游戏邦注：本文作者是Winda Benedetti，原文发表于2010年7月22日，所涉事件及数据以当时为准。

对于很多游戏开发者来说，一个人玩游戏的时代已经不复存在了。

GameHouse首席营收官Matt Hulett称：“未来所有的游戏都将趋于社交化。我认为游戏作为玩家的一种个人体验是件很怪异的事，因为好几个世纪以来，游戏一直都具备有社交性”（游戏邦注：GameHouse是一家休闲游戏，手机游戏和社交游戏开发公司兼发行公司）。

这并非只是Hulett的个人观点。在西雅图的Casual Connect大会（针对于休闲游戏，手机游戏和社交游戏行业）上，如何让更多游戏具备更多的社交性成为了会上的一大重要议题。

最重要的是，过去几年里，在例如Facebook等社交网站上玩游戏已经成为了游戏领域的一大趋势了，例如《Mob Wars》，《Texas Hold Em’ Poker》，《PetVille》以及《Farmville》等都是较受欢迎的几款社交游戏。

其中以Zynga旗下的农场游戏《FarmVille》的表现最为突出，在其“鼎盛时期”更是吸引了8千多万名用户。游戏开发者认为，这些游戏之所以会这么火热并不是因为玩家喜欢在社交网站上玩游戏，而是因为他们喜欢与他人一起玩游戏。

Fanglies(from insidesocialgames.com)

看到了这一发展趋势，很多社交游戏开发商和发行商正积极开发并推出更多新的Facebook游戏。例如Zynga的《FrontierVille》以及Playdom的《Fanglies》（这款游戏可以说是《The Sims》和《Animal Crossing》的结合体）。

Playdom首席执行官John Pleasants在Casual Connect大会上说道：“假设社交游戏衰退了，那么便意味着我们将失去一个有利可图的利基市场（游戏邦注：针对企业的优势细分出来的市场）。我们只有将其进行更广泛的推广，才不至于彻底失去这些机遇。”

甚至于那些一直以制作单人游戏为主的开发公司也把这些游戏带到了社交网络中。休闲游戏开发商PlayFirst率先起航，他将旗下大受欢迎的《Chocolatier》系列游戏带到了Facebook平台，发行了《Chocolatier: Sweet Society》这款游戏，正式宣布进军社交游戏领域。

同时，PopCap也率领着旗下大作——《宝石迷阵》赶上社交游戏大潮，在Facebook上发行了《宝石迷阵闪电战》。

PopCap创始人John Vechey解释道，对于PopCap来说，找到让旗下游戏更具社交性的方法便是当前的首要任务，“单人游戏理念已经慢慢远离我们而去了。”

除了休闲游戏开发者外，其它类型的游戏开发者也渐渐发现了Facebook游戏的强大交互性，以及其所带来的重要影响。最近，微软也开始意识到这一发展趋势，开始将Xbox 360上的游戏与Facebook游戏绑定在一起。例如，微软在Xbox 360上推出了《Crackdown 2》后，它同样也在Facebook上推出配套游戏《Chuck’s Ducks 2》。玩家通过在Facebook上进行狂欢式气球爆破游戏而获得积分，并可以将其用于Xbox 360的多人游戏中，以解琐特定的手榴弹。除此之外，Facebook玩家不仅可以因此获得这些虚拟手榴弹，同时也可以将其赠予那些同样拥有Xbox Live账户的游戏好友。

但是PopCap的Vechey说道，赋予游戏更多的社交性并不等于将“每款游戏都变成《Farmville》的翻版。”也就是说，游戏开发者应该另辟渠道，找出更多合适的方法将玩家与游戏完美地结合在一起。

PopCap宣称将于今年秋天把他们旗下的塔防游戏大作《植物大战僵尸》引入Xbox Live平台。该公司计划让这款游戏以多人游戏模式初次亮相。同时PopCap还将使用网络让玩家能够了解到好友是否也在进行这款游戏，以提供给他们较有趣的互动机会。

