作者：Michael Fergusson

我一直在讨论让游戏更具粘性、病毒性和吸引力的设计元素。我们格外关心玩家的游戏体验，尝试将认知心理学和自动化工程师所具有的技术上的专业知识结合起来，让构建出的游戏的吸引力达到最大。我认为对任何思索游戏设计的人（游戏邦注：或考虑雇佣某人来进行游戏设计的人）来说，理解演化心理学如何影响我们思考以及我们如何利用这方面的知识来设计出更好的游戏都不无裨益。

Fashion-World-Gift(from mabelgames.com)

互惠效应

互惠效应是我们可以构建至游戏中使之更有意义、更具病毒性和吸引力的游戏机制。我们可以利用赠送和收取的效能以及与此概念相关的社交规范来诱导玩家在游戏中发生某些行为。互惠是深深扎根于人心的天性。

某些专家甚至辩称互惠可能对人类社会的产生有所帮助，间接互惠（游戏邦注：互惠效应的变体）可能在人类进化过程中为大脑的发展提供选择性挑战。正如你所看到的那样，这是种强大的游戏机制，可用来驱动玩家产生某些行为。

互惠概念之所以在社交游戏中如此有效的原因在于，它是种简单的认知行为和强大的社交诱因。在多数社交情景中，人们会以类似的方式对他人的行为做出回应。因而当有人赠予你礼物时，你不仅感觉到自己有义务回赠，而且你对那个人也会有好感，觉得他看起来是个不错的家伙。

遵从上述可预测到的互动样式让人觉得安全和友善，但打破这种规范会使人觉得事态险恶，至少会产生莫名其妙的感觉（游戏邦注：这也是为何将其称为社交规范的原因）。有趣的是，玩家在玩社交游戏时的互惠行为可能超过游戏的期望值，因为这种行为会让他们直接受益。

人类不仅对自身参与其中的互动有着强烈的感觉，还会评判他人间与自己无关的行为。在此等情况下，某些鼓励你自己和他人进行互易的行为能够产生长期的利己思想。玩家受关注或评判的行为对此类循环的有效性至关重要。以间接互惠（游戏邦注：这种概念指的是A给予B某种物品，结果导致C赠予A物品）为例，这强调了监管朋友间乃至社交网络中所有个体间互动的重要性。

关注互惠效应的理由

为何游戏设计师或依靠社交网络进行营销的商人需要对此等内容感兴趣呢？互惠效应产生的社交义务循环会让游戏产生具有病毒性、粘性和吸引力的元素。那么，我们如何才能营造出这种匀称的互惠期望呢？关键在于用清晰的游戏行为顺序来让玩家产生互惠期望，也就是向玩家传达“赠予朋友礼物，然后让他们回赠！”这种信息。

以我们的Facebook游戏《NFS-Nitro》为例，你进入游戏首先会看到礼品页面，鼓励你赠送加速道具和限制版赛车给好友。玩家接受礼品后会直接切换到礼品页面来回赠。此类刺激和循环可用来鼓励玩家产生更长期和更有意义的社交游戏行为。因为它让接受方产生强烈的责任感，同时也带有强烈的刺激作用。

互易效应是把双刃剑，需要小心使用。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Game Design and the Reciprocity Effect in Social Games

Michael Fergusson

Over the past few months, I’ve tried to discuss elements of game design that can help make really sticky, viral and engaging games. We care a lot about our players’ game play experiences and try to use our expertise in cognitive psychology, together with our technological expertise as automation engineers, to maximize engagement with the games we build. I think it’s beneficial for anybody thinking about game design (or thinking of hiring someone to does) to understand how evolutionary psychology disciplines our thinking and how we can use this knowledge to design better games.

The Reciprocity Effect

One game mechanic that we can build into our games to make more meaningful, viral and engaging is the Reciprocity Effect. We can utilize the power of giving and receiving and the social norms associated with this concept as the trigger for players to do things in games. Reciprocity is a deeply rooted instinct.

Some experts would even argue that reciprocity may have helped the emergence of human societies and that indirect reciprocity (a variant in this concept) may have provided the selective challenge to help our cerebral expansion during human evolution. As (I hope) you’ll see, this can be a powerful game mechanic to use to drive players to action.

The reason the concept of reciprocity can be so effective in social games is because it’s an easily recognized behaviour, and a powerful social trigger. In most social situations, there is an expectation that people will respond to each other in similar ways, so when someone gives you a gift, you not only feel a sense of obligation give a gift back to that person, but your opinion of that person is raised; they seem a “good” (or at least, useful) individual.

Following the predictable pattern seems safe and helpful, while breaking the norm is seems threatening, or at least confusing. (This is also why it’s called a social norm.) Intriguingly, when playing social games, players might reciprocate more for the social implications of it, rather then because it benefits them directly (humans not only feel strongly about interactions that involve them directly, they also judge the actions between others not directly involved).

In this case, long-term self-interest is best served by promoting an image both to others and yourself that encourages reciprocity. The expectation that a player’s action is being observed or judged is crucial for this cycle to be effective. As an example, indirect reciprocity (a concept we’ll go into later on where A gives to B, and as a result C gives to A) stresses the importance ofmonitoring not only partners in continuing interactions, but also all individuals within the social network.

This is interesting because…

Why should this interest you as a game designer (or business that relies on social networks for marketing)? The reciprocity effect encourages a cycle of social obligation that adds a viral, sticky and engaging element to the game. How, though, can we create this symmetrical expectation of reciprocity? The key is to establish for the players a clear sequence of game actions that establish the expectation of reciprocity: “Send your friend a gift, and ask them to send one in return!”

To give you an example from one of our games: in NFS-Nitro on Facebook, the first screen you see when arriving at the game is the gifting page, encouraging you to send gifts of power-ups and limited-edition race cars to your friends. Accepting the gift takes the recipient directly to the gifting page to return the favour. These types of loops and incentives can be used to encourage longer and more meaningful the social game play. Because it creates a compelling sense of obligation on the part of the recipient, it can also be intensely irritating.

As author Jamie Madigan (he’s a PH.D. and authors a brilliant blog on the psychology behind game design) says: “thanks for the Sheep, guy I used to know in high school”. Using the reciprocity effect is a two edged sword that needs to be used with skill and care. (Source: Gamasutra)