作者：spinks

之前我阅读过一篇关于《Farmville》和社交游戏或者说是Facebook游戏的帖子(游戏邦注：本文发布于2010年3月，所有数据均以当时为准），我想我应该投入一些钱尝试一下这种社交游戏了。所以我想在这篇文章中谈谈我在游戏中的体验。

1.挑选自己中意的游戏

我最初打算玩《Farmville》这款游戏是受到其8000万游戏玩家这个庞大数目的影响。但是事实上，当我登陆Facebook查看消息时，却发现其实很多好友正在体验其它游戏。

所以我决定开始进行一款新游戏，并且这款游戏中必须有一些我所认识的人（不一定是熟知），因为在Facebook中，好友的定义可以是彼此距离很远的两个人，他们会因为某种原因而被联系到一起。（例如我的好友可能是我丈夫在大学时候的好友的妻子，她虽然住在其它大陆上，而且我们相互间已有多年未谋面，但是因为一些原因她却在Facebook上和我开始进行交流）。

Zoo-World(from insidesocialgames.com)

《Zoo World》可以称得上是一种以主题乐园类型的游戏，在这款游戏中玩家可以为自己的动物园收集更多的动物，同时在动物园中还设有一些有趣的机制（例如设置餐饮店等），玩家可以利用这些设置谋取利润。玩家可以用游戏中的虚拟货币购买动物或者独立“繁殖”自己的动物，也能与其他朋友交换动物，并且如果在游戏中出现了一些流浪动物，玩家也能够请求朋友收养它们。

这款游戏中设有一个“成就列表”，并且它会贯穿在玩家的游戏初期阶段中，告诉他们下一步的游戏目标是什么，例如什么时候该繁殖动物了，该买更多的动物了，该吸引更多的游客前来动物园游览了，或者每一天该赚多钱才行等等。这个“成就列表”其实也就是一份新手教程，我很喜欢它，因为它就像是一份安排得当的人物清单。

2.执行每日点击任务

在《Zoo World》中有一个设置，即当玩家在“访问动物园”的页面时，会在页面下方看到一个Flash框，透过这个Flash，玩家能够观察动物园内的情况，并能看到园内虚拟游戏人物的活动，玩家可以在游戏中通过点击树木（每棵树每天能够为玩家带来1个游戏积分）而赚取积分，或者他们也能进行一些模拟游戏行为，如设定动物园的入园价格等。当玩家在“繁殖”新的动物时，他们将会得到一份安排表，告诉他们动物宝宝什么时候出生，需要多久喂一次食等。

如果玩家未能即时给刚出生的动物宝宝喂食，它们会因此而生病。因为我对这些小动物并未足够重视，所以经常未能及时给它们喂食，便导致它们经常生病。但是很显然这些小动物并不会因此而死去。因为无论玩家任何时候登陆游戏，只要他们花费一些游戏币，这些小动物便会再次恢复健康并茁壮成长了。

在游戏中，如果玩家不能好好照顾自己的动物导致它们生病了，他们的好友便会在游戏告示中了解到相关情况，并出手帮忙照顾这些生病的动物们。所以，如果你很懒不想每天花费大量时间照料动物，并且你还拥有许多喜爱动物的好友，那么你便可以放心偷懒了，因为这些朋友会帮你照顾这些小动物。

我正是从好友动态中了解到其中一个好友在《Zoo World》中的一些情况。从她的动态中，我知道她有一只刚出生16个小时的翡翠树蚺。但是因为她没能提供食物给这只可怜的小动物，导致它又冷又孤单，所以很快就要生病了。只有得到一些相关的帮助，这只可怜的动物宝宝才能健康成长。

zoo world(from spinksville)

一整天的时间里我总是会收到无数条关于好友在该款游戏中的操作信息。这款游戏非常受女性玩家欢迎，但是游戏中经常会直接标明“X不是一名好妈妈，如果你也不能很好地照顾你的虚拟动物，你也不是一名好妈妈”等信息，使得很多已经当了妈妈的玩家顿时倍感压力（因为我还未有自己的小孩所以并不能很好地感受到这种压力），并努力进行这款游戏，以避免被冠上“坏妈妈”的称号。

