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by chipsy 3680 days ago
There are an exceptionally large number of design parameters in "fun". And it's not enough to be fun to be commercially viable - there has to be a hype factor(premium) or a monetization strategy(f2p) built into the product too.

All of this is best combat with a lot of feedback, and a lot of kinds of feedback. It's challenging to parse all of the information and stick to a certain focus, since the incentive to play your game over others is not clear or obvious.

1 comments

> it's not enough to be fun to be commercially viable - there has to be a hype factor(premium) or a monetization strategy

That sounds like you want over 100% fun. Hype literally means over.

Sure you need a monetization strategy, and simply selling might not be good enough, but at some point you are not selling a pure game anymore. Collection of additional content for example is a meta-game that's only loosely connected to the game, without any real benefits. That is not more appealing.

edit: There's some truth to it, though. premium makes it less fun for some and in relation to them, 120% fun for the premium users. And that's not entirely wrong, because a game can't please anyone, so it's OK if some enjoy just 85% and you want to keep out the ones who couldn't enjoy it all, so they don't spoil it out of ignorance or spite. I'm just not sure that getting more money for premium content is the right motivation to develop a clear distinction in this vein, to actually keep out "filthy casuals", with DLC it's quite the opposite.

> Hype literally means over.

And cool literally means a moderately low temperature, no?

Yes, it describes a person that is the opposite of-hot headed. It describes things, too, anything that doesn't temper a cool person. Handling of hot shit requires increased energy conversion resulting in excess heat. When that is seen as a negative, cool generally describes a positive.

It's use might be a bit more contrived than that, but this is simple thermodynamics. Temperature is one of the most basic perceptions, certainly it's rooted deep in our understanding of the world. Language is littered with expressions related to temperature, eg. emotional warmth vs a cold heart, because temperature perception is that fundamental.

>> it's not enough to be fun to be commercially viable - there has to be a hype factor(premium) or a monetization strategy

> That sounds like you want over 100% fun. Hype literally means over.

My point was that even though words might have a literal meaning they can also have other meanings, and in that case the person meant the other meaning

  hype
  informal
  noun
  1. extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion.
  "she relied on hype and headlines to stoke up interest in her music"
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