This is not just a "bidding/buying game" where players need to click their mouse button and wait for a result; our aim was to create a game that would motivate players to construct and apply specific strategies, set goals and become one with the idea of upgrading their abilities on a daily basis. Friend$broker is based on a system of rewarding; players who demonstrate a continuous progress throughout the game will be benefited with more abilities (which means more income) and greater positions in the overall ranking.
In order to become one with the idea of Friend$broker, players should be steadily upgrading their abilities and collecting experience (XP) through their achievements. To help players get off on the right foot, we decided to award everyone who joins the game with abilities that already match level 1 so that they start the process of earning money right away.
Creating this game, our main concern was to keep players on their feet, from the very first moment they entered the game until the day they would be exhausted of clicking their mouse button. To set a solid basis for that, we decided to create a new bidding project where players cannot surpass a specific value limit or acquire fancy prices, and we applied this idea on a system of fixed, 24 hour-long bidding rounds. Through this technique, we are able to prevent players from becoming isolated in their own ‘kingdoms’, until someone finds the money required to generate some kind of action; allow each and every player to approach and interact as gamers with everyone else; secure the game from market bubbles.
Friend$broker has created two ways to give players a feedback about their prices and values during the game: the first one comes from the price tag icon in a player’s Statistics Board, which demonstrates their Value during the gaming round that’s on at the time. This value is formed according to how many bids a player receives from other players during a fix gaming round of 24 hours. The second way for players to know their value is the number demonstrated on the right side of their Statistics Board underneath the number in the green font (info about the green one coming right up!). This number shows a player’s Overall Value in the game, which comes from the amount of money that other players have spent by placing the final, winning bid on them. In other words, this number demonstrates the Damage caused to pet owners.
This number demonstrates a player’s position in the Overall Ranking, that is, where the player’s progress stands among the overall amount of game users. The overall rank of the game can be found on the Hall Of Fame page, by clicking on the hat-gloves-whisky combo icon in the middle of your profile page.
This icon is followed by a number that demonstrates a player’s Max Value during the game. The Max Value of a player is the higher value they acquired at some point during the game, i.e. their value record. This number changes if surpassed by a higher value during a game round, otherwise stays the same.
These stars accompany your very own experience level (XP Level). As we mentioned above, our goal was to create a game that would offer more to its players as they upgraded their accounts. For this reason, we’ve chosen to provide players with XP points which translate into a player’s unique XP Level.
The more XP points a player collects, the greater their XP Level becomes. As the XP Level increases, players become able to enjoy 1) more and better works, 2) a better Quarter Day Bonus (money you receive every 6 hours), 3) greater energy capacity, 4) more assigned tasks, 5) new Extra Objects, 6) a better XP rank at the Hall Of Fame page.
When a new player enters the game and their XP level is still low, they can only receive a limited amount of work from their owners and choose from that same small amount to assign their pets with. The works a new player is able to receive and assign do not offer a significant amount of money in return. As the XP level of a player gets higher, they become able to receive and assign choosing from a bigger variety of works that award them with more money. In other words, the bigger XP level a player obtains, the more money they will get by receiving/ assigning a work.
Let’s say you recently entered the game and you want to assign your pet with a work. Your XP level is 1, so all works you can choose from (for example, “Take out the garbage”) require 5 minutes and 3 units of energy in order to become completed. These works offer an average profit of $10,000. At the same time, a player that has been playing the game for quite a while and has upgraded their XP level to 20 can assign works (for example, "Change a light bulb") that also require 5 minutes and 3 energy units, but offer an average profit of $18,500 in return.
Your Quarter Day Bonus is money that you receive every 6 hours. Each time a player climbs higher in the level ranking they obtain an extra 10% in their quarter day bonus; which means that, if the quarter day bonus for level 1 is $2.750 every six hours, on level 2 players will receive $3.025 every 6 hours. This is the best way for players to understand the “upgrading”’notion of the game, as being on level 20 offers $6.484; level 50 offers $293.477; and finally, being on level 100 offers $34.451.531 (!) every 6 hours! This is an equal opportunity for each and every player to play and win as more money as possible.
Your energy capacity is demonstrated in the upper right corner of your profile page with a yellow font; your energy MAX capacity is the second of the two numbers you see, and shows your ability to store energy units. If a player’s energy tab demonstrates two equal numbers, this means that their energy capacity cannot be further increased, unless they level up. In order to generate an energy level-up, players need to increase their XP level, which is planned to always match their energy MAX capacity. This means that, if your XP level is 30, your energy MAX capacity is 30 as well. In other words, a high energy capacity means that players acquire a high XP level, and a high XP level helps players obtain more energy to spend on their works.
