作者：Hugo Liu

社交平台的开发者常寄希望于用分值、等级和积分排行榜等游戏机制吸引用户，这些功能最初确实能够发挥作用，但却无助于鼓励用户长期参与活动。因为分值、等级和积分排行榜等元素只是将用户视为一群本质并无差别的竞争者。而成功的社交平台却能够让存在差异性的用户群体进行互补，从而提高人们的参与度和用户粘性。

用户群体之间的最明显差异体现在高级用户（高手）以及低级用户（新手）之间的区别。高级用户是忠诚、热情和老练的群体，也是用户社区的核心及灵魂，新手则体现了社区的发展潜力，一个健康发展的平台必须能够兼容和吸引这两个群体，但要如何实现这一点呢？

根据我的经验，为社交平台创造可持续粘性的妙招之一就是赋予高手帮助新人的权力，让前者通过利他主义行为带领后者融入陌生的平台。

粘性的良性循环

在一个理想的社区中，新手与高手存在相互依赖的关系，形成一种经济学家所谓的“双边市场”。新手渴望成为高手，他们需要富有经验的前辈指点他们解琐平台的潜在功能。而已然攀上颠峰的高手，也同样离不开新手，他们可通过帮助新手展现自己的优势，从而获得心理上的满足感。心理学将这种现象称为“助人者的快感”（Helper’s High），最近的神经系统科学研究也指出，利他行为会让施助者的大脑释放多巴胺（一种与快乐相关的荷尔蒙）和催产素（Oxytocin，它是人体的脑下垂体后叶分泌的激素中的一种，科学研究表明这种激素可以减低焦虑、恐惧感，提高满足感、安全感和对伴侣的信任，故而诨号“信任激素”）。由此可见，帮助新手可以保证高手对平台活动的参与度及粘性。

开发者可通过设计这种“高手–新手”帮助机制的平台，实现用户粘性的良性循环——这样低级用户就获得了一种保护感，而高级用户也会获得心理满足。

以下是采用这种“高手–新手”帮助机制的游戏与非游戏案例。

《Shadow Cities》

Shadow Cities(from iphoneblog.de)

这是一款将《魔兽世界》与Foursquare元素相结合的iPhone地理定位游戏，玩家属于两个阵营中的一方成员，要配合集体行动以便自己的队伍获得某个地理位置（游戏邦注：例如曼阿顿闹市区）的统治权。《Shadow Cities》通过公会和追随者、紧急信号灯等游戏机制，创造了一种高手–新手利他主义文化，而这也正是游戏最令人上瘾的元素。

与《魔兽世界》及其他MMORPG游戏一样，《Shadow Cities》中的高手玩家为新手提供两种服务：1）引导游戏参与游戏；2）在新手遭遇麻烦时施以援手。游戏发布数月之后，其设计师在其中引入了两个增加游戏动态的机制。

首先是公会和追踪者。游戏设计师在新手用户教程中添加了一项任务，要求新手挑选并拜一名高手为师。 这给游戏文化带来了双重功效——1）高手用户在队伍中会更有话语权，有可能为其吸引到更多追随者；2）高手更愿意与新手结成一对一的帮助关系。

其次是引进了紧急信号灯功能。《Shadow Cities》是一款让玩家通过组建巡逻队来占领区域的地理定位游戏，新手发现自己的基地被围困时，就会在群聊系统中呼救，但如果无人响应，他们就只能沮丧地退出游戏系统。而有了紧急信号灯，玩家就可以通过推送消息向他人求助，这种设置有助于壮大新手的力量，同时也可以自然而然地保持高手用户的粘性。

喜达屋国际酒店

SPG direct mail(from bryanjacobson.org)

喜达屋国际酒店（Starwood Hotels）推出的“喜达屋最佳客人”（Starwood Preferred Guest，简称SPG）是最佳忠诚奖励项目的典型之一，其中一个原因是他们关注的是获取身份这个层面的内容。例如，他们2011 Platinum Thank You项目就巧妙地利用了高手–新手帮助机制来设计活动。他们向最高级的SPG会员发送证书，授权后者评选酒店最可亲或最乐于助人的员工。

Thank You项目并不会让Platinum会员获得什么实际好处，但这正是其关键所在，它强化了后者的地位。高级用户最看重的就是获得为酒店员工创造福利的这个权力，这就是心理学家Albert Bandura所谓的增强自我效能的“熟练经验”（mastery experience）——通过行使你的帮助权力，提升自己的经验和成就。

酒店员工则可由此累积在每一次Thank You活动中获得的SPG分值。虽然这并非对高手–新手的准确模仿，但却同样能够兼顾员工和高级会员的粘性，强化整个社区的活力。

Twitter

followfriday(from techonzo.com)

有些人在Twitter上成为要人之后，他们就可以做到新人无法企及的事情。例如，一名没有粉丝的用户发贴求助但无人响应时，另一名在Twitter上颇有知名度的用户就可以通过转发，帮助后者获得更多关注。Twitter名人清楚自己的影响力就是推动信息传播，这也是他们最有价值和最能获得满足感的权力。

Twitter社区希望高手用户发挥利他主义精神，#FollowFriday现象就是一个典型，这是一种让用户向自己的粉丝介绍他人的Twitter文化传统。已经建立起相当粉丝规模的用户可以使用#FollowFriday帮助那些较无知名度的用户获得新粉丝，或者宣传公益活动。由于每个新人刚开始都是零粉丝状态，因此只有通过#FollowFriday、转贴、@mentions这种高手–新手帮助形式，让每个新人都有机会成为资深用户。

