Trying to make a decision using math
Dec. 13th, 2019 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosleiaI'm going to do some math to work something out for myself.
So I started playing this phone game called The Arcana. It's really beautiful and has this rich worldbuilding and gorgeous music. But I'm finding myself frustrated by the way it works. To see all the content, you have to spend in-game coins. You can earn coins a couple different ways. You can also purchase them with real money. I spent $20 on coins right away because I knew I would want to see more story, but I have barely started playing and I've already spent them all. I want to see just how quickly this would add up.
There are six different journeys you can take in the game. Each journey has (or will have) 13 books in it. Each book costs 500 coins, if you want to just go ahead and buy them to get all the content. You can also spend coins while you're playing; it's 150 per decision, but I'm not sure how many decisions are in each book. I presume it adds up to more than 500 coins, so I'm going with the 500 as my baseline per book.
So. 6 journeys, 13 books in each journey, 500 coins for each book. That's 39,000 coins to get all the main story content.
Note: You can play the game without spending coins. You just don't get to see the extra content.
Now, how do you earn coins? Well, every day you can go to the Tarot tab and it will give you 5 coins automatically. Of course, if you buy a reading, you spend way more coins than that (100 or 250). So if you go to the Tarot tab every day and don't buy a reading or spend coins on anything else, you can earn all the content in 39,000 / 5 = 7,800 days, or 21 and a half years. (You can earn a single journey story, 13 books x 500 coins = 6,500 coins, in 1,300 days, or about three and a half years.)
There's another way to get coins, on the Spin tab. Every day you get a free spin. You can also spend 20 coins to get an extra spin. There are 8 items on the wheel; four of them are "trinkets", which you can collect to earn a side story, and four of them are different coin amounts: 5, 20, 40, and 1000. Let's pretend the chances of getting any of these are 1/8. (I don't actually know if this is true; the wheel could be weighted in some way.) If it were true, conceivably you if you went to the Spin tab every day and didn't buy extra spins or spend coins on anything else, you could win 1000 coins every 8 days, and get to the 39,000 coins in 312 days. Less than a year is better than 21.5 years. ;P You can also earn a single journey, 6,500 coins, in 56 days, two journeys in 104 days, three journeys in 160 days, four journeys in 208 days, and five journeys in 264 days.
Let's add these two up. Let's say we are getting 5 coins per day on the Tarot tab and 1000 coins every 8 days on the Spin tab, and we are not spending coins on anything but books. So every 8 days we would be able to buy two 500-coin books. After 100 days, we would have 500 coins from the Tarot tab, which earns us an extra book. I made a spreadsheet to visualize these two things happening at once, because I'm a giant nerd. Saving coins both ways, we could purchase one 6500 coin journey after 56 days (we'd have 7000 coins). This is the same amount of time as it would take without the Tarot coins. Two journeys take 104 days, three take 152 days, four take 200 days, five take 256 days, and to get all six journeys, it takes 304 days. That's not significantly faster than the 312 it would take just with the spins.
This is all based on the assumption that you actually can get 1000 coins every 8 days on the Spin tab, and I don't know if that's even true. I've never hit the 1000 coins when spinning the wheel. Also, it is really difficult not to spend coins on other things. The Tarot readings cost coins, extra spins cost coins, and there's also this game called Heart Hunter where you can win postcards from the characters. You can play it three times a day, and it's free, but if you want to pick which characters are available each game, you have to pay something like 100 coins. If you want an extra turn, it's 50 coins. If you get enough postcards, you can earn prizes, which include coins, though I don't know how many. You can also earn keys to unlock books (a whole 'nother wrinkle; you can't continue through a journey if you don't have keys). Additionally, on the Story tab there are Tales, one-shot stories where there are decision tree options that cost coins.
I am not sure I am the type of person who can open this game every day, go to the Tarot tab to get 5 coins, to the Spin tab and hope for 1000 coins, and then close it, for 56 days in a row, only getting to play/read on the days I hit the jackpot. If that ever even happens.
So let's say I get impatient and I want to just buy coins with real money to get all the content. To do one journey I need 6500 coins. I can get exactly that amount in the store.
For $99.99.
This means if I want to buy all six journeys, I would be spending $599.94.
I could easily imagine myself spending $20 here and there to get more coins so I could unlock more stuff, not noticing how much it's adding up. Well, me, that's how much it could add up. And it would actually add up to more than that, because $19.99 only buys 1200 coins. So if I kept buying coins at that level and eventually bought all the journeys, I would have spent a total of $649.68.
Yes, I can play this game without using any coins. I can just choose all the options that don't cost coins. Unfortunately, those are the options that are interesting! I feel like I'm missing out whenever I avoid one and I hate it.
Do I want to spend the better part of a year mining for coins? Not really.
Do I want to spend $600 or $650 in actual real-world dollars? Absolutely not.
If there's something I've missed, or somewhere that my math is wrong, please let me know, because I do really enjoy this game, and I'd like to see all the content somehow. I don't know if I can handle playing it knowing I'm "not allowed" to see all the content. I may just have to delete it from my phone to stop myself from being upset by the whole situation.
(Honestly, there is a lot of content there. Six separate versions of the story depending on which character you choose, plus all that wonderful music and art. It's definitely worth money. If you can play it without feeling like you need to use coins all the time, and you can therefore enjoy the game without spending an unreasonable amount of money, unlike me, then please do, because the creators deserve to be paid for all that hard work. I just don't know if I can continue like this.)
