Referral system, for or against ?

[leZourite]

I know that potentially putting referrer links in a game can drive users to invite their friends (for the small benefits it gives).

But i sure know that referrer links are annoying as hell for a lot of people, so i am wondering if you are generally for or against (taking aside the potential benefits for the end user) ?

[Zeggy]

I think they are good if you are a game owner
If you do it right, you can get a lot of new users.

A lot of games pretty much revolve around referring new users, and I hate those games. They do seem to be popular though.

[leZourite]

That's true a lot of them resolve around that when they spam their links on forums and such. I think personally that a  game doesn't necessarily need to rely only on referrers, sure it helps, but i was debating on adding or not the feature to my current game, i could have added this earlier though we (well i don't code alone to be fair ) are pretty much at 95% in term of development for the version 1.0

And we decided to add the feature later, if the user base ask for it. On the other hand i think a voting system is very much needed and helps a lot, if by voting users benefit from it of course !

[RangerSheck]

Here's what I told one of my devs when he asked about it:

If anyone likes the game, they should refer their friends for the joy of sharing a free game. Right? Think about it. If you really like a game, don?t you tell your friends about it? Don?t you say, ?Hey, you should check this out!?

Referrals don?t encourage you to bring your friends in, they just encourage you to spam message boards with your referral link (which ends up pissing off everyone on that board and probably doesn?t increase traffic to the game much).

Want to bring in new players that aren?t your friends (because you already told all your friends, remember)? Go to message boards and post something meaningful about why you like the game, and let everyone know that you?re not posting a referral link ? these communities take more interest in something if they see you genuinely believe in it.

Now, obviously I can't deny that referral systems are good for traffic. But personally, I'll avoid creating one as long as possible. There are a lot of great games out there that have gotten along without a referral system. Referrals can pollute the in-game economy, and they have to be carefully devised to avoid exploitation. I've got more important features that are going to make my game more fun on my todo list way before I spend time coding a referral system.

Perhaps I'd change my tune if I were making any money, but since Aethora is still at the 100% free stage, I'm sticking to my guns

[Vendayn]

I hate the games where it forces you to spam your link. Games that don't require spamming your link are better, but some people do still spam it.

If I put up a referral link in a thread/post I make, I usually put another link that doesn't have the referral in it so people have a choice. Most people just put the referral link and nothing else, to me that is annoying.

[Rimmy]

The issue I have with referral systems is that they can unbalance a game if you are not careful. If you start handing out free resources, people could use it as a way to get free resources by creating dummy accounts. If you did something with the IP to not give them free resources for the referral, you also have to consider public libraries and other places where people use public computers.

[foxumon]

I think referral links can be good for a game, thought they do have a lot of pitfalls.  I wasn't originally going to add them to my game, but then some users started requesting it and I put in a simple system.

I read a really good blog article about this once - though I can't seem to find it again...  But it went over some ways to help decrease abuse of a referral system.

One way was to make the referred user have to go through a first quest or some basic parts of the game before awarding the referral points.  This gives the person who referred their friend a reason to help them out and get them through the basics, and adds an annoying other step for people who want to abuse the referral system.

And another was to give the referrer a small portion of the refer-e's (is that right?) money.  Like in Monsters Game if your familiar with that.  That way if it is a fake referrer the person will actually have to play the game in order to get any benefits, but it can give referrers an unfair advantage which is why I prefer the later.

I've never been offended by referral links in forum signatures, but posting comments just to get your link out there is a bit much =X  But that's partly to blame on the users themselves right?  And for games incentivizing referrals a little too much -  IMO.

[Rimmy]

How many people do these referral systems actually bring in?

[raestlyn]

Best referral system I have seen in a while is in Chaotic Dynasty. You will recieve a token you can change to few resources or small amount of energy, pretty standard. But if the player who you referred to the game donates you will also get 10% of that amount worth Subscriber Days that makes the game play easier. That way you actually don't have to donate to enjoy the few benefits

[Josh1billion]

I have a referral system in my game (Seeds of Time Online), and I try to keep it balanced to the point where it doesn't become a "spam your referral link everywhere to win" game like Outwar, but so that it still helps the game expand.

[Kimmybwoy]

There good, one of the best ways to advertise

[Waizujin]

I completely agree with using a Referral system. My new game will contain a referral system after I add a lot of precautions to check for cheaters.

Sincerely,
-Marcus

[avguste]

Same here
The referral system is always a great idea

[Mafiarampage]

yeah  :)the referral system is good but you gotta take care of multi's they are a pain!