Sometimes the Butt of F2P Liveops will consume my thoughts for a day.
Sometimes the Butt of F2P Liveops will consume my thoughts for a day. Today is that day.
In the talk, Teut Weidemann documents the rhythms of F2P engagement and monetization curves like an archaeologist uncovering a secret code. He illustrates what happens when you zoom in. Like, really in. For instance, concurrent users during football matches (the boring European kind) dip during game time and spike during halftime. Yes, that creates a butt shape (wait until you see his next shape). This kind of minute observation makes Ultra Local Live Ops™ compelling, finally providing a meaningful avenue for the “personalization” agenda.
“Personalization” has become an ugly stepchild to price discrimination, mainly focused on triggering successive live ops offers. CRM efforts might localize notifications or reference local holidays, but rarely capture the immediacy of “what’s happening now” or what’s physically around players. Although some AI companies are undoubtedly tackling this problem, I know 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 can do something more straightforward and immediately feasible to build Ultra Local Live Ops™.
There’s a second, broader point when zooming out. Games like Path of Exile (PoE) have an exotic PSU curve. While most seasonal HD games display the dreaded stegosaurus pattern (credit Laura Taranto), PoE’s is greatly exaggerated, resembling a gacha F2P game rather than a dungeon crawler. The reason is straightforward: resets provide entry points for new players. This approach mirrors the anthology revival in linear media (White Lotus, True Detective), similarly driven by audience retention economics. Vertical progression or serialized storytelling naturally disperses players across a broad spectrum of power scores or episodes.
Games like FIFA Online and Tarkov likely experience similar season-start bumps, but it’s curious that this design hasn’t broadly expanded to other titles, particularly on mobile where power scores are common. While 4x players are spinning up new accounts on new servers, it differs significantly from fully resetting collections, as seen with Genshin Impact.
