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CNN评论:为什么看来并不算有趣的farmville能如此受欢迎

发布时间:2010-09-29 10:03:59 Tags:,,

毫无疑问,zynga旗下的farmville是目前玩家最多的一款游戏。

Business Insider作者Nick Saint专门就farmville为什么如此受到欢迎进行了评述。因为在他看来事实上farmville并不算是一款有趣的游戏。而就是这样一款让他觉得不是很有趣的游戏竟然受到了高达上亿用户的关注,为此,他探究了两个方面的原因。

farmville

farmville

其一是farmville无处不在的广告策略,Nick Saint称farmville广告在facebook内几乎无孔不入,不管你知不知道这款游戏你都有可能看到它的广告,并且这些广告具有难以置信的影响力,你可能点击了该广告,并且很快你也成为了该游戏的玩家之一。

除了zynga的营销,facebook用户之间的病毒式传播也是其中相当关键的一个因素。在你玩游戏一定阶段的时候,系统就会定期提示用户将游戏阶段成果贴到玩家的Facebook wall上面,而这个信息是会出现在玩家的所有朋友信息订阅当中的,并且带有一个游戏点击链接。并且,因为玩家的名字出现在上面,玩家的朋友可能就会认为这是一封游戏推荐信/邀请信。

其二,Nick Saint将它归因于一种基于社交责任的错觉,因为你不玩farmville而你的朋友玩farmville,可能你们就会缺乏一种在线交流的方式。zynga将farmville游戏变成了一种责任心理暗示。比如你的朋友农场可能需要帮助,并且向你发出了请求,这个时候如果你不玩farmville,你可能错过了一次支援的机会,也可能让你朋友的游戏进程受到阻碍。

最近facebook取消了消息墙的功能,理由也是充斥着大量的广告信息。(本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译)

Zynga’s hit Facebook game “FarmVille” is arguably the most widely played video game in existence. What is especially impressive about that is that “FarmVille” isn’t any fun.

We aren’t being snobs, saying people shouldn’t like it because it isn’t good. We’re saying that people don’t like it, but they play it anyway.

Try explaining “FarmVille” to someone who has never played it, and watch their eyes glaze over. Ask your friends who fill your Facebook newsfeed with their “FarmVille” accomplishments, and you’ll find that most of them are embarrassed. They think the game is stupid and boring, but they just can’t stop playing.

So why do so many people play “FarmVille” if it isn’t fun?

There are two main reasons:

The simplest reason is advertising. “FarmVille” is advertised like crazy all over Facebook, so it’s always in everyone’s face. This advertising is incredibly effective, because it is so immediate:

You click on the ad, and you’re playing the game.

“FarmVille’s” parent company, Zynga, isn’t the only one advertising “FarmVille,” though. Users are constantly advertising the game to their friends, too, through “viral” channels on Facebook.

As you play, the game periodically prompts you to post about your accomplishments on your Facebook wall. These posts, which are generated with a simple click from within the game, appear in all of your friends’ news feeds. This encourages your friends to play. So Zynga gets free advertising. And because your name is attached to it, your friends think it’s a word-of-mouth recommendation.

The less obvious reason that millions of people are addicted to “FarmVille” is that there’s a sense of social obligation to play. If you don’t play “FarmVille,” your “FarmVille” friends suffer.

Zynga makes it your duty to play. Getting ahead in the game depends on having plenty of Facebook friends who are also playing.

If you know any dedicated “FarmVille” players, chances are you’ve seen messages from them about it: Their farms need help, and you are just the person! You are letting your friends down if you don’t play.

All of this puts “FarmVille” in your face, whether you want it there or not. This rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but it’s essential to the game’s success.

Facebook recently cut back on game developers’ ability to post updates to users’ walls, because people were angry that their newsfeeds were filling up with “FarmVille” spam. Facebook games immediately began bleeding users.

Because they aren’t fun, they need a constant barrage of ads and viral endorsements to keep people engaged.

Of course, none of these three forces compel the average Facebook user to play “FarmVille.” But because the number of Facebook users is so huge — over 500 million, at last count — even a small percentage of Facebook users can make a game like “FarmVille” very popular.

This formula doesn’t lead to good games, but it does lead to consistent success.

“FarmVille” is in a league of its own in terms of users, but as a game, it is almost identical to every other Zynga game and every game released by its competitors. The same game mechanics are copied and put in different contexts.

Whether you’re running a farm, heading up a mafia family or taking care of your fish, the game remains the same. Zynga doesn’t even have to think up the contexts: Most of its games, including “FarmVille,” are nearly exact replicas of its competitors’ offerings.

All of this makes Facebook an extremely odd platform for games. On the one hand, it is incredibly successful, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for Zynga alone. On the other hand, it leads to games that couldn’t work anywhere else.

Zynga has made a lot of noise about establishing its own destination site, but none of these games has ever taken off elsewhere, because people won’t play them without the ads, the viral reminders and the sense of obligation.

That should be troubling for Zynga. For one thing, its business is at the mercy of Facebook’s whim.

For another, it raises an important question: What if someone finds a way to make fun games work on Facebook?(source:cnn)


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