[READ!] The Token Economy Also: We hate P2W!

[SMG Studio]

Hello, a few words regarding the Token economy for all our new players who don`t have the game on their phone:

(Updated Aug 2020: We adjust the token economies occasionally. We think we've been very generous and sadly the more generous you are the less incentive there is to go premium. So we're adjusting to find the sweet spot of free vs paid support.

If you currently have MORE tokens than the "MAX" we set, then you wont earn tokens until you run below that number. This is an edge case usually during the period we change the economy.)

1. You get 120 tokens in the beginning, enough for 20 Multiplayer OR 24 single player games. This is the "free phase" of RISK.

2. After that, you receive a number of free tokens per day, enough for ~6 multiplayer or ~12 single player games per day.

3. You can earn back tokens by winning games (but never enough to play 24/7. At least we think so?)

4. You cannot purchase tokens, there is no consumable pay to play. We hate that stuff.

5. If you want to play more, get Premium. It unlocks unlimited games, 6 new maps, 8 avatars and is transferable to all devices and platforms we support.

6. Fair warning: Neither Premium nor any other in-game purchase gives you an advantage in the game. As a matter of fact, more than 25% of the current Grandmasters are FREE players who never spent a cent on the game :( I mean good on them but throw us a bone! :)

TL;DR: NO P2W NO P2P. EVER. Get Premium, if you love it and want to support us.


Real time with Ash (Head of SMG): To be honest we'd much prefer the game be premium from the start but if we did that we'd force everyone who paid us on mobile over the years to buy the game again to run on Steam. You could say that's justified but it'd be scummy. So we went with the same model as mobile to allow cross purchase. It's much less beneficial for us as on mobile we can show ads to support the free players. We cant do that on Steam.

We hoped that the reduced price of the game (again matching mobile's cost to not charge a premium here would be appreciated by the Steam community. Many of you have noticed and supported us. Thanks!

So support devs going the right thing by consumers and more devs will do the same.

[𝕸𝖆𝖉𝕳𝖎𝖕𝖕𝖞]

Charge for the DLC, but charging someone to play, in a F2P market unfortunately is a very bad thing.

[SMG Studio]

Thats why we dont charge per play.
Treat it as demo - and if you like, what you play, go premium.
This business model has worked excellent for the last 4 years.

[Daniel3160]

Once you run out of tokens, you essentially only get a game a day. What a con.

[SMG Studio]

Originally posted by Daniel3160:

Once you run out of tokens, you essentially only get a game a day. What a con.

Here, I fixed that for you:

"Once you run out of the 10-25 allowed games in the game you didn't spend a cent for, you get only one to three free games per day unless you upgrade the free / demo experience with a DLC that gives you 6 additional maps and 8 new avatars and, oh by the way, also transfers to all your phones and tablets."

Does that still sound like a con? If yes, we really need to talk about your definition of a con here...

[YoinkSpecialist]

Imagine complaining about paying for a game you enjoy... LUL anyway I enjoyed my free demo and will be sure to go premium when i get paid. thanks for the great game SMG Studio

[Daniel3160]

Imagine charging £10 for the same game format that's been around for years. People will only buy this when it's on sale, there's loads of bad reviews because of the price plus the devs look like they don't really care.

[IvanErtlov]

Imagine developing the "same game format" all the time further with the same or even bigger team size, adding new game modes, features, options and infrastructure, adding free content to both the base game and existing DLCs ...

...and then actually having the audacity to charge money for it when bringing it to another platform. Ah, wait, existing players arent even charged, they have all their purchases here.

[Miraan]

Originally posted by IvanErtlov:

Imagine developing the "same game format" all the time further with the same or even bigger team size, adding new game modes, features, options and infrastructure, adding free content to both the base game and existing DLCs ...

...and then actually having the audacity to charge money for it when bringing it to another platform. Ah, wait, existing players arent even charged, they have all their purchases here.

I don't know my password on my google play account (which I have premium on). I can't see a way to reset my password without having to put my old password in. What do I do?

[GokturkSM]

Originally posted by IvanErtlov:

Imagine developing the "same game format" all the time further with the same or even bigger team size, adding new game modes, features, options and infrastructure, adding free content to both the base game and existing DLCs ...

...and then actually having the audacity to charge money for it when bringing it to another platform. Ah, wait, existing players arent even charged, they have all their purchases here.

guys, just do what you think best. playing 2-3 games multiplayer daily is a delight. i get that steam players not used to it, because there are "free" games. what they don't comprehend is that these "totaly" free games are not fair at all. without spending money, playing those games are just not enjoyable. however this game is still enjoyable even if you pay or not. when you don't pay, there is token limiter. otherwise why would i buy the game? if i like the game and "have" it, then i gotta pay for it. 2-3 times a day is enough for me, so i'm not buying the game right now.

if you love it, then buy it. it's that simple. these guys are not valve. they can't afford 1 million to organise a tournament to promote their game, so guys all around world comes and buy skins in a game where there are 1 million daily players.

thanks for the game, and i hope people here will try to emphasise with you guys.

[Drakon141]

Originally posted by MMRhino:

Originally posted by IvanErtlov:

Imagine developing the "same game format" all the time further with the same or even bigger team size, adding new game modes, features, options and infrastructure, adding free content to both the base game and existing DLCs ...

...and then actually having the audacity to charge money for it when bringing it to another platform. Ah, wait, existing players arent even charged, they have all their purchases here.

I don't know my password on my google play account (which I have premium on). I can't see a way to reset my password without having to put my old password in. What do I do?

You have to create a RISK account in the game to be able to transfer over. Google play is only a mobile thing.

[aud]

these devs are sassy af i like it

[SMG Studio]

Originally posted by mildly_spicy:

these devs are sassy af i like it

Haha thanks. But we're here to provide a good quality product and chew gum...

Seriously though we think we're being pretty fair here. If we charged premium on Steam (our preferred method) it would have been a slap in the face to the players who supported us for many years on mobile.

[NANI?!?!]

Bro we can only play 3 maps and now we have to wait to play the same thing over and over? I dont mind having 3 maps but why cant you just remove the tokens??

[SMG Studio]

Originally posted by NANI?!?!:

Bro we can only play 3 maps and now we have to wait to play the same thing over and over? I dont mind having 3 maps but why cant you just remove the tokens??

That's the friction to encourage people to upgrade to premium. We'd LOVE to just make the game premium from the start. pay upfront and go but wanted to be fair to the mobile players who already paid on mobile. So this way we're able to offer a premium upgrade that's multi-device and also a free trial for people. So win win.

The only people that lose out are those that never want to pay but for those you just have to wait?

[reg1s7]

Originally posted by SMG Studio:

6. Fair warning: Neither Premium nor any other ingame purchase gives you an advantage in the game. As a matter of fact, more than 25% of the current Grandmasters are FREE players who never spent a cent on the game. Grrrr.

TL;DR: NO P2W NO P2P. EVER. Get Premium, if you love it, but no one is forcing you.

I appreciate that decision. Thanks for providing playing environment that is free from pay-to-win. I hope this business model can self-sustain long term.