Land Purchase

Hints and Tips

• Players shouldn’t spend all of their Cronos on land, otherwise they have no Cronos to spend on harvesting.
  As soon as you’re managing several sections of Land they will fill that section of your ERM, you’ll need to scroll to the right to harvest that extra land, or to purchase more.
• The cheapest land is also the cheapest to harvest. So players should aim for the cheapest land to begin with as that will reduce their costs throughout the game. This variation in cost may only become apparent to more experienced players of the game, or those who’ve spent some time investigating the solo version.
• The land that is cheapest to harvest will always be on the left of the displayed  portfolio of land. The ERM is configured to make it as easy as possible for players to optimize their use of land.

Importance in Game Design

• Right from the start of the game the value of communication between players is demonstrated, and one player buying land that another player had desired is an immediate source of friction. While harvesting forms the main body of this game, Land Purchase as the first action, with similar mechanisms and problems, forewarns players about what to expect.
• The relationship between land cost and ongoing harvesting cost is not clear, and revealing it to players is not mandatory. This variation in purchase cost and harvesting cost may intrigue more mechanism minded players, but they will have limited time and information to investigate it during an active game. This is a useful learning point for players, and also a good demonstration of the value of practicing and replaying scenarios.

Relevance to Evivve’s Ecosystem

Evivve is carefully designed to have complexity within some areas while being very simple to understand in others. The inability to buy all but a few single sections of land prevents players from specializing in a single type of land, forcing communication between them. However all land of a particular type produces the same resources at the same rate - a very simple mechanism for each player to engage with as they discuss what they are harvesting compared to the orders they are seeing.

Best Practices for Facilitators

• Ensure players understand the need for Cronos to harvesting, so they don’t spend too much too early. Spending too much Cronos on land purchase can put them behind on their aims to such an extent that they will struggle to gain momentum in the early stages. Of course as the facilitator you understand the context the players are in, but ensure that over-ambitious purchases bring out a specific learning point rather than a drawn out failure.
• If you think the players may spend too much on land purchase early on it is best to reveal that learning point in any discussions before the game begins, maybe by asking players how much they intend to spend on land.
• The ERM will warn players about spending too much Cronos, but it won’t prevent them from doing so. Within the game the ERM has been carefully constructed to stimulate conversations about UI and UX design, if those are relevant to the players’ day to day roles.

Benefits and Challenges

• Land purchase is a simple system, and provides quick feedback. Within the mindset of using the AFERR model this gives players an early opportunity to reflect on their decisions, and where their choices on which land to purchase have led them.
  The land purchase process rewards study. Players exchanging information about purchasing costs and harvesting costs early in the game can benefit the entire team.
• The main challenge that the land purchase system presents is that it prevents all the players specialising in just one or two types of land. With a single type of land being split across more than one player they are forced to communicate if they’re going to make optimal use of what they’ve bought.