游戏邦注：本文作者为Marc van der Chijs，其为荷兰互联网连环创业者及天使投资人，现居住于中国上海。

Marc van der Chijs

当我和比别人谈到我致力于Spil Games在线游戏领域时，大家总是会有系列的误区观念。在线游戏领域在过去几年发生了很大的变化，人们对于这类游戏所持有的观念早已不再适用。根据公共数据及Spil Games内部情况和数据，我罗列出了以下10大误区观念。

1.游戏纯属浪费时间，对儿童毫无益处

这是我很常听到的观点，但我完全不认同这个看法。我认为许多游戏都具有创造性元素和教育意义。当然这并不意味着儿童应该整天玩游戏。我自己本身有两个孩子，我认为在线游戏对于他们的成长是起促进作用的。户外活动和运动对孩子很重要，在线游戏也不可或缺，但体验的时间不宜过长。调查表明，3岁儿童每天最多只能玩10分钟，而6岁儿童则不宜超过30分钟。如果儿童能够适当体验游戏， 其将从中受益匪浅。儿童在游戏中可以学习到很多知识，比如合作精神，同时还能在取得成就的时候收获更多自信。

2. 在线休闲游戏具有沉溺性

是的，游戏可能颇具沉溺性，但这主要是针对硬核游戏（游戏邦注：如《魔兽世界》）而言。在线休闲游戏是完全不同的概念。我们的玩家平均每天只体验15分钟，我们可以说这类游戏具有沉溺性吗？在线休闲游戏注重趣味性，因此是颇为放松的体验。至少这是我们的期望，我们不断朝此方向努力。

3. 只有家庭主妇和失业人员体验在线游戏

几乎人人都体验在线游戏，它们俨然已成为主流休闲活动。我不妨看看体验Facebook游戏《Cityville》的玩家人数（游戏邦注：其MAU高达数百万），或者是众多的在线游戏玩家。游戏玩家并不局限于失业人员和家庭主妇。事实上，Spil Games主要目标用户是年龄介于8-12岁的年轻女生。我们发现很多家庭成员会共同体验游戏，并且越来越多的（外）祖父母也加入其中。当然家庭主妇和失业人员是Spil Games 1.3亿MAU的重要组成部分，但绝非主流玩家。

4. 在线游戏=《魔兽世界》

WOW

很多年来，《魔兽世界》一直是在线玩家的最爱，这是一款硬核MMORPG游戏。我个人很喜欢这款游戏，现在游戏的营收仍旧非常可观，但是它需要耗费玩家大量时间。MMORPG是社交游戏的一种，但社交游戏并非仅指多人游戏：社交游戏可以是短暂的体验，没有宝剑或者其他武器，远离暴力画面。我们通常将在线休闲游戏形容为“最佳茶点”，它是颇具趣味性和娱乐性的免费体验。玩家大多利用午休时间（12点-14点）、下班或下课之后（4点以后），或者晚上9点后的时间体验游戏。玩家不会像体验《魔兽世界》一样在社交游戏上花费数小时，年轻女性每次的体验时间大约为11分钟。完全和MMORPG玩家在体验中花费数个小时不同。

5. 玩家只有在掌机设备才能体验到真正的游戏

掌机本身并没有什么问题，我自己也有台Xbox 360，我喜欢和孩子们一起体验其中的游戏。但游戏并局限于掌机游戏：据ComScore数据显示，全球共有网民13亿，其中5.1亿体验在线游戏。这个数据远超掌机销售数量，所以很多玩家并没有体验过掌机游戏。在线游戏的质量在过去几年有了很大提高，许多传统掌机游戏如今也出现了在线版本。现在玩家无需购买掌机设备边可体验到很棒的游戏。

6. 年轻女孩并非真正游戏玩家

在游戏领域，年轻女性通常都是被忽略的目标群体。男孩喜欢体验在线游戏，而女孩喜欢玩娃娃显然是个错误观念。Spil Games的女性社交游戏平台（游戏邦注：girlsgogames.com就是其中之一）拥有3000万的MAU。这类游戏的背景也许是设置成粉红色，玩家喜爱的游戏可能偏向房屋装饰或者娃娃打扮类型。但从数据中我们可以发现这类游戏颇具竞争性且用户粘性很高。玩家创造了众多虚拟人物，且把这些创造品保存于个人资料当中。信不信由你，年轻女性玩家也喜欢在游戏中竞争。

