unnecessarily conversations.
Note that we are taking strict actions against any Insulting, harassing, or offensive language directed to other players.If you’re having trouble entering the game please check (internet connection, game version and the mobile version) because this issue may occur from your side.
If you checked the previous factors and still encounter the problem, please contact our support team for further assistance at this email :
strikeofnations@babilgames.com
and please provide them with more details for what you mentioned (the voice message you got)
we hope you change your rating to 5 stars
The developer, Babil Games, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
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Information
- Seller
- Babil Games LLC
- Size
- 1.1 GB
- Category
-
Games
- Age Rating
-
12+
Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References - Copyright
- © Babil Games LLC
- Price
- Free
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I’m looking for an MMO strategy with an emphasis on interaction with between players, without a strong impact of donation on the balance of power — Questions on the DTF
Good day DTF readers.
My question will rather resemble a long read — the story of the rise and fall of a game from a developer located in the post-Soviet space. The question itself is at the very bottom.
4209
views
A few years ago, back in the era of push-button phones, I got stuck in one game — Third World: War of Kings (TM). The game was an MMO, where players develop their castles, capture / found new ones, trade resources and artifacts (even castles) among themselves, form alliances, and those — in an empire, train troops, and of course fight with each other. The social interaction aspect was very powerful — a general forum divided into topics, a general chat, an alliance and empire forum were available around the clock.
What about the gameplay — the game literally consisted of pictures and inscriptions. There were no animations, the battles took place in the form of automatic mathematical calculations that were incomprehensible to the village, and upon arrival of the report, you could find out about the result.
All this did not prevent 3 world wars between coalitions of empires on the new server, and in the old server (there were 2 servers), wars between empires did not stop at all.
The game was F2P, but not P2W: of the features that donators received that really affected the balance, there was only a premium subscription (construction of 5 buildings at the same time instead of 3, automatic excavation in expeditions, scheduling training and hiking, speeding up training), and as well as the possibility of teleporting the castle to another place (it could only be used once a month, and it was very expensive). Everything else that the donat gave was more of a cosmetic element (“reputation” — in fact, did not give anything, “gifts” — like gifts in social networks, nickname change, etc.). Neither resources nor troops were available for purchase with money.
I could spend hours on end in this game, sitting in class at school (not a schoolboy for a long time), lying on the bed at night or pretending to read a textbook.
It was played by my friends from real life, I found quite a few friends in the game. She was my favorite game. She had her cons, but her pros outweighed them. I thought that the game had a bright future, that it would conquer new platforms — then, the developers rolled out versions of the client for Android … But it didn’t happen — the game died very quickly.
It all started well: based on the old game, the developers created a new one, which had more interesting mechanics (various types of troops like Stone, paper, scissors; a new type of resources, wars for territories on the map), all the players were waiting for the release, anticipating the conquest of the «virgin» world… And so it happened: at the release, players from the Third World poured into the new game, the server could not stand it and constantly crashed in the first week. Everything was like that of an older brother at the start: the players developed, created the first alliances and empires, waged virtual wars.
It was on the latter that the flaw of the game and the difference from the older brother in the person of TM were discovered: it was possible to buy resources and troops for money, without restrictions. The game has become P2W. In less than a year, this game died, pulling its older brother with it.
Both games are now available in digital stores, but the servers are empty and regularly crash, there are a lot of bots in them.
And so, the question is: Are there now live MMO strategies for PC/smartphones/browser, in which the impact of donation on the balance of power between the players is minimal or completely absent? I tried to look for them, but there are so many of them — I can’t spend my time developing and testing each one.
PS: I apologize for the quality of the screenshots and the scarcity of their number.
Online strategies — top strategy games
The section contains free military and economic MMO strategies, which are sorted by rating and ratings of visitors.
The list includes browser-based computer games and mobile applications for Android and iOS.
1
War and Magic
iOS Android Strategy
War is coming! Develop your fortress to make a strong army. The troops will go into battle on the chessboard, as in «Masters of Might and Magic», and win a glorious victory against the enemy.
2
Rise of Kingdoms
iOS Android Strategy
Eight civilizations will arrange a war for power. Recruit 27 legendary commanders including Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Lancelot and build a mighty empire.
3
Heroes at War
Browser iOS Android Strategy
Only strong fighters who are ready to sacrifice time for the development of the empire and great conquests are suitable for the battle for the throne!
4
Vikings: Clan War
Browser iOS Android Strategy
Military urban MMORTS game with high-quality 3D graphics, excellent balance and a wide selection of units.
5
Elvenar
Browser Strategy
An excellent city-building game from Innogames: elves, humans, exploration and turn-based battles.
6
Forge of Empires
Browser iOS Android Strategy
You have to go through the era of human development, build a huge kingdom and a real Wonder of the World!
7
Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming
Browser Strategy
GOT is the licensed official game of the series. You play as a Lord of Westeros who must stop the wars in the Seven Kingdoms.
8
MTG Arena
Client Strategies
This TCG is based on the popular board game, the progenitor of the genre. You will collect a deck of cards and fight against other players in real time.
9
Mobile Royale
iOS Android Strategy
Fantasy world is overwhelmed by war.
Knights fight for dominance over kingdoms. You enter this fight to win and be famous for centuries!
10
RAM Pressure
Client Strategies Action
The wreckage of combat spaceships is falling to Earth. The government hides this and sends mercenaries to the crash site in search of extraterrestrial artifacts.
11
Total War: Arena
Client Strategies
Total War: Arena invites you to take part in large-scale battles of antiquity in a new 10v10 mode, where each player controls a commander and three squads.
12
1100AD
Browser Strategy
Game with economic system, good graphics and different units.
13
My Lands
Browser Strategy MMORPG
Strategy game with quests, exploration and endless wars.
14
Life is Feudal: Forest Village
Client Strategies
City building simulator with a lot of possibilities: farming, hunting, terraforming, morality, natural disasters and more.
15
Starfall Online
Client Strategies
3521 Echoes of space battles are heard even at the edge of the universe. You will become a leader, gather a fleet and lead the faction to prosperity.
16
One-Punch Man: Road to Hero 2.0
iOS Android Strategy MMORPG
Bald Cape One-Punch Man has embarked on the path of a hero. You watch his adventures, collect a team of superheroes and defeat monsters.
17
Dawn of Empires
Browser Android Strategy
The young king will take the reins of power over the city. He will build farms, hire soldiers, win trophies in war and turn the kingdom into a mighty empire.
18
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
iOS Android Strategy
Space Wolf is a mixture of turn-based tactical strategy and card game. The Space Wolves will face the Chaos Space Marines on the planet Kanak, Segmentum Obscurus.
