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社交商业可借鉴社交游戏机制增加用户粘性

发布时间:2011-07-31 09:48:29 Tags:,,,

作者:Paul Marsden

社交商业能够从社交游戏中学到什么呢?我们觉得可以学到很多内容,尤其是看过卡内基梅隆大学娱乐科技教授Jesse Schell在2010 DICE Summit上精彩卓绝的演讲(游戏邦注:题为“Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain”)后,这种想法进一步得到证实。

Schell在演讲中阐述了游戏心理学如何驱动社交游戏获得商业上的成功,游戏自开发之日起便以推动销售上升为目标,心理学以令人着迷的动机、奖励和挑战融入应用中。现在,Zynga制作的Facebook游戏《CityVille》中的“居民”数目曾一度超过巴黎和上海人口的7倍,《FarmVille》中每日售出的虚拟拖拉机比美国每年售出的真正拖拉机还要多,《FarmVille》的玩家数超过Twitter用户数,游戏《Pet Society》中每天售出9000万个虚拟商品,这些游戏使得2010年虚拟商品市场产值多达73亿美元(游戏邦注:占整个电子游戏行业产值的12%)。

Pet Society(from flickr)

Pet Society(from flickr)

将社交游戏的成功与社交商业相比,纵然Facebook、Groupon和Gilt等大型社交商业平台表现出色,但我们还未取得类似《CityVille》的成就。要实现上述目标,我们需要让人们互相联系起来,并在发生联系的地方付费购买商品。诚然,社交商业就是在零售中添加社交层面和在社交中添加零售层面,但只有足够有趣并吸引用户才能获得成功。

那么,我们能够从社交游戏中学到什么呢?依Jesse Schell所述,社交游戏的成功源自于融入软件中的心理学,这种做法让社交游戏使人上瘾。社交游戏关注的是玩家,而不是软件。社交商业同样也可以采取这种做法。以用户为中心构建社交商业战略,使用心理学让你的产品更具诱惑力。也就是说,你的社交商业解决方案应当设计得如同游戏一般,而不是仅仅让用户登录购买。

社交游戏的成功之处在于它触及凌驾于游戏之上的内容——人类心理学。人类对奖励比较有好感,而奖励是游戏中的重要内容。游戏通常提供以下4种奖励:身份;入口;能力;物品。

我们认为社交商业也可以借鉴这种奖励模式,包括关卡、挑战、收集、分数、反馈、交易和自定义等游戏机制,用顾客体验培养消费者的忠诚度。所以,可以考虑雇佣一名社交游戏开发者或者项目团队中至少要有一名社交游戏玩家,你的社交商业解决方案可能就更能为用户所认同。

从Jesse Schell的演讲中我们可以总结出以下要点:

1、利用《Club Penguin》战略,这是款免费游戏而且可以免费赚取虚拟货币,但需要付费购买权限来使用这些虚拟货币。

2、《Webkins》是个跨越实体和数字世界的产品。成功的游戏并非引导玩家逃离至虚拟世界中,它们都是有着真实功能的转型游戏,比如《Wii Fit》、《吉他英雄》和《Webkins》。科技让我们可以脱离现实世界,现在我们用它来回到现实世界中。

3、采取《Mafia Wars》的做法,让人们与自己的好友攀比,允许他们付费来加深友情。

4、《Ford Hybrid》促使用户在游戏中做出设计师预想的行为。福特汽车的仪表盘中有个虚拟的藤蔓,当你节省燃料时它就会生长。

5、采用微软Kinect的做法,为零售体验添加体感效果,为那些做出精巧动作的人们提供奖励。

6、设立老虎机。设立虚拟老虎机,获胜提供金钱奖励,失败则提供商店抵用券。

7、采用Simpsons的做法,将某类线索潜藏在用户体验中。

8、采用《Weight Watchers》的做法,为精打细算的吃法提供分数奖励。

9、利用沉没成本心理学,即我们对所购买商品或花费时间估价过高的心理趋势。人们在你的产品处投入的时间越多,他们会觉得你越有价值。

10、绝大多数的社交游戏盈利并不来自于直接购买商品,而是来自于附属付费(游戏邦注:比如付费购买虚拟货币)。

11、计划将商品网络化,未来的社交商业会同那些有传感元件的设备相连,比如在苏打水瓶和谷物盒上有与网络相连的CPU、屏幕和传感元件(游戏邦注:比如摄像头)。刷牙、在谷物盒上玩游戏或乘坐公共汽车去上班都可能获得奖励。在学校表现良好、在e-ink数字纹身上显示品牌、消费某品牌商品、观看某品牌广告(游戏邦注:通过屏幕上的视觉传感器传导)或在电子阅读器上看书也都有可能获得奖励。

那么,你要如何让社交商业真正发挥功效呢?你应该将其转变成游戏,有趣的内容会让用户感到开心。基于游戏的商业和社交商业能够给你带来财富。

游戏邦注:本文发稿于2011年2月3日,所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

What Social Commerce Can Learn From Social Gaming

Paul Marsden

What could social commerce learn from social gaming? Quite a lot we think – especially after viewing the most excellent presentation from Jesse Schell, Professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University at the 2010 DICE Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain).

