休闲游戏平台GameGround在上个月推出了测试版本，并宣布融资530万美元，为玩家塑造独特的游戏体验。据游戏邦了解，该公司市场营销副总裁道格·万斯（Doug Vance）在日前的采访中介绍了GameGround的运营理念，以及休闲游戏的未来发展趋势等情况，下文为访谈内容：

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可否介绍一下GameGround，为什么说你们的游戏应用可以提高玩家的休闲游戏体验？

GameGround是一个轻量型的应用，可以将玩家在不同游戏，以及PC、网页、Facebook和XBox等不同平台中的游戏经验连接起来。它为玩家的游戏活动添加了“game of games”这项有趣的功能，支持玩家保存游戏操作，以奖励方式刺激玩家的游戏热情，同时还支持玩家与好友进行互动。GameGround平台上聚集了大量的游戏，系统还会根据玩家的喜好和游戏历史记录，搜索到最适合你的有趣游戏。

GameGround现在支持多少款游戏，可以在哪些平台上运行？你们未来还会增加哪些游戏，支持哪些新平台？

GameGround可运行于PC、网页、Facebook、XBox平台，已支持200多款游戏，我们每周都会根据玩家的请求或喜好增加一些新游戏。明年我们还会向Mac和多个手机平台开放服务。

用户如果要玩GameGround平台上的游戏，都要先下载安装游戏应用，这一点可能会影响用户的游戏体验。这些游戏的文件有多大？是否认为下载文件这个操作会降低用户试玩游戏的机率？你们怎么鼓励用户去尝试GameGround提供的服务？

用户在手机、浏览器、甚至是Facebook帐号下安装应用，应该会成为2011年的一个普遍现象。GameGround的应用也不例外，这种下载安装操作只需几秒钟就能完成。

当然，我们相信玩家如果接触了我们的game of games和其他创新功能，就会知道花3秒钟安装一个应用真是太值得了。

GameGround有一项最神奇的技术就是，开发商不需要在游戏中添加任何代码，就可以让游戏运行在GameGround平台上，你们是怎么做到这一点的？如果游戏开发商想和GameGround进行合作，他们需要怎么做？

我们最喜欢的格言之一就是科幻大师阿瑟·克拉克（Arthur C. Clarke）的那句话，“任何先进的技术，都是一个魔法。”但并不是标榜自己是魔法师之类的，而是要说我们确实投入了大量的时间和心血，开发可以为用户提供绝佳体验的服务技术。

开发商如果想把游戏投放到GameGround，基本上不需要再动手做什么事情。我们现在专注于在这个平台上增加用户喜欢玩的游戏。

GameGround掌握了大量关于跨平台玩游戏的信息，请问GameGround平台现在最受欢迎的游戏是什么？自从一个月前推出测试服务以来，你们有什么新鲜事能和大家分享？

最有趣的一件事是，我们发现game of games这项功能的确很有助于鼓励玩家通过尝试不同的游戏，提高自己的级别并赢取更多奖励。《宝石迷阵：闪电战》（Bejeweled Blitz）以及Facebook上的热门游戏《Farmville》在GameGround上人气极旺，不过像《粘粘世界》(World of Goo)、《屋顶狂奔》（canabalt）这类独立开发商的作品也有很多人捧场。

GameGround现在还处于初级发展阶段，其他情况都还有待观察。但只要看到用户完成我们设置的任务、获得奖励我们就会觉得很欣慰，我们会继续研究刺激用户积极性的创新服务。

你们为GameGround平台上所有的游戏都设置了一些任务和奖励，请问你们是不是有专门的工作人员负责发起这些游戏任务？如果我想接这份工作的话，需要具备什么条件（这种工作听起来非常不错呢）？

没错，我们公司确实有人幸运地得到了这份工作，专门为玩家设置一些游戏任务。但我们的终极目标是鼓励每一名GameGround用户自己创造游戏任务，当然你也可以！

我们现在正开发面向用户的任务创建工具，我们希望用户积极反映他们想要的游戏任务。这些热情的游戏玩家，正是我们设置任务的创意来源。

GameGround在B轮融资中获得了风险投资公司的530万美元资金，所以你们一定有一些关于产品和应用开发的新计划。请问GameGround平台将来还会增加什么新功能？

我们很感谢投资者的支持，也很高兴他们和我们一样都很看好跨平台游戏市场。GameGround现在仍处于测试阶段，所以我们现在的工作重心是搜集用户的反馈信息，观察他们对GameGround功能的喜好，了解他们的需求。

向更多平台开放服务是我们的一个重要目标。GameGround才刚添加了一些手机游戏，就立即有许多用户要求我们向Mac平台开放服务，我们当然就答应了。所以GameGround在明年一定会运行于更多平台。

请问你对休闲游戏的未来发展有何看法？

我认为所谓的“休闲游戏”还会持续受到热捧，在外出的时候，通过手机和朋友一起玩个15分钟的游戏，这种休闲方式会受到更多人欢迎。GameGround将玩家的所有游戏行为都集中到了同一个平台上，支持大家玩“休闲”或其他各种类型的游戏，我们鼓励他们玩自己喜欢的游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Interview with Doug Vance, GameGround

GameGround officially launched in beta last month and announced a venture capital round of $5.3 million in funding with a promise to “fundamentally revolutionize the way players engage with their game lives.” We spoke with Doug Vance, Vice President of Marketing at GameGround, to discuss what is GameGround, what is this revolution in gaming, and how casual games may be changing in the future.

