ITP 499 – Creating Social Games
MIDTERM EXAMINATION (TAKE-HOME)
Spring 2011
The purpose of this midterm examination is to help you identify the various elements of a social game. The first
questions will focus on Terminology, Metrics, Social Game Mechanics, specifically Tutorialization, Progression,
Balance, User Interface, and the Game Loop. You will be required to discuss/identify these elements as they relate
to existing social games. Other questions on this midterm will be specific to programmers or designers.
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Question 1:
Throughout the semester, we have commented on the three R’s (Reach, Retention,
Revenue) that are essential to the success of a social game. In your own words, describe and elaborate
on each of the 3 R’s and how/why they are essential to the success of a social game.
The 3 R’s of Reach, Retention, and Revenue are essential to the success of a social game much as they
are the key to success in any other product. For a product to be successful, it must attract consumers,
keep consumers coming back, and ultimately turn a profit for the developer. In social games especially,
the 3 R’s each play an important role. Reach is necessary for a few reasons. Just like marketing for
other products, if people do not know about your product, how will they pay for it? For social games,
this is especially important because only a very small percentage of the user base is actually paying for
the service. That means that 98-99% of the people playing are simply losing the company money in
terms of development, upkeep, etc. Reach is so important because that 1-2% of those that pay need to
be able to sustain the upkeep costs as well as the initial development cost. 1-2% of the few hundred
people who buy a business jet may be enough to subsidize the development of that jet, but a social
game requires a much larger base. When 100 million people play Cityville, about 2 million of them pay,
and suddenly micro-transactions more than pay for the development cycle. Thus, Reach is important
because a large user base is simply a must to make a social game profitable (this is probably the main
reason that Facebook has become the primary medium for social games, the sheer size). Social game
companies turn to game mechanics such as requiring items from friends, or having a certain Clique Size
(It Girl) to unlock new game loops/regions/etc. to improve this Reach. Another “how” of Reach is the
cross-game marketing bar that appears on top of games such as Farmville directing a player to Yoville of
Cityvile. Retention is important for social games for ultimately the same reason as Reach, the money.
Since social game monetization is based on micro-transactions, developers need the player to come
back again and again to keep spending $1 here and $5 there to increase their ARPPU. Retention is also a
powerful tool because it is exponential. For each player that stops playing a game, that is one less reallife person that is telling their friends about the game, or sending invites for their friends to send them a
few more Zoning Permits, which means that each player not retained actually diminishes the gameplay
quality for all of that person’s friends as well. Developer’s keep up Retention in a few ways: releasing
the game at 30% completion to allow room for new features to keep a player interested, having themed
limited time items based around holidays, daily bonuses, having friends keep needing you to come back
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to help them in missions (or sending a message that they just helped you), gifting, or negative harvesting
effects (wilted crops or a boyfriend losing interest), but perhaps the biggest thing that keeps players
coming back to social games is the human need to feel better than the guy next to him and keep that
city growing. Many of the core social gameplay mechanics are built around the need for Retention,
highlighting its importance in social game development today. The third R is Revenue. The “why” of
Revenue to the importance of social games is simple: without Revenue, there would be no business and
hence no games. The “how” is a little more difficult. Games such as Robot Unicorn are barely
monetized at all, but the larger games built specifically as social games have learned how to get users to
pay and are developed exactly to meet that criterion. First and foremost, the best way to get people to
pay for a game is to make it fun, make them not want to put it down, to just buy that 5 more energy to
finish the project they are working on. Zynga in Cityville does this by specifically making it impossible to
do everything necessary in one visit on a limited amount of energy. After progressing past about level
10-15 in the game, a player simply possesses too many crops and buildings to harvest them all in one
sitting, thus creating the urge to buy more energy. Another method is limited edition or holiday-themed
items that can set a player apart from his/her friends, whether it is a direct purchase or the purchase of
mission items needed for unlockables, such as the clovers needed for Irish-themed booths in
Ravenwood Fair. Gameplay boosts is yet a third method to increase revenue, a “hotter” dress, a boost
to a player’s boyfriend’s enhancement buff, or purchasing a spin at the lucky gold racks in It Girl might
cost a few real dollars. Overall, each of the 3 R’s play their own unique role. All 3 are ultimately
required for the lasting success of any social game and any development company.
