W3i: Five ways to fail an f2p game

W3i game producer Ben Sipe shared five tips on how not to do it if you don’t want to fail your free mobile project at the Casual Connect Europe conference currently taking place in Hamburg. 

The first hint: the user should not send spam to continue the game. 

“Why are you punishing users who don’t use Facebook or don’t want to invite their friends to the game?“, – says Saip. – “This feature should not restrict access to content, but complement the user experience.”

The second hint: do not use any psychological tricks a la the inability to save a character until the user pays.

The third hint: use advertising carefully.

“I was playing a role-playing game,” says Sipe. – “In it, a banner hung on top of the dialog box. That is, you wouldn’t be able to read what the characters are talking about until you paid for the app.” 

The fourth hint: any f2p game in which you have to pay to win is a bad game. The project needs to be balanced so that “skilled players can dominate those who paid.” 

The fifth hint: in no case should you force players to pay for what they play. 

“If I’m playing a game and have to pay to complete a quest, then I’m definitely not going to enjoy it,” Sipe stresses.