Energy or no Energy

[capturts]

Initially I was thinking that everyday players would be given x amount of energy (or hourly, whatever) and this would limit how much they can travel and do other actions. Then I was thinking maybe the only limit needed is their time. So if they want to sit for 16 hours everyday playing then who am I to stop them?

Does a player need to be artificially limited?

[Chris]

So, the only way to be sucessful in the game is to use scripts/bots
"Only time" is not working in browser games. It's not WoW.

I don't think I've ever seen any sucessful browser game (read: without arcade elements and without full blown 3D) that didn't have some sort of action timer and/or energy.

[capturts]

So you are saying that if there is no limitations on actions then you will get people who use their bot to get good in the game, whereas it's harder to do this if there is an 'energy' constraint?

Surely a bot can have no concept of what the overall objective is. For example a long time ago I used to play 'torn city' and theoretically (if it didn't get caught) a bot could keep training your stats up and auto battle suitable people, but there were missions of sorts which the bot wouldn't have any concept of. It would take more effort to program the bot to attack the particular NPC and buy the particular items than it would to just do the tasks yourself.

In my game you can randomly totter around the map and battle random monsters and suchlike, but to actually progress in the game you have to go to certain places and do particular things in the right order, maybe take certain items to a certain person. I'm just thinking that this may be more effort for a bot maker than it's worth?

[edmazur]

My game isn't turn-based and I consider it moderately successful. Not being limited in your number of daily actions is one of its selling points. This does lead to a pretty high correlation between hours invested and how you do in the game, but there are exceptions. Botting/macroing is also probably more of a problem than it is in other games.

[verynotbad]

I would think one of the biggest reasons for wanting to put a cap on energy is for monetization reasons. Once people are engaged in your game they will want to keep playing which is a strong tool for you to monetize your game. Also, since you don't want to give all your content away for free and burn your user out, putting a gate on energy makes sense.

[capturts]

Those are some interesting points.

Surely, however, capping energy depends on what you are going to charge (real) money for. Some games let you recharge your energy for real money, in which case, of course, you'd have an energy limit. If I was charging for weapons and other items then keeping the player in the game 24/7 would be an advantage, surely, so no energy limit would be better?

[Kyle]

Allow me to chime in my 2 cents
I think an energy limit is the best way to go no matter what you are selling. If you set a decent regeneration rate and provide plenty of things for the player to do with their energy, and plenty of things to do while they wait, they could easily spend several hours at a time on your game.
To top it off you could also give an improved regen rate for "upgraded" members.

Eg. The player has 100 max energy, they regen 5 energy every 10-15 minutes. If they donate they might receive 10 energy every 10-15 mins, or whatever you feel is best for your game.

You really only need two things:
1) Enough low energy cost things for the player to do so they aren't having to save up energy if they don't want to.
2) Enough activities to keep the Ayer occupied while they wait on their energy to refill. This could be things like arcade or casino games, shopping for items, playing a stock market, managing their profile, or managing their dealings in other misc features you may have like pets, racing, etc.

[capturts]

That's a few more good points. I suppose if your energy regenerates faster than daily then there is incentive to return multiple times per day. Maybe I'll have the energy after all.

[Chris]

My game isn't turn-based and I consider it moderately successful. Not being limited in your number of daily actions is one of its selling points. This does lead to a pretty high correlation between hours invested and how you do in the game, but there are exceptions. Botting/macroing is also probably more of a problem than it is in other games.

How it works? I assume you have no features like "click to gather minerals". Maybe you have things that regenerate over time (like health)?

[edmazur]

My game isn't turn-based and I consider it moderately successful. Not being limited in your number of daily actions is one of its selling points. This does lead to a pretty high correlation between hours invested and how you do in the game, but there are exceptions. Botting/macroing is also probably more of a problem than it is in other games.

How it works? I assume you have no features like "click to gather minerals". Maybe you have things that regenerate over time (like health)?

Basically, you can attack (PvE or PvP) and shop as much as you want. There are a couple things that are restricted by time, but there's still plenty of incentive to play the game nonstop. The major time-based things I can think of are:

• Shop restocks every 60 seconds. Some items are more rare than others and can take awhile to get. Incidentally, this is the main way I've monetized my game. You can purchase "stars" which allow you to put items on order to avoid having to camp them.
• You can buy 1 "buff" per day, which are short-term (usually 1k battles) bonuses that can affect things like experience gained and battle speed.
• Every hour, bots (players) in clans all receive 20 "energy" (not the same kind of energy we're talking about here, that's just the noun I picked), which can be taken by other bots and is what clans are ultimately ranked by in the monthly competition.

Btw, I'd be wary of putting too much emphasis on monetization when making design decisions. I would just focus on building something that's fun and the rest will hopefully follow. I'm sure there are successful games both with and without energy/turns (mine is an example of one that is successful without, poke through my recent posts here if you're curious).