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Thoughts on How to Give Purchase Hints to Players


For free games, there are two ways for players to satisfy their needs: spending time or spending money. In-game purchase is an important means for players to meet their needs, and it is also the main source of game revenues. For many designers, how to let players to pay for free games can be a difficult part, especially those lacking the experience of monetization design.

"Purchase hints" is a concept created by myself, which means that to design some features in game to tell players, "you should spend money now." Many games have a store. Players can spend at any time. But we will find a phenomenon: if the stuff in store does not change at all, which means players can buy it at any time, then almost no one will consume. Why does this happen? Personally, players will ask themselves these questions when they are consuming. 1, "If I can buy it anytime, why should I buy it now?" 2, "If it is unlimited purchase. How much do I buy?" 3, "Will it be bad to buy it now? Is there a more optimized consumption strategy? " As we all know, there is no standard answer to these questions in games. Players will be hesitant when thinking about these problems, and then will not conduct consumer behavior.

The demand in games is not objective as it is in real demand. In general, there is no doubt for consumers if it is a need in reality. Let's give an example: In reality, I'm hungry, and I want to buy a hamburger. Hamburgers can be bought anytime. Why buy them now? - because I'm hungry now Hamburgers can be bought indefinitely. How many should I buy? One will be enough for me. Two may be too much. Is there a more optimized strategy? - optimization strategy is already there, a combo with drink and fries. So you see, I won't hesitate to go into McDonald's and buy hamburgers.

To solve this problem, we need to use "Purchase hints" when making monetization designs. There are many ways to implement purchase hints. The basic principle is the anchoring effect, which means establishing a benchmark in his mind, and then give purchase hints based on this benchmark. For example, in the case of McDonald's, the price of hamburger, fries and coke sold separately is the benchmark. Putting these three things together and selling them as a combo is a purchase hint for consumers. As long as the consumers have basic knowledge of calculation, they can see that a combo is cheaper than buying separately. And a combo just meets my needs. So they will tend to buy a combo.

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