Question 2:
Metrics are key to understanding the success of a social game. Some key metrics used
for social games are: DAU (Daily Active Users), MAU (Monthly Active Users), and ARPU (Average
Revenue Per User). Assume you are interviewing for a consulting position as a social game expert. The
Interview asks you the questions: Why are DAU/MAU important in social games? Which metric is more
important for a social game: DAU or MAU? Lastly, in your opinion, how is ARPU calculated in a social
game?
DAU and MAU are so important in social games because they quantitatively and exactly tell the
development company how many people are playing their game. Furthermore, when comparing DAU
and MAU as a ratio, a developer can see how often their players come back for more, which often
translates to spending more money since players who play once a week are much less likely to spend
money on the game then somebody who checks in every four hours. Yet another advantage of DAU and
MAU is measuring Retention, not only over long spans, but also with new content. If the developer rolls
out a new gameplay element and sees a drop in DAU over the next week, it becomes evident that the
new feature detracts from the fun of the game or has some sort of glitch and needs fixing; conversely
positive effects can also be seen and expanded upon. The more important metric for social games is
DAU. Although MAU helps measure long-term effects, Reach, and other factors, DAU is the key to a
social games success. First of all, just helping out a friend by sending Marble twice a month gets
counted as a MAU, but obviously does not benefit the developer. For this reason, DAU is actually a
better measurement of Reach and Retention than MAU because it counts active users rather than
passer-bys who may just want to help a friend one time. More importantly, DAU measures the amount
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of users on each day that may spend money. As previously stated, the users that play every day are
more likely to spend real money, not only because of time invested into the game, but because they
enjoy the game more to the point where “out of energy” becomes a roadblock instead of an “oh well, I’ll
come back later.” Thus, DAU is more important than MAU because DAU relates to Revenue, and
therefore encompasses all of the 3 R’s giving a more accurate picture of a game’s success to the
developer. ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is calculated by taking all of the Revenue earned over a
time-span and dividing by the number of unique players during that same time frame, whether they
paid or not. This helps to give an idea of the amount of money coming in per amount of money going
out in upkeep of servers, etc.; tangentially it also helps to give a percentage of users that pay money out
of total users. ARPPU may be a better measurement of the quality of monetization in the game to see
how much money is spent per person who actually spends money, highlighting the Revenue in the game
and weeding out the 98% of people who would probably never pay anyways.
Question 3: For the 3 games listed below, please use the attached spreadsheet and analyze the data.
What are some of the trends you noticed after reviewing the charts for the 3 games? Be specific and
detailed. Why do you feel the DAU as a percentage of MAU dropped for Ravenwood and It Girl as
opposed to Cityville? Note: some questions may be answered easier after you have thoroughly played
the games. Who are playing these games (demographic data) and from what territories?
Immediately noticeable is the fact that about 75% of players are female, about half of players are from
the United States, and about half of the players are 18-35 across the three games combined. These
metrics are far different from console or PC games. Interestingly, a higher percentage of females play
Ravenwood Fair, created by John Romero, than It Girl, created from only a female perspective with no
choice for a male avatar. 2/5 of It Girl players are under 18, much larger than the 15-20% seen in the
other two games, with less than 15% over 36, much less than the ~40% in the other two games.
Furthermore, the DAU as a percentage of MAU is around 16-17% for Ravenwood Fair and It Girl, but is
around 22% for Cityville. In sheer number, Cityville also trumps the competition with just below 100
million MAU while the other two have risen to 11 and 9 million respectively over a much longer lifespan.
