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论述开发商增加应用曝光重要性及途径

发布时间:2011-05-24 10:51:53 Tags:,,,

游戏邦注:本文作者为Jennifer Bartlett,文章通过谈论应用商店、Facebook平台乃至游戏开发商阐述社交游戏曝光度的重要性及途径。

显然游戏和应用曝光不再仅仅是个紧急服务或策略,如今其已成为具备充分威力的核心概念。从GameCoins到RewardVille和TeePee(游戏邦注:RewardVille为积分兑换网站,TeePee为游戏搜索网站),游戏曝光的解决方案不断涌现,身边充斥各种公告。有些业内主要人士对此却给予不同反应:谁参与这场纷争当中,他们是否采取正确对策,这对开发商来说意味这什么?

苹果公司

苹果App Store是个颇受欢迎的游戏商店,众多开发商参与其中,众多应用入驻该地。后者存在的问题显而易见:每月有无数应用入驻商店,激化该市场的竞争性,应用因此很难崭露头角。应用的生死存亡维系于榜单排名,而这又是通过下载量来体现的,用户唯有先发现应用,接着才有可能下载应用。对于那些没有大量营销预算的应用来说,App Store曝光度就显得尤为重要,这不仅是开发商成功的保障,同时还能够方便消费者发现高质量应用。

苹果实施了系列曝光机制(游戏邦注:如通过Genius创造动态音乐播放列表或者根据已下载内容发现新应用),但其仍然还有创新空间。就目前来说,开发商拥有系列方式增加产品曝光度:通过免费应用推广增加下载量(因而提高排名);应用交叉推广也是获得用户的有效方式。然而,苹果早已推行系列成功应对措施,苹果开始更加严密控制曝光度,测试各种新方式。奖励曝光(如安装付费模式:用户可以通过下载新应用获得虚拟商品)已受到限制和抵制,苹果不断调整其排名算法,最近开始更重视应用使用率。

ipod from gamezebo.com

ipod chart from gamezebo.com

最终结果是苹果开始对消费者同内容伙伴之间的联系给予更多关注,但应用要在App Store获得曝光度还是颇具难度。对于App Store过于拥挤的现状,苹果尚无任何解决对策,但其无疑开始提高应用曝光度及提高各个公司和开发商的营收底线(游戏邦注:正是这些公司推动App Store的成功)。

Facebook

颇受追捧、价值达万亿的社交网络Facebook当然深谙曝光之道及其重要性。作为新兴在线游戏平台,Facebook从初始就支持和控制开发商游戏曝光机制。于Facebook投放游戏蕴藏无限机会,同时也得冒险应对平台沟通政策的变幻莫测,特别是游戏如何通过平台传播至其他用户。当Facebook首次向第三方开发商开放的时候,其堪称是游戏领域西部荒原,许多开发商都充分利用该有利条件。由于当时对动态消息发布的限制较少,游戏很快就通过病毒式传播获得曝光度。但这并没有持续很久;Facebook如今对这些沟通渠道进行更加严格的限制,目的是维护社交交流的真实性(游戏邦注:如取消垃圾信息)。

Discover New Games from gamezebo.com

Discover New Games from gamezebo.com

虽然游戏对Facebook用户粘性策略越来越重要,但公司重新定位自己,积极鼓励用户通过新推出的Discover New Games模块发现新游戏。这个模块是最基本的社交曝光工具,是告知用户好友所体验游戏的工具条。用户相信好友,可能通过点击游戏变相增加社交联系。最新更新内容通过添加定制选择,更多或者更少展示内容,帮助终端用户严密控制自身曝光率(更多或跟少),同时通过添加个性化元素提高总体体验。

