作者：Alicia Eler

2012年3月21日，OMGPOP的Dan Porter将公司出售给Zynga。这款社交绘图游戏此前一直保持成长势头。4月3日，它的用户量达到1460万。然而自此之后，数量开始缓慢地稳步下滑。

绘图可以成为一种社交体验，但它往往更会成为玩家独自打发时间的方法。并非所有操作和体验都需要其他玩家的参与。这些种类游戏的危险性在于，用户认为他们在此需要与其他人联系和交流。

《Draw Something》最大的弊端是什么呢？那就是找到其他用户开始“玩”游戏的机制，这些人要么是你的Facebook好友，要么是你通过电子邮件邀请的对象或游戏随机为你选择的玩家。

draw-something-ipad(from pcadvisor.co.uk)

我给你发送了一幅画。你收到了没有？

在昨天下午理发时，我思考了《Draw Something》这款游戏。我走进理发店，看到接待员正拿着自己的iPhone玩《Draw Something》。他看到我之后，马上停下自己手中的游戏，勾除了我的名字。我晚到了约10分钟时间，但是没关系，发型师用《Draw Something》打发了这段时间。随后，接待员又继续埋头玩游戏。

发型师开始剪发后，我与她聊起《Draw Something》这款游戏。

我问道：“你是不是在玩《Draw Something》？”

另一个发型师替她回答了问题。

她说道：“噢，对了，我欠你一张画。不好意思，我刚刚没在玩游戏。我会马上登录游戏处理这张画。”

理发后，我喝杯咖啡休息片刻，随后决定对其进行测试。我邀请了3名好友来玩游戏，他们都没有回应。于是，我开始寻找游戏随机选取的人。我们玩了一回合。她发送给我一张粉红色的绘图。我猜答案应该是“粉红”。我的答案对了，获得了些许钱币。

我给她描述的是一条河，白色的土地上绘制出一条弯弯曲曲的蓝线。她还未曾回复我。

晚上，我同一个好友共进晚餐，她想要玩这些社交游戏。当然，这只是她一时的念头。我曾经邀请过她和我一起玩，但是她到现在还没有时间去体验《Draw Something》。

《Draw Something》的崛起和衰落

《Draw Something》于2012年2月1日发布，不久之后便登上App Store排行榜首位。随后排名开始下滑，应用付费版本目前在App Store中位列第4。人们仍然在下载《Draw Something》，而且确实还在玩这款游戏，但是频率已经不像最初那样高，随后Zynga花1.8亿美元买下了这款游戏。收购后，Zynga的日流量提升了25%。这是2012年3月发生的事情。

现在，《Draw Something》正在不断失去数百万用户，证明它只是个昙花一现的社交媒体。诚然，游戏在50天内获得了5000万的下载量，这使它成为有史以来成长最快的手机游戏。

到了2012年5月，游戏的情况已经发生了改变。AppData数据显示，与上月相比，游戏的日活跃用户减少了400万。

ReadWriteWeb创办者Dan Frommer在Zynga收购完成后不久写道：“在游戏这种靠热作驱动的行为中，耐力是与创造力同样重要的资产。”

《Draw Something》曾经风靡一时，现在也趋于平淡。它的整个生命历程更像是一次短距离冲刺而不是马拉松，但是至少OMGPOP凭借其巅峰时期的表现获得大笔收入。

那么，为什么《Draw Something》会失去用户呢？

《Draw Something》的衰落有许许多多的原因。

1、所有人需要同时玩游戏：除非你的所有好友都同时在线，否则游戏就无法体现其趣味性。这是款你必须保持在线的游戏，于是就会慢慢变得沉迷。随后，你的精力和兴趣被耗尽。如果没有人同你玩游戏，你就必须开始寻找新的对象，或者开始打扰好友，让他们加入游戏。这逐渐让多数用户对游戏产生厌烦感。

2、作弊很容易：如果你只希望获得更多的钱币，那么你只需要直接写出你要画的那个词即可。如果不是所有人都遵守游戏规则，那么钱币这个游戏的“奖励”层面就会变成玩家滥用系统的另一种方法。

3、付费购买钱币的问题：确实，《Draw Something》应用本身有免费版本，但是如果你的好友没有在线的话，付费购买钱币就变得毫无意义。那感觉就像是在《FarmVille》中购买家畜，然后抛弃整个农场。

4、它毕竟不是《Scrabble》：在Zynga的成功游戏《Words With Friends》中，作弊要显得更加困难，除非你能够在玩游戏的同时通过其他途径让其他玩家知道你拥有的字母。这就相当于和其他人坐在一起玩《Scrabble》时偷看他们的牌，你会这么做吗？

5、面对面的绘图才有趣：小学时，我们会同好友坐在一起画画。我记得，我花数分钟时间画点东西，然后停下来看看我的好友画什么。这并不会产生作弊的感觉。但是，那种感觉同使用iPhone与其他不在身边的人交流依然有所不同。（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）

Why OMGPOP’s Draw Something Game Is Losing Users

Alicia Eler

OMGPOP’s Dan Porter sold Draw Something for $200 million to Zynga on March 21, 2012. The social drawing game was on its way up. By April 3, it struck gold at 14.6 million users. The decline since then has been slow and steady – and it’s not the kind that wins the race.

