Love Nikki Dress Up Queen: A Critique On The User Experience
I’ve always loved mobile games. It’s one of the things that got me interested in the world of UX in the first place.
They tend to get a bad rep, but done well, a mobile game can be just as engaging and fun as a console or PC game. However, many of these app’s biggest downfall is the way they construct their gameplay, especially for free-to-play games, and even more so with gacha games.
Now, what is a gacha game? It is a game that contains “loot boxes”, sometimes in the form of actual boxes, other times in the form of banners or some other sort of opening/drawing mechanism. The idea of these is that a user can spend premium currency (in-game currency bought with real life money, and oftentimes earned sparsely throughout the app), and no matter what, they will “win” something. The catch is that it’s not always going to be what the user wants. This is what makes gambling games like these “legal” and available to those of all ages, and as a result, can be very dangerous. However, there are examples of gacha games that are made with the user in mind, and that’s honestly what I find most interesting — gacha games work tirelessly to try and appear to not be manipulative in order to reel in users, and while some are fair and user-friendly, most fail terribly. It is especially disappointing when a game starts off as fair and free-to-play friendly and takes a nose-dive as greed wins over the user experience.
One such game I’d like to talk about today is Love Nikki Dress Up Queen, a dress-up role-playing game made by Papergames and published by Elex. At its height, Love Nikki was an engaging and fun game that provided ample features and events for all players, earning upwards of 7 million US dollars per month. These days, however, Love Nikki appears to be a shell of its former self, with lacking features, an abandoned UI, constant cash-grabs and nonexistent communication with its users. Love Nikki dropped from earning millions, to barely cracking a million in the most recent months, which while not anything to sniff at, is a deep fall from what once was. To add on, the user base is dissatisfied to the point of boycotting nearly every year, with more and more dropping off every day. So, how did Love Nikki go from being such a popular and fun game, to being a game that even their most dedicated users can’t stand behind? Unfortunately, many of the reasons fall upon Papergames and Elex’s feet.
Competition:
Let’s start with the fact that Love Nikki has no real competitors. Love Nikki has the unique benefit of not only being a dress-up game, but being one that is extremely in-depth with a highly detailed art style. Upon doing a quick competitor’s analysis, I’ve found that while there are other dress up games, none fit quite into the niche that Love Nikki has managed to carve for itself. Games such as Time Princess and Shining Nikki (another game by Papergames), are built using a 3D art style, and have styles that are far more rooted in reality — nothing quite like the dramatic, fantastical backgrounds and styles that Love Nikki has.
As for 2D games, the closest I could really find were games like Alice’s Closet, and even further from the genre, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Playing those games showed the same differences that the 3D games had: Alice’s Closet had a similar gameplay style, but the base avatars were un-poseable, and the clothing selection was vastly limited compared to Love Nikki. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood on the other hand, had a large clothing selection, but was based around real life fashion designs, even having collaborators with designers such as Balmain and Karl Lagerfeld.
This leaves Love Nikki with somewhat of a stronghold on its current userbase, as many do not wish to play with a 3D artstyle, and others prefer the detailed poses and designs that Love Nikki is known for. Unfortunately, I believe this has also played a part in why the companies Elex and Papergames have been able to let the server slip into such a state: when there are no competitors, there’s no need to go above and beyond. To make things worse, because there are no direct competitors, users have put up with more than what they normally would with such an app because Love Nikki is essentially their only option.
Next, I’d like to talk more specifically about the things that Papergames and Elex have done to deteriorate the user experience in their app.
Neglected features:
One of the relatively smaller issues of the game, but an issue nonetheless. Love Nikki suffers from having a woefully under-updated UI, with the game not being adapted for larger screens. As a result, users with larger smartphones suffer from having a UI that is blocked off by unappealing bars at the top and bottom of the app, or in some cases, images of a random clothing item and its description that looks far too much like an advertisement. There is no way to get rid of these things, and as a result, the game ends up looking messy. The outdated UI becomes even more difficult to deal with as the users are able to see the myriad of UI updates that Love Nikki’s main server, Miracle Nikki, receives, to the point where the two games nearly look like different applications altogether.
Events:
Gacha games nearly always have event after event to keep the user returning and engaged. Whether it be seasonal or no, gacha games are notorious for going back-to-back with things to do in the competitive landscape that is mobile gaming. For Love Nikki, while the game seems to have quite a few features and events, when one looks closer, they find that many of the features are either neglected, or aggressively pay-to-win. To further explain, I ran a short poll asking people what their favorite gacha games are and why. Many chose games that had a variety of free-to-play friendly events such as those that gave premium currencies for free, a balanced system that didn’t heavily favor “whales”, or heavy-spending players, and events that didn’t pressure users to spend with extremely short time-periods or impossible goals. Events like these interspersed with more whale-targeted ones allow for the users to thrive for the most part while also allowing the company to meet their bottom line.
