Allods Online is a free-to-play MMORPG launched in 2009 with multiple currencies, markets, and item ownership models. It sees 20-30k currency exchange transactions daily. Runes help regulate the economy by removing excess currency. Promo currency is account-bound to prevent exploits. Customer behavior shows a path from demand to purchase. The document outlines monetization strategies like item shops, currency and item sales, gambling events, and individual offers, and stresses collecting feedback to analyze results and customer behavior. The goal is to generate demand and provide tools to satisfy it while covering all players.

1. Allods Monetization:
designer’s experience
Ilya Maryasov, game designer, Allods Team
www.mail.ru

2. What is Allods
• Allods Online is a F2P MMORPG in an original
universe. Commercial launch: October 2009
www.mail.ru 2

3. Economy Flowchart

4. Economic System
• Multiple currencies
• Several models of item ownership (BoP, BoE, BNone)
• Open market of in-game goods with a lot of participants
• Internal convertible currencies
www.mail.ru 4

5. Currency Exchange in action
30.5
25.5
20.5
15.5
10.5
5.5
20-30k transactions per day
games.mail.ru 5

6. Social and Economic Value of Runes
Any system needs economic regulations. In
Allods runes regulate the economy. Their
mechanics allow to remove the excess any kind
of currency: game currency, premium or promo
www.mail.ru 6

7. Promo Currency
Main feature of the promo currency (“premium
crystals”): it is account-bound.
• Obtained during special events or by
converting normal real-money currency.
• Prevents from economy exploits when
bonuses and gifts are given away.
• Ensures that the currency will be used only by
player for whom it was intended.
• Has lower liquidity.
• Requires additional support in the IM
assortment
www.mail.ru 7

8. Audience Interaction
www.mail.ru 8

9. Customer Behavior
Demand generated
Need more bag space
Search for solution Create twink
Expand bag Expand bank deposit Discard items
character
Choosing a tool
IM purchase
Category search
Subcategory search
Item search
Choosing item
Purchase
www.mail.ru 9

10. Customer Behavior and Conversion
100.0
Demand generated
25.0
Purchase decision
Choosing a tool 22.5
Category search 20.3
Subcategory search18.2
Item search 16.4
Choosing item 14.8
Purchase 13.3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
www.mail.ru 10

11. Item Shop Progress
• Customer thinks of item categories instead of
specific positions.
• Customer does not know the assortment.
• Customer has demands they are unaware of.
• Customer does not think in “bank notes”.
www.mail.ru 11

12. Assortment Management Basics
• Convenience – fast access to required
category or goods
• Transparency – logical assortment structure
• Clarity – descriptions of goods and categories
www.mail.ru 12

13. Assortment management
games.mail.ru 13

14. 6 customer groups
• Utility-oriented
• Fashion-oriented
• Reliability-oriented
• Variety-oriented
• Pastime-oriented
• Emotion-driven
(С) McDonald
www.mail.ru 14

15. Item Sales
• Every month several positions are sold at a
discount
• Usually not revenue drivers
• Revenue driver sale is followed by
overwhelming demand
• Brings little to none revenue but generates
hype and news topic
• Allows to reveal overpriced goods
Audience:
www.mail.ru 15

16. Currency Sale
• Real money currency (“Crystal”) is on sale
• Sets expectations among consumers
• Increases revenues significantly: +10-15% to
monthly revenue
Audience:
www.mail.ru 16

17. “Magic Lamp”
• Event encouraging non-paying users to pay
• Gambling elements
• Individual offer
• Without a character-bound currency, results in
incorrect behavior pattern (“army of low-level
twinks to receive bonus”)
• +5-10% to monthly revenue
Audience:
www.mail.ru 17

18. Box of Crystals
• Temporary “money sink” event for premium
currency
• Gambling mechanics
• Binding status must be transferred to
generated bonus
• +2-5% to monthly revenue
Audience:
www.mail.ru 18

19. Individual Offers
• Special kind of crystal sale
• Targeted only at active audience
• Gives benefits to certain player categories
• Accepted negatively
Audience:
www.mail.ru 19

20. “Happy Million”
• Special kind of crystal sale
• Limited offer
• Sells a given amount of currency in short
period
Audience:
www.mail.ru 20

21. Sales Points
• Any sale affects future purchases.
• Sales on a regular basis form behavior
patterns.
• Bonus must be bound to character.
• Any giveaways stimulate incorrect behavior
patterns.
• Available payment methods greatly affect
sales.
www.mail.ru 21

22. Lottery Events
• Run every month
• Why players are excited:
– Limited-time sale
– Exclusive content
• Any gambling event decreases lifetime of a
customer
Gambling audience:
www.mail.ru 22

23. Lottery Models Tested
• Zero lottery – on large numbers average
cost of all dropped items equals to the
price of all lottery boxes
• Zero sale – average cost of dropped
items is equal or higher than the lottery
box price at each attempt
• Exclusive sale – there is only exclusive
content in the lottery box, it cannot be
acquired from other sources, but price
of this content cannot be determined
www.mail.ru 23

24. Lowering Attrition Generated by
Gambling
• Collector’s coins– each opened box gives one
coin used to purchase base-level exclusive
prizes. This is positively accepted.
• Rewards are still useful after single use – non
binded rewards, players can stack few lesser
reward to get more valuable prize
• Each attempt of lottery activity is getting user
closer to top-prize. No “common” fillers-goods
in the box
www.mail.ru 24

25. Increasing Attraction of Gambling
• Grand Prix – players who opened a certain
number of boxes automatically participate in
daily lottery
• Jackpot - each opened box adds some gold to
Jackpot pool. There is a chance to win the
whole pool every time a player opens a box.
www.mail.ru 25

26. Feedback
For each event, the following feedback must be
collected and analyzed:
– Audience impressions
– Statistics
– Experience of playing developers
– Sales before, during and after the event
It allows to make a conclusion about customer behavior
and results of the event.
www.mail.ru 26

27. Conclusion
Main monetization steps:
• Generate a demand
• Provide the tools to satisfy it
• Cover all participants by these tools
• Provide reasons to re-evaluate demands
• Collect and analyze feedback and statistics
www.mail.ru 27

28. Thank you!
Ilya Maryasov
Game Designer, Allods Team
maryasov@corp.mail.ru
games.mail.ru 28