The two smaller games however have seen a consistent growth in MAU and thus DAU over a large timeframe, while Cityville seems to have already hit a peak and actually lose about 6 million users (7%) in the
past month, despite launching just a few months ago. Ravenwood Fair witnessed a significant drop in
DAU over the holiday period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, especially on the day of, whereas
It Girl held steady, perhaps a reflection of the older, more female population playing Ravenwood Fair.
However, Ravenwood Fair is also the only game of the three to have a positive DAU or MAU in the past
7 days, in part since Cityville’s numbers have been decreasing during the entire time-span and possibly a
result of midterms with the young population base in It Girl. Cityville also stands apart from the other
two games as it boasts an international percentage of players at about 70%, while It Girl is at only 40%
and Ravenwood is just over 50%; this may be another factor in why Cityville’s MAU has dropped recently
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as the majority of the international community hasn’t fully accepted social gaming. A trend common to
all three games are DAU peaks on weekends; this is especially evident in It Girl again thanks to its much
younger population base.
The DAU as a percentage of MAU dropped for Ravenwood and It Girl unlike Cityville for two main
reasons. First of all, Cityville’s graph does not include its launch date, which is reflected in the initial
spikes of the other two games. Secondly, although Cityville’s DAU has increased over the measured
time-frame, its MAU has dropped significantly, thus maintaining an upward in slope in DAU as a
percentage of MAU. In contrast, the other two games have actually seen a higher relative percentage
increase in DAU, but have held an equally increasing MAU. Another key is that Zynga has been
consistently pumping out new content to Cityville (such as a warehouse, visitor center, new shops, and
holiday-themed items), which may annoy some people and thus reduce MAU, but also may make the
gameplay experience as a whole more enjoyable for those still connected to the game, increasing DAU.
Overall, the drop and then plateau of DAU as a percentage of MAU in It Girl and Ravenwood is not a
cause for too much concern as it does not reflect the physical numbers, whereas Cityville’s upward
swing is at best neutral for Zynga, as it displays a downturn in MAU and a status quo in DAU.
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Question 4:
TUTORIALIZATION. Tutorials are essential to social games. The first 5 minutes of a
social game is important to engage the user and ensure they have a meaningful experience. Games with
bad tutorial design are reflected with low retention metrics. For this question, you are required to
create a flow chart outlining the tutorial sequence for ONE of the social games listed below:
The flowchart should list out the process in which the game is trying to educate the user on the core
game loop and key social game mechanics. Being able to recognize tutorial patterns with current social
games will help you identify a tutorial that will be streamlined and balanced for your final game project.
Ravenwood Fair
Entry Screen: Points to how to
press a tutorial “OKAY” button.
Customization: Pick male or female.
Lumberjacking: Learn how to
chop a tree (expand fair)
Item-picking: Shows loot and
how to pick it up.
Menu: Shows where “Shoppe” is.
Restocking: Costs energy and supplies,
needed to make attraction active.
Fun: In text, tells the player how
increased fun increases visitors.
Questing: Tells player about a few
new quests and shows how to access.
Neighbors: Introduces player to help
of neighbors in text.
Building: Navigation in “Shoppe”
to buy and place Hot Dog Cart.
Building: Introduction to energy
cost to construct building.
Building: Material is needed to finish
building (Tree Sap from lumberjacking).
Reinforcement: Lumberjacking,
looting, materials.
First Quest: Earns Special Beaver
Power, which player is told how to use.
Second Quest: Scrolling
Next Quest: First game booth.
Next Quests: Zoom In/Out,
reinforcement with menu bar.
Next Quest: Decorations.
Next Quest: Protectors.
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Question 5:
PROGRESSION. Progression is a key element to social games and extends from
tutorialization. Some questions pertaining to progression in social games include: What happens during
the game from level 1 – level 5? What are the various items that unlock at each level? What are the
‘gates’ on progression (why doesn’t allow you to progress quicker)? How do the following items:
leveling, coins, cash, etc. impact Progression in social games?
For this question, compare and contrast ‘Progression’ for EACH of the three games listed above (from
Question 4). Use the questions listed above as a guideline to help answer this question. You may want
to use a Table Format to list out your answers for this question.