新人对Twitter的最常见的抱怨之一就是，他们无法彻底融入这个平台。这个问题也许要部分归咎于资深用户，为什么他们不肯帮帮新手用户呢？也许这些资深用户并没有帮助新手的强烈动机，或者他们认为当前的帮助方式成本过高（浪费自己的时间）。（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）

How “Master-Newbie” Altruism Keeps Users Engaged

Developers of social platforms hope to engage users through basic game mechanics like points, levels, and leaderboards. While these features can create initial draw, they don’t often lead to sustainable engagement.  This is because points, levels, and leaderboards treat users as a homogenous group of competitors who relate in a basic way. In contrast, successful social platforms support heterogenous user groups who relate in rich and complementary ways.

The most important group distinction is the one between high-level users (“masters”) and low-level users (“newbies”). Master users are loyal, avid, and accomplished users — the heart and soul of a community. Newbies represent growth. A thriving platform must successfully engage both. But how?

In my experience, one of the best ways to create sustainable engagement around a social platform is to empower master users to perform altruistic acts for newbies.

A virtuous cycle of engagement

In an ideal community, newbies and masters will need each other.  They will form what economists call a two-sided market. Newbies aspire to become masters. They need guidance from experienced users to unlock the full potential of the platform.  Masters, on the other hand, are already kings of the hill. But they need newbies just as badly. By helping newbies, they perform their mastery and experience gratification. Psychologists call it the “Helper’s High,” and recent neuroscience suggests that altruism releases dopamine (the pleasure hormone) and oxytocin (the bonding hormone). So you see, helping newbies can keep masters engaged with the platform in a very real way.

By designing a platform which empowers this kind of “master-newbie” altruism, developers can unlock a virtuous cycle of user engagement — low-level users who feel looked after, and high-level users who feel fulfilled.

Let’s look at some game and non-game examples of what it means to empower “master-newbie” altruism.

A game designed for master-newbie altruism

Shadow Cities is an iPhone game that’s like World of Warcraft meets Foursquare. A player belongs to one of two teams, and must cooperate so that their team dominates a physical location, like downtown Manhattan. Through game mechanics like guides and followers, and emergency beacons, Shadow Cities creates a culture of master-newbie altruism, and arguably, that has become the most addictive aspect of the game.

As in WoW and other MMORPGs, master users in Shadow Cities perform two services for newbies: 1) mentor newbies about the game, and 2) protect and defend newbies when they get into trouble. A few months after the game premiered, its designers unveiled two game mechanics to explicitly empower this dynamic.

First is the system of guides and followers. Game designers added a quest to the new user playable tutorial whereby a newbie must pick a master user to be their designated guide. This has had two effects on the game’s culture — 1) master users on team chat are more helpful and outgoing, perhaps in hopes of attracting a bigger following, and 2) master users are more likely to build one-on-one relationships with newbies.

Second is the introduction of emergency beacons. Shadow Cities is a location-based game whereby players attempt to control territory, often by establishing a patrol. Newbies cry for help in team chat when their base is under siege, but if no one is available, they are discouraged and log off. With emergency beacons, players can now ask for help via push notifications. This empowers newbies, and is an organic way to re-engage master users.

A loyalty program with an altruistic twist

Starwood Hotels’ Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program is among the best designed loyalty programs out there. One reason why is their focus on the experiential aspects of achieving status. For example, their 2011 Platinum Thank You program cleverly enacts something like master-newbie altruism. SPG members with the highest status were mailed certificates that they can award to hotel staff members for being particularly helpful or kind.

Thank You’s aren’t worth any points to Platinum members, but that’s precisely the point. It’s about reinforcing one’s status. Master users are granted the priceless — the power to play Santa to working class hotel employees. It is what psychologist Albert Bandura calls a “mastery experience” — by performing your altruistic special powers, you heighten your experience of status and achievement.

For their part, hotel employees earn SPG points and merit in their file for each Thank You received. While the master-newbie analogy is imperfect here, it’s easy to see how this program engages both employees and high-status members and strengthens the community as a whole.

#FollowFriday on Twitter
When someone is “Big on Twitter,” they can get stuff done that newbies can’t. A user without many followers might tweet a call for help. Someone who is big on Twitter can, simply by retweeting, draw attention to the newbie’s cause and amplify a message that would otherwise go unseen. Twitter celebrities know they have the power to make things go viral – a most rewarding and satisfying special power to have.

In fact the Twitter community wants to see master users engage in altruism. This is exemplified in #FollowFriday. It’s a cultural tradition whereby a user promotes other users to their own followers. Users with established followings frequently use #FollowFriday to help lesser known users acquire new followers or to promote causes. Since everyone starts out with zero followers, it is only through master-newbie altruism in the form of #FollowFriday, retweets, and @mentions that any newbie can become a master in the first place.

Twitter though can clearly do more to empower master-newbie altruism. A frequent complaint by newbies disillusioned with Twitter is that they aren’t engaged enough by the platform. Here the responsibility lies partially with the master users. Why aren’t they doing more to help? Perhaps master users don’t have stronger incentives to engage newbie users, or they perceive the existing ways to engage as being too costly (it might pollute their timeline).

The solution isn’t trivial, but surely there is a game mechanic for that.（source:larifari）