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游戏领域应大胆创新 锁定广泛用户群体

发布时间:2012-02-08 17:14:40 Tags:,,

作者:Eddie Cameron

游戏和玩家是相当固执己见的领域和群体。我们制作这样的游戏:若未经过多年实践,用户就无法进行体验,游戏社区对“局外人”怀有敌意,还有就是谈论自身的游戏。我们是否依然处于不稳固的地位,使得我们不敢挖掘其他领域或用户?

“玩家”作为用户无忧无虑,我们清楚游戏机制所需的输入语言,游戏反馈玩家期望的语言。玩家清楚存储弹药意味着自己将遇到boss,或者需要经常进行快速保存。

所以制作延伸至此机制之外的游戏更具难度。你不仅需要制作简单、易学的界面,而且得确保反馈信息能够向非玩家用户直观呈现。但我觉得,将行业缺乏通俗易懂的主流游戏归咎于开发者的惰性没有什么不妥。

我们怎么能怪用户?游戏社区以直言不讳著称,工作室得在粉丝群体的监督下行事。若是制作更通俗易懂的PC游戏,用户会指责他们过于迎合掌机平台。若是制作过于偏离原作的续集,则没有用户会购买游戏。

用户变化无常及工作室愿意取悦用户的情况令行业不敢做出改变。这是新观点,但大家似乎都欣然接受。主流游戏领域很可能会步漫画书行业的后尘。漫画读者厌恶新系列作品,于是发行商停止发行内容,转而推出与原先内容相互交叉的作品(游戏邦注:非粉丝用户对这类内容则毫无兴趣)。

如今漫画书领域无疑是个粉丝行业,作品通常因电影/电视的改编而倍受追捧。若玩家愿意花钱于不同游戏上,我们就能够避开类似的命运。小型独特作品(例如独立游戏《挖矿争霸》)依然颇有销路,所以用户是否真的害怕尝试新内容?

minecraft(from mundodastribos)

minecraft(from mundodastribos)

其他元素促使开发者有所保留。关于“艺术”的辩论让人颇感疲惫,但所提到的许多热门“艺术”游戏都是那些深入剖析其他作品的内容。

《生化奇兵》玩家缺乏叙述控制权,而《斯坦利寓言》则违反游戏的传统叙述模式。用户也许会觉得内容非常有趣,但最终玩家并不关心游戏设计理论,他们只想要得到优质的作品。

这使得行业面临这样的风险:形成只谈论自身的文化氛围,就像后现代时期的无意识拙劣模仿。反复论述某游戏机制观点价值不大,你应该将其用于辅助另一观点。

《旺达与巨像》利用玩家欲望继续制造悲剧,玩家逐步意识到自身操作所酿成的惨剧,但这已无法阻止。我刚观看《The Artist》,虽然起初我认为影片是利用无声电影作为噱头,但后来发现此手法有效配合设计模式,起到强化故事内容的作用。影片通过此手法创造新鲜而有趣的内容,而非仅停留在模仿层面。

我们转投艺术领域,旨在证明自己。虽然博物馆并非放置游戏的合理位置,但我们依然在此宣传作品,旨在获得“真正”艺术家的认可。但我们没必要得到他们的认可,我们已引起广泛关注,众多用户想要体验游戏(游戏邦注:就Zynga就证明了这一点)。

我们应该瞄准所有用户群体制作游戏。(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

Opinion: You’re so vain

by Eddie Cameron

[In this reprinted #altdevblogaday opinion piece, Grapefruit Games' Eddie Cameron explains why he believes "the mainstream game industry is in serious danger of following the same route as comic books."]

Games and gamers are a pretty self-involved bunch. We make games that are impossible to play without a couple years practice, games with communities that are hostile to “outsiders,” and games that talk, sometimes literally, about themselves. Are we still so insecure that we’re afraid to explore other fields or audiences?

I touched on this problem in my last AltDevBlog post, Talkback Games. “Gamers” as an audience are easy, we know the input language that game systems expect, and games feed back the language that players expect. Gamers know that an ammo stockpile means you’re about to meet a boss, or that you need to quicksave often, etc…

So yes, making games that reach outside this system is harder. Not only do you have to make simple or easily taught interfaces, but feedback has to be intuitive to non-gamers. However, I don’t think that blaming the lack of accessible mainstream games on lazy devs is either accurate or fair.

Can we blame the audience? The game community is known for its outspokenness, and studios have to work under the watchful eye of a legion of fans. Try to make a more accessible PC game and be accused of pandering to consoles. Make a sequel that departs too much from the original(s) and no one buys your game.

The fickleness of audiences, and studios too willing to pander to them produces an industry afraid of change. This is hardly a new statement, but people seem to accept it. The mainstream game industry is in serious danger of following the same route as comic books. Readers became so averse to new series that publishers stopped making them, instead making countless crossovers that sold well, but were of no interest to non-fans.

Today, comics are most definitely a cult industry, with the top-sellers only popular due to film/TV adaptations. We can only avoid the same fate if gamers become willing to spend their money on different games. Smaller, different games can still sell well (obligatory Minecraft reference) so is the audience really so afraid to try new things?

Something else is holding developers back. The “art” or “Art” debate is tiring now, but many of the popular “Art” games cited are those that dissect other games.

BioShock as comment on gamers’ lack of narrative control, The Stanley Parable as rant against traditional narratives in games. The audience might find it interesting, but in the end, players don’t care about theories of game design, they just want a good game.

There is a danger of creating a culture that just wants to talk about itself, like some unintentional parody of post-modernism. Repeating a statement about game mechanics isn’t noteworthy, you have to use it to help another statement.

Shadow of the Colossus uses gamers’ urge to continue to make a tragedy, the player realizes the horror of what they are doing, but is unable to stop. I just watched The Artist, and although at first I thought it was exploiting the style of silent films as a gimmick, it plays with the format to enhance the story. It uses this knowledge of film techniques to make something new, interesting beyond a pastiche.

So where does all this come from, and why can’t we stop? Perhaps we can blame the stereotype of the “gamer nerd.” Games have been looked down on for most of their existence, maybe we’ve just given up trying to reach out to new players.

We turned to the art world in an attempt to justify all this to ourselves. A museum is a terrible place to put games, yet we parade them there to get the approval of “real” artists. But we don’t need them, we have the attention of the wider world and it wants to play games, as Zynga has shown.

We need to stop looking at the magic mirror and make games for everyone else.(Source:gamasutra


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