作者：Anna

我认为游戏是一种重要的跨媒体维度；甚至当游戏不属于核心组件时，在任何跨媒体项目中也存在一定的“游戏化”元素。本篇文章便着眼于讨论跨媒体中的一些游戏理念，包括游戏化，游戏性，严肃游戏以及现实交替游戏。

游戏化是指“在非游戏环境下使用游戏机制和游戏设计技巧”，并且这也成为了当前市场的主要趋势，同时这一理念也被整合到健康，具有教育性且非盈利领域中。

Gamification(from fazdesign.com)

游戏化的例子：

奖励用户分享（如foursquare）

分配任务并使用成就关卡

使用时间限制

分数点，奖励和排行榜

通过将人们的日常生活变成游戏而让他们感受到更多乐趣

游戏化能够鼓励消费者购买更多产品，鼓励学生们按时完成作业或鼓励公民回收利用旧品。使用游戏设计技巧和机制能把任何平凡的活动变得更加具有吸引力——这是一个非常强大的理念。

游戏性是关于游戏化的更全面的应用。现实交替游戏设计师Jane McGonigal将“游戏性”这一术语描写为：

“这就像是拥有一颗玩家之心，而不是单纯地‘玩游戏’，后者听起来并未认真地看待游戏。单你具有游戏性时，你的创造性和好奇心都会被激发出来，并且更乐意与别人合作。你会尽最大努力去解决任何复杂的问题，即使一开始屡遭失败。”

你可能会好奇这与游戏化有何不同？

从某种程度看来，它们之间的不同主要取决于意识形态。来自SuperBetter的一篇文章认为，游戏化是对于游戏设计技巧的表面应用，即为了让玩家/用户/消费者能基于奖励而做某事。而游戏性更多的是基于内在动机去实现具有意义的目标。

除了娱乐性，严肃游戏还有其它目标，通常是训练，教育或鼓动玩家改变行为。例如McGonigal的《SuperBetter》便是通过让玩家成为生活中的超级英雄而帮助他们建立心理，情感，社交和物理适应能力。玩家将选择挑战，目标或任务去“获取胜利”。

当我开始玩《SuperBetter》时，我所面临的挑战便是锻炼。我从未规划过如何才能“获胜”，而我的目标便是参加马拉松赛。我被分配到的第一个任务便是规划“暗中的锻炼”。

显然我所能做的并不包括坐着，静止站立，躺着或吃东西。所以我便设想“暗中的锻炼”包括离开书桌，从最近的门走出去，爬上外部的楼梯，从内部的楼梯走下来，并回到书桌前。完成这一任务后我的精神适应能力能+2，而心理适应能力能+1，随后我将进入第2个关卡。如果我想快速提升分数点便可以激发“升级”功能，如喝一瓶水或绕着街区快速行走。

我在手机上下载了《SuperBetter》应用，所以我能够随时随地进行“升级”。到目前为止这款游戏还能给我带来很多乐趣，但是只有当它能让我感受到“游戏性”时，我才会愿意花更长时间去“获取胜利”。

ARG（现实交替游戏）

ARG是使用多个平台并与现实生活整合在一起的跨媒体游戏。比起进入虚构世界玩游戏，这类型游戏还将游戏元素整合到现实情境和地点中。

关于ARG的一个典型例子便是Lance Weiler的《Pandemic 1.0》，游戏背景设定在2011年的圣丹斯电影节。《Pandemic 1.0》是跨越电影，手机，在线和现实世界的“故事体验”。一开始是一部有关小男孩与姐姐的故事（他们的母亲死于瘟疫）的电影。这部电影在圣丹斯电影节上首次亮相，并通过电视，手机和在线平台与观众见面。

在线玩家和圣丹斯电影节上的玩家必须合作起来去找到隐藏在电影节场地（美国犹他州）中的目标，并将其归还给“Mission Control”——作为Disease Control中心的实体空间。在电影节现场散布着50部NFC（近场通信）谷歌Nexus手机。这些手机与隐藏的目标将与Mission Control的Microsoft Surface桌面进行互动，当每个目标被放置在桌面上时便能激发健康性能，从而减少受感染的人数，每个目标都是与瘟疫受害者和故事联系在一起。

在接触了5天的游戏玩法后，故事将引导在线和脱机玩家来到圣丹斯的一个秘密场所，并观看DJ Kid Koala的表演（同样是来自网上）。

《Pandemic 1.0》使用各种不同的平台和技术而提供给玩家一种跨媒体体验，同时也呈现出了参与项目的相关品牌，如谷歌和微软，再次向我们说明了游戏化是综合营销中一种强大的武器。

新西兰的游戏产业仍处于积极发展阶段。根据新西兰游戏开发者协会（NZDGA），从2011年到2012年9月期间，新西兰的游戏工作室共发行了73款商业电子游戏，截止至去年3月，这一国家的游戏产业中共拥有380名全职游戏开发者。

新西兰的本土游戏大多都是数字下载（游戏邦注：主要是手机和网页浏览器游戏），并且收益主要是来自出口市场。在新西兰（以及国际上），游戏产业一直都具有很高的创造性，特别是在涉及探索新的收益模式，如集资，免费产品和服务，社交游戏，虚拟商品销售和数字发行时。

（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）

The Serious Business of Gaming

by Anna

I’m heading to Wellington soon to take part in a Transmedia panel at the Gamemasters Forum at Te Papa, so gaming is on my mind.