Type of Progression
Ravenwood Fair
It Girl
Unlock basic buildings
and games
Unlock 6 stores, which
supplies a full array of
the 6 clothes types
Games, decorations,
wonders, buildings
Clothes
Unlocked Gameplay
Community buildings means
your city can grow, seaports,
more empty spaces for
neighbor franchises, new
gifts, train station, expanded
energy cap, increased XP
necessary to level
New gifts, increased
XP necessary to level
Gifts, boyfriend, places
to shop, parties to
attend, car in LA, house,
expanded energy cap,
expanded confidence
cap, increased salary per
hour, increased XP
necessary to level
Gates
Houses/shops give less
coins, crops are shorter
spanned, community
buildings give less
population, progress to each
by leveling or having a
certain population,
community buildings require
progressively more friends
to help work there. The
initial cap seems to be
population and coins, but
you are soon solely limited
by space to expand.
The main gate in
Ravenwood Fair is the
ability to earn coins,
as higher level
protectors, buildings,
etc. require many
coins. Also higher
level buildings require
special items such as
more crystals, which
can be more easily
attained by levellocked wonders.
Worse clothes at
cheaper stores, Clique
Size reqs for
parties/shops/boyfriend,
need certain level for
boyfriend, car, house,
locations. Initially, the
level cap is the limiting
factor, but it soon
becomes cash flow.
Level 1-5
Unlocked Items
Cityville
Quickly unlock basic houses,
shops, and crops that spread
the harvest timeline (e.g.
housing has a 5 minute, 4 hr,
18 hr, one day, and 2.1 day
option by level 5);
depending on quest
progression train station can
be unlocked by now as well
New shops, houses,
community, decorations,
basically every phase has
new stuff
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Why do the gates not allow faster progression for each of the games?
Gates exist in social games to keep users in the correct bounds (in the happy valley between a game
being too easy or too difficult). If the best item could be purchased at level 4, there would be no
incentive for progression. Gates force the user to have a long-term, multi-visit investment in the game
world to realize the world’s full potential. Furthermore, gates retain competition. If there was no
energy in social games, people could continually perform the game loop and level extremely fast,
discouraging friends of that user from even trying to keep up; and since these are social games, one of
the largest factors driving traffic is the social (conscious or subconscious) aspect of comparison to your
friends. Another reason gates limit progression is to keep things fresh. In It Girl, if somebody gets bored
of just shopping and partying, they may be about to quit the game until they unlock the ability to have a
boyfriend, a whole new game loop earned to keep the player interested in the game. Using the same
example, gates give the user something to strive for, like the mysterious Car in LA that may give some
sort of cool boost, but the player cannot find out what that boost is until level 22, a long term goal to
shoot for. In conclusion, every gate boils down to keeping the game challenging both in the traditional
gameplay itself and in the new social realm of having the skill required to progress in comparison to your
friend.
How does leveling, cash, coins impact progression in social games?
Leveling, cash, and coins represent two functions: (1) they are the medium by which the gates are
enacted in social games and (2) they are a visual representation and feedback of the progression the
user has achieved. Leveling is first and foremost a way to see how far a user a progressed in the game
world, but also serves the secondary function as one of the main gates employed by developers to limit
speedy progression. Coins (Cash in It Girl) are the main currency of social games and impact progression
by acting as a limit to what a player can purchase, forcing the player to often make decisions about their
progression in the game. The three games use this facet of social gaming in three different ways. In
Ravenwood, coins are the main gate preventing the purchase of the best attractions throughout the
entirety of the gameplay, more so than level. Cityville uses coins to limit progression early on, but the
new gates quickly become real estate and level. It Girl makes the player feel rich, but, by about level 5,
the player starts to realize the need to pick and choose the best clothes because the increase in salary
per hour does not keep up with the increase in clothes costs at stores. It Girl uses cash to actually make
the game more challenging as the player progresses, similar to traditional games, while the other two
games do not. The last facet impacting progression is cash (or facebook points in It Girl and
Ravenwood). This represents real money, and actually is used to skip progression. When a player wants
to progress faster than the game is allowing him/her to, that is when real money comes into play and
the developer can turn a profit. Thus, the impact of this cash in social games is primarily as a source of
revenue, while also acting as a way to “beat your neighbor” or get that limited uber-cool boosting item
for the player. Similarly, all other forms of currency in social games such as food in Ravenwood or
Confidence in It Girl exist primarily as mediums by which the developer can limit the game experience
provided to the user to short bursts, requiring the user to come back for more and making the game a
part of the daily routine instead of a 3-hour weekend binge like traditional console/PC games.
