At the start of a ten-week season the game sells a pass for about 8 dollars. The pass has 100 levels of prizes. You do not get them by paying. You get them by playing. Each level takes hours, and the best prize sits at level 100.
Hours a week, low end8 hours
Hours a week, high end15 hours
So you have paid, and the prizes are still locked. To get what you paid for, you have to play. The makers of one big game once said finishing its pass took about 75 to 150 hours. Over ten weeks, that is 8 to 15 hours a week.
Paid8 dollars
↓→
Played0 hours
↓→
Prizes?
You buy the pass and never play again. What do you get?
Almost nothing. The prizes are unlocked by hours, and you gave none.
Right. The pass is not a purchase of prizes. It is a purchase of the right to earn them, and earning them is the part the game wants.
Your 8 dollars back at the end of the season.
Not yet. There is no refund for unplayed hours. The 8 dollars were the game's from the first day; the hours are what it is still after.
All 100 prizes. You paid for the pass.
Not yet. Paying opens the pass; it does not open the levels. If paying gave everything, nobody would have a reason to play the season.
Pay 8 dollars→Prizes locked behind hours→Hours feel owed→Play to not waste it
Here is what the pass does. It turns hours into something you owe. A player with 30 levels left in the last week plays to not waste the 8 dollars. But the 8 dollars are already spent, and the game already has them. What it wants now is the hours.
Set how many weeks of the season are left, and how many hours a week you play. The rule is made up and round: one level for every hour.
Level reached4 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
2 weeks · 2 hours2 weeks left at 2 hours a week is 4 hours. That reaches level 4; 96 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached10 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
2 weeks · 5 hours2 weeks left at 5 hours a week is 10 hours. That reaches level 10; 90 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached20 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
2 weeks · 10 hours2 weeks left at 10 hours a week is 20 hours. That reaches level 20; 80 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached30 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
2 weeks · 15 hours2 weeks left at 15 hours a week is 30 hours. That reaches level 30; 70 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached10 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
5 weeks · 2 hours5 weeks left at 2 hours a week is 10 hours. That reaches level 10; 90 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached25 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
5 weeks · 5 hours5 weeks left at 5 hours a week is 25 hours. That reaches level 25; 75 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached50 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
5 weeks · 10 hours5 weeks left at 10 hours a week is 50 hours. That reaches level 50; 50 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached75 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
5 weeks · 15 hours5 weeks left at 15 hours a week is 75 hours. That reaches level 75; 25 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached16 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
8 weeks · 2 hours8 weeks left at 2 hours a week is 16 hours. That reaches level 16; 84 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached40 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
8 weeks · 5 hours8 weeks left at 5 hours a week is 40 hours. That reaches level 40; 60 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached80 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
8 weeks · 10 hours8 weeks left at 10 hours a week is 80 hours. That reaches level 80; 20 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached100 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
8 weeks · 15 hours8 weeks left at 15 hours a week is 120 hours. That reaches level 100: the pass is finished.
Level reached20 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
10 weeks · 2 hours10 weeks left at 2 hours a week is 20 hours. That reaches level 20; 80 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached50 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
10 weeks · 5 hours10 weeks left at 5 hours a week is 50 hours. That reaches level 50; 50 levels are still locked when the season ends.
Level reached100 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
10 weeks · 10 hours10 weeks left at 10 hours a week is 100 hours. That reaches level 100: the pass is finished.
Level reached100 levels
Levels in the pass100 levels
10 weeks · 15 hours10 weeks left at 15 hours a week is 150 hours. That reaches level 100: the pass is finished.
Five weeks are left and you play ten hours a week. Do you finish the pass?
No. Fifty hours reaches level 50, and the other 50 levels stay locked unless you buy them.
Right. This is the corner the pass is built to leave you in. Halfway, out of time, and the shop sells the missing levels one at a time.
No, but the game extends the season for you.
Not yet. Seasons end on a date for everyone. What the game extends is not the time but the offer: buy the levels you did not reach.
Yes. Five weeks is plenty.
Not yet. Five weeks at ten hours is fifty hours, and the rule is a level an hour. Fifty levels is half the pass.
Move both controls.
The pass8 dollars
Buying 30 missing levels40 dollars
Real numbers. In that game a missing level could be bought for about 1.30 dollars. Thirty levels short at the end of the season is about 40 dollars, five times what the pass cost. The pass is cheap. The end of the pass is not.
20Levels short
↓→
1.30 dollarsEach
A player is 20 levels short when the season ends. Each level costs about 1.30 dollars to buy. About how much does finishing cost?
dollars
Right. About 26 dollars, more than three times the pass. Most players do not buy the levels. The ones who do are paying for the hours they did not have, which is the same thing as paying for time in chapter one.
Each of these is a payment on the pass. Was it paid in hours, or in money?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 5
The pass itself, bought on the first day of the season.
The sixty hours it took to reach level 60.
Twenty levels bought in the last hour of the season.
A whole weekend spent finishing the last week's tasks.
The pass given to you as a gift by a friend.
The pass itself, bought on the first day of the season. → Money
Not yet. Money. The 8 dollars are the first payment, and the only one the game is sure of.
The sixty hours it took to reach level 60. → Hours
Not yet. Hours. Every level is an hour on the rule, and the hours are the payment the game was really after.
Twenty levels bought in the last hour of the season. → Money
Not yet. Money. Levels bought at the end are hours paid for in cash, at about 1.30 each.
A whole weekend spent finishing the last week's tasks. → Hours
Not yet. Hours, and the most expensive kind: the weekend went because the season was ending, not because the game was fun that day.
The pass given to you as a gift by a friend. → Money
Not yet. Money. Someone paid the 8 dollars, and the game does not mind who; the hours it wants still have to come from you.
Moneyonce
↓→
The pass
↓→
Hoursall season
Right. The pass is paid for twice. Once in money, at the start or at the end, and once in hours all season long. The game earns from the first payment and lives on the second.
Free rowyours
vsvs
Paid rowshown, locked
A game gives the pass free, but a second row of better prizes needs 8 dollars. All season, you can see the better prizes you would have got. Why show them?
Because the better prizes are needed to play well.
Not yet. Pass prizes are almost always outfits and decorations. They change how you look, not how you play, and that is why they can be locked without anyone complaining.
To be generous. Showing is a kind of giving.
Not yet. Showing a locked prize gives nothing. It is there so the pile grows in view, and the pile is the sales pitch.
So every hour you play builds a pile of prizes you can only claim by paying.
Right. By week eight the locked row holds eighty prizes you have already earned. Eight dollars for eighty things you did the work for is the easiest sale in the game.
Lesson complete
A season pass is paid once in money and again in hours, and the hours are what the game wants.