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InsideSocialGames:社交游戏机制类似于弹珠游戏

发布时间:2011-01-25 11:42:55 Tags:,,

以下,游戏业内思想家Tadhg Kelly与我们分享他对社交游戏机制本质的反思,及其与经典弹珠游戏的相似之处。“此前我认为社交游戏很像抽奖机,但现在我觉得更像弹珠。弹珠游戏的魅力并不在于技巧或奖励,尽管社交游戏在很多方面并不同于弹珠游戏,但两者之间仍有一些共同点。”

Tadhg Kelly

Tadhg Kelly

弹珠游戏

玩家在快速操作弹珠游戏的同时既要讲究技巧,也要讲究运气。除了获取奖励外,弹珠游戏并没设有太多的策略元素,因此该类游戏受到了游戏玩家的广泛喜爱。

据游戏邦了解,在弹珠游戏中,玩家的主要任务就是与重力斗争,取得更高的分数。分数越高玩家获得的奖励就越多,但玩弹珠游戏总是难免失败:有时弹珠会从侧滑道落下,而有时则是从两个“球拍”间的缝隙穿过。玩家总有来不及顺利托住弹珠的情况。

因此,对大部分玩家而言弹珠游戏是种超越自我的活动。当玩家投入硬币,开始击打弹珠的那一刻起,这一活动本来就只能持续几分钟。玩家要继续游戏就必须投入更多的硬币。但当然,这仅仅几分钟的游戏体验也可能给玩家带来丰厚的回报。

社交游戏

在某些方面,社交游戏与弹珠游戏有点相似。社交游戏一般也没有技巧可言,但游戏开发商也会限制游戏时长,同时配备一些简单而有趣的奖励系统。

成功的社交游戏总是不免各种游戏任务,如收集道具,建造房屋,邀请朋友等等。这些都是游戏的基本组成。然而社交游戏并不像传统游戏一样强调通关胜利等大成就,反而更侧重完成小任务,取得小成就,获得小奖励。社交游戏的乐趣就在于各种无止尽的成就,收获。

尽管社交游戏不像传统经营或角色扮演游戏设有总体目标,但社交游戏侧重的是一种交互的创意吸引力。就像弹珠游戏一样,社交游戏是有意忽略游戏的总体目标和深刻的游戏体验,要为玩家提供简单的任务-完成活动。

社交游戏和弹珠游戏的相似之处

Facebook就像是游乐园,弹珠游戏是其中的一种选择。在热闹绚丽的游乐园中,弹珠游戏必须凭借其卓越的视觉效果和有趣的游戏机制从众多竞争游戏中脱颖而出。游戏园中的热闹氛围很容易分散玩家的注意力。

弹珠游戏

弹珠游戏

就像游乐园中没有《塞尔达传说》这类游戏一样,社交游戏在Facebook的大环境下也无法向深刻体裁发展。据游戏邦了解,社交游戏开发者们一直认为Facebook社交网站上充满了太多容易使玩家分散注意力的元素,不适合开发深刻的游戏体验。因此,Facebook游戏大多轻松,快捷而有趣。

事实上,很多严肃题材的游戏之所以令玩家觉得更有深度,很简单的一点就是它们采用全屏显示,而不是窗口显示的游戏模式。如果玩Starcraft 2的同时可以摒除各种桌面图标或浏览器,满眼只看到游戏的话,玩家无疑会更投入与游戏世界之中。然而在玩社交游戏的时候,玩家在打开CityVille的同时,极有可能还会同时打开FarmVille,Twitter,Google Reader和Facebook等。

网页游戏难免玩家注意力分散的问题,也正因此,社交游戏开发商才能实现游戏乐趣的传播。与弹珠游戏一样,社交游戏的设计秘诀就在于快速而简单,直接而肤浅的游戏体验。保持游戏的便捷性是适于Facebook平台开发的最佳方式。

平台环境

游戏设计师必须清楚所开发的游戏将面对的环境。以弹珠游戏为例,设计师不仅要明白自己开发的是什么游戏,同时也要明白该游戏所面临的环境。就像Kinect家庭体育类游戏就不适于增加任务元素一样,单人探索类游戏也不必加入迷你游戏元素。

从弹珠游戏和社交游戏可以看出,游戏所处的平台环境对游戏的吸引力有很大影响。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

[Editor's note: Below, game veteran and industry thinker Tadhg Kelly shares his ruminations on the nature of social gaming mechanics, and similarities they have to that arcade classic, pinball.]

