作者：Johan Basberg

智能手机很棒。它不但能够让我们处理工作事务，还支持我们在巴掌大小的设备上玩精致而出色的网络游戏，这一点至今令我惊叹。我也喜欢专业的游戏硬件，当前的3DS和PS Vita都是相当出色的设备。但是，便携式游戏还有一个独特而固有的挑战，而其他平台却不存在这个问题：即不断变化的游戏情况和环境——总结起来就是游戏情境，或者说就是情境的问题。

我在本文建议我们为游戏添加三种不同的标签，以便玩家鉴别出游戏所适合的情境（游戏邦注：例如某款游戏适合孩子在长途旅行过程中体验）。这样有助于玩家更快速而便捷地检索到合适的游戏，从而培养出更快乐的玩家。

Labels(from gamasutra)

我们几乎可以在任何地方无时不刻地体验手机游戏，而这正是手机游戏针对特定情况而设计所产生的结果。在竞争日益激烈的应用商店中，玩家是否能够挑战出一款适合自己当前所处情境的游戏？目前来看还不太可能，因为游戏是根据它们的主机机制而分类摆放，谜题、RTS、FPS和JRPG都是描述玩法的术语，但它们并不一定能够指明其理想的游戏情境。休闲与硬核这两个术语也存在同样的情况，硬核战略游戏也能够支持玩家在漫不经心和行走过程中的体验，而纯粹只需点击的休闲游戏也可能要求你全身心投入其中。

游戏情境会影响设备的连网状态，光线条件、噪音水平以及玩家以不同方式同设备互动的意愿、能力和空间（例如，主要使用加速计功能的游戏就无法在坐车颠簸的过程中体验）。情境还会限制游戏会话时间的长短，以及玩家对玩法的专注性——我们都知道，手机游戏可让玩家在行走、等待或乘坐汽车、上洗手间等情况下进行体验。

为确保玩家获得理想的游戏体验，我认为可以采取两种替代方法：让游戏适应游戏情境，或者让玩家根据自身情况选择理想的游戏。后者更为理想，因为我们如果不问就不可能知道玩家的实际需求（即使我们问了，调整游戏节奏、持续性或玩法也是极为困难和颇费成本的事情）。我们也不想引进任何可能延长操作时间的东西。

为了让玩家挑战适合其当前情境的游戏，我们应该确定一个能够有效和持续用于区分手机游戏（而不只是玩法）的分类法。游戏开发者可以在自己的游戏描述中添加标签或标记，准确描述游戏的理想体验情境。

在搜索中以准确的顺序使用这些标签，可以生成更具相关性的搜索结果，并提升游戏的推荐指数。它还可以让玩家寻找适合特定情境的游戏这一过程更为便捷。总之它可以产生大家共赢的结果。

准确性要求

专注和准确的要求是由交互元素大小和玩法的时间敏感性所决定的。

1.微观准确性要求玩家出现在合适的时间和地点。这意味着屏幕应该具有易读性，而周期性地出现在屏幕上的反光却可能成为一个问题。

2.中观准确性介于微观与宏观准确性之间。点击目标要大一些，偶尔的阳光照射不会导致游戏结束的局面。

3.宏观准确性描述的是在点击目标没有移动的情况下进行的较大规模和放松的交互。这类游戏适合任何年龄的群体，几乎任何残疾人士都适用。

游戏会话持续时间

理想的游戏会话持续时间并没有什么准确要求。因为玩家情况各不相同，我们也没有办法为其添加太多标签。

A.片段式游戏适合短时间游戏会话，也许仅长数分钟。常规的连续消除游戏或休闲谜题游戏就属于这种类型：关卡短小，可以在不打断任何主线故事的情况下在任何时间暂停。

B.碎片式游戏所需的会话时长最短，玩家可能只需要持续3-7分钟就可以离开游戏了。

C.平稳式游戏的理想或常规会话时长一般可持续10至25分钟左右

为进一步指明理想会话时长，我们可以将游戏描述成一款小型平稳式游戏，这意味着其理想会话时长为6-15分钟，但更可能是15分钟；而大型碎片式游戏的会话时长则与之相反（范围介于6-15分钟，但更可能是6分钟而非15分钟）。

