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以流行游戏为例分析优化社交游戏的10大技巧

发布时间:2011-06-01 14:30:59 Tags:,,,

作者:Sebastian Sujka

今天,社交游戏的数量之多足以令人震惊,仅Facebook上就有超过1万款游戏应用。然而,只有20款Facebook游戏的日活跃用户(游戏邦注:以下简称DAU)超过100万。为何成功游戏的数量如此之少呢?为查明缘由,我们调查了25款最成功和成长速度最快的社交游戏。我们想要了解这些最佳游戏间有什么共同点,何种特征能够对游戏盈利、病毒性和粘性产生影响。我们得到的结果出人意料,以下是10大因素:

Happy Island(from legacygames.com)

Happy Island(from legacygames.com)

10、每日奖励。最佳应用会为回到游戏中的玩家提供奖励。为用户每天登录游戏提供奖励并根据连续登录天数逐渐增加,这是种较简单的方法。更为行之有效的方法是,增加类似老虎机的游戏元素。《宝石迷阵:闪电战》中的每日转盘就是个很棒的例子。在游戏中,玩家每日可获得1个钱币奖励、1次连续登录奖励和1次随机转盘奖励,这些甚至还带有病毒性诱因(游戏邦注:朋友越多,奖励越丰厚)。2010年7月,PopCap引进这项机制,使DAU增加了60%。

9、讨人喜爱的元素。社交游戏也可以利用人类保护和养育的天性。开发商制作娇小可爱且带有婴儿般大眼睛的幼犬,极少玩家能够抵挡住这股诱惑。人们会点击抚养它,并将它展示给自己的好友。最佳方法是让其与病毒性动态机制产生关联,就像《Happy Island》中的小鲸鱼那样。2010年1月CrowdStar发布这款游戏时,获得大量用户关注,游戏的病毒性也带来巨大的安装量。

8、约定动态机制。某些游戏要求玩家定时登录以获得奖励或免受惩罚。传统做法是作物的收获和枯萎,这种机制于2008年首次在《Happy Farm》中出现。《Millionaire City》等许多城市模拟游戏也使用这种方法。玩家将建筑出租后,必须定期回到游戏中收取租金,否则就有可能失去。将时间约定与奖励和避免损失结合起来,就成为强大的心理刺激因素。

7、加速增长。与装饰相比,使增长加速的虚拟道具能够给玩家带来实质上的优势。这可以设置成额外的时间、快速收获的工具或增加生命值的道具。加速增长是盈利的最佳驱动力,比如《Bubble Speed》中的倍增器和彩色炸弹。技巧在于不可向玩家提供无限加速增长的空间,消费品应随时间逐渐减少。

6、能量。某些应用通过能量或生命值等稀有资源来限制玩家在每个阶段的进展速度。随后,商家会提供增加这些资源的道具,让用户发展更为迅速并节省时间。能量最早出现在Metamoki的《Mob Wars》中,如今已是多数Zynga游戏的核心盈利驱动因素。即便是扑克游戏也能够以筹码的形式来利用这个技巧。然而,这是把双刃剑。如果你对资源限制过甚,会增加用户对游戏的不满。

5、成就。用虚拟徽章奖励玩家可以显著提高粘性,这对于那些探索式游戏(游戏邦注:玩家获得明确的任务)格外有效。2009年4月《Mafia Wars》引进成就后,粘性比例(即DAU与MAU的比值)从23%增加至25%。Zynga也在《FarmVille》中加入绶带系统,使得粘性从33%提升至37%。某些应用甚至将探索用作交叉推广的方式。比如,要获得《Mafia Wars》中罕见的单刃猎刀,玩家必须完成《FrontierVille》中的某个任务。

4、好友互动。最棒的应用通过鼓励玩家吸引好友并与之互动的形式来提高留存率。《CityVille》中的选举制度和《FrontierVille》中的邻居访问便是最佳的例证。玩家访问好友的基地可以获得钱币、经验值和好感度。朋友间更为有效的互动是赠礼系统,因为这是一种互惠互利的设置。玩家觉得自己有义务回赠礼物。于是便产生无尽的循环,同时也具有病毒性。玩家拥有的好友越多,他们能赠送和得到的礼物也越多。

3、员工。最具病毒性的机制会让玩家“雇佣”好友以在游戏中获得收益。以《Baking Life》为例,玩家可以为自己的面包房雇佣虚拟临时工,但这会消耗游戏虚拟货币。然而,他们也可以雇佣好友,且无需支付工资。黑帮游戏中的群体机制设置更为巧妙,好处逐渐积累。加入玩家群体中的好友数越多,玩家的力量就越大。增幅由每个好友的力量所决定,这使得游戏具有真正的社交性。

2、制造。最具吸引力的应用让玩家将低价值资源转化为更具价值的资源,期间需要投入时间、技能、金钱或获取好友的帮助,就如同《FarmVille》中的马厩。为修建建筑,玩家需要通过寻找、好友赠送或购买等方式收集虚拟道具。Zynga引进此项机制后游戏DAU提升了20%,可以算是单个新功能带来的最大收益。其他游戏也以不同形式来利用这项机制,如《Mafia Wars》中的弹药库和《CityVille》中的工厂。

