作者：Alan Youngblood

摩擦在物理上的含义为阻止两物体接触表面发生相互滑动或滚动的现象。但此刻我要讨论的是摩擦效果的市场含义，也就是市场阻力。

首先，我要在此澄清的是，“只要制作出产品就能盈利”这种神话般想法只对凯文·科斯特纳（游戏邦注：好莱坞著名影星，奥斯卡最佳导演）奏效。即便是毒品交易等行业也需要进行市场营销，这是你应该学习的方面。

与众多独立游戏开发商类似，我们公司也正在开发手机平台游戏。iOS应用商店过于拥挤，尽管用户数量很多，但只有少数人会为《愤怒的小鸟》之外的其他游戏付款。（游戏邦注：作者此处并非想抨击这款游戏，只是想说明与这类作品共存的游戏很难得到用户关注。）

你的游戏就这样被挤出市场，这种感觉糟透了。为什么呢？如果我已经在iPhone上玩过《愤怒的小鸟》或EA的《死亡空间》等带来更深层次体验的游戏，我又怎么会关注你的游戏呢？从本质上来说，我们这类公司很容易在喧闹的独立游戏开发市场中销声匿迹，我们需要关注的是如何脱颖而出并让这个过程变得更为简单。

angry-birds-rio(from blog.toggle.com)

这意味着你需要获得外界的关注。网络时代的基本原则是，用户关注流向何处，就能给何处带来金钱。而且，金钱必然转化成为企业的营业额。妨碍人们向你付款的两大自然障碍是关注度和附加价值。简单地说，附加价值就是制作许多人喜欢的有趣游戏。但是，真正执行起来并不一定如此简单。关注的内容又与附加价值完全不同，我们将在下文详细阐述。成功游戏的基本原则就是：设计出令人兴奋的内容，真诚对待用户，给人们选择游戏的理由。

让我们回到前文提到的毒品交易，看看加利福尼亚的政策。对住在加州的大麻吸食者而言，去年的19号提案（游戏邦注：该提案建议使吸食大麻合法化）是件大事。至少，它让外界的非吸食者都关注到这件事。我之前认为，第19号提案无疑会得到批准，使得以任何目的拥有和使用大麻合法化。但现在，这种可能性已几乎不存在。

为何我最初的想法会有偏差呢？我们来考虑下吸食者和商人这两个方面，他们是关心大麻合法化的主要人群。如果大麻合法化会带来什么呢？无非是法律文书、税收以及更多的业务经费等。因而，许多人投票反对这种物质的合法化。合法化给他们正在做的事情增添了许多妨碍因素。

那么，这对游戏制作又有什么启发呢？我并不是指吸食大麻来庆祝游戏的发布，毕竟目前在美国多数地区这还是非法行为。我想说的是你需要去除游戏过程中任何产生摩擦的内容，如付款、繁琐的注册流程等等。我们再来看看毒品贩子的做法，他们都是以最好的东西为饵，让人们先免费体验其中快感。重点在于，这些东西终归会用完，人们再想吸食就需要花钱购买。这便是我们游戏开发商需要注意的内容。在测试版和免费版在激起人们获得更多内容的欲望时终止，然后准备好下个让他们付费购买的内容。

实施方法：

1.向用户呈现游戏最佳内容的免费测试版本。这才可能使你的游戏在竞争中击败其他游戏。付费版本应该有某些特别的内容，但要在免费版本中提供游戏最佳内容的样例。样例出现的理想时机是游戏中期，而且不可对故事产生过多影响。比如，在多数游戏中，玩家玩游戏的时间越多就能得到越炫的道具。那么商家可以先向玩家展示拉风的道具，这样方能吸引用户继续玩下去。

2.免费的游戏故事预告片。还在使用截屏吗？现在，你需要做的是直接展现游戏片段。我个人偏好在预告片中加入人们玩游戏或谈论游戏的内容。这可以为游戏增添些许人情味，再次减少发现和玩游戏产生的摩擦。人们在看到其他人玩游戏时会想象他们自己享受游戏的情景，预告片会让这个想象过程简单得多。

