作者：Tami

主流Facebook游戏公司非常擅于快速发布一些定期更新的内容，从而留住玩家并保证他们的消费投入。但这些公司却不擅长如何让新玩家跟上游戏如此迅猛的功能更新步伐。

而许多成功的MMO已经解决了这个问题。你该如何在游戏后期发布新内容，既能够保持现有玩家对于游戏的兴趣，并且也不会妨碍玩家对新内容的理解？这些MMO的解决方法是为玩家设置接触某些内容的权限，即规定他们只有到达较高级别时才能够进入这些内容，从游戏早期阶段开始逐步为玩家引进游戏内容，以便这些内容能够随着他们在游戏中的成长而成长；或者确保所有的内容对于任何级别的玩家来说都是行之有效的，不论他们正处于哪个生命周期。

但是如果你尝试着玩早期成功的Facebook游戏，如《Cafe World》或《FarmVille》，你便会发现游戏在一开始便揭露了大部分功能。这些游戏能够取得巨大的成功部分原因在于平台的病毒式增长方式，以及它们易于学习并掌握的特点。《FarmVille》已不再只是有关种植庄稼，收割庄稼，收集动物或装扮农场的游戏。如果你今天继续玩这款游戏，就会发现游戏中还包括农民市场，合作探索，收集，上亿种可以创建的物体，寻找松露，创建自己的第二农场，动物槽，保育室，给树杂交，饲养羊群，为其命名等，并且还会有更多新任务出现。但是对于新手玩家来说他们却很难跟上游戏的更新速度。

FarmVille Countryside(from insidesocialgames.com)

或者假设你在6个月前是《FrontierVille》的忠实粉丝，你在长时间暂停游戏后又在今天再次登录游戏，游戏将会弹出许多窗口告知你新内容。而这时的你已经远远落后于游戏进度；可能有300个内容等待着你去创建。如此看来你可能需要花费好几周的时间才能完成这些落下的内容，但是不管你怎么追赶，都不及游戏的更新速度。

接下来需要考虑的是如何让社交游戏持续受宠并继续发展。从流量周期来看，每一款社交游戏都有属于自己的流量周期弧线，你可以从中观察到MAU什么时候达到最高值并随后下滑。最大型的游戏（游戏邦注：多指Zynga或者EA，Playfish，Crowdstar旗下的游戏）总是坚持按照一定的速度发布新内容，既保持玩家对游戏的新鲜度，又避免给他们带来过多压力。你可以发现，尽管《FarmVille》现在的发展趋势大不如前，但是它也仍然以较慢的节奏保持发展（当然，这也离不开Zynga大成本的市场营销活动）换句话说，这些游戏不只在持续发布一些新内容，同样也包括一些新功能，并对核心游戏做出较大的调整，从而维持游戏DAU等数值。

以下我将列出一些能够帮助社交游戏像刚发布时那样持续吸引玩家的方法。

*定时监视游戏的每日用户留存率

你必须清楚有多少新注册用户玩了一次游戏后便不再回来。而如果你能够了解有多少玩家在第一次游戏后的头3、5、7天再次回到游戏中便再好不过了。这种方法能够帮助你有效地判断所发布的内容对于游戏的新手教程或者新用户体验是积极还是消极影响。

*亲自测试新用户体验

创建一个新的Facebook测试帐号，并以新玩家的身份进行游戏。不要只是浏览新手教程，你需要实际操作至少前十个关卡的游戏，以此观察游戏的进程是否流畅。如果你为了影响游戏循环或经济而做出改变，那么就必须将这些改变清楚地公布在游戏攻略上。

*不时进行用户测试，以观察玩家是如何与游戏互动

用户测试是一种非常有效的方法，能够帮助你验证新的用户体验是否有成效。你可以执行公司内部的方法或者利用像UserTesting.com等服务快速得到结果。即使你的新用户体验在游戏发布后并未发生改变，但是现有的游戏空间也许已经发生了变化，以此导致新用户体验有别于一般的Facebook用户体验标准，从而促使玩家无法理解新内容。或者你可能会发现某些你从未想到的功能将影响一般用户体验，从而影响你早前确立的参数。不管怎样，观察玩家如何玩游戏是一种合理的方法。

*要有意识地针对新手撰写说明书

在撰写产品需求文件以及功能说明时，必须特别针对新玩家进行考虑。在哪个等级才能开启某功能？如何将信息传达给新玩家？在接触到新功能之前玩家要如何适应现有的功能？你在编写新功能的说明时不要只考虑最高级别的终端游戏玩家。

