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FarmVille的各种任务设置迫使玩家置身于“BegVille”?

发布时间:2010-12-08 11:01:18 Tags:,,,

近来,热门社交游戏FarmVille新发布了多项游戏任务,然而很多FarmVille玩家对Zynga的“辛勤劳作”并不满意。最近,游戏论坛的一份问卷调查显示,在总计470份的投票中,37%的玩家认为FarmVille新任务“不是我的菜”。尽管这一数据并不能代表所有FarmVille玩家,但也确实反映出有相当一部分FarmVille玩家对游戏新功能的感想。

frontierville jack quote

frontierville jack quote

尽管这次投票中仅有少数人投了反对票,但其他的投票指出了FrontierVille的糟糕境地。玩家主要抱怨的是游戏目标过多,更重要的是许多玩家不喜欢游戏的任务设置。他们认为游戏任务总是迫使玩家不得不向邻居好友乞讨各种道具,更有甚者多达90%的游戏时间都消耗在“乞讨”中。因此,有人建议可以将游戏直接改名为“BegVille(乞讨村)”。

farmville poll

farmville poll

据游戏邦了解,玩家之所以产生这种感慨是因为游戏中各种任务或目标都要求玩家向朋友乞讨各种道具。以FarontierVille最新的限时任务“Playtime”为例,该任务要求玩家在48小时内从朋友处获得20件道具。尽管这一任务可以通过Zynga的Message Center轻松完成,但过程实在是不令人愉快。另外,FarmVille的冬天仙境任务基本上每个环节也要求玩家从朋友处获得道具。

farmville-winter-wonderland

farmville-winter-wonderland

然而更不幸的是,造成这一情况的本质原因在于Zynga游戏设计本身,或者更直白的说就是Zynga所强调的游戏“社交元素”。与朋友互相送礼,互相发送各种游戏信息就真的是“社交”吗?没有这些五花八门的道具任务,玩家就不必要与访客进行游戏互动,也不必与朋友合作完成任务。

尽管有些玩家认为各种游戏道具十分精美有趣,但也有部分玩家期望游戏更具有互动性。Cafe World有Catering Orders,Mafia Wars有Secret Missions,FarmVille有Co-op Crafting Jobs,然而这些任务并没有与游戏进程紧密结合。

以FrontierVille的万圣节活动无头骑士任务为例,任务要求玩家与好友合作挑战领地上的无头骑士,但为什么游戏不将零散的无头骑士集结成群,然后要求玩家在朋友的合作下以进度条的形式战胜敌人,赢取更远大的目标。

通过这类任务,玩家将于朋友合作共同获得目标而不是单打独斗,游戏可以向玩家群体奖励金币或稀有道具。一旦玩家钟爱某款道具,就可以通过随机抽奖系统或Mastery功能重复任务。通过这种新方式,玩家就能在游戏中真正与朋友合作,赢取更远大的目标。

当然,这种任务设置并不适合限时的节日任务,另外也需要游戏开发团队寻找更适合游戏环境的合作任务创意。同时,这类任务也无法像现有任务一样频繁更新。但较之被称为“BegVille”,我相信更多玩家愿意等待。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Alright, so it isn’t Deliverance bad yet. But since quests have been recently added to FarmVille, the community has responded less than favorably, if a recent poll on the forums is any indication. With 470 votes as of this writing, 37 percent of them have claimed that Quests in FarmVille are “Not for me.” While this is isn’t necessarily an overwhelming majority, it most definitely speaks to how a large number of farmers might feel about the relatively new feature.

And despite a pretty small majority voting against Quests in their game, the rest of thread seems to imply a much worse situation with some commenters alluding to FrontierVille, which many claim has too many Goals. But that isn’t their only beef with Quests and Goals. It seems as if a large amount of players are unhappy with how quests operate with one player writing, “Not in favour… especially if they involve constant begging from neighbours all the time. Lately, we seem to do that 90% of the time as it is. They should change the name of the game to BegVille.”

“BegVille,” huh? Let’s get a better understanding of (and a way to stop) this interesting, chuckle-worthy moniker after the break.

FarmVille Quest Poll
What the forum member seems to have meant by calling both FrontierVille and FarmVille “BegVille” is that he feels too many of the requirements in both Goals and Quests involve asking our friends for various items that are essentially intangible in the game world. For instance, FrontierVille’s recent “Playtime” Timed Mission requires players to ask their friends for 20 items in just 48 hours. While this is vastly easier thanks to the new Zynga Message Center, it’s still a daunting quest to finish. And the same goes for the Winter Wonderland Quest in FarmVille, which asks farmers to tap their friends for items at nearly every turn.

And what does this get us? A nearly endless list of requests in our Message Center nearly every time we log into either FarmVille or FrontierVille. Games like Cafe World and Mafia Wars aren’t off the hook either, but we’ll get back to them.

FarmVille Quests
Unfortunately for some and a good old time for others, this is intrinsic to Zynga’s quest design and, quite frankly, one of the few things that keeps the precious “social element” in its games. There is always Gifting, but is sending a generic message to your friend truly social? Without these item requests, players wouldn’t interact with one another outside of random visits in FrontierVille (most of which are driven by Goals anyway) and Co-Op Jobs in FarmVille. Wait, that’s it!

While some players think thousands of item requests are fine and dandy, there’s a large amount of us that want something more… interactive. Cafe World has its Catering Orders, Mafia Wars has its Secret Missions and FarmVille has its Co-Op Crafting Jobs yet none of them are integral to our progress in each game. They can easily be ignored in the wake of hundreds of crops, recipes and odd jobs to master. It’s only FrontierVille, the major culprit, that doesn’t feature something similar.

Secret Santa
With that being said, why not make collaboration as rich a source of XP and items as personal bests like Mastery? For instance, take the recent Headless Horseman Goals for Halloween in FrontierVille. Instead of each homestead having its very own Horseman (though, he did appear in friends’ homesteads, which is a start) for pioneers to defeat with the “help” of friends, why not make the Horseman a collective enemy to defeat with a progress bar much like Cafe World’s Catering Jobs or FarmVille Co-Ops?

Players would rally their friends to gather the required items to contribute to a collective achievement rather than a personal one, rewarding everyone involved with coins and rare items rather than the individual. Or if you’re that attached to your rare items, these Quests could easily be repeatable with a randomized loot system and Mastery (I’m looking at you, Secret Missions). And what do you know, it’s a brand new way to progress through your game that actually involves your friends working toward a larger goal.

Obviously, this is far from limited to holiday events and would require some creativity from the games’ respective design teams to think up new ideas for collaborative missions that fit into each game’s world (bandits in FrontierVille, anyone?). Not to mention that this type of Quest would be released way less frequently than what’s possible with the current Quests. But if that’s what it takes to keep players from calling these games names like “BegVille,” I’m willing to wait. Are you? (Source:Games.com)


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