The System Designer’s Jawbreaker
The system designer’s core responsibility is to find and maximize the area under the curve for any piece of content. How do we generate the maximum amount of revenue for a given amount of content under a particular distribution system? The introduction and evolution of live ops event design is a function of this model.
Squad RPG provides a clear example of this, where new content waterfalls across different vectors over time. A new character might have a collection event with a distinct set of rules, or a seasonal loot box with differing odds from the normal distribution. The system designer must balance the short-run price inelasticity of new content against the more difficult-to-analyze effects of limiting the marginal ability of labor to acquire the same good.
The neoclassical Cobb-Douglas framework remains useful here: a player’s production is a function of labor and capital, and designers control the relative payoffs to players by adding an additional unit of labor and capital. However, labor pays explicitly nothing to the developer, where instead labor value is some hand-wavy value add that ends up amounting to marketing k-factor no one ever bothers to measure.
A continuing innovation is that designers have carved out parts of the economy and progression model where event engagement is a core part of player income. Income, of course, is a coupon for more progression. Monopoly Go appears to be a prime suspect here: The normal board resolutions (locations, community cards, etc) source little rolls relative to event leaderboards and milestones.
The same is likely true for Royal Match: adding Lava Quest, Sky Race, etc., is a higher LTV way to source gold to players than the end-of-round bonus based on difficulty or moves remaining. Royal Matches’ “Bonus” Levels also become interesting under this framework: should all match-3 games eliminate end-of-level rewards entirely and source gold through these levels? What about exclusively from events? The system designer challenge remerges!