作者：Jon Jordan

英国开发商NaturalMotion正努力迎合免费模式浪潮。当养马游戏《My Horse》获得了1100万次下载量后，他们又转向了男孩群体，确切的说应该是男孩赛车游戏，也就是他们新发行的《CSR赛车》。

该公司与苹果关系紧密，《CSR赛车》得以成为唯一在WWDC 2012大会演讲中得到展示的游戏，它也表明NaturalMotion试图结合主机游戏图像质量，推出拥有高度适用性玩法的游戏。

另一开发商Boss Alien是由前Black Rock Studios的员工所组成的。这是迪士尼旗下的英国公司（游戏邦注：代表作有《争分夺秒》和《Pure》），虽然在2011年夏天倒闭了，但是作为一个初创团队他们总是知道如何才能够创造出最突出但也最现实的汽车游戏。

更重要的是NaturalMotion在经历了《My Horse》的开发后已经完全了解了如何从用户身上获得盈利。

轻敲屏幕

的确，有人会说《CSR赛车》的主题更像是节奏动作类游戏而不是赛车游戏。

从游戏玩法来看，玩家需要做的便是在每轮赛车时轻敲屏幕数次，从而能在适当时间手动改变汽车的马力，同时轻巧喷气按钮以提高汽车的速度。

ios-naturalmotion-csr-racing_1(from pocketgamer)

在这种汽车加速赛环境下并不存在真正的驾驶元素（如操纵汽车），而只是让玩家与一名AI对手进行竞赛。玩家甚至能够看到侧向行动。

游戏中并不需要使用到大脑原理，并且玩家只需要使用少量的技能或技能完善便能够在不同游戏模式中前进着。

游戏还总是鼓励玩家花钱游戏。

定制化投资

当然了很多游戏都会使用相同的方法，但是却很少游戏深入整合了如此多盈利机制。

最明显的选择是当你获得第一辆汽车时你拥有7种不同的部件（包括引擎，涡轮增压机，通风口，喷气，车轮以及车身等），但是在你的汽车达到最大功率之前你必须想办法升级这些部件，从而才有望在所有重要且“艰难的”比赛中获胜。

ios-naturalmotion-csr-racing_2(from pocketgamer)

早期的升级较为简单，你只需要使用你在较简单的比赛中赢得的“软货币”便可；但是当你攀向更高的定制化程度时，你便只能通过反复刷任务或花费“硬货币”去获得升级。

ios-naturalmotion-csr-racing_3(from pocketgamer)

除此之外当你购买“输入”组件时你必须花时间等待它们的“到达”，而这时候如果你愿意投入“硬货币”便能够加快等待时间。

游戏中还设有定制化菜单，即你可以花费“硬货币”在此添加贴标和定制化车号牌——而当你因为贴标奖金赢得比赛时你便可以借此获得额外的“软货币”。

ios-naturalmotion-csr-racing_4(from pocketgamer)

汽油最高值

迄今为止都还算是公平的机制。这是大多数免费游戏的盈利方式，即限制高价值产品的供应，并以时间作为障碍迫使玩家决定是立即执行小笔微交易还是经历长时间的游戏过程。

而《CSR赛车》更是拓展了这种方式，即使用另一种屏障去限制游戏的长度，如玩家获得“软货币”的能力会因为缺少技能发展而遭到破坏。

《CSR赛车》便是通过汽油设置去实现这种方法。玩家总是拥有一定量的汽油，他们将在每次赛车时消耗一部分汽油，并且汽油将随着时间的发展慢慢恢复。

在游戏的开始阶段（1至5层级），玩家在每次赛车时将消耗1个汽油单位——那么每箱油大约能够用于10次赛车比赛中（每次比赛大约需要15秒钟）。而当玩家越深入游戏时，每次赛车将会消耗更多汽油。

ios-naturalmotion-csr-racing_5(from pocketgamer)

当然了，当你用完所有汽油时你便需要等待数十分钟才能再次添满自己的油箱，或者这时候你也可以选择使用“硬货币”购买更多汽油。

超动力

游戏中还存在着各种限制元素，如使用“硬货币”提升汽车的能力以迎接一定量的比赛；玩家需要多次打败boss汽车，但是因为这些机车会在比赛过程中自动升级，所以玩家也只能使用“硬货币”去获得顶级车轮才有可能打败boss汽车（游戏邦注：例如玩家需要使用100个金币或10美元才能换得宝马Z4 GT3），也难怪《CSR赛车》能够晋升至美国App Store应用营收榜单之首。

ios-naturalmotion-csr-racing_6(from pocketgamer)

如今共有超过100万名玩家通过Game Center体验这款游戏，并且通过将近11万名玩家在iTunes给予其4.5颗星的评价，所以很明显开发者所采用的“强硬手段”并未阻隔玩家体验游戏的兴趣（至少是车迷们的兴趣）——不过也有些人因为抱怨这种强硬手段而只给出了1颗星的评价。