7. 玩家不愿为虚拟道具付费

Farmville

继《Farmville》之类融入虚拟道具的游戏大受欢迎后，这类言论有所减少，但有些人依旧认为只有少数玩家为游戏掏钱。虚拟商品世界正在繁荣发展，我们游戏的每日交易数量也呈稳步发展趋势。不仅我们认为如此，开发商Playfish也表示他们每天的游戏虚拟交易量高达9000万笔（游戏邦注：这比eBay每天1000万件的商品销售数量要高出9倍）。

8. 在线游戏并非广告商的最佳选择

过去几年来，在线游戏已经成为媒体娱乐的最大资源之一。不仅体验的人数很多，而且这些玩家的粘性都很高。据我们的调查资料显示，83%的Spil Games玩家愿意接受在线广告，而且广告的相关性越高，效果越好。广告不应具有侵入性，应提高游戏体验，而不是破坏游戏体验。

例如，手机初创公司Kiip日前刚刚为广告商发行了HTML5平台，试图通过强化用户体验及展示广告商对于相关广告潜力的认可来筹集大笔资金。这远超乎传统的旗帜广告（游戏邦注：如想想贴牌游戏或者游戏赞助商品）。我认为在线游戏是广告商们的最佳选择之一，特别是对愿意尝试新广告渠道的广告商来说。

9. 在线游戏领域的繁荣局面仅限于西方世界

在线游戏在全球各个地方均呈繁荣发展趋势，这类游戏在西方世界以外的市场发展速度最快，特别是因为现在玩家无需依靠快速的宽带连接体验在线游戏。这个观点的有利证明之一就是，2014年中国有望成为全球最大的在线游戏市场。开发公司如果希望在非西方国家的市场发展壮大，网站本土化很重要：Spil Games平台拥有19中语言，这些语言很多为非西方国家语言。但纯粹的语言翻译是不够的，本土化的要求远不止如此（游戏邦注：例如，Spil Games在印度推出的板球游戏要比美国多得多）。在线游戏具有全球化属性，适应于各种文化。

10. 手机游戏的最佳体验方式在于应用

我一开始也认为应用是手机游戏的未来，它们在用户体验方面略胜一筹。然而，如果开发商打算开发应用，他们就得针对不同平台推出不同版本。而本土应用长期并没有真正的替换应用，特别是因为基于浏览器的Flash游戏并不适用于iPhone设备。

HTML5

但HTML5随后开始不断发展，许多游戏开发商的首款游戏都是采用这个语言。HTML5游戏的最大的优势在于它们通过同个浏览器运行于所有的智能设备之中。开发商无需制作游戏的不同版本。随着HTML5引擎日渐完善，游戏质量也得到很大提高。虽然很多HTML5游戏并不如应用完善，但越来越多的HTML5游戏质量丝毫不亚于应用。这些游戏看起来和应用没什么两样，但玩家无需下载这些游戏，只需通过浏览器就可以体验。和Facebook领域一样，手机平台的未来在于HTML5，而非应用。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

10 misconceptions about online casual and social gaming

When I tell people that I work in the online gaming industry for Spil Games I come across many misconceptions. Online games have changed a lot over the past years, and many of the views that people have about these games are not correct anymore. I would like to give my view on some of these misconceptions, based on publicly available figures and internal facts and figures from Spil Games.

1. Gaming is a waste of time and is bad for kids

This is something I hear often but that I totally disagree with. I believe there is a creative and educational layer in many games. But of course it doesn’t mean that kids should play all the time. I have two kids myself and find that online games can be an addition to their development. It’s important that children also play outside and do sports. Next to that they can also play online games, but they should only play for short lengths of time. Research shows that kids of 3 years old should play maximum 10 minutes per day and 6 year olds should not be online more than 30 minutes per day. If children do that games can be very beneficial. They can learn a lot in games, for example learning to work together, but also getting more self confidence when you achieve something in a game.

2. Online casual gaming is addictive

Yes, gaming can be very addictive, but that’s especially so for hardcore games like World of Warcraft. Online casual games are a different ballgame. When people play games for 15 minutes per day on our sites, can you say that our games are addictive? The games on our platform are meant to be fun to play and should be relaxing. At least that’s what we hope and that’s what we are trying to achieve.