3.增加营销物质的价值。如果你参加过行业会议，很可能就会注意到那些免费的游戏。然而，参展只是方法之一。比起向用户大力推广来说，如果你有某些供人们使用的东西，他们注意并重视品牌的可能性会更高。人们喜欢首先得到服务，然后再付出时间或金钱。这种做法会减少用户认同品牌的摩擦，使营销的机会成本下降。如果你是消费者，当然会选择带品牌的免费却有价值的东西，而不会仅仅听信向你大声吆喝的免费广告。俗话说，奉承比敌对更能赢得好感。

4.采用免费模式（游戏邦注：下文简称F2P）。你需要在游戏发布之初便采取这种策略，因为这种做法在后期很可能会误导玩家。F2P发展于盗版猖獗的韩国等亚洲市场。他们不像西方人那样抱怨盗版的种种坏处，而是创造出这种更好的运营模式，从本质上削弱盗版的影响。对西方市场而言，我建议寻找某种既轻松又能提供新鲜游戏玩法风格和场景（游戏邦注：这里指的并非典型的亚洲MMORPG玄幻世界）的方法。以《英雄联盟》为例，许多此类游戏的摩擦在于它们根据顾客购买的产品数来收费。我认为，根据产品价值而不是数量来收费可能更为恰当。不过，这可能也是我为何不像Zynga那般富裕的原因。

5.以各种方式进行多平台推广。远离那些你无法发布的平台，这自然不必多做解释。但游戏开发商往往存在的弊端是触及面过少。从技术层面上来说，我们需要使用Unity3D之类的引擎，简化任何平台上的发布过程。从营销层面上来说，你应该以各种方式来推广游戏和公司，如网站、Facebook页面、Twitter账户、展会、与朋友家人及陌生人见面时、个人博客等。如果你只使用某种媒体，要确保其传达足够产生互动的信息。

6.允许和鼓励粉丝制作与游戏相关的东西。大型公司做的最愚蠢的事情之一是否定粉丝制作的小游戏、引擎电影、粉丝小说、粉丝艺术和类似的事物。实际上，你的公司和游戏很有可能因这些粉丝运动成名，而培养这种运动的最佳方法就是尊重玩家的创造力（游戏邦注：这也有助于为游戏带来更多用户）。鼓励人们做这些事情，它们就像免费的广告，而且效果比付费广告还要好。最好在你的网站上公示这些作品或提供相关链接。

7.在让用户付费时，确保他们无需点击大量内容或输入过多的信息。使用现今的技术，尽量简化资金从顾客流入你账户中的过程。别让玩家把时间浪费在你的付费系统上，这些都是你可以控制的内容。上述做法的底线也是本篇文章的重点，即尽量让用户的付费过程简单且令人满意。要使用户满意，就增加游戏的价值。要使过程变得简单，就要去除所有的摩擦因素。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Friction Baby! Physics Meets Marketing

Alan Youngblood

Physics defines friction as the rubbing of two bodies against another. I’m sure the silly Sir Mix-A-Lot reference does the same, with a different meaning for the word “bodies.” I would rather focus on an effect of friction for this marketing definition: resistance.

First to bust a myth: this mentality of “if you build it they will come” only worked for Kevin Costner. In a world where people talk about how “sex sells” even sex does not actually sell itself. (The people working in that [illegal/taboo] industry might be said to “sell themselves” but sex itself does not sell itself. Allow me to explain because ironically illegal and taboo industries like sex, pornography and drug dealing have something that you should copy. Imagine a prostitute that stays at home all the time. Do you imagine s/he gets any business? There’s a reason people talk about those folks “working the corner” that’s where they do marketing. That’s the first thing they do right: they are available in areas with many potential clients walking by. But that alone does not necessarily get them business.

Like lots of indie game developers, my company is working on a title that is for mobile platforms. The iOS store is so flooded that while there are many customers, there’s very little attention that generally gets paid to anything that isn’t named “Angry Birds.” (I’m not knocking the game, I’m simply stating that it’s hard to get your game noticed even right beside it.)

Your game is out and it’s awesome. So what? If I’m already playing Angry Birds or a perhaps deeper experience in EA’s Dead Space on my iPhone why do I care about your game? Given the nature of how easy it is to get lost in the noise indies like us need to focus on standing out and making it easier.

This means you need attention. The profit rule of the internet age is: where attention flows, there too flows money. And money must flow to do business. The two biggest natural barriers of friction to people paying you are attention and value-add. The value-add is simply (but not necessarily easily in execution) making a fun game that many people will enjoy. The attention is another article altogether, so stay tuned for that. The basic overview is: be out there, be honest, be exciting, give people a reason to stay with you.