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Question 6:
Balance. Proper BALANCE in a social game ensures all the items in the ecosystem of
the game play together. Things that need balancing in a social game include:
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earning enough coins in the beginning stages to acquire specific items
balancing time so the number of actions a user does in a play setting satisfies the need for
accomplishment
balancing the harvest mechanic so the user isn’t waiting too long (or not long enough) to
progress in the game
energy vs. activity
energy vs. coins/cash
For this question, play the same three games from Question 5. Describe how the game play systems are
similar and different for each game. Comment on how the balancing of each game. Is one game more
balanced than the other? Feel free to use the bulleted list above as a guideline.
Initially, all three games appear very similar in the balance of the game. However, there are actually
some very large differences. All three games have a similar one energy/harvest mechanic. Additionally,
each hour expects the user to stay in the game world for about 15-25 minutes, with Ravenwood Fair
sometimes falling below that threshold but making up for it with a “food” perk to “buy” more energy in
a single session. Additionally, each game progresses through the world, expanding the room for
exploration by the player as the game progresses. Each game also does a fairly good job of balancing
coins and energy so that you always have enough activities to use up all of your energy and have
adequate coins to make choices while using up that energy, although not too many coins to prevent
using energy for tasks such as rent collecting in Cityville or lumberjacking in Ravenwood. All three of
these games also have varied levels of “waiting” from 5 minutes to 3.2 days (although both Ravenwood
and It Girl have the longest harvest time at one day), with major events such as community buildings
and store rack restocking occurring in exactly day long intervals. Energy also renews at the same rate,
one per five minutes (faster in Ravenwood due to food). Despite these basic similarities, the differences
are also evident straight from the onset. It Girl in particular starts the player with more than enough
cash to purchase whatever is desired since the first store is so cheap. It Girl also has Confidence as a
secondary source of energy opposed to the main source, coffee. While coffee is used to search for
clothes, Confidence is a separate energy for an entirely separate game loop of having showdowns at
parties. Additionally, It Girl balances the leveling system by rewarding players for unique actions and
quests much more so than the other two games. While the other two games give about equal
experience for each task, and then a decent bonus for larger missions, It Girl requires winning parties
and completing tasks to level up (with energy alone the player can earn about 15 experience in about
two hours, but with confidence and winning parties the player can earn well over 100 experience along
with extra cash in a shorter time frame). It Girl also has full gameplay loops and regions unlockable into
very high levels while Cityville and Ravenwood only offer new items. It Girl stands apart from the other
two games in these main balancing regards, but the other two also have differences from one another.
Specifically, Ravenwood is almost entirely coin-limited whereas Cityville grows out of the coin limitation
into real estate limitation at higher levels. Cityville also becomes very energy-limited since the player’s
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city often requires far more actions than energy available, a problem almost never encountered in
Ravenwood. Both games do however require multiple energy uses for large projects such as a Hospital
building or a Bug Hurling booth, a facet not included in It Girl. It Girl and Cityville share the commonality
that they require a certain number of neighbors/clique size to unlock certain aspects of the game. In
Cityville, neighbors are not only required directly to unlock items, but also are needed because so many
buildings require “help” from neighbors, preventing game progression without enough neighbors after a
point (a detriment to the game’s quality to the lonely user not evident in It Girl, where the lack of a large
clique only prevents certain stores or other items from opening up, not totally halting progression).