Tasks have a single purpose; to offer players money! Therefore, by upgrading their XP level, players become able to unlock more tasks and make more money by accomplishing them; this is also a good opportunity for players to familiarise their selves with the basics of the game.
Extra Objects are designed to provide players with better ability numbers. By upgrading their XP level, players obtain access to new Extra Objects that hold greater ability numbers.
The more XP points a player collects, the better their XP rank at the HOF. A good XP rank provides players with a better Overall rank in the game (which is that green number on your Statistics Board underneath your awesome level name?).
There are a number of ways designed to help you earn XP points:
This chart demonstrates the amount of XP points a player needs to collect in order to reach the next game level.
This pink piggybank is your own family of friends. This is an innovative part of the Friend$broker rewarding system, where players are benefited from inviting friends to the game. Our aim was to encourage players to invite real and active users, rather than simply creating inactive accounts in order to collect an occasional bonus. For this reason, we decided to create the “family” entity.
Friends invited to join the game, along with the ones they invite to the game, form each player’s unique ‘family of player-friends. The benefit in this case comes from the fact that each player receives a 7,5 % of the total amount of money their friends spend, plus an extra 25% of the family profits (that is, what friends receive from their own friends), and all of the above on a daily basis! What this means is that, instead of creating a fake or inactive account that does not offer any kind of substantial profit, players can win a great deal of money on a daily basis by simply maintaining their accounts and inviting friends to join the game!
To show you how easy that can be, here’s an example coming from our user Megan Smith (https://www.friendsbroker.com/pet/megan). Within only six days of playing Friend$broker and having invited 19 friends to join her family, Megan was able to collect:
In the process of inviting friends to the game, players should use a specific invitation link that will navigate and allow users to create an account. This can be done by clicking on “ACCOUNT” in the upper right corner of your profile page. Click on “Your URLs”, “Edit” and then copy the “invitation URL”, paste and send it to your friends through facebook or email (please be careful to send THE INVITATION link and not the one that corresponds to your profile page).
To make sure that friends complete their registration successfully, players can attach the following guidelines to their invitations:
All players possess an “ability stats” box on their personal profile. This box provides an overview of the abilities a player obtains while playing the game, that is, the ability of a “pet””, a “broker””, an “employer””and that of an “employee”.
All works can me assigned and checked upon (in terms of their progress) by clicking on the tool icon (a screwdriver and a wrench) on the upper left side of a player’s profile page.
In order for players to receive works they need to acquire an owner. Owners become obtained after the end of gaming round 1. In order to assign works, players must become owners to a pet. This can happen from the very first minute an account gets created, and all that players need to do is make a KEEP on a pet.
Works have been created based on the following parameters:
This icon is followed by a number that demonstrates the amount of money an employer will make in case their pets do not undertake the assigned work (in other words, a money warranty).
This icon is followed by a number that demonstrates the amount of XP points an employer will receive in case their pets do not undertake the assigned work (an XP points warranty).
A BAD work is something that we all understand. Something like taking out the garbage or cleaning the stairs! As terrifying as these works might sound, at Friend$broker they are designed to provide both money and XP points to employers/employees. GOOD works (which are still in the making process!) are designed to award employers with a great amount of XP points instead of money. Pets on the other hand are awarded with money and XP points by undertaking both good and bad works. This means that when it comes to good works, not only do employers receive no profit but they also lose a significant amount of money.
As we mentioned above, the higher a player’s XP LEVEL the more and better works they can assign or receive. In reality, in order for an assigned/received work to offer the higher possible profit, both parts should be elevated. This means that if a player with an XP level 100 owns a pet with an XP level 1 they can only assign 1 work to this pet, even if their XP level demonstrates that they can choose from a number of works. (The works that a player is able to choose from can be seen by clicking on the “view works” button).Therefore, in order for players to be able to assign better works they need to be owners to pets with elevated XP levels. This also helps pets to become valued according to their XP level.
Smaller works offer more money per energy unit. If for example a player finds a pet that they have a good collaboration with, it is suggested they assign them with short-time works rather than long ones; big works happen to require a great amount of energy while not providing an equal amount of money in return. In this case, smaller works can offer more money. If on the other hand a player owns a lazy pet, it is suggested they assign them with long-time works. Finally, if a player owns a pet that is likely to remain idle for ever, it is suggested they choose to assign them with works that offer the best possible money warranty.