而正是因为玩这款游戏，身处于游戏环境中，我才决定不再为一些生活中的琐事而烦恼了。我一直热爱着艺术，也憧憬着所有优秀的书籍，电影，音乐和游戏，但是前提是，它们的创造者必须真正热爱这些作品，而且不能出于任何盈利因素。

3.吸引玩家投入更多金钱

当你在玩游戏的时候必须清楚，自己有可能会在游戏中投入一些金钱。在游戏中玩家需要进行很多种交易，像购买有功能的道具或者稀有动物（在游戏中极端稀有的蓝象仅售1.99美元哦！），同时如果玩家大批量地购买动物时，还能得到一些额外的奖励。

玩家能够轻易地关掉游戏中弹出的窗口。但是虽然这些显示窗口中所宣传的虚拟商品对玩家在游戏初级阶段没有什么太大帮助，但是也许在一些更高的游戏级别中，将能为其带来不少优势。

如果你喜欢在游戏中繁殖动物，那你就该小心了。虽然在游戏的初期，你繁殖的一些动物都比较便宜，而且玩家也能够很轻易收集到一些动物。但是之后，你就不得不花钱购买更高级的动物。所以说，在游戏中，免费和容易得到的成就感对于玩家来说只是个甜味剂，而这种甜味剂将会引导他们在今后的目标追寻中投入更多的时间和努力，甚至是金钱。

但是，游戏当然也会给你带来相应的奖励回报。

earn points through offers(from spinksville)

4.向好友推荐游戏

如果你登陆了游戏的页面，将不时会弹出一个窗口，希望你能向好友推荐这款游戏。而你唯一能做的便是把这个推荐窗口转发到自己的状态中向好友展示。但是我对这种方法持有中立的态度，当然如果你有很多好友也在玩这款游戏，那就再好不过了。

结论：这款游戏并不糟糕。而且可以说，它作为一款动物园主题类游戏，算是非常成功的。在游戏中，玩家能够安排自己的主题乐园，购买动物或繁殖动物，也能够给自己的动物园设定入园价，并设法吸引更多虚拟访客前往动物园参观。

显然，这款游戏的设计初衷是为了鼓励玩家通过好友列表吸引更多的好友加入游戏，并投入金钱玩游戏。虽然它并未强制任何人体验游戏，但是却不会停止所谓的“广告推广”活动。

而且，当我在进行这款游戏时，会改变对好友们的看法。我经常会想“谁也在玩这款游戏？谁会想和我交换动物？”等问题，而且因为有这种想法，我对那些在游戏中获得很高成绩的好友的评价往往会高于那些“无用的”（即游戏成绩不是很好）好友。（我就是一个“无用的”好友，因为我很少登陆游戏，所以我的动物应该都奄奄一息了吧）。

总的来看，虽然我感受到了这款游戏的魅力，但是因为各种阻碍因素加上我并没有动力隔几个小时就登陆游戏照顾虚拟动物宝宝，所以对于这款游戏，我更关注的是好友列表，而非游戏本身。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

In which my social game test doesn’t even last for one week

by spinks

I had thought following last week’s post about Farmville and Social/ Facebook Games, that I should really put my money where my mouth is and try one. So I want to talk a bit about that experience.

And I’d suggest reading this alongside The Ancient Gaming Noob’s account of his time with Farmville (he had a much happier time with it).

1. Pick Your Game

I had originally intended to go with Farmville, because 80 million people can’t be wrong. But actually what happened was that I logged into Facebook, checked over my feed and saw a couple of game notifications for friends who were playing different games.

So I decided I might as well pick a game that was also played by someone I vaguely know (by this I mean the wife of one of my husband’s old friends from college, who now lives in another continent, and who I haven’t seen for at least a year, plus she really really annoyed one of my gay friends by being a jerk about his boyfriend …. this is what passes for a close friend on Facebook, incidentally*.)