I once thought of social games as being very similar to slot machines, but I now think a better analogy is pinball. The art of great pinball is not the skill (which tends to put off more people than it attracts) but rather the rewards. While social games are clearly very different from pinball in many ways, the two share some surprising similarities.
Pinball Wizards

Great pinball navigates the middle ground between agency and luck by giving the player fast-paced activity (repeatedly hitting balls with bats and hoping for the best) that is rewarded with prizes, color and sound. The game has no overarching strategic elements beyond achieving sets of bonuses, and so it is very much a game of the moment. In the engagement hierarchy, pinball is an amusement for most players.

The main game dynamic is the warding off of gravity to achieve scores. Shooting the ball creates a variable loop with many possible reactions, some pleasing, some not. There are bonuses and multipliers to achieve, but there is also failure: Most pinball games have side chutes into which the ball can fall, which the player cannot prevent. Also, the space between the bats in the center is usually just a tiny bit wider than the diameter of the ball, also a source of unpreventable failure.

This means that pinball is a self-limiting activity for most players. When they insert their coins and shoot their balls, it is implicit that the activity will only last a few minutes before more coins are required. But the reward in those few minutes will be (if done well) exciting and engaging.
Social Sorcerers

Social games are sort of similar. They lack the need for physical skill, but what they have in common is the deliberate use of timed play, coupled with an easy but bright reward structure.

Successful social games serve activities, such as objects to collect, things to build, friends to visit, etc. All are delivered in what feels like a basic game, but the objective of the game design is not formal victories and big wins. Instead it is focused on small wins, things to do, little rewards to earn, and happy bonuses. The joy of these games is the endless colorful achievements, payoffs and unlocking more of the same.

Where social games differ from more traditional sim or role-playing games is a lack of overarching goals. There is creative appeal, but very little by way of interdependencies and complex effects to understand. Long term objectives and deep game-play are toned down on purpose, as with pinball, to create simple task/completion scenarios.

The result is that players visit little and often, performing a few tasks, collecting a few rewards, achieving some small goals and occasionally being awarded a level or a lucky item drop. A social game permits the player a certain quantity of energy or activity (which savvy players learn how to maximize) which means that the game is self-limiting. Somewhat like pinball really.
Why Pinball Is A Better Analogy

Playing a game on Facebook is like standing in an amusement arcade. Pinball is primarily available at arcades, and each pinball machine has to fight for its right to be seen and heard by being louder, more visual and more immediately fun than its competitors. Other people and games are constantly in your peripheral vision, and the sounds and distractions that they create drain your attention.

Just as there is no room for an absorbing game like The Legend of Zelda at the arcades, the environment of social games restricts their ability to be deep. What social game makers have realized is that Facebook is so loaded with distraction that deep gameplay is almost impossible to achieve. So the game you are playing has to keep things light, fast and fun because the rest of the player’s social graph is only a Notification Request away.

More serious games are better at achieving depth simply because they exist in full screen rather than browser windows. If I’m playing Starcraft 2, all I can see on my monitor is that game. It blanks out the rest of my desktop and browser, and so I am completely enclosed in the Starcraft universe. On the other hand, if I’m playing CityVille I might also have FarmVille, Twitter, Google Reader,Facebook and BBC iPlayer open on different tabs.

Distraction rules the Web, so about the best that social game makers can hope to achieve is the delivery of great amusement. Like pinball, the secret to social game design is thus to be quick and simple, obvious and unconcerned about grander ideals. Keeping things simple (to the point of lame) is a good fit for the Facebook platform because the rest of the world really is only a click away, and as humans we are notoriously bad at paying attention unless all distractions are removed.
Environment Matters

It’s important for any game designer to realize what environment he is working in, in order to avoid fooling himself. Like a pinball designer, you have to understand not only what the game that you are making is, but the environment in which it will sit.

There’s no point trying to build quest elements into family sports games on Kinect, for example, because the environment is fast-paced as the family members jostle to take their turns. By the same token, there’s little value in introducing artificial mini-games into single-player explorations that are intended to be played for 100 hours. They feel oddly out of place.

What pinball knows, and social games have learned, is that environment plays far more of a factor in how engaging a game can really be than we sometimes realize.(Source:Inside Social Games)


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