So recently I stumbled upon this article.
https://www.techinasia.com/if-you-pu...me-i-hate-you/

Go ahead take a look. It talks of a energy system, or stamina system in f2p games. After reading, my question is why does a developer need to implent an energy system especially if their game is doing well? To the customer, when they run out of energy it's like the developer telling them "You wanna play more? Purchase energy for 1.99" or it can even be the game prem currency. As the article says, energy games makes you feel like your renting a game and to play more after your energy runs out, you are required to pay more. Do you think games would have more profit if they don't implent a energy system and a balance F2P? Do you think energy systems should just be abandoned? Do you guys play any games with an energy system? I only play one which is Brave Frontier..As I wish it had no energy system, it's still a fun game. IMO, energy systems should go away. Games would do much better without it.  

I believe it's used so that the consumer doesn't get bored of the game as quickly; they're forced to take breaks. More like a hit or miss situation, though. I mean, Spiral Knights was a pretty fun game, but I left because the energy system was draining all my money (you can buy energy with an absurd amount of money. 50k I think). It was boring, I was making little progress. I quit due to lack of interest.

A couple years later, I heard you could get a TF2 hat from this game. So I returned just for the hat. Now I'm no longer a Gibus noob.  

It depends on how they implement it.

If it gets to the point where stuff thats supposed to be time gated is now money-gated, then it isn't good design.  

Yeah that thing is pretty common in freemium games.

The -mium is Latin for "not really".  

Posted by 5hift

Yeah that thing is pretty common in freemium games.

The -mium is Latin for "not really".

You got that from South Park didn't you.  

Posted by Skill

You got that from South Park didn't you.

DAMN YOU CANADIAN SATAN.

YOUR TRICKERY HAS COST THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE.  

But see Skill thats the thing. Not all games get boring. Games that are very fun get hit by that energy system nonsense and if you want to play more you have to pay up some premium currency. Don't see why developers find the need to limit gamers of playing time then charge them if they want to play more..  

I can't say that I've played that many F2P games, but a couple months ago my friends talked me into playing this app called Battle Camp. In order to play against an enemy you would have to use 1 energy. You can hold 5 energy at a time while it takes I think 15 minutes to regenerate one energy. Silly me actually getting sucked into the gameplay as my friends ended up only spending a week on the game. Some of these games would just be so much better if you just paid upfront for it, but even then companies still offer these buyable gold packs, surprise gift packages, etc. that offer an advantage to other players who are willing to waste money to get ahead of the game. I was such a fool to spend as much money as I did on Classic even though I did develop in graphic skills a little bit (in spoiler).

Spoiler

Before:



After:



Plus some of you may have seen some of my bodies. I felt I improved creativity wise on those.

 

Some MMOs have energy systems like Spiral Knights which are alright but they have server costs so it makes sense.  

Agree with you Tyler. I also tried Battle Camp..got into it but got fed up with the energy crap. It's cancer to games. People(like me) would rather an awesome preminum games with no energy or P2W crap than to a good game infested with iAPs that make it P2W and energy systems.  

Time-gating sucks in quality games for the most part, but sometimes it's necessary, and even more so on free-to-play apps. Developers who make free-to-play MMOs don't just get a team of devs to work on a game for months and go through the costs of server hosting labor just for free or "out of the goodness of their hearts", they do it to make money, since, they are a business after all. Don't expect anything good to come for free.

Freemium is the new craze in games, and it's a great way to make bank. Looking at League here, it's finest culprit. Riot makes absurd amounts of money, despite League being completely free-to-play with no cash-exclusive gameplay modifiers. Freemium games are crafty in the way they eventually take your money, but they have to or there would be no reason for the devs to make the game in the first place.  

Only game I play with an energy system of sorts is Teivia Crack on my phone. I have up the others I played because of the energy system restricting my gameplay. I like games not profit hogs. The ones with energy that rebuilds over time are ok for a while.  

Posted by Talon

Time-gating sucks in quality games for the most part, but sometimes it's necessary, and even more so on free-to-play apps. Developers who make free-to-play MMOs don't just get a team of devs to work on a game for months and go through the costs of server hosting labor just for free or "out of the goodness of their hearts", they do it to make money, since, they are a business after all. Don't expect anything good to come for free.

Freemium is the new craze in games, and it's a great way to make bank. Looking at League here, it's finest culprit. Riot makes absurd amounts of money, despite League being completely free-to-play with no cash-exclusive gameplay modifiers. Freemium games are crafty in the way they eventually take your money, but they have to or there would be no reason for the devs to make the game in the first place.

90% of the time this stuff is earning the devs more money than the game is worth. That's why it's popular. F2P has generally been a ****ty, deceptive game model from day 1, considering it takes more money than the game is worth to unlock the full experience. There are a few exceptions (Dota <3<3) where the game is truly free, but most of these "free" games either take huge amounts of time to unlock the actual game or are cow clickers that have no "game" in the first place. The only reason League's model is acceptable is because by dumb luck gating off their gameplay makes the game more newbie accessible. Less heroes (Champs? I dunno) to learn in order to get started. If that weren't the case it would be an ass game model like any other F2P money vacuum.


It's all subjective, though. If someone thinks it's worth it to blow $500 on Clash of Clans all power to them. It's still a poorly designed game that has a ****ty business model in my eyes.  

I think Brave Frontier is fair with the energy recovery rate. When I leveled up to level 63 (somewhere around there) the recovery time was reduced from 10 mins to 3 mins.