4 ms·

I love this essay. Thinking about people who've damaged their lives on addictive gaming.... those people behind the four-figure numbers on the spreadsheet of W

by Pxtl 9y ago

I love this essay. Thinking about people who've damaged their lives on addictive gaming.... those people behind the four-figure numbers on the spreadsheet of Whales. That's sad as hell. But... it's a clicker game. A hilarious-looking clicker game... but a clicker game. Would anybody spend $30 on a clicker game?

CydeWeys 9y ago
This announcement has gotten my hopes up about it. My thinking is, there must be enough to it that it's not just a clicker game (which is why I stopped playing the first one; I got bored of it).
dragontamer 9y ago
Clicker Heroes 1 was very good before they went with Rubies. I threw some money in the form of Rubies into the game, when it became pay-to-win (to some degree). But really, I was way better than my clicker-guild-mates because I personally had optimized a better strategy than them. So even when others spent Rubies, I personally was able to keep up with them through simply better tactics. Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth to pay for some in-game benefit. And I knew that if I dumped $100+ more dollars in, my superior tactics + money injection would lead me to higher clicks. At that point, I just became disgusted with the F2P model and quit Clicker Heroes. It was a very well programmed game, and I think getting rid of the F2P format will help this game a LOT.
Lazare 9y ago
> A hilarious-looking clicker game... but a clicker game. Would anybody spend $30 on a clicker game? Well that's the thing, isn't it: A lot of people spent a lot more than $30 on Clicker Heroes 1. So yes, obviously people will spend $30 on a clicker game. The question is whether they'll do so via an ethical business model.
- bduerst 9y ago
  Aren't clicker games notorious for hidden difficulty curves, which are sometimes exponential? The whole p2w model is based off of getting players invested with their time before making it too difficult to progress without investing cash. I'd bet the people who spend $30+ on the p2w version won't be willing to pay $30 up front to start investing time into a brand new game.
  - dragontamer 9y ago
    It should be noted that ClickerHeroes didn't have p2w for months, maybe years. I did quit after the addition of Rubies. But the game was legitimately good at balancing the heroes. A good amount of my effort in Clicker Heroes was spent on optimizing builds through linear algebra and other optimization problems.
- joesb 9y ago
  The problem is, without the free-to-play model, they now lose the essential parts of any products, marketing. Anyone who download the free game and talk about it or recommended it to a friend is free marketing. With enough friends talking about the game or play it without paying, one person in that group will spend $30. But without the groups existing in the first place, that same person may not interested in the game enough to buy it.
on_and_off 9y ago
I have tried their first opus after reading this article. Come on ! This is clearly tailored to hook into our addiction loops by always presenting us with a next task that is almost complete. I have a very hard time believing that these folks did not know exactly what they were doing.
dkns 9y ago
When you think of it Diablo 3 is also a clicker game and it costs 35€ + 15€ if you want newest hero.
codingdave 9y ago
That question was asked on reddit. Most commenters seemed to think it was too high. The devs said they spent $2 million to make a clicker game, and therefore needed to price it high to recoup their costs. Personally, I feel they should have managed their costs to a more reasonable price point, but I didn't feel like engaging in debate on reddit over the point.
- Sohcahtoa82 9y ago
  $2 million?! Yeah...a game like Clicker Heroes should be less than a 1 year effort from a single programmer and an artist.

by Pxtl 9y ago

CydeWeys 9y ago

This announcement has gotten my hopes up about it. My thinking is, there must be enough to it that it's not just a clicker game (which is why I stopped playing the first one; I got bored of it).

dragontamer 9y ago

Clicker Heroes 1 was very good before they went with Rubies. I threw some money in the form of Rubies into the game, when it became pay-to-win (to some degree). But really, I was way better than my clicker-guild-mates because I personally had optimized a better strategy than them. So even when others spent Rubies, I personally was able to keep up with them through simply better tactics. Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth to pay for some in-game benefit. And I knew that if I dumped $100+ more dollars in, my superior tactics + money injection would lead me to higher clicks. At that point, I just became disgusted with the F2P model and quit Clicker Heroes. It was a very well programmed game, and I think getting rid of the F2P format will help this game a LOT.

Lazare 9y ago

> A hilarious-looking clicker game... but a clicker game. Would anybody spend $30 on a clicker game? Well that's the thing, isn't it: A lot of people spent a lot more than $30 on Clicker Heroes 1. So yes, obviously people will spend $30 on a clicker game. The question is whether they'll do so via an ethical business model.

bduerst 9y ago
Aren't clicker games notorious for hidden difficulty curves, which are sometimes exponential? The whole p2w model is based off of getting players invested with their time before making it too difficult to progress without investing cash. I'd bet the people who spend $30+ on the p2w version won't be willing to pay $30 up front to start investing time into a brand new game.
- dragontamer 9y ago
  It should be noted that ClickerHeroes didn't have p2w for months, maybe years. I did quit after the addition of Rubies. But the game was legitimately good at balancing the heroes. A good amount of my effort in Clicker Heroes was spent on optimizing builds through linear algebra and other optimization problems.
joesb 9y ago
The problem is, without the free-to-play model, they now lose the essential parts of any products, marketing. Anyone who download the free game and talk about it or recommended it to a friend is free marketing. With enough friends talking about the game or play it without paying, one person in that group will spend $30. But without the groups existing in the first place, that same person may not interested in the game enough to buy it.

on_and_off 9y ago

I have tried their first opus after reading this article. Come on ! This is clearly tailored to hook into our addiction loops by always presenting us with a next task that is almost complete. I have a very hard time believing that these folks did not know exactly what they were doing.

dkns 9y ago

When you think of it Diablo 3 is also a clicker game and it costs 35€ + 15€ if you want newest hero.

codingdave 9y ago

That question was asked on reddit. Most commenters seemed to think it was too high. The devs said they spent $2 million to make a clicker game, and therefore needed to price it high to recoup their costs. Personally, I feel they should have managed their costs to a more reasonable price point, but I didn't feel like engaging in debate on reddit over the point.

Sohcahtoa82 9y ago
$2 million?! Yeah...a game like Clicker Heroes should be less than a 1 year effort from a single programmer and an artist.