Now, let’s look at Love Nikki, and its main server over in China known as Miracle Nikki. Miracle Nikki follows many of the same trends that the most popular gacha games follow — high-spending events with free-to-play events also known as “welfares” in between. This system allows for all users to be able to save up their premium currency of diamonds fairly easily so that they may participate in the hell events without needing to spend for the most part. Of course, there are also items that are locked behind a paywall to entice high-spenders, but for the most part, the game allows for users of all levels to enjoy the game. In addition, there are other features that are regularly updated to allow for users to play and earn diamonds that way as well. It is a balanced system, and does extremely well.
Love Nikki has none of this.
In stark contrast to its sister server, Love Nikki is very nearly battered with back-to-back high-spending events and recharge (real money) items. The issue is that there are little to no welfare events for users, often leaving free-to-play players without any premium currency to keep up without spending money. In addition, game features such as their story chapters and traveling mechanics are woefully neglected, leaving users with almost no ways to freely earn diamonds in the game, especially late-game. This also leaves users finding the app boring, because once those features are exhausted with sparse releases, there’s nothing to do but spend money, which is pretty unappealing to the majority of users. To make things worse, Love Nikki’s events are so unbalanced that they are either caught up or ahead of the original Miracle Nikki server in terms of recharge and high-paying events, but so far behind with welfare events that it’s likely the game will never catch up. This aggressive treatment leads me into my next segment: Dark UX, and how Papergames and Elex use it to their fullest advantage.
Dark UX:
As stated in my previous section, Love Nikki suffers from a wealth of UX choices that actively try to manipulate and goad the user into spending money. Whereas the Miracle Nikki server has a wealth of free-to-play friendly events and items (suits) to balance out the more expensive diamond events, the Love Nikki server has little to none, and I believe that this is done on purpose in order to pressure the users into spending. There are many examples, but I will use some of the most recent and egregious that I could find.
Papergames and Elex deliberately withhold free suits and welfare events, while consistently pushing out expensive, diamond-heavy events and real-money recharge suits. It has gotten to the point where recently, the company went to the effort of changing the UI for a recent event in order to remove the free suit that came with the expensive diamond event.
The withholding of free events and suits to run alongside expensive events is unfortunately the norm for this server. While users in the Miracle Nikki server will be given welfare events to pad out the downtime between more expensive events, or have them running alongside each other, the Love Nikki server tends to have either nothing to do, or back-to-back events that put an unfair amount of pressure upon the user. During this month alone, the Love Nikki server had several high-spending events, including two that were on their last run. This is an example of Papergames and Elex abusing the user’s fear of missing out (FOMO) to get them to spend. Combine these with the absence of welfare events, and a user who wishes to complete both of these expensive events has little choice but to spend real life money. It is manipulative, and a blatant show of how little the company seems to care for the user’s overall experience.
Another example of manipulation, and also perhaps poor UI design, is how many of their diamond purchase buttons do not come with a confirmation screen, no matter how expensive the purchase. As one can imagine, the premium currency of diamonds is extremely hard to get in-game without spending money, and so many users tend to be careful not to spend them on events that they have no interest in, and only use whatever free attempts on the gacha that the event gives them. The issue is that there is no warning that the user has spent their free tries, or any other sort of confirmation that they are now using their diamonds to pull — it simply keeps going. As a result, many users have lost diamonds that could have otherwise been saved. In addition to this, the UI screen is manipulative in that the enter button for the event is in the exact same spot as the most expensive diamond pull — one wrong double click, and a user is out 1500 diamonds. An easy fix to bring back the feeling of security and control for the user would simply be to add a confirmation screen, but it seems that Papergames and Elex would rather allocate those resources to removing essential features from their UI.
The way Papergames and Elex have set up their aggressive pushing of expensive events has put a great strain on their highest-paying players, or whales, as well. There are multiple recharges per month, many of which require spending upwards of 20 dollars per suit, and then many are also pushed to pay real money once again to reach the most exclusive rewards during the expensive diamond events. With the lack of welfares, the whales are also unable to get any kind of a break from spending, and it tends to become demoralizing. To make things worse, there has been a recent trend where recharge suits are split up into different purchases, so that the user must first buy the suit, and then have to buy the rest of the suit in a separate purchase, ultimately costing them more than if they just had the suit all in one package. This tactic pressures the user as it makes them feel like they have not bought the whole suit, and will be tempted into “completing” it with another purchase.