Overall, It Girl is the most balanced of the three. After allowing the user to get the closet up to speed in
the early stage, the game limits the player in energy and cash, raising the difficulty in accordance with
player skill. At the same time, the game consistently offers new gameplay loops such as a boyfriend and
car while unlocking entirely new areas (at first just shops, but also entire districts). The game grows in
difficulty, but also in depth and thus captures and keeps the user’s interest very consistently and in a
variety of ways. The game also has an award-tracking system to remind the player of the sense of
accomplishment felt in the process. It Girl even has a rivals list so the player can go back and beat foes
that previously defeated the player in showdowns, further highlighting the sense of progression in the
game. In comparison, Cityville is not well balanced because the player ends up completely ignoring large
portions of the city that simply are not as profitable and take up too much space for the energy cost
they require; suddenly the player is left with an excessive amount of cash and no incentive to proceed
except about 4 more unlockable buildings and continuing to try and tediously keep up with neighbors.
Ravenwood Fair may be the worse balanced of the three games. Upon each visit to Ravenwood, the
player is left with extra energy to chop down some more trees. Unfortunately, the player almost never
has enough coins to make good use of the new real estate and the entire fair ends up being either
sparse decorations or a very small fair in a large open plain. Additionally, the rate at which materials
drop becomes frustrating when larger buildings cannot be finished due to a lack of random loot or the
need to purchase specific loot (like the clovers) despite not being informed of the need at the onset of
the 8-energy build project. All of these factor help make It Girl the best-balanced of the three games
and keep the user playing for a long time.
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Question 7:
User Interface. User Interface or UI is a critical component to game design and a
successful social game. UI provides the visual details and gateway to the user experience. As you play
through each of the three games, you will begin to notice common UI elements within social games. For
this question, answer the following:




what are the common UI elements for each game (feel free to use a Snippet tool in Windows 7
or Command – Shift- 4 on a Mac to capture specific areas of the screen)?
Do any of the games differentiate themselves from the other games in their implementation of
UI
Which game do you feel has the most intuitive UI? Why?
Which UI elements from these games would be best suited for the Class Project we are working
on? Please describe in detail.
The common UI components to each of the three games are: an experience/coin/energy bar at top, a
friend bar at the bottom, quests along the left side, a menu in the bottom right and tabs along the top to
get out of the main game loop while staying within the application, and an expandable bar for options
such as zoom and quality. One differentiation from the other games is It Girl’s use of the right-hand side
as a medium to access pay-for-play content, thus grouping free quests on the left and extra bonuses
that cost money on opposite sides. Cityville and Ravenwood Fair share a few commonalities that It Girl
does not, such as a quest summary icon in the bottom left and simplified menus that then expand to
large menu systems (in contrast, It Girl’s menu directly leads to new game loops). All-in-all, the UIs are
very similar between the three games. I feel that Ravenwood has the most intuitive UI for a few
reasons. First, it is a happy medium between the clutter of It Girl and the too-condensed Cityville (which
made it impossible to find the inventory when I first started playing the game). Ravenwood does a good
job of organizing the menu with very descriptive pictures (a shoppe and a backpack). The menu is the
most important aspect of the UI for intuitive control because it is most commonly and most directly
accessed by the player; the other portions are almost givens across all types of gaming and are often
static. The constant quest log and power reminder are also nice features of the Ravenwood UI. The top
is simple and the friend bar is not overpowering. Due to this intuitive nature, Ravenwood would be the
best fit for our game. It Girl’s UI directly sends players to specific game loops, and, while this does
match our minimalist design, our project is currently designed to perform the game loops from the
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centralized “Pad” location. Therefore, Ravenwood’s UI is more ideal because it is simply more efficient
than Cityville’s despite being very similar. A backpack and possibly something like a “web shopping”
instead of “shoppe” button would be a perfect menu for our game. Additionally, a quest log is a great
idea for our project since questing and acquiring certain items for a successful date is a key component
of our game. Additionally, Ravenwood has a history of completed quests to remind the player of his/her
progression; another very good feature for our game. Ravenwood does not differentiate much from
Cityville in UI, but it does feel the most intuitive and less intrusive to the game environment while still
providing quick and understandable information. It still displays the coins, experience, quests, friend
bar, tabs, and menu options necessary for our project making this minimalistic and clean design perfect
for our design.
