Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=37476&page=2#19 Author: Krinadon Time Posted: 7/8/2016 at 8:30 AM It's interesting to see some negativity regarding these features. I've mostly just seen these on random phone games I play lol - and I've never really felt negative about them. Either I don't care/forget and I miss out on something that I wouldn't of have had the feature not existed, or it makes me just log in and do a few things everyday to grab that daily prize and keep playing, or it's just an added bonus to a game I already enjoy. Perhaps a better implementation would be reduced frequency? Like once a week rather than once a day?

Stealing an idea from a phone game, specifically Kingdom Hearts Unchained X

The way they do it is they have a 5 day reward system that is a streak
Day 1 - small
Day 2 - small
Day 3 - medium
Day 4 - medium
Day 5 - large
and if you miss a day is resets your streak and after day 5 it auto-resets.

BUT

They also have a running counter at the bottom that isn't streak related. It's simply how many days you have logged into the game period. Don't log in for a week? That's ok. You will still be on day 30 or whatever. No way to break it, no way to end it, just a steady keeping count. This streak seems to reward something small/medium (usually a title) every 10 or so days.

That way you have the streak for daily prizes but the running count for a chance to get small things to and neither require a long term commitment that usually causes the stresses of log in incentives.

@Krinadon,
Yeahh, it's implemented for so many phone apps. ;; I like the idea of reduced frequency!~ Once a week sounds a lot more palatable for me. c:

@Kaosu,
My problem with monetary prize increases (small, medium, large) for games where you can trade items and gold, is that the value of the prizes is actually: very small, very small, very small, etc., for every single day. If it's a monetary prize that anyone can get from logging in, in a site with trading, in essence the prize goes down to 0 value of worth.

---
Other idea regarding prizes:
How about, if you log in a certain number of days a month, you get an avatar item? I noticed that recently there have been a lottt of avatar items during festivals, which has been a bit overwhelming, as much as I love avatar items. Perhaps the festivals could have 1-2 less items. And instead that art could go towards this? Could make the process automated after setting it up once.

Yeah, I like Unchained's reward system.
The biggest key thing is "long term commitment".
Small rewards for logging in for periods of time, or decent rewards for logging in for a shorter period of time, seem like reasonable mediums.

Another example:
On most cash-grabby games, there are calendar-like reward systems that reward consumables for:
-logging in on a certain day of the month (some days probably have special items that are relevant to the month), much like Advent Calendar
-logging in for a streak of up to 30 days
-special event streaks if there's an event going on
-special newbie streaks for the first 7 days you log on
And all those streaks stack if applicable.

Each week of the 30-day long calendars are tiered the same, so say the first week of a normal streak gives you items that's worth up to 5k in gold. In the 2nd week, the items are valued up to 10k, then 3rd week is 15k, and then 4th week is 20k or some exclusive item.

Any longer than that, or too much value over those, makes the streak calendars more of a commitment and a burden for the advantages.
I never hang around an app to fill those calendars, but the items seem really helpful for a newbie. Like logging in for a few days gives you traps, and then a genetic tester, and then some scales, so on and forth.

@Kaosu,
Sorry forgot to ping! Look at my post above Flute's. >_<

Tap - how would you feel about something that was a daily incentive but it was "opt-in" i.e. you CAN do the thing every day (rather than weekly as suggested as an alternative) but you have to go to the page of your own free will. It could be something built in to the tutorial, rather than having it pop up every day when we log in with notifications, because I also find that very grating.

I really think the best option is to have something similar to a very popular mobile game where there aren't regular notifications about the ability to spin a wheel (for example), but you can spin a wheel every day to get a bonus prize and potentially (very rarely) a jackpot prize. Something with a similar function would be a great idea. This way people would get something extra for logging in every day, but we wouldn't have notifications, and there wouldn't be a pressure to log in on a clock for fear of losing out.

I just thought it would be interesting to include that I agree with Tap, but I would also note that I find I am actually pushed away from sites that have log-in prize chains, as I feel they're not all that community-centric. I feel badly when I see people on other sites lamenting that they lost their chain because of real life stuff and I feel Sylestia particularly has people from all walks of life and all abilities - I would argue that logging in to realise you missed a day and now have to wait another week to get the "top prize" for log ins could be a massively negative and disappointing experience which might put a newer player off. In comparison a jackpot/wheel/once daily system people have an entirely positive experience because if they don't do it, it doesn't have any impact on their gaming, but if they do take part it can only improve things!

@Flute,
I think your comment about newbies makes a lot of sense. Perhaps if you are a new player, you get a bonus for logging in for any of your first 30 days? Or something like that to increase user retention? It would probably help those who have trouble in the beginning and use all their money on potions to no avail. Then again, I believe the tutorial and beginning area is meant to be changed quite a bit.

Since it's a lot easier to gain gold later on, I don't think it would be worth it for anyone to abuse the free log-in bonus if that would be a concern.

@Lavelle,
I would feel so much happier if there were no pop-up, or have it be an opt-in type of set up!~ I am also quite amused by the idea of having a wheel, due to the Wheel Pets of the olden days.

As far as the inflexibility and commitment goes of the idea of 'logging in x days in a row', it could instead be 'x times a month' (not necessarily in a row) or the less frequency option of 'once a week'. To allow flexibility.

On the flip side tho, in regards to your 'very small' comment, the actual value of the items is relative.

Unchained X for example, yea the jewel amount may be small but I have no real money to throw at the game so getting jewels every day means eventually I can get something cool.

I do agree that monetary prizes are generally a poor substitution for item prizes, but if we all end up getting good items then it would impact the economy of said items and if we get 'consolation prizes' then it would defeat the purpose. Maybe set it up like the scale shop or the gladiator shop where you can spend the money/points/login bonus on just certain items. Heck we already have similar systems implemented throughout the year as temporary festival shops with eggs/coins/etc as currency.

@Kaosu,
Yeah, the value of gold is relative, generally based on how long you've played the game.

This being the case, if the prize value of gold is small, then I think the only people it would become useful for would be new players (for shop items). Which kind of defeats the whole purpose for the majority of the userbase, and becomes essentially spam to me.

And if one instead uses a larger gold amount as a prize, then that puts more gold into the system which causes inflation, which then decreases the value of gold, thus making the login prizes become the equivalent of consolation prizes for everyone, again defeating the purpose, unless the goal was to devalue gold-priced shop items (e.g. potions, traps) in a convoluted way.

I don't think there is really a good balance that can be achieved when the prize is a currency that can be traded, such as gold.

I do really like your idea of another shop set up like the scale shop and the gladiator shop! As it avoids the problem stated above. It should be a currency that cannot be traded, like AP points, imo. The items in the shop can be non-tradable as well. But there can also be an option to "buy gold" with this currency. E.g., each login day of currency can be traded for 1k gold as well, so newer players can still gain this type of income, as well as those who want to get rid of their log-in currency.

AP for logging is the best idea I've read so far, and it makes a lot of sense. We're awarded AP for doing a lot of other small mundane things on the site, so why not the simple action of logging in? It'd be a great boost for newer players and completely innocuous for older players. Like, maybe there could be a Jinxie pop-up for the first 5-7 days as a reminder, and then every day after that it's awarded automatically.

It wouldn't do anything for the gargantuan amount of unusable AP points that veteran players continuously pile on from playing the game for so long, but at least it's something, and I think having access to more avatar options at the beginning of the game as a result of this would be far more likely to encourage retention. Most of the players I've invited to the game take one look at the default beginner options, realize how long it'll take them to earn the AP for a desirable style, and go "lol no" as they log out for the first and only time.