Player value · glossary · reference

Combination glossary: pairs of behaviours, not one score

AFITMRR™ primer · Early metrics hub · Contribution weight · All notes

By Paul Dutta, Founder, Yardstick Games.

One “engagement” number can hide two different lives: someone who focuses deeply once a week, and someone who returns every day for five minutes. Both can look “active.” Product decisions get sharper when you name pairs of behaviours — focus and return, depth and recovery, spend and trust after friction — instead of a single score.

This page is a teaching reference: common pairs, plain reads, genre differences, and how people sit in more than one group over a week. We use AFITMRR™ labels (Attention · Frequency · Intensity · Tenure · Monetary · Referral · Resilience) after the plain meaning — not instead of it.

On this page: What this changes · How to read a pair · Seven lenses · Green · Orange · Red · Genres · Multi-membership · What to do next

What this changes in practice

How to read a pair (at a glance)

1. 1 Both strong Behaviours compound — usually protect and feed. Green · ↑ × ↑
2. 2 Mixed One strong, one weak — opportunity if you act; not automatic failure. Orange · ↑ × ↓
3. 3 Both weak or harmful drop Challenge / regret — learn the path that got them there. Red
4. 4 Direction Moving into healthier pairs is opportunity; sliding out of strength is the hard challenge. Paths, not only snapshots
5. 5 Genre honesty Strategy and social puzzle can both be healthy with different strength peaks. Radars below · optional
6. 6 Do not chase all 42 Name the pairs that are large, movable, and honest for the game you shipped. 7×7 with self×self blank

The seven lenses (quick)

Crossing two different lenses (not a lens with itself) gives combination cells. You name the few that matter for your title — not a universal scoreboard of all cells.

Green · both strong — protect Green

Illustrative pairs. Value is high when the pair matches the loop you actually designed.

Orange · mixed — opportunity Orange

One up, one down. Briefs, not paralysis. Act or consciously deprioritise.

Red · challenges — learn / regret Red

Not every red is moral failure. Some are honest miss; some are product or service debt. Green → red is usually the clearest challenge. Orange → red may be partly inevitable — still worth the question for the room.

Same business health, different makeup

Three genres can all be healthy for the business with different “what good looks like.” Strategy often lives on depth, veterans, and spend among stayers. Social puzzle lives on short cognitive loops and invites / co-play — referral is load-bearing, not optional. Shooter lives on feel: aim, timing, moment-to-moment skill. The radar below is optional illustration — strength peaks only, not a full scorecard.

Notice Referral (R): near-flat on strategy and shooter strength profiles, primary spike on social puzzle.

Other genre sketches (brief)

Headcount is not load · contribution

A combination cell can be large in headcount and still light on the KPIs the business actually optimises for — retention, revenue, referral, recovery after friction. Another cell can be small in volume and carry a disproportionate share of spend, tenure, or social pull. Population volume and KPI weightage are not the same thing. Treat them as two axes on every box you care about.

That is why it is useful to know the contribution of each box, not only who sits in it:

• Volume — how many players (or sessions) land in this combination right now.
• KPI weight — how much of the outcomes you fund the product on this box carries (e.g. share of D30 retained, share of revenue, share of invites, share of recoveries after dry spells).
• Contribution — the product of those stories: a modest high-weight box can outrank a crowded low-weight mass; a huge low-weight mass can still matter if it is the on-ramp into green.

People sit in more than one group · paths move

Real players are rarely one pure type. The same person can look like a deep regular on some nights, social-only on others, and bruised after a bad economy week. Treat groups as states with soft weights, not permanent stamps.

Transient does not mean “ignore the boxes.” It means you watch movement as carefully as you watch counts:

• Primary + supporting portfolio — which combination is the load-bearing home this week, and which supporting pairs still fire?
• Soft weights — partial membership (e.g. 0.6 deep regular, 0.3 social-only) is often truer than forced single labels.
• Transitions — green→red is the regret trail; orange→green is opportunity; orange→red is often “perhaps inevitable?” and still worth naming so you do not over-spend on it.

Design is what makes the transient pattern legible and steerable. Content cadence, difficulty, economy fairness, social hooks, and recovery loops do not merely “score” players — they shape which boxes fill, how long people stay in them, and which paths are easy or costly to walk. A path that is common but thin on KPI weight may still be a design success if it is the honest funnel into a green cluster you protect. A path that is rare but high weight may be the one you must not break.

What the population wants to consume

Once you can see boxes by volume, weight, and transition, the next product question is appetite: what does this population actually want to consume, and how often? Combination makeups are a mirror of consumption — session length vs return ritual, social vs solo depth, spend willingness vs recovery after loss. Gauge them deliberately:

• Depth appetite — intensity and attention peaks tell you whether the title is feeding long sessions or short appointments (and whether that matches the genre you shipped).
• Cadence appetite — frequency and tenure peaks tell you whether the population wants daily light loops, weekly events, or long campaign arcs.
• Social appetite — referral and co-play trails tell you how much of the value is held in other people, not only in solo mastery.
• Spend & recovery appetite — monetary and resilience together show whether monetisation is fair under friction, or whether people pay once and never trust the loop again.

The point of contribution-aware, multi-membership reading is not to freeze people in a box. It is to know where the population is eating, how much business that meal carries, and which design levers change appetite without starving the green cluster. Transient membership is expected; unmanaged drift into red is optional if design and live ops are honest.

What to do next

1. Name a few pairs that are large or load-bearing — not all 42 cells.
2. Colour them for your stage — protect / opportunity / learn (green / orange / red).
3. Watch movement — into healthier pairs vs out of strength; soft multi-membership is normal.
4. Read volume and weight — headcount and KPI contribution together.
5. Pick one lever class on a named pair — then re-read after you ship.

Early journey: hub. Contribution: volume vs load. Primer: seven lenses.

Authorship. This page is original writing of Yardstick Games Private Limited (Paul Dutta, Founder). AFITMRR™ (Attention · Frequency · Intensity · Tenure · Monetary · Referral · Resilience) is a trade mark and framework of Yardstick Games Private Limited, originated by Paul Dutta. © Yardstick Games Private Limited. All rights reserved.