1、有限的供应量。这10大元素中最能带动盈利的莫过于对商品和市场的利用。以《Texas HoldEm Poker》为例,当玩家亲历整个付款流程却并未购买时,就会出现弹窗提示商品在24小时内打折出售。仅此项带来的付费用户数增加就可以使盈利提升10-20%。更为强大的是有限的季节性道具,通常围绕万圣节或圣帕特里克节等节日来设置。这些道具可以促使通常不付费的玩家购买,而且让往常购买商品的玩家买得更多。缺点在于,开发商需要持续更新内容。但如果从虚拟商品的角度来看,这种做法对应用有利。

这10项机制会让每个应用都成为巨作吗?可能做不到。如果游戏体验单调乏味,世上的任何技巧都发挥不了作用。因而,最大的成功要素在于提高游戏的可玩性。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Top 10 Secrets of Success for Social Games – by GameDuell Co-Founder Michael Kalkowski

Sebastian Sujka

The number of social games that exist today is staggering. Facebook alone has over 10,000 game apps. Still, only 20 Facebook games have more than one million daily active users (DAU). Why are so few successful? To find out, we looked at the 25 largest social games as well as the fastest growing newcomers. We wanted to understand what the best have in common and which features have the highest impact on monetization, virality and stickiness. What we found was quite surprising. Here is our top 10 list:

#10 Daily Bonuses: The best apps reward players for coming back. A simple way is to reward daily login and increase it each consecutive day. What works even better is to add an element of chance like a slot machine. A great example is the daily spin in Bejeweled Blitz. There players get a daily coins reward, a consecutive days bonus, a random spin, and even a viral incentive (the more friends you have the more bonus). When PopCap introduced this in July 2010 it increased DAU by 60%.

#9 Cuteness: Another trick is to exploit human instinct to protect and nurture. Simply show players a cute puppy with large baby eyes and few can resist. People have to click and pet it – and show it to their friends. The best way is to combine it with a viral dynamic as in the baby whale example from Happy Island. When CrowdStar introduced this in January 2010 it generated tons of feed posts and free viral installs.

#8 Appointment Dynamics: Some features require players to return at predefined times in order to get rewarded or avoid punishment. The classic example is harvesting and withering, which was first seen in Happy Farm in 2008. Many city simulation games like Millionaire City also use this. Players rent out buildings and must come back on time to collect rent to avoid losing it. Appointment schedules combined with loss avoidance and rewards are a strong psychological incentive.

#7 Boosts: In contrast to decorations, boosts are virtual items that give players a functional advantage. That could be extra time, a tool for faster harvesting, or items that increase health. Boosts are one of the best drivers for monetization. A good example are the multipliers and color bombs in Bubble Speed. The trick is never to give unlimited boosts but consumables that deplete over time.

#6 Energy: Some apps limit how far players can advance in each session through scarce resources, such as energy or lives. Then they sell refills that let users advance more rapidly and save time. Energy was first seen in Metamoki’s Mob Wars and today is the core monetization driver of most Zynga apps. Even poker apps use it in the form of chips. However, it can be a double edged sword. If you limit resources too much, users get annoyed and churn increases.

#5 Achievements: Rewarding players with virtual badges can significantly increase stickiness. What works best to direct gameplay with quests (players get explicit tasks). When Mafia Wars introduced achievements in April 2009 their stickiness ratio (DAU/MAU) increased from 23% to 25%. Not surprisingly, Zynga also added ribbons to FarmVille and stickiness increased from 33% to 37%. Some apps even use quests for cross-promotion. For example, in order to get the rare bowie knife in Mafia Wars, players have to solve a quest in FrontierVille.

#4 Friend Interactions: The best apps increase retention by encouraging players to interact and re-engage their friends. Brilliant examples are the franchises in CityVille and the neighbor visits in FrontierVille. Players collect coins, XP and hearts for visiting their friends‘ homesteads. An even more effective friend interaction is gifting because of its reciprocity. Players feel obliged to send a gift back. This creates a endless loop and is also viral – the more friends players have, the more gifts they can send and receive.

#3 Staffing: The most viral mechanic makes players “hire” friends to get benefits in the game. A basic example is Baking Life. Here players have virtual temp workers in their bakery who cost in-game currency. Alternatively, they can hire friends – who work for free. The crew mechanic in mafia games is even smarter because benefits accumulate: Players get more power if more friends join their crew. The increase even depends on each friend’s strength, which makes this truly social.

#2 Crafting: The most engaging apps let players transform less valuable resources into more valuable resources by investing time, skill, money, or the help of friends. A great example is the horse stable in FarmVille. To complete the building players need to collect virtual items that can be found, gifted from friends, or bought. When Zynga introduced this it increased DAU by 20%, one the biggest gains from a single new feature. There are many variations of crafting, for example the weapons depot in Mafia Wars and the factories in CityVille.

#1 Limited Offers: The best monetization driver of all is to use merchandizing and smart marketing. An example is Texas HoldEm Poker. When users leave the payment flow without buying, a popup offers them a 24 hour discount. This alone can increase revenues by 10-20% through increasing the number of paying users. Even more powerful are limited edition items, typically around holidays like Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day. It makes people buy, who usually don’t buy. And it makes people who usually buy, buy more. The downside is that it requires ongoing fresh content. But since we are talking about virtual goods it scales the larger your app becomes.

Will these 10 mechanics turn every app into a blockbuster? Probably not. No trick in the world can make up for a boring game experience. So the biggest success factor of all is to get the underlying gameplay right in the first place. (Source: Social Games Observer)


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