To tie back in the drug dealing part of the metaphor with friction (resistance) let’s examine California politics. For Marijuana users living in Cali last year Proposition 19 seemed like a big deal. At least it did for this non-user on the outside looking in. I thought for certain Prop 19 would pass and legalize the ownership and usage of Marijuana for any purpose. But it hardly ever stood a chance.

Why was I wrong? Let’s consider users and dealers. They are the main demographic that cares about legalization of their favorite plant. What happens when it becomes legal? Basically laws, paperwork, taxes, more business overhead, etc. So many voted to against legalizing the substance. It added too much friction to what they were doing.

Great, so what does that mean for my game you say? No, I’m not suggesting you smoke a bowl to celebrate release. That’s your personal prerogative and still currently illegal in all of the US where I live. What I’m saying is that you need to cut out any friction like payments, tedious sign-ups, etc. for the discovery process for your game. Consider the weed dealer again. S/he is likely to give out not just a crappy sample, but the best stuff for free. The important thing to note is that weed will get used up and the user will need to buy more. This is where we as game developers will want to add back in friction. Once the demo/free version should end right when it has whetted their appetite for more. Then have the next part ready for them to buy.

Practical methods:

Free demo showcasing whats best about your game. This means chopping up your game into another game possibly. Keep some options of the good content for your paid game alone, but have a good sample of the best your game has to offer. Ideally this should be from some time in the middle of your game (you get cooler items in most games the more you play so why would you show of the crappy n00b hammer instead of the Epic Hammer of the Gods that looks really cool?) and less story driven. I’ll get to that next.

Free trailer video of the story. Have cool cut scenes? This is the time you want to show of direct from game footage. Any other time I personally prefer to include a person playing it and or talking about it. There’s a good reason for adding this human touch and it again goes back to reducing friction for discovery and use. People that see other people playing and enjoying a game can visualize themselves playing and enjoying a game much easier than without seeing that.

Add value with marketing material. If you’ve been to an industry conference you’ll likely have noticed the free swag. That’s just one way of doing it though. If you have something that is used by other people they are more likely to see and appreciate your brand than if you are just yelling at them. People like to be served first before they dish out their time/cash. This reduces friction to entry as the opportunity cost of your marketing is cheaper than others. Getting free value with branding vs free advert yelling at you, which would you choose as a consumer? The saying goes, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
 
Free-to-play(F2P) games. As a disclaimer you must do this from the start with a game, because it’s difficult to put it in later without coming off the wrong way to gamers. F2P blossomed in the Asian markets like Korea where piracy was rampant. Instead of complaining about piracy like Western business workers do, they outsmarted it and came up with a better business model that eliminated piracy by nature. For Western world markets, I suggest finding a way to do it without too much grind and perhaps offering a fresh gameplay style/setting (that is not the typical Asian MMORPG fantasy world). Reference League of Legends for example. Many of these games have friction in them that they charge to remove per customer. I think a fair way to do it without being “evil” is to charge for the asset not the instance. But that might be why I’m not rich like Zynga.

Go Multiplatform in every sense. Stay away from releasing to platforms that you are not able to. This should go without saying, but us game devs are notorious for spreading ourselves too thin. From a tech standpoint this means using an engine like Unity3D that allows easy publishing where ever you want it. In marketing this means promote your game/company on your website, your facebook page, your twitter account, at conferences, with friends, with family, with strangers you meet, with your blog, with any other blog. If you do something “exclusive” with a media outlet make sure they are delivering enough views an interactions.

Allow and encourage fans to make things relating to your game. One of the stupidest things big companies do is to shoot down fan-made tribute games, machinama, fan-fics, fan-art and similar things.

You are starting a movement with your company and games. The best way to foster growth to the movement (which turns into more customers) is to treat them with equal respect. Encourage people to make these things, it’s like free advertising that works better than paid stuff. Offer to feature them on your website or link to them.

When it’s time to ask for money, make sure the customer does not have to click a lot or enter too much information. With technology these days it can be almost as easy as the money teleporting instantaneously to your account from your customers. Do not dick around with them by the way you design your pay system. That’s all in your control. The bottom line of this point is also the summary of this article: make it as easy and desirable as possible for customers to part with their cash. To make it desirable add-value, to make it easy remove all the friction. (Source:Gamasutra)