Game Insight: Arena of Valour (Part II)

Last week I introduced the game concept and dived into the game economy of Arena of Valour in this post. This week I will continue to talk about the meta layer.

The meta layer

The meta layer of the game is the features that are not directly related to the core game play but contribute to player engagement. Typically that includes back stories, incentive programs, achievement system, social features and so on. Arena of Valour has a very diversified meta layer that supplements the core game play. Let’s go through them one by one.

Ranks, levels and achievements

Nowadays, it’s a common practice to put levels on everything. This is also true for Arena of Valour. It implements various levels and ranks for the player and the hero. In fact, I think these features are extremely important for player retention because the core game play is ‘flat’ and ‘memoryless’: each time you enter the arena you start anew on level one with 300 coins. The ranks and levels serve as an indicator for progression just like the ‘saga map’ in match puzzle games.

Among all the different ranks and levels, the player rank is the most prominent one. Players achieve higher rank by winning ‘ranked matches’. By definition ranked matches are more serious and competitive than ‘casual matches’. Players are only allowed to use the heroes that they have purchased and not those who are on free trial because participants are supposed to deliver the best…