Reviews are a key element of consumer game sites. But they don't make much sense for a business-focused site like PocketGamer.biz, which is why we've come up with Monetizer.
It's our version of a review, which provides objective analysis of new free-to-play mobile games, specifically in terms of ranking their monetisation.
You can see previous columns here, and we're highlighting different techniques daily on our Tumblr page.
You can also read my handy explanation about how we calculate the numbers here.
Building times
With new CEO Don Mattrick in place, things might be on the up for Zynga, but to demonstrate a turnaround to investors, it needs hits and fast.
CastleVille Legends is a character-focused resources-based game arising from its once popular city-building franchise.
Released on 8 August 2013 for iOS, its performance to-date has been steady - it's currently top 50 top grossing on the US iPhone chart - not spectacular.
As well as 2 hard currencies, CastleVille Legends offers discounted bundles
In terms of our Success ranking, the iPhone version ranks 0.0017, while the iPad version ranks at a similar 0.0021.
Both numbers reflect a lack of global interest; we take a score of 0.01 as a mark of western commercial success.
Money talks
The next metric we consider is the Currency Discount ratio, which is a mark of how much larger IAP transactions are encouraged.
In the case of CastleVille Legends there are two hard currencies - crowns and coins.
Crowns is the harder of the two, with a transaction range of $1.99 to $99.99, while coins run from $0.99 to $59.99.
Crowns have a CDr of 1.5, while with coins it's a similar 1.4; both are within the standard range of 1.3 to 1.8 we typically see in F2P games
Easy-going
Our final measure is the Monetizer ranking.
This is a measure of how highly a game looks to monetize its gameplay and players, particularly the first 10 minutes or so.
Although I had to wait to get CastleVille Legends loaded up, the tutorial process is simple and well-presented, with no mention of in-app purchases.
Surprisingly perhaps, at this stage the game doesn't even promote Facebook connection or other social interactions.
Combined with a relatively simple currency system - 2 hard currencies and a starter offer bundle worth $4.99 - CastleVille Legends ranks 60 on our Monetizer scale.
This is well under the 100 threshold we use to signify a highly monetized game.
Conclusions: CastleVille Legends
Success coefficient (iPhone) = 0.0017
Success coefficient (iPad) = 0.0021
Currency Discount ratio = 1.4 (coins), 1.5 (crowns)
Monetizer coefficient = 60
CastleVille Legends is a F2P game with a low level of early monetisation, which has yet to demonstrate wide commercial success.
