Ways Farmville (And Other Facebook Apps) Get Players Hooked

[raphaeline 0]

I was reading through a website the other day that had an article on ways Farmville hooks their players and convinces them to spend money on the games. Because it also applies to Pet Society, I thought I would share with my fellow players! The following is basically the article re-worded because the link and quoted article can't be posted.


Some quick facts:

- Zynga hired a full-time behavioral psychologist to learn methods of manipulating players.
- Zynga is projected to rake in $1 billion in 2011. Google has invested in them. (This makes me wonder how much Playfish makes...)

The advertising for these companies is done for them by the players; because we spend a lot of the game "sharing" things like Hideeni finds, accomplishments, sending gifts, posting pictures of our characters or helping build items, we essentially are sending advertisements not only to our other friends, even if they don't play the game. In fact, that they look so different keeps our brains from ignoring them. You know, once when I was watching some South Park online, they kept playing the same Green Day commercial at every single commercial break... now, I can't STAND to listen to them even though I liked them before. Eventually we start to hate seeing the same things over and over but the Facebook games change them just enough so that we don't start to get irate over it.

The way players are convinced to spend money? They make it free to play as long as possible, but over time you’re exposed to the things that cost cash and by that point, you’re invested in the game.

Only a small percentage of players give in, but that's all they need - 82% of Zynga's customers pay nothing, but the company rakes in $1 million a day from the other 18%.

As far as providing new content, this is a pretty interesting quote from the article:

Another is to keep giving people the same things in different packages. "New" items are introduced almost weekly - new only in appearance. It's a pretty rare case when a new item actually takes new programming. But to the player, it's seven new barns!

And this part applies to cooking, stadium, growing plants, and actually, it applies to daily visits... it makes you feel like you’re coming back whenever you want, but the important part to the company is that you DO come back. With dailies, there’s a little more pressure because it’s every 24 hours that it resets, but even if you feel like there isn’t a time limit with the other things, there is. Trees can’t produce any more than three fruits, so you have to come back and harvest to make room for more. It doesn’t matter if your dish is ready in 10 minutes or a day, you have to come back to rescue it from being burned.

And studies have shown that people who think they chose to do something (even if they didn't) are more motivated than people who were forced to do that same thing.

This next part was really helpful to notice for me because it applied to me while I was out shopping today at thrift stores where you can find things for a couple of dollars. ^_^
Apparently everyone has a dollar amount, and under that amount is what they consider small change. Since people are less likely to be concerned about small change, it feels like you’re getting a lot for practically nothing when you spend 5 or 10 bucks in game. It’s not like you’re shelling out $60 for a Playstation game, so you feel more okay about spending it.

They call these "microtransactions," and it's become the next big thing in internet moneymaking. Everyone has a psychological price point and considers any amount below it "small change," and considers anything above it "enough money that I should be careful with it." This point varies from person to person and depends on what they're buying with it, but $5 usually comes in comfortably under, which gets a lot of people turning off the part of the brain that usually asks, "Do I really need this? Is this in my budget? Am I really thinking about buying fake money?"

It seems iPhone applications work basically the same way.

I’m not saying that everyone should quit playing - although I did delete all my applications after reading a similar article a few months ago, I get enjoyment out of Pet Society like all of us here do and I want to keep playing! I just thought that others might find this as thought-provoking as I did and give an idea of how these games make money and how they operate.

[Guest Guest]

it's really true how it works. esp the micro-transactions; i don't feel like i'm spending too much if i only spend like a few bucks everyday. but the fact it all adds up is what truly matters. i do try to have a certain amount i wanna spend for myself (be it games or w/e) every month or so and lately that's been going into CC...

half the time i feel like why did i buy CC again because it's just an online game, but the fact they do bring out these cute items and what not even if it's just an image.. it's still.. addicting somehow. lol also i think that whole feeling that 'you spent so much in the game it feels like a waste to quit' comes in also.

nice read though. thank you for posting!