*经常监测留存玩家/回归玩家的游戏体验

对于一个4个月没玩游戏的玩家来说，他现在对游戏有何看法？你应该给他们展示多少弹出提示窗口？他们原先在游戏中的庄稼是否全部枯萎了？如果缺少任何有帮助的信息他们的游戏是否将发生巨变？你必须确保所有玩家都能够拥有良好的游戏体验，不论他们之前是否玩过游戏，还是过了一段时间后再次回到游戏或是从第一天开始就一直玩游戏。你必须确保这种回归体验轻松，没有负担，你希望鼓励玩家重返游戏时更需如此。比起寻找新用户，重新找回“放弃”游戏的玩家（即在玩过几次后几乎不再接触游戏）更加困难。所以我们应该将这些重新回归的玩家牢牢捧在手心，好好珍惜，更加不要在他们归队时进行惩罚。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2011年7月12日，所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。

（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）

Older Facebook games have terrible new/returning user experiences

by Tami on July 12, 2011

If there is one thing that the leading Facebook game companies have mastered, it’s the quick releasing of an onslaught of new regular content to keep players interested (and paying).  If there is one thing that they’re terrible at, it’s making sure that the onramp for new players isn’t daunting because of all of those new rapid-fired features.

This is a problem that successful MMOs in live operations have already figured out.  How do you release content at the end game to keep players engaged after vanilla without overwhelming new players with a barrage of content they do not have access to?  They’ve solved it by either restricting access to the content until higher level, gradually introducing players to the content at an early level so that they ‘grow into it’, or making sure the content makes sense for people of all levels and regardless of where they are in their player lifecycle.

However, if you try to play an older successful Facebook game such as Cafe World or FarmVille, you will be beaten over the head with features.  These games were wildly successful thanks in part to a platform conducive to viral growth, but also because they were so simple to learn and easy to master.  FarmVille is no longer just about planting crops, harvesting them, collecting animals, and decorating your farm.  If you try to play FarmVille today, it’s now all about Farmer’s Markets, co-op questing, collections, 100 million types of buildable objects, truffle hunting, building out your second farm (English Countryside), animal troughs, nurserys and mixing trees together, sheep breeding, you name it.  The list goes on. It is far too overwhelming for a new player to ever catch up.

Or let’s say that you were an avid FrontierVille player back in “the day” (6+ months ago).  If you login to the game today after taking a lengthy break, you will be absolutely bombarded with popups telling you about new things.  You will be completely behind in quests.  You will have 300 things to build.  It would literally take you weeks to catch up, and by that time you’ll be behind because of everything that released in those few weeks.

Graphs courtesy of AppData.com

Now, the barrage of features is how social games stay popular and keep growing.  Every social game has this natural arc in its traffic lifecycle, where you can see it topping out in MAU (monthly active users) and then tailing off.  The biggest games (mostly Zynga titles, but also some of the EA/Playfish games & Crowdstar) have managed to keep releasing new content at a pace that keeps their players happy and minimizes churn.  You can see that despite FarmVille’s generally trend down and to the right, they’ve managed to do it at a pace much slower than the norm.  (A large marketing budget helps in this regard too..)  In other words, it’s absolutely necessary that these games continue to not just release new content but also new features and large changes to the core game to keep their DAUs entertained.

Here are some ideas that social games could do to make sure their game is still appealing to new players and introduces them to the game the same way it did back at launch.

Monitor your one day retention regularly

You should always be keenly aware of the number of newly registered players who end up returning the next day.  Even better if you know how many come back within the first 3, 5, 7 days.  This is a great way to see if something you have released has negatively (or positively) impacted your tutorial or new user experience.

Test your new user experience personally

Make a new Facebook test account and play the game as a new player.  Don’t just run through the tutorial, actually PLAY the game for the first 10+ levels to see how it flows.  If you have made changes to impact the game loop or the economy, they should be apparent in a playthrough.

Do user testing every so often to see how players interact with your game

User testing is a very effective way to see how your new user experience works.  You can go the in-house route, or just use a service like UserTesting.com that gives you extremely quick results.  Even if your new user experience hasn’t changed since launch, the existing space may have changed so that players no longer understand your new user experience because it’s different than the norm on Facebook.  Or perhaps a feature that you didn’t think would impact the NUX will actually have a trickle-down effect that destroys your metrics early on.  It’s always good to watch people play your game.

Consider new players as a special class of players when writing specs

When writing product requirement docs and feature specs, make sure to have special consideration for new players built in.  What level should the feature unlock?  How should it be messaged to new players?  What existing features should the player be exposed to BEFORE that new feature?  Don’t just consider the high level end game players when you’re writing specs for new features.

Monitor your returning player/re-engaged player experience often

What does your game look like to a player who hasn’t played in 4 months?  How many popups will you be showing them?  Will all their crops be dead and their recipes burned?  Will there be a dramatic change to their game with no helpful messaging whatsoever?  You want to always make sure that every player’s experience in your game is a good one, regardless if they have never played before, they’re returning after a long hiatus, or have been playing since Day 1 without stopping.  This returning experience should not be cumbersome, especially since you want to reward them for coming back.  It is much harder to bring back a customer that is “dead” (having not played in some arbitrary amount of time) than it is to find a new customer.  Treat returning players like the gold that they are, and never punish them for coming back.(source:TAMI BARIBEAU)