专注水平

玩家越少被现实生活中的事情所干扰，他们就越可能专注于游戏玩法。这种与专注相关的标准可以指出玩家移动情况，更少的移动也意味着玩家对周围事物的注意力更少。

1.行走型游戏支持玩家部分被他事所分心或忙里偷闲时进行体验。在游戏的高峰时刻，玩家在一定程度上仍然需要较高的专注性。

2.站立型游戏所需要最低水平的持续专注性，玩家可能偶尔还是会被打断，但这并不妨碍游戏。游戏具有一定程度的时间和准确性玩法要求。

3.静坐型游戏要求较高准确性，或者说是由极具时间敏感性的玩法所组成，或者二者兼具。玩家需要舒服地坐着才能玩游戏，其游戏会话时间也不可被打断。

案例

沙发游戏传统上是指本地多人游戏，玩家最好是彼此相邻地坐着玩，但我们并不知道实际的游戏玩法。例如，数字版本的iOS游戏《Carcassonne》就是一款很不错的沙发游戏，但这种称呼可能会让我们忽略了它也可以是一款玩家彼此素未谋面的在线游戏这一事实。

《Carcassonne》也可以标注为理想的在线宏观片段式行走游戏：它拥有较大并且不需要太高准确性的点触和拖拽目标，它可以在短时间或数分钟的会话时长进行体验，适用于玩家漫不经心的情境。而其他许多著名的桌游数字版本却不具备这个特点，因为它们的点触目标都很小并且有严格的时间限制。所以我们可以在这款游戏的描述末尾添加上这种标签，或者说是文本：“便携游戏标签：宏观，片段，行走型。”

《Heroes of Order & Chaos》是一款手机MOBA游戏，更准确地说我们可以将其描述为一款在线微观平稳式静坐型游戏。对于不熟悉MOBA这一术语的玩家来说，这个标签可以让他们知道自己得在游戏中投入更多注意力（微观），其平均会话时长持续10至25分钟（平稳型），并且游戏过程中不可受到干扰（静坐型）。所以其可添加的标签就是：微观、平稳、静坐型。

《Battleheart Legacy》是一款极具深度的出色动作RPG，含有丰富的内容和角色定制选项。这款游戏是中观碎片式站立型游戏的典型：其点击目标并不小，但你所瞄准的敌人会四处移动；你可以用数分钟时间解决一个随机遭遇战，完成一项任务不超过10分钟；最后其关卡可以划分成多个部分，并且玩家虚拟角色如果没移动，游戏操作就不会开始（偶尔的分心并不会导致游戏结束）。所以开发者可以添加这样的标签：中观，碎片，站立型。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Portable Game Labels

by Johan Basberg

Smartphones are great. To be able to do actual work, but also play detailed and great looking online games on a pocked sized device still blows my mind. I love dedicated gaming hardware as well, the current 3DS and PSVita are both pretty fantastic devices. However, there is one unique and inherent challenge associated with portable gaming, not relevant for other platforms: the constantly changing gaming situation and environment – collectively referred to as the gaming context or just context.

In this article I suggest three different labels we can add to our games to help the player identify the games suitable for a specific context (eg. a game suitable for a kid during an hour long car trip). The end result should be better search results, easier game discovery, and happier players.

Mobile gaming happens literally anywhere, at any time and for any duration. The games being played however, are the result of a series of design decisions making a game better suited for certain situations over others. In an increasingly crowded App Store (any platform) how does a player pick a game optimal for the current gaming context? Right now that isn’t possible, as games are pigeonholed by their predominant game mechanic. Puzzles, RTS, FPS and JRPG are all terms for describing gameplay, but they don’t necessarily indicate anything about the optimal context of play. The terms casual and hardcore falls short in the same way; a hardcore tactical game can be played while both distracted and on the move, while a single-tap casual game could demand your full attention.

The gaming context affects the online state of the device, the light conditions, noise level, and the will, ability and space to interact with the device in different ways (e.g. games primarily using the accelerometer can’t be played during a bumpy bus ride). The context also limits the duration of the game session and the ability to focus on the gameplay – as you know, mobile games are played walking, waiting for or riding a bus, running, in the bathroom and so on.