Drawing can be a social experience, but it is often times best as a solitary, nongameified couple of hours. Not everything needs to involve another person. The danger of these sorts of games is that the user believes they are connecting and communicating with another human.

The most awkward aspect of the Draw Something game? The mechanism of starting to “play” a game with another user, who might either be a Facebook friend, someone you’ve invited to play via email, or just a random person who is selected by Draw Something.

I Sent You a Drawing. Did You Get It? Oh, Ok.

I was thinking about Draw Something yesterday afternoon, during a haircut in-person with real people (technology has yet to master the virtual haircut experience). I walked into the salon, and the receptionist had his iPhone out and was playing Draw Something. He stopped momentarily to check my name off – I was almost 10 minutes late, but that was okay because the hair dresser was running late and he was playing Draw Something. Then he went back to his game.

I sat down and asked for a haircut. Let’s got shorter this time, I said. My hair is feeling scraggly and the summer is coming, so I’d prefer to have it off of my shoulders. As the cut began, I couldn’t help but ask my hair dresser about Draw Something.

“Do you use Draw Something?” I asked. We’d already been talking about Pinterest and peoples’ pinning habits, so this didn’t seem like a far-out question.

Another hair dresser answered for her.

“Oh yeah, I owe you a drawing,” she said. “Sorry, I haven’t been on there in awhile. I’ll get back on and do it soon.”

I stopped by a cafe after my haircut and decided to test it out. I invited three friends to play; none of them responded. Then I started playing with a random person, picked a la Draw Something. We played a round. She sent me a drawing of pink. I guessed that it was PINK. Win. Get coins.

I answered back with a river, an easy squiggly blue line through a dense white pixel field. She hasn’t replied yet.

Later in the evening, I had dinner with a friend who tends to get into these social games. For a time, anyway. I had invited her to play with me; she hasn’t had a chance to check Draw Something in a few days. It’s OK.

The Rise and Fall of Draw Something… or Something

Draw Something became No. 1 in the App Store shortly after its launch on February 1, 2012. It has since dropped, and the paid version of the app is now No. 4 in the App Store. People are downloading Draw Something and definitely still using it, but not in the way they were during its initial bump and subsequent purchase by Zynga for $180 million. After the acquisition, Zynga’s daily traffic went up 25 percent. That was back in March 2012.

Nowadays, Draw Something is losing millions of users, proving that it is indeed another social media fad. Sure, the game was downloaded 50 million times in 50 days, making it officially the fastest-growing mobile game ever.

As of May 2012, the game has changed. AppData reports that there are four million fewer daily active users than there were last month.

“In a hits-driven business like gaming, stamina is as important an asset as creativity,” writes ReadWriteWeb’s own Dan Frommer, shortly after the acquisition went through.

Instead, Draw Something went big and is now going home. Its life feels more like a sprint and less of a marathon – but at least the higher-ups at OMGPOP cashed in. So much for stamina.

So Wait, Why is Draw Something Losing Users?

Running metaphors aside, Draw Something is bombing out for a number of reasons.

Everyone needs to play at the same time: The game itself doesn’t work unless your friends are all around at the same time. It is not something you wait for – it’s a game that you must stay on, slowing becoming addicted. Then you burn out. If no one is around to play, you must start looking for new people – or start bugging (nudging) the current players. That instills a sense of lameness in most every user.

Cheating is too easy: If you really care about collecting coins, you can easily just draw the word of what you’re actually supposed to be drawing, and allow the other person to guess it. If not everyone is honest, the entire “rewards” aspect of this game – the coins – becomes just another way to loot the system.

Paying for Coins? Really? Sure, there’s a free version of the Draw Something app itself – but actually buying coins and investing in it makes little sense if your friends aren’t around. It’s like buying livestock in FarmVille and then abandoning the farm, ya know?

This isn’t Scrabble: In Zynga’s successful title Words With Friends, cheating is much harder. That is, unless you’re simultaneously texting other players to let them know which letters you have. That’s like the equivalent of peering over at someone’s Scrabble deck while sitting next to them. Are you really going to do that?

Drawing is fun to do alone together: Picture sitting around at a table with your friends in elementary school. Here’s what I remember doing: I would spend a few minutes intently drawing something, and then I’d stop to peer over at what my friends were doing. It never felt like cheating. But then again, I wasn’t on my iPhone, trying to connect with someone I couldn’t actually see. (Source: Read Write Web)