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How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

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Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#131

Post by shados »

Faark wrote: post #123
shados wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have gone too far once or twice (out of hundreds....) where I felt bad about it. I've felt the same way about a major renovation once too though. It happens. The key is in your last sentence: "wouldn't in retrospect have preferred to use that money for something else." Unless I went and blew 50k on the game (which I fortunately never did and likely never will!), that's not even a question. Whatever money I'll spend…

If you don't mind... I'm eager to hear how this is... fun. I've personally encountered whales in two situations: One was someone in an MMORPG trading equipment. Okay, I kind of get the skipping work part, especially if the money doesn't matter. But then there were the logs I've encountered while doing support for a browser based MMO RTS. Players clicking the same few buttons to get a small fixed amount of resources.…

Have you ever dropped a quarter in one of those machines that drop a random toy as a kid? It's exactly the same. You push the button and hope to see rainbows appear, and when they do, it's fun. No, doing it for hours would not be fun (and would be horribly expensive. These transactions can easily run 20 bucks per "pull"). You do a few in a row every now and then.

The fun part (and what distinguish the good gacha games from the bad ones) is how much fun you can have with what you get. Some feel like the transactions and the gambling is the end goal. You play to get currency to get random stuff. Boring.

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#132

Post by shados »

mattnewport wrote: post #119
shados wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have gone too far once or twice (out of hundreds....) where I felt bad about it. I've felt the same way about a major renovation once too though. It happens. The key is in your last sentence: "wouldn't in retrospect have preferred to use that money for something else." Unless I went and blew 50k on the game (which I fortunately never did and likely never will!), that's not even a question. Whatever money I'll spend…

> Whatever money I'll spend on these, I -still- have to spend on something else. I only spend a tiny fraction of my disposable income. This seems like a strange measure to me. No judgment on how you choose to spend your money - I've certainly spent money on things I later regret, and I've also spent large sums on relatively frivolous things which I don't particularly regret. There's always an opportunity cost though…

Think of it as going to a fancy restaurant. When you eat a fancy steak, it lasts a few minutes, maybe a few hours if you consider the whole experience, but at the end it goes in the toilet. But you had some enjoyment (well, unless you're vegan). You'd also get enjoyment from a much cheaper burger, too, but sometimes it's fun to do something different, even if the money is lost and you're left with nothing.

It works like that, except you usually still have something for a long time, even though it's digital.

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#133

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #69
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If what you want is a "Warning, this game may be addictive" every time you load the game, then fine. But I do not think the government should be passing hate taxes on things they don't want you to do. People mostly agreed when it came to cigarettes, now they're coming for sugar, and they're very likely to be going for animal based products at some point. I don't think it's the government's job to control the populace…

> They can force companies to make risks clear, but if the consumer accepts the risk, that should be that. It doesn't solve anything when the problem is with externalities and prisoner's dilemmas. Taxes on sugar and smoking can be argued on the grounds of increased load on national heathcare, at least in countries with publicly-funded healthcare. Taxes (or rather, pulling back on subsidies) on meat can be pretty stro…

You giving justifications for banning food really just proves my point. Tyranny of the majority, if that faction should ever become the majority.

With gambling there exists the chance you can bet your last $20 and make enough to pay off your debt. I don't think anyone is planning on getting rich off Idle Heroes.

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#134

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #72
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about the hate tax. It's not nationwide yet, but you see more and more people pushing for one every year.

A tax is hardly comparable to heavily restricting sales and making it completely illegal to buy or consume for under-18s. ("Sin tax" is the popular dysphemism, BTW.)

In my post I agreed with basic regulation, but against hate taxes.

>But I do not think the government should be passing hate taxes on things they don't want you to do. People mostly agreed when it came to cigarettes, now they're coming for sugar, and they're very likely to be going for animal based products at some point.

I'm just confused what you're arguing (and why it led to this post being downvoted). I didn't compare tax to consumption under 18.

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#135

Post by kexx »

askafriend wrote: post #95
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #8

What scares me about modern "casual" games like this one is their ability to extract money from people in a methodical, merciless way. There's no proper defense for most people. I fear our society will end up in a worse place because of businesses like this one.

I'm guessing this is why Apple decided to release their Apple Arcade subscription product [0]. Parents could buy the subscription and know that their kids would have access to quality games that don't employ these dirty mechanics and work off-line, with no ads. I think the subscription will do well for this one reason alone. [0] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/apple-introduces-appl...

what's wrong with apple and their understanding of reality? every single time they trying to do something, they claim they are the first who are doing it, when they literally did not do anything ever the first time. or maybe they don't understand the word 'first'?

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#136

Post by askafriend »

kexx wrote: post #135
askafriend wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing this is why Apple decided to release their Apple Arcade subscription product [0]. Parents could buy the subscription and know that their kids would have access to quality games that don't employ these dirty mechanics and work off-line, with no ads. I think the subscription will do well for this one reason alone. [0] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/apple-introduces-appl...

what's wrong with apple and their understanding of reality? every single time they trying to do something, they claim they are the first who are doing it, when they literally did not do anything ever the first time. or maybe they don't understand the word 'first'?

Is there another subscription out there like this one? It seems pretty novel to me.

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#137

Post by logfromblammo »

njarboe wrote: post #91
logfromblammo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have "qualified investors" for the worldwide casino that is the equities market, to ensure you can't gamble more as an early investor than you could afford to lose.

Any adult in the US can invest in equities. The equities just have to be listed and approved. It is all the other type of equity investing (angle, VC, etc) that you are not allowed to do (and where all the growth is moving to) if you are not a "qualified investor".

> as an early investor

Perhaps it wasn't clear that I meant to lump angels and VCs together as "early investors". "Pre-IPO investors" would require unpacking a TLA.

Re: How Idle Heroes Made $100M in a Year

#138

Post by shostack »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #121
shostack wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to get a taste with a quality game that doesn't prey on people with IAP, check out Kittens Game.[1] You can play free online. I paid $2 one-time fee to play on my phone. There's a vibrant community on /r/kittensgame on Reddit and the dev is active there. It is also arguably one of the most well-done idle/incremental games I've played after playing a few. The depth of it is jaw-dropping once you really sta…

How similar is Kittens Game to CivClicker? http://dhmstark.co.uk/games/civclicker/

This looks pretty cool and appears pretty similar in some ways. Not sure how advanced the late game is as that's where Kittens Game REALLY shines.

Is there a version for Android? I see CivCrafter, but that looks like a monetized knockoff.

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