To ensure an optimal gaming experience I see two alternatives: the game adapts to the gaming context or the player picks the optimal game for any given moment. The latter is likely better, as we can never really know what the player wants without asking (and even if we were to ask, adjusting the pace, continuity or gameplay will likely be very hard and costly). We also don’t want to introduce anything that extends time to action.

For a player to be able to pick a game optimal for the current game context, we should establish a taxonomy that efficiently and consistently can be used to label mobile games beyond mere gameplay. The game developer then adds these labels or tags to their game description to clearly communicate the optimal gaming context.

Using these labels in this exact order in a search should yield a more relevant search result and improve game recommendations. It will also make the process of finding games suited for a particular context not only possible, but easy. The end result is a win for everyone.

Precision Requirements

Requirements to focus and precision is determined by the size of the interactive elements and time sensitivity of gameplay.

Micro precision requires the player to hit exactly at the right place and time to succeed. This means the screen should be easily readable. Periodic sunlight on a backlit screen is problematic.

Meso precision is somewhere in-between micro and macro. Tap targets are reasonably large, the occasional sun glare is mostly without any game ending consequence.

Macro precision describes large and relaxed interaction with little, if any tap target movements. Games like these are suitable for any age group, and almost any disabilities.

Game Session Duration

The duration of the optimal game session can’t be too precise. Players are different, and we don’t want to end up with too many labels.

Bit sized games are suited for short play sessions, minutes long maybe. A regular match-3 game or casual puzzle is likely a bit sized game: a level is short, they can be paused at any time without interrupting any overarching story.

Bite sized games requires a minimum of several bit sessions, spending 3-7 consecutive minutes before it is optimal to leave the game.

Bowl sized games consists of several bytes, resulting in the optimal or regular game session lasting anywhere between 10 and 25 minutes.

To further hint at the optimal session duration, we could describe a game as a small bowl game; meaning that the optimal session is 6-15 minutes long, but more likely 15 than 6 and vice versa for a large bite game (range of 6-15 minutes, but more likely 6 minutes than 15).

Focus Level

The less a player is occupied by things in the real world, the more they will be capable to focus on gameplay. These focus related labels therefore refer to how much a player moves around; less movement also means less attention is needed by the surroundings.

Walking games can be played while partly distracted or in short bursts. During a burst the game could, to some extent, still require a high level of focus.

Standing Games requires a minimum level of continuous focus, while the occasional distraction is still acceptable and even expected. The game has a somewhat time or precision sensitive gameplay.

Seated games requires high precision or consists of very time sensitive gameplay, or possibly both. The player is comfortably seated for the purpose of playing the game, and the play session is expected to go on uninterrupted.

Examples

Couch games traditionally refers to local multiplayer games, best enjoyed sitting next to those you play with, but we have no idea about the actual gameplay. Take for example the digital iOS version of Carcassonne, it’s a really nice couch game, but by calling it that we omit that it can also be played with a faceless opponent online (unlike e.g. the cool party game Spaceteam).

Carcassonne could instead be labeled an optionally online macro bit size walking game: it has large tap and drag targets which require little precision, it can be played in short bursts or minute long sessions, and is suitable to be played while partly distracted. The same cannot be said about many other digital versions of popular board games, with small tap targets and strict time limits. The tags are added as actual tags, or simply as text to the end of the game description: “Portable Game Labels: macro, bit, walking”.

Heroes of Order & Chaos is a mobile MOBA game, or more precisely we can describe it as an online micro bowl sized seated game. For a player unfamiliar with the MOBA term, the labels indicate that she will have to pay close attention to the game (micro), that an average session lasts between 10 and 25 minutes (bowl size) and finally that distractions are not acceptable (seated). So, the tags added are: micro, bowl, seated.

Battleheart Legacy is an excellent action RPG with great depth, and a lot of content and character customization. This game is a wonderful example of a meso bite sized standing game: The tap targets are not small, but the enemies you target move around; a single random encounter can be resolved in a couple of minutes and a mission in less than 10; and finally, the levels are divided into sections, and more often than not, the action doesn’t start unless the avatar moves (the occasional distraction is not game ending). The devs add these tags: meso, bite, standing.（source：gamasutra）