Facebook已经采取系列措施增加游戏曝光度,但真正的问题是公司能否创建更加强大的曝光服务,帮助开发商在这个日益激烈的平台发展壮大。这个发现模块的问世表明,公司开始意识到游戏的重要性,但Facebook本身并不仅限于游戏,公司未来给予开发商们支持程度如何我们无从知晓。或许公司未来可能推出专门服务游戏的门口网站,这将带来一个更加有趣的命题:游戏该如何编入索引,如何推广以及如何被发现。此时,平台对于专业供应商的需求丝毫不会减弱,他们需要提供基于偏好的发现模式,更重要的是,通过平台以外的途径曝光游戏。这正是AppStrip和Applifier等公司所提供的服务,其他开发商则紧锣密鼓加快发行步伐。

Zynga公司

为何将Zynga单独抽离Facebook讨论?毕竟Zynga还是通过Facebook才建立自身用户基础形成霸主地位,并且主要通过整合该社交网络运作。但这也是我们单独讨论这两家公司的原因所在。作为Facebook最大开发商,Zynga同时也是众多公司的瞄准对象。越来越多竞争对手进入该领域,而且玩家体验各款游戏的时间变得越发有限,Zynga深知其需要竭尽所能减少流失量,不断推动各款游戏的用户粘性。

Zynga RewardVille from gamezebo.com

Zynga RewardVille from gamezebo.com

Zynga去年3月推出了RewardVille。作为一个游戏发现和回访的平台,RewardVille通过货币奖励刺激用户的活跃体验时间和跨游戏忠诚度。这个平台同时也能够吸引新用户,这些用户偶然驻足网站以期获得奖励和特殊活动(游戏邦注:如最近借助Lady Gaga开展的联合推广活动)。RewardVille实现了两个显而易见的曝光核心理念:集中模式和奖励。货币奖励鼓励玩家体验游戏,给予试验和体验游戏的用户有形奖励,而集中模式则使得开发商能够通过用户信任的公共环境便捷开展交叉推广活动。

Zynga策略符合形势,但如果开发商们希望从RewardVille获得灵感,其恐怕难以满足:这并非一个能够轻易复制的模式(游戏邦注:成本颇高,且实施存在技术难度),且它只针对Zynga游戏。

开发商角度

开发商需采取的行动是确保游戏获得曝光度吗?这些选择很大程度上依赖于自身平台,针对平台不同,使用工具也就相应发生变化。但需牢记于心的是大型品牌公司越来越注重曝光度和持续用户粘性。我们必须明白曝光度是如何作为工具应用于不同平台之中,进而带来成功,同时还要明白鼓励初创合资企业满足各个族群(平台所有者、开发者和消费者)需求所可能失去的东西。我们可以通过观摩这些公司如何适应竞争日益激烈的市场学习经验,更重要的是,我们需要采取相应对策。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Game Discovery, Engagement and What the Big Players Are Doing

By Jennifer Bartlett

It’s clear that game and app discovery is no longer merely an emergent service or strategy, but is now a core concept that has arrived in full force. From our own GameCoins to RewardVille and TeePee, we’re seeing game discovery solution launches and funding announcements left and right. Some of the biggest players in the space are reacting in different ways: who’s jumping in the fray, are they doing it right, and what does it mean to game developers?

Apple

Apple’s App Store is an incredibly popular gaming destination with a huge amount of developer support and apps to offer. The problem with the latter is self-evident: thousands of apps are launched every month, making for an incredibly competitive marketplace in which it is extremely difficult for an app to get noticed. An app lives and dies by its chart rankings, which are driven by downloads… and no one downloads an app they don’t find. For those without huge marketing budgets behind a launch, discovery has become the crucial factor in the App Store, not only to help ensure success for developers but also to help consumers more easily find quality apps.

Apple has implemented a number of discovery mechanisms, like Genius to create dynamic music playlists or discover a new app based on what’s already been downloaded, but there’s still room for innovation. As it stands, developers do have a few proven options to drive discovery: free app distribution increases downloads (and thus ranking), while in-app cross promotion has been shown to be effective in driving user acquisition. However, other successful methods have seen backlash from Apple as the company more closely controls discovery and tests new methods. Incentivized discovery (e.g. pay-per-install models, in which users receive virtual goods by downloading a new app) has seen restrictions and elimination, while Apple continually tweaks its chart-ranking algorithms, most recently placing greater emphasis on usage.