So I started playing this phone game called The Arcana. It's really beautiful and has this rich worldbuilding and gorgeous music. But I'm finding myself frustrated by the way it works. To see all the content, you have to spend in-game coins. You can earn coins a couple different ways. You can also purchase them with real money. I spent $20 on coins right away because I knew I would want to see more story, but I have barely started playing and I've already spent them all. I want to see just how quickly this would add up.
There are six different journeys you can take in the game. Each journey has (or will have) 13 books in it. Each book costs 500 coins, if you want to just go ahead and buy them to get all the content. You can also spend coins while you're playing; it's 150 per decision, but I'm not sure how many decisions are in each book. I presume it adds up to more than 500 coins, so I'm going with the 500 as my baseline per book.
So. 6 journeys, 13 books in each journey, 500 coins for each book. That's 39,000 coins to get all the main story content.
Note: You can play the game without spending coins. You just don't get to see the extra content.
Now, how do you earn coins? Well, every day you can go to the Tarot tab and it will give you 5 coins automatically. Of course, if you buy a reading, you spend way more coins than that (100 or 250). So if you go to the Tarot tab every day and don't buy a reading or spend coins on anything else, you can earn all the content in 39,000 / 5 = 7,800 days, or 21 and a half years. (You can earn a single journey story, 13 books x 500 coins = 6,500 coins, in 1,300 days, or about three and a half years.)
There's another way to get coins, on the Spin tab. Every day you get a free spin. You can also spend 20 coins to get an extra spin. There are 8 items on the wheel; four of them are "trinkets", which you can collect to earn a side story, and four of them are different coin amounts: 5, 20, 40, and 1000. Let's pretend the chances of getting any of these are 1/8. (I don't actually know if this is true; the wheel could be weighted in some way.) If it were true, conceivably you if you went to the Spin tab every day and didn't buy extra spins or spend coins on anything else, you could win 1000 coins every 8 days, and get to the 39,000 coins in 312 days. Less than a year is better than 21.5 years. ;P You can also earn a single journey, 6,500 coins, in 56 days, two journeys in 104 days, three journeys in 160 days, four journeys in 208 days, and five journeys in 264 days.
Let's add these two up. Let's say we are getting 5 coins per day on the Tarot tab and 1000 coins every 8 days on the Spin tab, and we are not spending coins on anything but books. So every 8 days we would be able to buy two 500-coin books. After 100 days, we would have 500 coins from the Tarot tab, which earns us an extra book. I made a spreadsheet to visualize these two things happening at once, because I'm a giant nerd. Saving coins both ways, we could purchase one 6500 coin journey after 56 days (we'd have 7000 coins). This is the same amount of time as it would take without the Tarot coins. Two journeys take 104 days, three take 152 days, four take 200 days, five take 256 days, and to get all six journeys, it takes 304 days. That's not significantly faster than the 312 it would take just with the spins.
This is all based on the assumption that you actually can get 1000 coins every 8 days on the Spin tab, and I don't know if that's even true. I've never hit the 1000 coins when spinning the wheel. Also, it is really difficult not to spend coins on other things. The Tarot readings cost coins, extra spins cost coins, and there's also this game called Heart Hunter where you can win postcards from the characters. You can play it three times a day, and it's free, but if you want to pick which characters are available each game, you have to pay something like 100 coins. If you want an extra turn, it's 50 coins. If you get enough postcards, you can earn prizes, which include coins, though I don't know how many. You can also earn keys to unlock books (a whole 'nother wrinkle; you can't continue through a journey if you don't have keys). Additionally, on the Story tab there are Tales, one-shot stories where there are decision tree options that cost coins.
I am not sure I am the type of person who can open this game every day, go to the Tarot tab to get 5 coins, to the Spin tab and hope for 1000 coins, and then close it, for 56 days in a row, only getting to play/read on the days I hit the jackpot. If that ever even happens.
So let's say I get impatient and I want to just buy coins with real money to get all the content. To do one journey I need 6500 coins. I can get exactly that amount in the store.
For $99.99.
This means if I want to buy all six journeys, I would be spending $599.94.
I could easily imagine myself spending $20 here and there to get more coins so I could unlock more stuff, not noticing how much it's adding up. Well, me, that's how much it could add up. And it would actually add up to more than that, because $19.99 only buys 1200 coins. So if I kept buying coins at that level and eventually bought all the journeys, I would have spent a total of $649.68.
Yes, I can play this game without using any coins. I can just choose all the options that don't cost coins. Unfortunately, those are the options that are interesting! I feel like I'm missing out whenever I avoid one and I hate it.
Do I want to spend the better part of a year mining for coins? Not really.
Do I want to spend $600 or $650 in actual real-world dollars? Absolutely not.
If there's something I've missed, or somewhere that my math is wrong, please let me know, because I do really enjoy this game, and I'd like to see all the content somehow. I don't know if I can handle playing it knowing I'm "not allowed" to see all the content. I may just have to delete it from my phone to stop myself from being upset by the whole situation.
(Honestly, there is a lot of content there. Six separate versions of the story depending on which character you choose, plus all that wonderful music and art. It's definitely worth money. If you can play it without feeling like you need to use coins all the time, and you can therefore enjoy the game without spending an unreasonable amount of money, unlike me, then please do, because the creators deserve to be paid for all that hard work. I just don't know if I can continue like this.)
no subject
Date: 2019-12-14 12:50 am (UTC)*shrug*
Or just switch to steam or something. ;)
I did spend $15 on the Untitled Goose Game for my computer. Wish some version of it was available on my phone though (impossible). So with that and Tiny Tower, and a couple smaller things... I actually spent like $50 this year on games. But I'm set now. :)