Schell discusses how game psychology drives the commercial success of social games; the games are built ground-up to drive use and sales; psychology is programmed into the app – with compelling incentives, rewards and challenges. Less than two months old, there are now 7x more people living in Facebook’s CityVille from Zynga (100m monthly users) than people living in Paris than live in the world’s largest city, Shanghai, more virtual tractors are sold in FarmVille every day than real tractors are sold in the US every year, more FarmVille players than Twitter accounts, 90m Pet Society game virtual goods sold every single day, contributing to the social games-driven virtual goods market generated $7,300,000,000 in 2010 (12% of the entire video game industry).

Compare the success of social gaming to that of social commerce – sure the big social commerce platforms – Facebook, Groupon et al, and Gilt et al are making waves – but we don’t have our Cityville yet. To find our inner-CityVille, we’ll need to move beyond simply helping people connect and buy where they connect. Sure, social commerce is about adding a social layer to retail and a retail layer to social, but it’ll only fly when it is fun and rewarding.

So what can we learn from social gaming? Well, the success of social gaming, according to Jesse Schell, comes down to how psychology is baked into the software, and that makes social gaming addictive. Social gaming is about people, not software. Ditto for social commerce, we say. Build your social commerce strategy from a people-perspective, using psychological insights to make your solution addictive. Critically, your social commerce solution has to be designed – like a game – rather than merely be a plugin.

The success of social gaming is due to the fact that it taps into something bigger than gaming, human psychology; humans are reward-based creatures – and games are designed to be rewarding, offering the four big ‘SAPS’ rewards: STATUS; ACCESS; POWER; STUFF.

We think social commerce could do far worse than take a leaf out the obscenely profitable social gaming book and offer SAPS rewards – as well as game mechanics such as levels, challenges, collecting, points, feedback, exchange and customisations to guide people through the customer journey, from discovery through to loyalty and advocacy. So hire a social gaming developer, or at least have a social gamer on the project team. Your brief – a social commerce solution that is crack-cocaine for shopping.

Specifically, from Schell’s presentation:

How could you use the “Club Penguin” strategy – a game that is free to play, free to earn virtual money – but then you need to pay for membership to spend the money. Subscription-based stores anyone?

Do the “Webkins” trick – a product that spans the physical/digital divide – if your product is physical – like a soft toy, what’s the digital (magical, connected) one that lives inside and that can be accessed from a screen? If your product is digital, how can your product break through to reality. Successful games are not about escapism to an imaginary world, they are crossover games with real, authentic features – think the Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, as well as Webkins. Technology used to cut us off from the real world – now we use it to get back to reality.

Do a “Mafia Wars” and get people to compare themselves to their friends, and allow them to pay to better their friends

Do a “Ford Hybrid” nudge customers towards desired behaviour with a game – Ford cars have a virtual vine on the dashboard that grows as you save fuel. Smart shopper points?

Do a “Microsoft Kinect” – add sensors to the retail experience that rewards people for smart moves

Set up a “Slot Machine” – set up a virtual slot machine, cash if you win, store vouchers if you don’t. Licence-To-Print-Money

Do a “Simpsons” – Geo-caching scavenger hunt, embed clues on the customer journey

Do a “Weight Watchers” – points for eating smart

Use the Psychology of Sunk Costs – our tendency to overvalue what we buy, and the time we spend. The more time people spend (invest) with you, the more valuable they will think you are

Think Lead Generation, not Direct Payments – a large proportion of social gaming revenue not purchases, but affiliate payments (points/virtual money for signing up for a credit card, site etc).

Plan for the “Web of Things” – the future of social commerce will be connected devices with sensor – a web connected CPU, screen, and sensor (camera) on your soda can and cereal box. Rewards for brushing your teeth, for playing game on cereal box, for taking the bus to work (to get you tax incentive rewards, or walking to walk to get Health Insurance rewards). Or rewards for dreaming about brands you remember from subliminal messaging on your REMtertainment system, and rewards for school performance (with good parenting rewards), rewards for displaying brands on your e-ink digital tattoos (Tattoogle Adsense), rewards for consuming brands, rewards for watching ads – with eye sensors on screens, and for reading books on your e-reader

Bottom line, how do you get social commerce to work? Start with the smile. Make it fun by turning it into a game. Game-based commerce + social commerce – that’s the path to fortune. (Source: Social Commerce Today)


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