现在对于这款游戏来说，要想推动玩家反复体验游戏最需要做的是解决社交互动不足的情况，而不是考虑Facebook Connect和Game Center排行榜的问题。也许在游戏今后的更新中我们能够看到更多不同的多人模式的出现（可能带有“软货币”等机制）。

当然了，我们也非常好奇其它社交/手机公司以及免费游戏公司是如何看待这款游戏的的成功，而NaturalMotion又将如何完善这种经验并将更多经验教训应用于今后的游戏中。我们期待今后的开发者能够在关注盈利机制的同时也重视游戏玩法的设置。（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: CSR Racing’s success demonstrates sophisticated monetisation but where’s the gameplay?

by Jon Jordan

UK developer NaturalMotion is riding the freemium wave hard.

With 11 million downloads of its equine nurturing game My Horse, it’s now switched its attention to boys, at least boy racers, with new release CSR Racing.

Demonstrating the company’s close links with Apple, it was the only game to be showcased in the WWDC 2012 keynote and builds on NaturalMotion’s mission of pushing highly accessible gameplay with console-quality graphics.

Developer Boss Alien consists of ex-Black Rock Studios staff. The Disney-owned UK outfit, behind games such as Split Second and Pure, was closed down in the summer of 2011 and it’s clear this start up team knows all about creating very shiny, very realistic cars.

More significant, however, is that given its experience with My Horse, NaturalMotion now knows all about monetising users.

Tap Tap Revenge

Indeed, it could be argued that despite its overt theme CSR Racing is more a rhythm action game than a racer.

In terms of gameplay, all you’re required to do is tap on the screen a number of times per race to manually change the gears on your souped up car at precisely the right time, also tapping your nitro button to trigger that boost.

There’s no driving – steering etc – per se in this drag race environment that has you racing against one AI opponent. You even view the action side-on.

Brain science it ain’t and more worryingly, little skill or skill improvement is required or encouraged to progress through the game’s various modes.

What is encouraged is spending cash.

Import tax

Of course, plenty of games take a similar approach, but few have so many monetisation methods so deeply integrated.

The most obvious option is that once you get your first car, you have seven different parts – engine, turbo, intake, nitrous, wheels, body etc – which need to be upgraded multiple times before your car is totally maxxed out and you can start to win those all important ‘hard’ races.

The earliest waves of upgrades can easily be earned using the soft currency you get from winning easier races, but as you get higher up the customisation tree, you’re either heavily grinding or spending hard currency.

There’s also a beautiful twist that when you purchase ‘import’ parts, you have to wait for them to ‘arrive’ – again something you can speed up with hard currency.

Then there’s the customisation menu, where you can add decals and a customised number plate – the majority of which require hard currency – although you gain additional soft currency through these when you win races thanks to the decal bonus.

Peak oil

So far, so fair. This is pretty much how all free-to-play games monetise – restricting high value items and using time as a barrier to force players to make a decision about immediate small microtransactions or long duration gameplay.

What’s really interesting about CSR Racing is that it doubles up on these, employing another barrier in terms of restricting game session length i.e. your ability to earn soft currency, something already eroded by the lack of skill progression.

It does this via access to petrol. You have a limited amount, some of which is used every time you race, and which slowly regenerates over time.

At the start of the game – Tier 1 of 5 – you use one petrol unit per race – giving you about 10 races (each race take about 15 seconds ) so couple of minutes of game time per full tank. As you get further into the game, races use up more petrol.

Of course, once your petrol is used up, you have to wait tens of minutes for it to totally recharge, or buy more with hard currency.

Supercharged

Throw in various other restrictions such as the ability to get your car tuned up for a limited number of races using hard currency, boss cars which you have to beat multiple times but which will upgrade themselves through that process, and the usual temptation of getting a top of the range set of wheels that’s only available in hard currency (a BMW Z4 GT3 for 100 gold or $10 for example), and it’s not surprising that CSR Racing is sitting pretty in the #1 top grossing spot in the all-important US App Store.

And with over one million players connected via Game Center, and an iTunes rating of 4.5 stars from around 110,000 reviews, it’s clear that this type of hardball isn’t putting off punters – at least petrolheads – despite some one star reviews complaining about such hardball tactics.

Perhaps more significantly is that at the moment, there’s very little social interaction other than Facebook Connect and Game Center leaderboards to drive repeat play. Presumably some sort of multiplayer modes – perhaps with soft currency or pink slip wagering – will be rolled out in updates.

Certainly, it will be fascinating to see how other social/mobile and freemium companies react to its success, as well as how NaturalMotion tweaks the experience over time, and feeds these learnings into its forthcoming games – due soon.

Let’s just hope there’s as much focus on gameplay as monetisation next time around.(source:pocketgamer.biz)