Stamina systems are great. This is why.

Everyone hates the stamina system. To the consumer, the stamina system is a way for the developer to a) bleed them dry or b), simply stop them from playing games. It’s a cheap-ass cash-grab that nets each stamina-system-using-studio more money than releasing a good old-fashioned freemium game can.

But is it really?

(See: If you put a stamina system in your game, I hate you)

Stamina systems are both a gameplay mechanic and a monetization system. Most freemium games nowadays run off stamina systems, allowing players to have three to five (usually five) goes at the game before they have to put down their phones and wait for that stamina or energy to regenerate. Or they can choose to pay a premium for more stamina, immediately, so they can continue playing.

On the superficial level, it looks like the developer doesn’t want the player to continue playing. After all, why stop something when they’re having fun, right? This, of course, arouses outrage in nearly all of us. This developer doesn’t want us to play its games? It must hate games!

Look a little bit closer at the kinds of games that make use of stamina systems, though. The first two that spring to mind are both games I’ve been playing daily: Tiantian Kupao and Dragon Coins SEA. Tiantian Kupao is an endless runner, while Dragon Coins SEA mixes character fusion with coin-dozing.

(See: Dragon Coins SEA review: bringing meaning to the coin dozer)

While some developers do use the stamina system or the waiting game as a cheap cash-grab, many others use it instead as a gameplay mechanic. And if this gameplay mechanic also doubles up as a monetization method, well, then, you can only win, or win more.

Let’s take Tiantian Kupao as an example of the above. I love Tiantian Kupao. I play it every god damned day, if not for the login bonus then for the sheer love of seeing my little character jumping and bounding in this endless runner. But I love the fact that it has a stamina system, because Tiantian Kupao without a stamina system would be an endless grind that I would eventually come to hate.

Without a stamina system, I’d probably get my fill of Tiantian Kupao within the hour, and then never pick it back up again. That thing is repetitive, and trust me, it gets boring after too much running.

The stamina-system-enforced breaks stop me from wearing myself out with Tiantian Kupao, and they also keep me wanting more. It’s a basic law of economics: if demand exceeds supply, a shortage will occur, and the commodity in question will become more valuable. Because Tiantian Kupao is deliberately kept in short supply, I love it.