Question 8:
Game Loop. The game loop is the core mechanic that keeps a user coming back to the
game and feeling a sense of closure during each game session. Below are some questions related to
determining an effective game loop for a social game.
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
What are the repeatable actions?
What does the player do on a daily basis?
How do the harvesting mechanics work?
Do you have to harvest on every play session?
Play the same 3 games from the previous questions. What are the similar activities you do on a regular
basis? What keeps you coming back? Address the bullet points above and apply them to each of the
social games (CityVille, Ravenwood Fair, and It Girl).
Cityville
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Repeatable actions: harvest crops/ships, collect rent/income
Daily activities: Use up most of energy collecting rent and harvesting crops, supply/collect
franchises, visit neighbors to help them and get bonuses, ask for neighbors’ help to send things.
Harvesting mechanics: Crops/ships/houses/shops all have a timeframe between 5 minutes and
a little over 3 days to come back and collect the goods or coins. The harvesting and ships
require a purchase at the beginning of the cycle while the houses and shops automatically
reset the timer when harvested. Franchises are also a harvest mechanic and must be supplied
and collected from once per day. The only negative impact from a missed harvest is in the
crops and ships when they need to be cleaned up at the cost of the player’s initial investment
and an extensive time to clear when it is a withered crop.
Harvest on every play session? It is not necessary, but progression is basically halted without
harvesting. Although, at very high levels, space becomes a bigger issue than coins or goods and
some days the city is simply visited to request more items from friends to continue expansion
than to earn more coins.
Keeps you coming back: Running out of energy often with tasks left to perform, quests are
consistent, the need to ask items from friends but limiting the request to once per day, the
social aspect of having a better city than a neighbor.
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Ravenwood Fair
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Repeatable actions: Refill fair attractions/booths, recharge protectors, lumberjack trees to
expand.
Daily activities: Use up most of the energy performing the repeatable actions, visit neighbors to
help them and get bonuses, try to complete specific missions given my fair visitors.
Harvesting mechanics: Attractions at the fair run out of goods and need to be restocked at
varying rates. Additionally, protectors become inactive if not charged. Otherwise, there is no
monetary loss to not harvesting except the fact that no currency is being given to the player
while the attractions are inactive. The timers automatically reset on harvest and require no
new investment.
Harvest on every play session? It is fairly necessary to harvest each session because that is the
main gameplay component outside of lumberjacking and the only way to earn a decent
amount of coins to progress.
Keeps you coming back: The social aspect of having a better fair than a neighbor, not much
else.
It Girl
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Repeatable actions: Shopping at store racks, keeping your boyfriend interested, playing dress
up, having showdowns at parties.
Daily activities: Check the best store for new clothes, keep your boyfriend interested, win each
of the six parties.
Harvesting mechanics: Keeping boyfriend interested, the boyfriend will give gifts at a given
time interval
Harvest on every play session? It is necessary to give the boyfriend kisses, but otherwise there
is no major harvest component.
Keeps you coming back: The fact that there is always so much left to unlock such as new
clothes, new regions to shop, and new parties to attend. The growing difficulty keeps the
player challenged. There is also the social aspect of wanting to look better than friends, which
also requires the need for new, hotter clothes.
Similarities in all three: A list of common daily activities that must be performed to progress, a “checkin” a few times a day harvest mechanic to avoid a negative effect (wilted crops, unhappy fair visitors,
broken-hearted boyfriend), and all three commonly keep you coming back with a social desire to have a
cooler virtual world/avatar than a friend (possibly the key to almost all of social gaming).
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