I-play的市场营销部门副总裁Tony Leamer说道：“我们相信，所有针对于游戏玩家的平台游戏最终都会具备社交因素。”I-play最近宣称将面向更大的用户群体制作出更多游戏的休闲游戏。

有很多游戏公司已经开始慢慢脱离Facebook，自行推出更多促进玩家间联系的平台。例如Oberon Media推出的Blaze平台和GameHouse推出的GameHouse Fusion都致力推动不同地区的玩家在社交网络，手机以及个人电脑等平台上进行更深入的交流与互动。

游戏开发者认为，赋予游戏社交性对于玩家和他们自己来说都是一种双赢。也就是说，对于玩家来说，社交游戏能够带给他们更多乐趣；而对于开发者来说，游戏的社交性即意味着一种病毒式传播，即当玩家在游戏中与好友进行互动时，有可能会向好友宣传他们的游戏，而因此为游戏吸引更多用户。有谁会拒绝这么一种便捷的免费营销模式呢？

在Casual Connect大会上，Ngmoco（iPad和iPhone游戏开发商，代表作包括《GodFinger》和《We Rule》）的社交应用开发部门副总监Jason Oberfest说道，赋予游戏更多社交性是帮助它们在竞争激烈的App Store脱颖而出的关键。

他表示，赋予游戏社交功能将能大大提高用户对于游戏的粘性（即提高用户玩游戏的频率）。对此他进行了一项研究，即将玩家每天玩一款游戏的频率与他们在该款游戏中所拥有的好友数量进行对比。那些在游戏中没有好友的玩家平均一天玩游戏的频率都不超过5次，拥有2个好友的玩家则是8次，而拥有4个好友的玩家平均一天可能会登陆游戏10次。

然而，在Casual Connect专题讨论会上关于各种各样游戏趋势的炒作和实际情况问题上，2名业内人士（Erik Bethke和Paul Thelen）就游戏是否需要具备社交性展开激烈的讨论。

Zynga代表Erik Bethke称“我认为游戏应该具备社交性。因为长久以来人们都乐于与其他人共同玩游戏。”

但是Big Fish Games创始人Paul Thelen却反驳道：“我并不认为所有游戏都必须具备社交性。这与并非所有女人都想成为帕丽斯·希尔顿（游戏邦注：美国希尔顿集团继承人之一，女商人、模特、时尚设计师、歌手、演员及作家）的道理一样，不同的玩家也有不同的需求和想法。”

确实，Paul Thelen的观点很有道理。毕竟对于很多人来说，玩游戏是他们逃避现实的一种手段，而有时候其实他们更希望能借此逃避世人（而不是与其他人进行交流）。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

No more playing lonely games

By Winda Benedetti

The days of playing games alone are over.

Or at least, that’s what a whole lot of folks in the business of making games are saying.

“In the future, all games are going to be social,” Matt Hulett, the chief revenue officer for GameHouse, said earlier this week. GameHouse is a company that develops and publishes casual, mobile and social network games. “I think that the fact that gaming has been a solitary experience has been a very weird outlier in the history of gaming. For centuries gaming has always been social.”

Hulett is hardly alone in his opinion. Finding ways to make more games more social has been a hot topic at Casual Connect, a conference in Seattle this week for those in the business of creating casual, mobile and social network games .

The thing is, in the last couple of years what appeared at first to be a gaming fad has proven to be an important gaming trend — that is, playing games on social networks like Facebook. There’s “Mob Wars,” “Texas Hold Em’ Poker,” “PetVille” and perhaps most importantly of all, “FarmVille.”

Despite struggles with Facebook itself , Zynga’s virtual agriculture game — which launched just a little over a year ago — has counted upwards of 80 million users at its peak. Roll your eyes if you like, but game makers say the important takeaway here is not just that people really do like to play games on social networks , but that people like to play games with other people.