Hence, Zoo World, which is a variation of Theme Park which involves collecting animals in your zoo, together with other attractions (such as food kiosks) and trying to make a profit. You can either buy animals with the local currency or breed them. Plus you can swap animals with your friends, and sometimes lost wandering animals will turn up which you can offer to your friends for adoption.

The game also has a strong achievement list and will walk you through your first few days by telling you at all times what achievement you should aim for next. e.g. Breed stuff, buy more stuff, get X visitors to your zoo, earn X dollars per day in your zoo. This turns out to be a very decent way to organise a tutorial and I rather like it. It’s like a to-do list.

2. Onwards to daily click quests

There is a flash page under Visit Zoo which lets you look around your zoo and see virtual people wandering around, click the trees (each one gives one coin per day) or do other sim type stuff like setting the admission price. When you breed animals, you are given a schedule for when the new baby will be born and how often it needs to be fed.

If the baby is not fed on time, it will get sick. Mine failed to be fed on time a lot because I just don’t care enough, so they spent a lot of time sick. Apparently they don’t actually die though. Whenever you do log on you can spend more game currency to make them better.

I believe the game also posts to your friends list when one of your animals gets sick so that they can make it better for you. So if you are lazy and have a load of animal loving friends, they can pretty much play the time critical elements of the game for you.

This was a message in my friends feed from a friend who plays Zoo World. It informs me that her Emerald Tree Boa was born just 16 hours ago. It is cold, lonely and will get sick soon without any food. Baby wants to grow up big and strong some day and just needs a little help getting started.

Well fuck that for the most blatently and pathetically manipulative messaging I had all day. Remember these games are popular with women. Could it say ‘X is a bad mother and so are you if you don’t feed this virtual animal’ any more clearly? Maybe it’s because I don’t have kids that I’m immune to this shtick, but anyone who does will tell you about the constant pressure to be a good mother AND to prove it.

This was where I decided I couldn’t be bothered any more.  I’m all for art affecting me emotionally but I’ll stick to books, films, music, and games that are well written and were made by people who loved them, not over-marketised pap.

3. And by the way, SPEND MORE MONEY

The game also is very keen that you should know that you can spend real money on it. There are ‘deals of the day’, featured items, rare animals (ultra rare blue elephant, only $1.99!!!), as well as special offers when you buy wildlife points in bulk.

It is easy enough to click away the pop up windows. I don’t imagine that it’s essential to buy stuff, at least not at the early stages, but presumably it will help a lot when you get to higher level achievements.

Similarly, if you enjoy breeding animals, watch out. The first few animals you get to breed are cheap and easy to collect. After that, they start with the more expensive ones. And presumably later on, animals that require you to spend real money. So the free and easy achievements are sweeteners, leading directly into goals which will cost you either more time and effort, or cash.

Plus of course, the inevitable tied offers.

4. And stuff for your friends

While you are on the games’ site, you will also occasionally get pop up windows with offers for your friends. All you have to do is agree to post the offer to your wall or friends list. I’m neutral to this (although it is a bit spammy) – if you have a lot of friends who play then it’s probably terrific.

Summary: It’s really not the great satan of gaming

OK, so to sum up, the game isn’t awful. As a zoo theme park simulation, it works fine. You get to lay out your theme park, buy or breed new animals, set prices and work out how to get more virtual visitors through the door.

It is transparently designed to encourage players to involve others on their friends list and to spend money. Neither of these is compulsory but they will keep asking.

I did notice while playing that it made me think differently about my friends list. I was thinking ‘who might also play this game and want to exchange animals with me?’ – so you kind of feel encouraged to value those friends who will play more highly than the ‘useless ones’ who won’t. (Note: I am a really useless friend for facebook games, since I barely log in at all!)

And just as I was wrapping up, feeling that I’d understood some of the appeal but was put off by the sheer blatency of the whole thing, plus my lack of caring enough to log on religiously every few hours to feed baby virtual animals, I took another look at my friends list.（source:spinksville）