3. Only house wives and unemployed people play online social games

Everybody plays games, it has become a mainstream activity. Just look at the numbers of people playing a game like Cityville on Facebook (with tens of millions of monthly active users) or the many players on all game platforms across the web. That’s a lot more players than just unemployed people and house wives. Actually, a big target group playing on Spil Games’ game platforms is young girls between 8 to 12 years old. We also see a lot of families playing together and more and more even grandparents that play games. Out of Spil Games’ 130 million unique users per month there are certainly a lot of house wives and unemployed people, but it’s far from the majority of players.

4. Online social gaming = World of Warcraft

For several years the most played game in the world was World of Warcraft, a ‘hardcore’ MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game). I personally love the game, that is still very profitable but that also takes a lot of time to play. Playing a MMORPG is a form of social gaming, but social gaming is much more than a multiplayer game: you can also play social games in a much shorter period of time, without swords and other weapons and in a less violent setting. We often define online casual gaming as ‘the perfect snack’: it’s free fun and entertaining. People play most of our social games during their lunch break (between 12 and 2 pm), at the end of the work or study day (after 4 pm) and at night after 9 pm. People don’t play social games for hours like with World of Warcraft, the average time that girls play on our platforms is about 11 minutes per session. Very different from the hours of gameplay that many MMORPG players put in every day!

5. You can only play real games on consoles

There is nothing wrong with consoles, I have an Xbox 360 myself and I love to play games on it with my kids. But gaming is much more than console games: according to ComScore (Dec. 2010) 1.3 billion people are online out of which 510 million play online games. That’s a lot more than the number of consoles that are being sold, so most people never play games on consoles. The quality of online games has improved tremendously over the years, and many of the traditional console games are now available online as well. You don’t need consoles anymore for a great gaming experience.

6. Girls are no real gamers

In the games industry girls are often a ‘neglected’ target group, it’s a misconception that boys play online games but that girls prefer to play with dolls. On Spil Games’ social game platforms for girls (among others girlsgogames.com) we have 30 million unique visitors every month. They may be playing in a pink environment and many of their favorite games are about horses or about dressing up dolls. But if we look at our statistics we can see that they are very competitive and very engaged. They created millions of avatars and saved millions of their in-game creations on their personal profiles. And believe it or not, but girls love racing games as well.

7. People don’t want to pay for virtual items

I hear this argument a lot less since games with virtual goods like Farmville became popular, but some people still seem to think that only a few people actually pay in games. The world of virtual items is booming, we see a steady increase in the number of daily transactions in our games. And not only we see that, game developer Playfish announced that they have 90 million virtual goods transactions every single day in its games. That’s nine times the 10 million items for sale on eBay at any given time every day.

8. Online gaming is not the right choice for advertisers

Online gaming has become one of the biggest sources of entertainment in media over the past couple of years. Not only do a lot of people play games, but they are also highly engaged. Our research shows that 83% of our users are open to online advertising, and the more relevant the ads the better. Ads should not be intrusive, but should increase the gaming experience instead of disrupting it.

Mobile start-up Kiip just launched a HTML5 platform for advertisers for example, and managed to raise a big round by enhancing the user experience and by showing that advertisers also see the potential of relevant ads. There is a lot more possible than the ‘traditional’ banners: think about branded games for example or sponsored items inside games. I think online gaming is one of the best choices out there for advertisers, especially if they are willing to try new ways of advertising.

9. Online games are only big in the Western world

Online games are big everywhere and are growing fastest outside the Western world, especially because you don’t need a fast broadband connection to play online games. As proof of this, China will likely be the biggest market for online games in 2014. In order to become big in non-Western countries you have to localize your sites: Spil Games has platforms in 19 different languages, many of these focusing on non-Western languages. But just translating is not enough, localizing is much more than that. In India we have for example more cricket games than in the USA. Online gaming is global and works in all cultures.

10. Mobile games can be best played through apps

Initially I believed apps would be the future of mobile games because of their superior user experience. However, if developers decide to make apps they have to make different apps for all kinds of phones. A long time there was no real alternative for native apps, especially because browser-based Flash games don’t run on the iPhone.

But then HTML5 started to grow and many game developers made their first games in that language. The big advantage is that HTML5 games run on every smartphone in a browser. No need for different versions of one game anymore. And because HTML5 engines are getting a lot better the games also improve a lot. Many HTML5 games are not as good as apps yet, but for more and more games (especially social games) you get the same quality in HTML5 as in an app. And these games even look like apps, even though you don’t need to download them and can just play them in your browser. We believe, just like the people at Facebook, that HTML5 is the future of mobile, not apps.（Source：businessinsider）