Games are an important dimension of transmedia; even when a game of some kind isn’t a core component, there will certainly be aspects of ‘gamefulness’ or gamification in almost any transmedia project. This post looks at some import gaming concepts in transmedia; gamification, gamefulness, serious games and alternate reality games.

Gamification is “the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts” (mashable.com) and it’s a huge trend in marketing right now, as well as an idea that is being embraced in health, education and non-profit sectors.

Examples of gamification are:

Badges to reward participation (e.g foursquare)

Assigning missions and using levels of achievement

Imposing time limits

Points, rewards and leaderboards

Making everyday tasks fun by turning them into a game.

Gamification can be used to encourage consumers to buy more products, students to complete assignments on time or citizens to recycle. Using game design techniques and mechanics, almost any mundane activity can be made more appealing, which is a very compelling and powerful concept.

Here’s a more detailed and critical explanation of gamification from Penny Arcade

Gamefulness could perhaps be described as a more holistic application of gamification. Alternate Reality Games designer Jane McGonigal, who coined the term ‘gameful’, describes it as being:

“what it feels like to have the heart of a gamer, as opposed to just “playful,” which sounds like you’re not taking something seriously. When you’re gameful, your creativity is sparked, your curiosity is sparked and you’re more likely to collaborate with others. You’re more likely to stick with a tough problem, even if you fail at first” (Smithsonion.com).

How does this differ from gamification you may ask?

To some extent the differences are largely ideological. As this post from SuperBetter argues, gamification can be a fairly superficial and cynical application of game design techniques in order to get players/users/consumers to do something based on incentives and rewards. Gamefulness relies more on intrinsic motivation to achieve personally meaningful goals.

Serious Games have a purpose beyond entertainment, usually to train, educate or instigate behavioural change. Superbetter, for example, is a game designed by Jane McGonigal that aims to help players build mental, emotional, social and physical resilience by making them superheroes in their own lives. Players choose a challenge and a goal and do quests to help them reach their ‘epic win’.

I’ve just started playing SuperBetter and my challenge is to get ‘superbetter’ at working out. I haven’t figured out what my actual ‘epic win’ would be, but let’s say my goal is to run a marathon. The first quest I’ve been assigned is to design a sneaky workout. I like the sound of that.

Apparently this is anything I can do that doesn’t involve sitting, standing still, lying down or eating. So I devise a ‘sneaky workout’ that involves a brisk walk from my desk, out the nearest exit doors, up the outside stairs, down the internal stairs and back to my desk. Completion of this quest gives me +2 for mental resilience and +1 for physical resilience and I’ve moved up to Level 2. If I want to boost my points quickly I can activate a ‘power up’, like chugging a glass of water or taking a quick walk around the block.

I’ve downloaded the SuperBetter app on my phone so I can ‘power up’ anytime, anywhere. So far SuperBetter does actually seem to be pretty fun, but only time will tell if it’s sufficiently ‘gameful’ for me to persist with playing long enough to reach my ‘epic win’.

ARG (Alternative Reality Games)

ARGs are transmedia games that use multiple platforms, integrated into real life. Rather than entering into a fictional game world to play, game elements are embedded in real situations and locations.

A prominent example of an ARG is Lance Weiler’s Pandemic 1.0, which was staged at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. Pandemic 1.0 was a ‘storyworld experience’ that spanned film, mobile, online and the real world. It started with a short film about a young boy and his sister whose mother has suddenly fallen ill in what turns out to be a pandemic. The film premiered at Sundance, on TV, and via mobile and online platforms.

Online players and players on the ground at Sundance had to work together to unlock the locations of objects hidden throughout the Sundance site in Utah and return the objects to ‘Mission Control’, a physical space staged as a Centre for Disease Control. 50 NFC (near field communication) Google Nexus mobile phones were circulated at the festival in biohazard bags. The phones and the hidden objects interacted with Microsoft Surface tables in Mission Control and when each object was placed on the surface table health properties were unlocked that reduced the number of people infected, and each object was associated with a pandemic victim and story.

After five days of gameplay, the narrative eventually led online and offline players to a secret location at Sundance for a show with DJ Kid Koala (also streamed online).

Pandemic 1.0 provided players with a transmedia experience that used a range of different platforms and technologies, but it was also a powerful showcase for the brands that participated in the project, namely Google and Microsoft, demonstrating (again) that gamification is a powerful weapon in the arsenal of integrated marketing.

New Zealand has an active and growing gaming industry. According to the New Zealand Game Developers Association (NZDGA) New Zealand game studios released 73 commercial video games in the year prior to September 2012, and as of last March the local industry employed 380 full-time equivalent game developers.

The majority of kiwi games sales are digital downloads (largely mobile and web browser-based games), and revenue primarily comes from export markets. In New Zealand (and internationally), the games industry is highly innovative, particularly when it comes to exploring new revenue models such as crowdfunding, freemium products and services, social gaming, virtual merchandise sales and digital distribution.(source:transmedianz)