What freemium games could learn from Glitch
Written by Jason Tocci at 8:54 am on January 6th, 2012
Original illustration by Craig Henry
Developer Tiny Speck describes Glitch as “a game of giant imagination.” It’s a browser-based massively-multiplayer online game that’s free to play. Designer Stewart Butterfield told the Vancouver Sun, “The point of the game isn’t that you crush your enemies.” Rather, the point is … uh…. Well, I’m not sure what the point is – but it’s not to bleed its players dry.
I turned to some Glitch-playing friends to help explain the point of the game to me, and one offered the following:
You spend “currants”-y and talk to trees and butterflies, who all have their own personalities. You can collect cubimals (adorable wind-up toys you can race) and activate spinach to jump really high, or broccoli if you want to make a stink. There’s nono powder, juju bandits, a giant bird that attacks every so often, and a whole bunch more. And it’s all for free!
In other words: There’s no clear point. It shares a lot with social games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille in that, technically speaking, you’re basically just clicking on things, waiting for progress bars to tell when tasks are complete, and pushing to meet arbitrary benchmarks along the way. (Glitch gave me a trophy &ndash and effusive compliments about my cute nose – for playing for fifteen minutes.) Even so, the graphics are so adorable, the music’s so charming, and the writing’s so funny that spending time in this big, weird sandbox will probably make you smile.
And, crucially, it really is free, not just “sort of free.”
Glitch
If you play a lot of free games, you’ve probably already encountered more than a few that hold back the ability to play either until some time passes or players cough up a couple bucks. Some go so far as to call this kind of practice “extortion”, but it’s nothing particularly surprising to gamers or hidden by designers. In fact, many games even have a meter on-screen to display your “energy” or “mana,” openly demarcating how much play time you have before the game slams the door on your face and starts demanding a cover charge.
Glitch has an Energy meter, too, not to mention a Mood meter. I suspected that when they ran out, I’d pull into the virtual tollbooth. As it turns out, maintaining Energy and Mood is just a way of building some goal-oriented action into gameplay, giving players a little motivation to explore, collect, interact, and just generally do stuff. You can always forage for candy, nibble on a pig, or milk a butterfly if you need more resources to keep you going. You can get booted from the world for dying, but that’s practically a conscious decision (say, choosing to consume no-no powder instead of one of the more benign psychedelics).
If Glitch isn’t erecting walls every few minutes you to keep paying to play, then how on Earth does Tiny Speck expect to make money? Well, you can pay real-world dollars for “premium” content in Glitch, like fancy outfits for your wee avatar. Plus, you can pay for a subscription, which gets you credits toward exclusive attire, teleportation tokens to save some energy as you move about the world, and – most unusually – the right to cast a vote and give input on the future direction of the game.
As my friend explained, “I got a subscription because I feel like I’ve spent so many hours on there, they deserve my money.” Another friend of mine noted that if she ever subscribed, that would be her reason, too – but in the meantime, she’s just content to spend a few bucks here and there on the occasional outfit.
You can always nibble on a pig or milk a butterfly to keep you going.
How many games would you pay to subscribe to not to get more of the game, but because you like the publisher so much, because you feel like they earned your money rather than demanded it? I’m guessing not many. For that reason alone, perhaps this model will be unique to oddball ventures like Glitch.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that there’s something to be learned from what Tiny Speck is doing here. While some freemium games ransom off play time, forcing you to either wait or pay to keep playing, Glitch uses familiar mechanics to keep the game moving. In other words, instead of running a virtual protection racket, Glitch runs a virtual neighborhood. It feels like a loving gift to a community of players, right down to trophies that compliment your nose. Maybe that’s another kind of psychological manipulation – fostering a “fake” friendship, or something. Given the very real respect shown to players with limited time and money, however, I think it’s manipulation I can get behind.
You can contact Jason Tocci at the following address : jason@pocketnext.com
