最近，PopCap Games公司公关副总裁Garth Chouteau宣称PopCap Games公司实行与许多竞争公司不同的游戏发展策略。他指出PopCap公司十分注重在经典休闲游戏中融入耗时短的社交互动功能，同时坚持为玩家提供更有趣好玩的游戏体验。与之相比，PopCap劲敌公司出品的游戏大都十分相似，可玩性不高且社交互动渠道十分单一。那么，这两种不同的发展模式驱动中，谁开发了更好的游戏呢？

首先，我们将目光投向PopCap的头号劲敌——社交游戏开发巨头Zynga。据AllFacebook.com数据显示，Zynga公司旗下的5款社交游戏（CityVille, FarmVille, Texas Hold’em Poker, FrontierVille和the Mafia Wars Game）长期以来稳居Facebook热门社交游戏（根据月活跃用户排名）排行榜前5位。而前十位的榜单中Zynga游戏常常占有7个席位。

cityville

由此可见，Zynga公司的游戏发展策略可能更为全面。

另外，游戏邦注意到在日活跃用户（DAU）方面，Zynga旗下4款游戏分别占据了Facebook日活跃用户排行榜前4位，而PopCap旗下的经典游戏《宝石迷阵闪电战》则位居第5。虽然近来《宝石迷阵闪电战》的月增长玩家数减少至9万5000人，其日活跃用户仍相对稳定保持在400万至450万之间。与之相比，FarmVille，CityVille和FrontierVille等热门Zynga游戏的稳定日活跃用户则较低。这一数据的确说明PopCap游戏更具吸引力。

宝石迷阵闪电战

然而，尽管PopCap游戏拥有稳定的用户基础，然而其玩家规模仍无法与Zynga游戏相媲美。由月活跃用户可见，玩家群体仍然更倾向于CityVille，FrontierVille和FarmVille等知名社交游戏。的确，如果同种游戏机制确实有效的话，反复利用也并没有对错之分。

在此，我并非否定Chouteau的观点。而是实际上许多游戏开发商并非经过系统的调查分析而后进行游戏开发。很有游戏开发者都是听从于“感觉”，而事实证明他们的感觉并不常常有效。因此，我们常常遇见各种互相模仿抄袭的社交游戏。

但当然，玩家的喜好不可能永远不变。一旦某天CityVille，FarmVille和FrontierVille等游戏的排名有所下滑，这也许便昭示着更新换代的时机到来。一旦发掘了玩家群体所期待的游戏类别，游戏开发商们并无需遵循Zynga的发展模式。据游戏邦了解，目前上述的三款Zynga城市建设类游戏中，仅有CityVille仍保持上升趋势。Zynga游戏的热潮还能持续到何时呢?（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Garth Chouteau, Vice President of Public Relations at PopCap Games, believes that PopCap Games, Inc takes a different approach to gaming than their competitors, “At PopCap, we’re focused on building short, social iterations of our classic casual games, and continuing to grow and improve them over the long haul so they’re always getting better and never getting boring or stale.” According to Chouteau, “PopCap’s competitors seem awfully similiar, and not terribly fun — more like social interaction exercises within a ‘game’ wrapper.” These are two different development methods that produce contrasting results: which produces better games?

Take a look at Zynga, one of PopCap’s top competitors. According to AllFacebook.com’s Stats Tool, Zynga owns the top five list of monthly active users: CityVille, FarmVille, Texas Hold’em Poker, FrontierVille and the Mafia Wars Game – every single one of those games is a Zynga product. How about the top six list of monthly active users? All Zynga games.  What about the top seven list of monthly active users? Zynga. In fact, seven games out of the top 10 list of monthly active users were created by Zynga.

From what I’ve just expressed, Zynga must have the better overall approach, correct? Instead of looking at MAU, let’s take a look at DAU (daily active users). Out of the top five list of games by daily active users, Zynga developed four out of the five. PopCap, on the other hand, developed the fifth game on the list, Bejeweled Blitz. Even though Bejeweled Blitz has a declining weekly growth rate of 95,000 users, its rate of daily active users has fluctuated steadily in the 4 to 4.5 million range throughout the latter part of 2010. Compared to games like FarmVille, CityVille and FrontierVille this range of steady daily active users is low, however, it does prove that PopCap’s games bring consumers back for more.

However, even though PopCap does have a steady base of players, they are still not at the same level as Zynga. Just by taking a look at MAU, gamers obviously want to still play games like CityVille, FrontierVille and FarmVille. There is nothing wrong with taking the same gaming concept and using it over and over again. If it works, then use it.

I don’t necessarily disagree with Chouteau’s comments regarding other companies, he does have a cohesive argument. Unfortunately, developers may think they know what the consumers want, but unless it’s based on rigorous polling and analysis, it’s just their gut feeling, and that doesn’t work a lot of the time.  Three out of the top five games are almost exact replicas of each other.

We will know when it’s time to change the types of games by looking at the numbers.  When games like CityVille, FarmVille and FrontierVille begin moving down the list, it’s time for an alternative type of game. However, once we find the game type people are looking for, it’s important to stick to Zynga’s approach to gaming development. As of now, CityVille is the only game out of three I just mentioned that is still currently growing. Could the tides be changing? （Source：Socialtimes）