Communication:
Last but certainly not least, let’s talk about communication, or lack thereof. Love Nikki arguably has some of the worst communication and support, with no insight to event timelines, no response to feedback, and nonexistent support. Because there are no binding options for one’s account aside from Facebook and E-mail, Elex and Papergames offer no account recovery, and generally adopt a “it’s your problem” approach to any users who are trying to recover their accounts for whatever reason. Many have asked for binding options like Google Play over the years, but aside from a few responses along the lines of “we’re working on it”, there has been no change. Unfortunately, this seems to be the trend for Elex and Papergames — each year for at least a couple years now, the Love Nikki server has gone boycotting due to the lack of support and unfair treatment in the game, and every time, Elex and Papergames have simply responded either vaguely about how “they’ll do better”, or just not at all, preferring instead to try and sweep things under the rug. This most recent boycott has been met with absolutely no response, and the only way users know that the company is aware of the unrest in the community is their communications to random users, leaving them to spread the word. This leaves their public timeline “pristine”, and allows them to keep other users in the dark for as long as possible.
Let’s quickly compare this treatment to the communication and support Miracle Nikki gets. Users in Miracle Nikki get swift responses when they are displeased, even when it comes to things such as disliking an art style or suit design. When issues arise, Papergames is quick to offer a public apology, a solution, and then they take action to implement said solution. Users benefit from social media binding options, and are secure in their accounts. As a result, Miracle Nikki benefits from a strong and varied event schedule, and is incredibly free-to-play friendly.
The global Love Nikki server is not new — it has been around for several years, and yet these communication and support issues remain constant throughout the entirety of the server’s history. Rather than simply speaking to their users and establishing a strong connection to allow them to feel secure enough to support the game monetarily, the company has succeeded in driving away a large portion of their paying user base.
Saving Love Nikki:
Now that we have spoken about all of these things, one must ask, is there anything that Papergames and Elex can do to salvage the damage they have done to Love Nikki and earn their user’s trust back?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, but it would take a great deal on Papergames and Elex’s part, especially with their recent actions. Users have been mistreated for so long that any and all goodwill that once was there is now gone, and the company has proven itself to be untrustworthy and manipulative in their intentions. Many users had even gone on to say that Papergames and Elex would rather spite their user base rather than earn money, and looking back at their actions, one can see why.
Their mistreatment of the app and the extremely poor user experience has soured the once extremely loyal user base, and unfortunately many will never come back. However, upon polling some of the users, there are some ways that the company can earn back their user base and possibly regain their former glory.
The most common response was simple: address the user’s demands, and actually follow up on them indefinitely. Love Nikki is notorious for promising to “do better” and then have absolutely no improvement aside from maybe one welfare event to appease people short-term. As a result, users have felt betrayed over and over by Papergames and Elex, and it will take a drastic overhaul on their part to bring the user’s trust back. It has been several years, and while users at first were very understanding of the company, and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, it’s no longer the case, and the company only has itself to blame.
Next, related, is communication. More often than not, Love Nikki only really communicates to the userbase on Facebook, and it is almost entirely event announcements. There are a few “stylist’s opinion” posts where users can leave feedback, but due to the lack of improvements to the game and absolutely no transparency, it feels as if the users are simply throwing their feedback into the void. When users are trying to get support for their game, they are met with… not a lot of support.
If there is no communication and support, especially with a lack of account recovery options and binding, how can the company expect users to feel secure enough to spend their hard-earned money?
Conclusion:
Miracle Nikki shows that the company knows how to run a successful and user-friendly mobile app, complete with strong support and free-to-play friendly events. It feels as if it should be simple, then, to adopt those same practices with Love Nikki, and in the beginning, they did, and it got them a massive profit, multiple high-level collaborations and a wealth of new users regularly in return. Unfortunately, instead of continuing down this path, whoever is running Love Nikki now is very quickly on their way to driving a once beloved game into the ground. Rather than address the users that love the game and are understandably angry, the owners of Love Nikki opt instead to turn a blind eye and continue their aggressive tactics to try and manipulate their remaining user base into spending and allow their app’s increasingly poor user experience to fester. I can only hope that Love Nikki will return to its once former glory and that Papergames and Elex realize just how much the users want this game to succeed. Love Nikki is unique, and truly at this moment there is nothing that can really replace it.
I’d like to thank the Love Nikki boycotters and subreddit for helping me find screenshots and giving their insights!