The end result is that there are definitely efforts being made to ensure that Apple’s consumers are being connected with its content partners, but it remains very hard to be discovered in the App Store. There is no one answer to App Store overcrowding at the moment, but we can be sure Apple is working on something that helps with discovery and improves the bottom line for the company and the developers that are making the App Store such a success.

Facebook

It’s no surprise that everyone’s favorite trillion dollar social network is well aware of discovery and its importance. As an emerging platform for online games, Facebook has, from the early days, both supported and inhibited game discovery mechanisms for developers. Having a game on Facebook presents great opportunities, but also risks encountering unexpected changes to the network’s communications policies, particularly in regards to how a game may communicate to users within the network. When Facebook first opened up to third-party developers, it was the Wild West for games, and many developers took advantage. With barely any limits to the ability to appear in news feeds, games rapidly attained viral awareness. This didn’t last; Facebook has, understandably, put tighter restrictions on these communications channels to maintain the integrity of social exchanges (i.e. eliminate spam).

As gaming becomes more important to Facebook’s engagement strategy, however, the company has repositioned itself and actively encourages the discovery of new games through the recently introduced Discover New Games module. This module is social discovery at a basic level: a sidebar shows users what games friends are playing. Users trust their friends and are likely to click as another form of connecting socially. A recent update added a customization option to show the module more or less often, allowing end users to more closely control their own discovery rate, adding an element of personalization that will improve their overall experience.

Facebook has taken some steps to help game discovery, but the real question is if the company will build a more robust discovery service to help developers flourish on an increasingly competitive platform. The discovery module is an indication the company realizes the importance of games, but Facebook itself is about much more than just games, and it’s not clear what level of support they’ll offer developers. Perhaps what’s coming is a dedicated Facebook games portal, which raises a much more interesting proposition about how games will be indexed, promoted and found. In the meantime there continues to be a need for specialized providers who can provide preference-based discovery, and more importantly, take discovery beyond one platform. Services like AppStrip and Applifier are indicative of this, and others are likely gearing up for launch.

Zynga

Why examine Zynga separately from Facebook? After all, Zynga rose to dominance by building an audience through Facebook, and still largely operates through integration with the social network. But of course, that’s the very reason to discuss the two companies separately. As the biggest operator on Facebook, Zynga is also the company everyone is gunning for. With countless competitors entering the space and increasingly limited time for gamers to play all the different games available, Zynga knows it needs to do everything it can to reduce churn and drive continued engagement across its library of titles.

Enter RewardVille, launched this past March. A full game discovery and re-engagement platform, RewardVille incentivizes active play-time and cross-title loyalty among its user base through currency rewards. The destination also serves to attract new users who might stumble upon the site in search of rewards and special events – like, for instance the latest co-marketing campaign with Lady Gaga. RewardVille achieves two core discovery concepts that are clearly evident: centralization and incentives. Currency incentives encourage action, giving users tangible awards for trying and playing games, while centrality allows the developer to easily cross-promote within a communal environment that users can trust.

Zynga is doing it right, but RewardVille does have shortfalls if you’re looking for inspiration: it’s not a model easily copied (both expensive and technically difficult to execute) and is reserved only for Zynga titles.h

You

What are you doing to make sure your game is getting discovered? Your options are greatly dependent on your platform, and different tools are available depending on where you’ll use them. It’s important to keep in mind that the big brands are increasingly focused on discovery and continued engagement. It will be important for all of us to acknowledge how discovery is being utilized as a tool across multiple platforms to drive success, and equally valuable to understand what might be missing so as to encourage new startup ventures that serve the needs of everyone involved: the platform holder, the developer, and the consumer. We can all learn by watching these companies adapt to an increasingly competitive marketplace – more importantly, we’ll definitely have to react to them.(Source:gamezebo


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