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前EA成员称社交游戏应摆脱“老虎机”模式

发布时间:2011-11-16 15:53:13 Tags:,,,

作者:Tom Curtis

新兴社交游戏公司Row Sham Bow联合创始人Philip Holt在最近的媒体采访中表示,他认为当代社交游戏仍存在许多改进空间,它们的最大问题在于“强迫性过大,吸引力有性”。

Holt和一些游戏行业元老于今年4月份离开EA Tiburon创办了Row Sham Bow,并于上个月发布了首个产品——Facebook策略游戏《Woodland Heroes》。

woodland_heroes(from holaso.deviantart.com)

woodland_heroes(from holaso.deviantart.com)

Holt之前曾为EA开发了《EA Sports PGA Tour Golf Challenge》和《Madden Superstars》等Facebook游戏,但他希望通过《Woodland Heroes》推动改变现存社交游戏开发模式。

他指出,“我们关注那些让社交游戏玩家很抓狂的层面,比如其中的强迫性和低趣味性。这些并不是我们希望在Facebook平台体验的游戏。对我来说,多数社交游戏更像是老虎机(而非游戏产品)。”有些社交游戏只会促使玩家不断向微交易系统砸钱,但甚少关注游戏机制的设计。

Holt称Row Sham Bow希望通过其新游戏《Woodland Heroes》解决这个问题,为用户创造一种允许他们失败的游戏体验。这款游戏将通过植入一定程度的风险,让玩家重视玩游戏过程中的每一个微小的决策。

据其所言,他们希望创新游戏玩法,“我们希望《Woodland Heroes》玩家知道自己的决定会对游戏带来影响。游戏应该让玩家遭遇损失情况,让他们感觉游戏存在高风险,因此需要仔细掂量再做决定。玩家在游戏过程中常会遇到 ‘哦,我现在该怎么办?’之类的问题,我想这才是制作一款好游戏的基本原则。但这个平台上有许多游戏都只是盲目追求用户数量,有时候并没有体现基本的游戏元素。”

他还介绍了Row Sham Bow设计《Woodland Heroes》的方法,指出团队成员在EA及其他主流游戏公司的背景,帮助他们形成了指导这款游戏项目开发的重要设计准则。

“视频游戏开发经验对我们的影响包括,我们并非从制作含有浣熊等可爱角色形象的游戏起步,而是从游戏机制入手,先自问‘怎样才能让游戏好玩又有趣?’只有抓住了这个核心,我们才能依此开发游戏。我认为这确实是我过去5年在EA学到的重要知识——锁定你想表达,并能够让大家来玩游戏的核心元素。”

Holt还回顾电子游戏发行模式的演变史,并奉劝传统游戏开发者密切关注网页和在线游戏,因为这两者预示着将来的游戏运营模式走向。事实上,正是这种发行渠道的变化坚定了Holt成立Row Sham Bow工作室的决心。

“我认为游戏行业与电影或音乐等其他媒体一样,都要经历从实体产品向数字发行的转型,都要为用户提供最便捷的消费途径,无论是哪种设备,哪种运营模式,你都必须顺从用户的选择。”(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Social Games Should Be More Than Just ‘Slot Machines,’ Says Row Sham Bow

by Tom Curtis

According to Philip Holt, co-founder of the social gaming startup Row Sham Bow, modern social games still have a lot of room to grow. Their biggest problem, he says, is that they are often “highly compulsive, but not all that compelling.”

This April, Holt and a handful of other industry veterans left EA Tiburon to found Row Sham Bow, and just last month the company released its first title: a Facebook strategy title dubbed Woodland Heroes.

Previously, Holt worked on Facebook titles for EA such as EA Sports PGA Tour Golf Challenge and Madden Superstars, but with Woodland Heroes, he hopes to introduce some meaningful changes to the social gaming formula, he said in a recent interview with Gamasutra.

“What we want to focus on are things that have frustrated us as gamers on social games, one of which is that they’re highly compulsive, but not very compelling. They’re just not the kinds of experiences that we long to play on that platform,” he said.

“For me, I’d say most social games feel more akin to a slot machine [than a game],” he continued, noting that some social games simply encourage players to put down money on microtransactions, without placing much emphasis on the game mechanics themselves.

Holt says that Row Sham Bow set out to fix this problem with its recently-debuted Woodland Heroes by creating an experience that gives the player some room for failure. By incorporating a certain degree of risk, Holt says players will begin to care about even the most minute gameplay decisions.

“We want to innovate in gameplay, and one of the key areas we tried to do this in Woodland Heroes is we wanted the result of a player’s decision to matter in the game. There should be a loss state. You should feel that the stakes are high, so you take it more seriously. There’s a level of engagement you have when you go, ‘Oh crap, what do I do here?’ That, I think, is a fundamental tenet of what makes a good game,” said Holt. “A lot of games on the platform, in the pursuit of the broad public, have sometimes not delivered those essential elements for us.”

He went on to outline the Row Sham Bow’s approach to designing Woodland Heroes, noting that the team’s history at EA and other major companies helped provide some important game design fundamentals that significantly informed the studio’s approach to its debut title.

“One way in which console development has informed the way we work was that we didn’t start by deciding to make a game with raccoons and other animals. Instead, we started with a mechanic, and we asked, ‘What is it about this that will be fun?’ Once we had that core, we built from the center out. I think that’s certainly something I’ve learned from my last five years at EA — focus on the core element you’re delivering that will make people come and play your game.”

Holt later reflected on the evolution of video game distribution models, and urged developers working in the traditional games business to keep an eye on web-based and online games, since they could easily pave the way for the future of the games business. In fact, Holt said this shift in distribution models helped convince him to start Row Sham Bow in the first place.

“I think the games industry is going through similar things that other media that have relied on physical goods have gone through, whether its movies or music, etc. To me, that tells me that it’s all going digital, it’s all going to the most frictionless way for consumers to consume, regardless of device, regardless of business model, you have to go where consumers are.” (source:gamasutra


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