What is GameGround and how does your game app improve the lives of casual gamers?

GameGround is a lightweight app that connects your gaming life across games and platforms – PC, Web, Facebook, and XBox – while adding a fun, engaging “game of games” to your gameplay activity. GameGround allows you to save your gaming activity, gives you new ways to get rewarded for playing the games you love, and helps you stay connected with what your friends are playing and what they’re achieving. For casual gamers specifically, there are so many great games out there and GameGround helps you discover the most fun ones based on your gameplay preferences and history.

How many games and what platforms does GameGround support? What future games and platforms do you plan to add in the future?

Today GameGround supports over 200 games for the PC, Web, Facebook, and XBox platforms. We add support for new games each week based on activity and requests from our users. In 2011 we will introduce support for the Mac and various mobile platforms.

GameGround requires the user to download and install a game app to get started, which can be a barrier to get a user to try out a service. How big is the game file? Do you think requiring a file to download could slow down adoption of your service and what will you to do encourage users to try the service out?

Heading into 2011, it’s super common for people to install apps on our phones, browsers, and even in our Facebook accounts. The GameGround app works the same way – it’s ultra-lightweight and the download takes seconds.

Of course, we’re confident that when gamers are exposed to our game of games and the other innovative features GameGround offers, they’ll feel the 3 seconds it took to install the app was worth it!

One of the most amazing aspects about your technology is that a GameGround can support a game without requiring the developer having to add code to their game. Aside from magic, how does this work? What does a game developer have to do in order to work with GameGround?

One of our favorite quotes is from Arthur C. Clarke – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Now, I’m not saying we’re wizards or anything…just that we invested a lot of time and effort developing the technology that helps us create engaging experiences for our users.

There is no work required for developers to get their games on GameGround – right now we’re simply focused on adding the games that our users want to play.

GameGround collects a lot of information on what and how gamers are playing games across multiple platforms. What are the most popular games on GameGround today? What are the most interesting tidbits you have learned since launching the service a month ago that you can share with the Gamezebo audience?

One of the more interesting things we see with our users is that our game of games has really encouraged them to play many different games to level up and earn rewards. Titles like Bejeweled Blitz and Farmville – heavy hitters on Facebook obviously – are very popular with the GameGround user base, but so are some more indie darlings like World of Goo and Canabalt.

Beyond that, it’s early in the life of GameGround, so we simply love seeing how our users are interacting with the missions and rewards we’ve created and we’re constantly learning what motivates them.

GameGround creates missions and offers rewards for gamers on all the games it supports. Is it someone’s job to actually create these missions? How do I get this job (which sounds like the greatest job ever)?

At the moment we are creating the missions that help make up our game of games and yes there are people in our company that are fortunate enough to have that job! Pretty cool, eh? BUT our ultimate goal is to allow every GameGround user to create missions, even you Joel!

Until we’re finished developing the mission-creation tools for all of our users, we love it when users send us ideas for missions they want to see. Passionate players of the games we support are obviously the best source of these mission concepts.

GameGround announced it just raised $5.3 million in series B funding from a who’s who of venture capital firms so you obviously have big plans for the product and app. What future features do you plan to add to GameGround that we can look forward to seeing?

Yeah, we love our investors and we’re psyched that they share in our vision of a gaming world that’s connected no matter what platforms you play games on. We’re still very early in beta, so the focus now is on gathering feedback from our users, monitoring what they like about GameGround, what they don’t like, what they’re missing, etc.

But one thing I can tell you is that adding additional platform support is critically important to us. We have requests to support Mac from literally thousands of our users, and not a day goes by when we don’t hear how cool it would be for GameGround to add support for mobile games. And we agree! So it’s safe to say you’ll see our platform support increasing throughout 2011.

Looking into your crystal ball, what do you think the future of casual games will be?

I think it’s obvious that what we call “casual games” will continue to grow in popularity. Playing games online with our friends, on our mobile devices when we’re on the go, and just taking

a quick 15 minute break to unwind with a game of Bejeweled – these things are here to stay and will only become more popular. I think GameGround is nicely positioned to help gamers unite all of these gaming activities – “casual” or otherwise – to build their true gaming identity, and we love rewarding them for doing so!（source:gamezebo）