Of course that means social network game developers and publishers are rolling out all kinds of new Facebook games. Zynga recently launched “FrontierVille” (a Wild West-themed game that already has more than 20 million users) and Playdom has just launched “Fanglies” (a cross between “The Sims” and “Animal Crossing.”)

“I would posit that social gaming is dead,” said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom, during a Casual Connect presentation this week. He was, of course, speaking with tongue firmly planted in cheek. His point being, “We will die as a niche but what we’re going to do is spread much more widely.”

Indeed, even companies that have traditionally created games that you played all by your lonesome, are bringing their games to social networks. Casual games maker PlayFirst made its first foray into the world of social gaming this week when it took its popular “Chocolatier” series to Facebook with the game “Chocolatier: Sweet Society.”

Meanwhile, PopCap, the company that basically kicked off the casual gaming boom with its megahit “Bejeweled,” launched its “Bejeweled Blitz” game on Facebook and, later this summer, will be launching another of its hits — “Zuma” — on Facebook as well.

“The concept of playing this solitary game is going away for us,” said PopCap co-founder John Vechey, explaining that finding ways to make the company’s games more social is a top priority for PopCap.

But it’s not just casual game makers that are looking to leverage the connective powers found in Facebook gaming. Recently Microsoft began connecting its Xbox 360 games with related Facebook games. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

For example, when Microsoft launched “Crackdown 2″ for the Xbox 360 last month, it also launched “Chuck’s Ducks 2″ on Facebook. By playing the carnival-style balloon-popping game on Facebook, players can earn points to unlock special ducky grenades to use in the multiplayer modes of the Xbox 360 game. The Facebook players can not only earn those grenades for themselves but for any of their Facebook friends who have linked Xbox Live accounts.

But PopCap’s Vechey said that making games more social doesn’t mean “every game is going to look like FarmVille.” It means finding new and different ways to connect people who are playing games.

PopCap has announced that it’s going to bring its hit tower-defense game “Plants vs. Zombies” to Xbox Live this fall. And when it does, the company plans to give the game a multiplayer mode for the first time. PopCap will also use the network to come up with fun ways to let players check in on the progress their friends are making in their own “Plants vs. Zombies” games.

“We believe games on all platforms and for all audiences will eventually leverage social components,” said Tony Leamer, VP of Marketing for I-play. His company recently announced it would be focusing on making its casual games far more communal.

Indeed, a number of game companies have begun launching platforms designed to connect players with their game-playing pals well beyond the boundaries of Facebook. Earlier this week Oberon Media launched the Blaze platform and GameHouse recently launched GameHouse Fusion, both of which are designed to bring together gamers playing games in different places — on social networks, mobile phones, PCs, etc. — and give them a variety of ways to interact with each other.

Game makers say that making games more social is both good for players and good for them. That is, it makes games more fun to play for gamers. Meanwhile, when gamers are able to connect with their friends, it makes it that much easier for them to spread the word about a company’s game. Hello free marketing!

At Casual Connect Tuesday, Jason Oberfest, vice president of social applications at ngmoco (a company responsible for iPad and iPhone games like “GodFinger” and “We Rule”) said making game apps social is critical to making them successful in the crowded App Store.

He said making an iPhone game social has a drastic impact on how often gamers play it. He cited research the company has done on the number of sessions per day people played one of their games compared to the number of friends they had in that game. Those who had zero friends playing the game played it less than five sessions a day. But those who had just two friends played it eight times a day and those with four friends played 10 times a day.

However, during a Casual Connect panel discussion looking at the hype and realities of various gaming trends, two big players in the biz were at odds when it came to the topic of making more games social.

Erik Bethke, a senior product director at Zynga (the company that made “FarmVille”) said, “I think games should always be social. I think we have a really rich history of decades of people playing games with each other.”

But Paul Thelen, founder of Big Fish Games, disagreed. “I would take issue with the comment that all games should be social,” he said. “That’s like saying all women want to be Paris Hilton. There are different needs and wants.”

He makes a good point. After all, for many people, playing games is a form of escapism — and sometimes what you most want to escape is other people.（source:msnbc）