Game economy

General Discussion
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During the Q&A with the developers, the expression “game economy” stood oud as a main reason for the company’s decisions and was repeated almost obsessively.

While many players took this term as referring to the profitability for the companies involved, the developers implied that it refers to what everything is worth in the universe of the game (heroes, rewards, content etc).

And it’s true that we can make a very simple analogy of this game to the economy of a country. All players can be considered economic agents and their decisions deal with microeconomics (the economics concerning the behaviour of single economic agents), while SG is the one who makes the rules of the game (an actual game in this case :smiley: ) and their decisions actually form the macroeconomics of the game.

Why did I start this (probably boring) post? It’s because while for most economics would seem it’s about money, it’s foremost about people and the relationships between them. Economy appeared in history before money and was about the capacity of people to cooperate with one and trust each other in order to work together and exchange goods and services.

I have been playing this game from 10 months, so clearly, I have a very limited perspective of it, but beyond people being mad at the price of the offers, chances for good pulls or mats, overpowered or nerfed heroes, what I can see more and more is the diminishing trust. Trust in what the company says, does and mostly diminished trust in the future of the game.

While some people my stop spending or playing because they get mad on the decisions of the company, if people still enjoy the game, most will still keep going. But if people lose trust in the future of the game, even if they still enjoy it, they will start to reduce their money and time spending in order to protect themselves for that future when the game will not exist or it will not be for them anymore.

Financial crises happen because people lose trust in the markets and the near future of the economy so they stop spending and investing in order to protect themselves. If SG and Zynga want this game to continue with the most players for more than 6-12 more months, maybe they could reflect on this.

It might be very well though that I am wrong and the game will continue and be more profitable with some several (ten of) thousands of players that can afford to pay thousands of dollars/ euros every month, since it seems that even for those spending hundreds of dollars per month the game is becoming unaffordable.

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Lol thank you for your impassioned post.

Valid points.

Will it register with SGG? Unlikely, i think, because they would have calibrated each decision from a fiscal point of view : revenue, more revenue, yet more revenue.

Working towards a (hopefully) whopper 3rd payout from Zynga, based on multiples of EBITDA, in Q1 2022. After this, SGG becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Zynga.

Using this as the presumed end goal for SGG, their decisions this year make sense. SGG does not appear to be focused on medium to long term longevity for this game. They will have no say once the 3rd payout is received. Zynga will have full control.

Zynga doesn’t have a nice friendly reputation for keeping games that do not generate enough revenue.

So … how long will this game continue ?

Definitely to Q1 2022.
Probably for the rest of 2022. There are already plans for more costumes to Non S1 heroes/ event heroes/more HOTM.

Active player base should be at least 1.25m globally. That’s rather healthy.

If nothing cataclysmic happens for the next 6 months, I can see this game plodding along through 2023, assuming minimum revenue per month is met. Maybe even to 2024.

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“Game economy” always struck me as being about balance in the game.

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Do we have one :slightly_smiling_face:?

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Thank as well for your analysis. I tend to agree with you. But I do think it’s important for all players, but especially new players to be aware of it.

I started to play after a c2p friend introduced me to it and was presenting me how important is to grind and the benefits will show on long term and was giving me examples of players who were playing for several years and that it’s normal to get your first 5* after 6 months and the only point is to keep grinding and you will get there. Some other people from my first alliance were also in this mind set.

Now I think it’s very important to keep in mind that playing the game is starting to be more about YOLO-ing through it than long term planning and grinding :slight_smile:

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I entered this game in April 2019, post sale to zynga. Changes were almost immediately post sale but I couldn’t recognise the signs then but seniors did explain some. I researched on my own and slowly “woke up”.

Grinding is possible. It’s more possible for the veterans who started in 2017 or 2018. The earlier the better the chances. 2019 should be okay.

With S3 in 2020 and fresh heroes for regular tournament events, the changed landscape became even more obvious. Grinding is still possible but tougher cos the paywall became more obvious.

Not saying that your buddy didn’t tell you the truth yah. Every player’s game experience is different.

Those who are luckier with pulls would be more content. Those who are not as lucky, would probably reflect and reconsider their reasons for continuing.

And that’s just pulls.

When other RNG based aspects are added in, this game becomes a fantastic casino on its own. The EP roulette wheel spins for just about everything that is not guaranteed.

Some players love this non stop roulette wheel. They are more likely to continue playing.

Those, who prefer poker or blackjack, may reconsider their decision to continue playing this game.

Let’s hope nothing cataclysmic happens in the next 6 months yah.

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When the player base has devolved to the point where they decide opportunity cost is not worth it to run the EP servers, no one high level at Zynga/ SGG will do a post mortem and ask the question “what could we have done differently to make the game last longer?”

They will collectively shrug, tell themselves that such is the lifecycle of a mobile game, and move on to the next successful game they can buy and milk dry.

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Very well articulated and thought out. Very accurate as well.

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