Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-38102120-20190108224014/@comment-28169398-20190110214410

AnAvg wrote: Amrosa wrote: MackKnife wrote: How much per as do they get? How many players? Multiply this by let's say five and the result I'd call a fair amount of $ / day plus reliable! They're capitalists, they would not do it if it hurts their bottom line. Next to nothing (...) $0.00144 per ad. Then these ads from commercial point of view are pure absurd. Assume, for simplicity, that every 4 ads give the player 1 gold coin. The player "pays" FM $0.00576 for 1 GC or $5.76 for 1000 GC. Why the hell do they accept selling me 1000 GC for $5.76 via ads, but they can't sell me the same 1000 GC for $20 (not even saying less) in normal way? Because the freemium model, not only as applied by FM counts on the perceived urgency, immediacy, and impatience of players to get them to pay for "Heaps of Gold." Examples:

1- Time is running out on a Special Event or Flashback, maybe an hour or two left and you have already sunk 500-750 into the event. You have no gold left, but it is a car you have wanted to see in the game for years. So you grab your credit card and hit the IAP button to get the Gold to get the car.

2- You need to factor in the time it takes to play the ads to get equivalent gold. People are willing to pay $100 instead of sitting and clicking ads several hours (3 hours under the best of conditions) a day for 51 days to get the 1019. Time is a valuable asset, and they count on people to value that time that they aren't playing the game enough to make the decision to purchase the IAP. How much is 153 hours worth to you? If we take the US Federally mandated minimum wage (which for most countries in the developing world would be astronomical) of $7.25/hour, then that time is worth $1,109.25.

3- RR3 is a massive game that if you didn't start on day one can take several years of hard work to even catch up to 75% completion. People don't have the patience to take a 2-3 year view to get to their goals. They want the Veyron day 1, and they will pay to get it. Whether you feel this is a valid use of someone's time is a different issue, but there are people who pay a lot to play for what they want.

4-Perceived Bargains.... 80% sales for 1K gold pack... still paying $20 dollars. 40% off Racer's Choice and Holiday Sales... people are already in a frame of mind to buy and spend and the game is taking advantage of that by giving you a perceived bargain compared to the rest of the year, so you are more likely to pull the trigger than if the sale was offered at a different point in the year.

5- Participation in events where Gold can be won. People who enjoy racing and racing games are competitive, and it takes an awful lot self-awareness and discipline not to want to do everything to put up the very best times. There are many people that cannot be happy that they got the very best time that they could out of the slowest car in the tournament and will chomp at the bit and may buy the faster car and the upgrades to set better times, even if the return is minuscule compared to the cost.

6- Short upgrade cycles that adds new, premium content. There is a reason that the game updates so frequently... Look at how silent this site becomes towards the end of an update. And the more new content brought to the game, the more difficult it is to keep up, so the psychological dissonance of feeling like you are falling behind can produce a need to make a purchase to keep up.

So, those are just a few of the reasons why there is a premium on IAP over the payment they get for ads. The other thing is that the Gold to R$ ratio is more like 1/10, so it is 10 ads that give 1 gold, if you are playing the full 190 ads a day.