[Sanakan 0]

Interesting facts! Thanks for posting this info raphaeline!

Most of what this article stated I already know about. That's why I was able to keep spending on CC to a bare minimum (just barely though..XD)

[Fashionista 0]

that's kind of scary! That's why I have removed deleted and blocked all other games in fb and kept only ps and i'm reconsidering about spending money for cc and have put a budget on how much I will spend and how frequently and also a time limit to play per day in order not to be a zombie in front of the pc , like a half an hour per day, it's great! thus, i save time and money and have fun!

great writting! very much for sharing, really interesting!

[raphaeline 0]

You're welcome! Like I said, I actually enjoy the game and that's what matters - there was a time, about a year ago, that I just cycled through facebook games all day long, one right after another. I'd have it all lined up so that just as I finished harvesting crops, I could do daily trips in Pet Society, then I'd move on to feeding an aquarium and so on until the crops were done, and then I'd start all over again.

It took me a while to realize what I was doing (I was pregnant at the time and on bed rest, but I could have been doing a million other productive things rather than zoning out entirely in front of the computer) and I thought... I wonder how many other people have kind of become a zombie without realizing it.

But since I found this forum and playing the game got a little more social, plus I found other ways to experience it and other things to do, like mini-photo shoots and experimenting with designing outfits and rooms. And it's still a business - they have to make money somehow. As long as I'm enjoying the game and not just spacing out (like I used to!) then I'm sticking around!

[raphaeline 0]

In retrospect, maybe not so much a business... it's not like there are more than, what, twelve employees at the very most? I can't imagine what even five people would do. Plus, there's not really much cost... it's all profit....

[Fashionista 0]

I agree ! It's just a business and ps was supposed to be just a game for fun and not an obsession and I realised that i only play now for fun and buy cc if I cannot live without the item and after I have accomplished something a target in college an A , like self-reinforcement

well there was a point when I was actually burned and all I could think of was the games if my plants and kitties have grown my tree has fruits and wasted so much time and energy . like you said I could be doing such another list of activities that were so much valueable to me. When I realised that I had about 8 games and was infront of the pc for 6 hrs , I was shocked and I said to myself get a life!!!!!! it was like a wake up call and i'm so greatful for that moment, cause having blocked all other applications ,including the ones my friends play I don't see any posts and receive no requests and I removed some of my freinds here to have minimum list of friends of ps in order not to spent hrs in oredr to visit them all

and since then I'm a new person more socialable and outgoing have more friends going out have the greatest grades ever all As in the row and my projects received the highest grades in class joined clubs in college and have time to filrt also!

I keep ps only as a fun in order to relax and take a break also this forum to spend some time , since now it's summer well i'm more online but I have read three books already and when college reopens I will visit my pet 20 mins per day and the forum only once a week cause I need to focus on my senior year and I 'm going for a scholarship , hope so and going to be all day to college studying being with freinds at starbucks, inside the college being at the gym or at the pool and i'm also an ambassador now and I'll be giving tours in college! and also register for lots of seminars and business week open the pc only to study actualy
how your life has improved since you are not infront of the pc? I'm guessing to better with the baby!

[raphaeline 0]

Fashionista wrote:

how your life has improved since you are not infront of the pc? I'm guessing to better with the baby!

You know, I think I realized what I was doing right after he was born. Since my husband was on family leave from work, and the baby slept all the time, I had just as much spare time as I did when I was on bed rest (I had some pretty bad toxemia). But now, I usually wait until I have all my chores done and everything off my to-do list, and the baby is down for a nap. I try not to get on Pet Society when my husband is home so we can spend some time together rather than spaced out in front of our respective computers... he's a big WoW geek and even though we play WoW together, we both have a tendency to become zombies in front of our monitors now and again.

[Fashionista 0]

aw! that's great of you, to be more in rl and do the stuff you need to do and then just relax and take a break with ps! I personaly agree 10000% to talk with your husband and spent some time together, even play WoW rather than being isolated