作者：Michail Katkoff

当《Rage of Bahamut》(推出了Mobage社区的DeNA旗下作品）成为iOS和Android平台上最畅销的一款游戏时，我真的非常震惊。我根本就不会想到这款没有声音，带有性别歧视动画图像以及糟糕玩家流的游戏能够赚钱。我问了遍布世界各地的游戏同行，没有一个人能理解人们为何会喜欢玩这款游戏。在经过几次尝试后我终于卸载了这款游戏，并认为这是其中一款打破奇迹的游戏。

继《Rage of Bahamut》后，在Mobage社区中又出现了《Marvel: War of Heroes》，《Hell Fire》，《Blood Brothers》等延续这种成功的卡片（或收集类）游戏。所以我们必须去好好分析下这些游戏。在连续一个月每天游戏后，我终于掌握了推动这些游戏大获成功的8大核心机制。

核心循环

Mobage的卡片游戏的核心循环非常直接，包含了两个主要元素—-单人玩家模式（PvE）和玩家对抗玩家模式（PvP）。这两种游戏模式都拥有其独特的性能，能够确保一种模式可以添加到另一种模式上，而不是互相调拨。

单人玩家模式

虽然这款游戏看起来其实很糟糕，但是它的机制却非常简单！基本上来看便是，玩家需要轻敲手机设备9下便可，在这9下中包含了行动，博彩，收集，角色扮演元素。玩家可以一天重复一系列行动多次，并会在整个过程中越来越沉浸于其中。

以下便是游戏中的流。玩家打开一个任务视图，轻敲屏幕并发现敌人在自己每次的敲击（行动）时会往下掉。在三次轻敲，也就是三个敌人掉落时，他们将能看到宝物箱，并需要轻敲屏幕去打开它（博彩）。也就是在第四次轻敲时玩家将能打开箱子，并发现自己的收集库中多了一张卡片（收集）。然后再回到任务模式。再敲一次变算完成了任务。完成任务后的玩家将能获得一个属性点作为奖励（RPG），这一属性点能够提高以下其中一个元素：最大的PvP能量，最大的PvE能量以及最大的防御能量。

PvE模式是围绕着最简单的故事线去确保玩家的轻敲行动是有意义且有结构性的。有些任务被称为活动，而每次活动的最终结果便是boss战斗，在战斗后便会出现一个带有新敌人和新任务的新活动。所以除了吸引人的PvE模式是升级的最佳方式外，在游戏早期获得软货币和新卡片也是一种很好的方法。

玩家对抗玩家模式

在游戏一开始玩家唯一能做的便是去挑战其他玩家。游戏战斗是异步的，攻击者最初是基于自己的级别，所拥有的资源或对手的特性去选择敌人。然后攻击者需要选择攻击包（5张卡片）去对抗防御者的防御包（也是5张卡片）。在几秒钟后将会出现一个非常简单的动画告诉玩家谁赢谁输。

每次PvP战斗将基于玩家使用卡片的强度去消耗PvP能量值。赢得战斗的玩家将获得软货币和特定的XP。而输掉战斗的玩家只能两手空空，没有任何PvP能量。当玩家继续前进时，他们的注意点将从PvP转向特殊的财报箱和激战，我将在下文进行详细解释。

这类型游戏成功的8大核心元素

1.简单性

我想99%的人都会认为简单性是一个形容词，能够用于描写这款游戏。在某种程度上来看确实是这样的。游戏中带有满满的文本说明，可怕的UI和糟糕的用户流。玩家必须进入游戏中，进行多次升级，打败boss并获得最初的一些卡片，可以说没有比这更简单且更让人满足的体验了。

游戏中不存在任何技术元素，每个游戏过程也非常短暂，反复充斥着一些相同的内容和太过夸张的奖励。我的意思是还有哪款游戏能够提供给玩家如此多产的游戏过程让他们能够从一间会议室玩到另一间？

2.复杂性

简单的Mobage卡片游戏也会具有复杂性。玩家在玩了几次游戏后便会慢慢发现一些新元素。例如每张卡片都拥有其自身的派别，这便意味着玩家必须更认真地思考该把哪张卡片放进攻击包和防御包中。

这种复杂性会促使玩家产生不同类型的游戏行为。在经历短暂的游戏过程中我们的目标只是向前走并收集各种类型的资源。当我们进入游戏中完善攻击包和防御包时，我们也可以利用在白天所获得的新卡片和属性。

3.卡片消费机制

让玩家获得一张又一张卡片并不是多么突出的机制，而推动Mobage的卡片游戏获得如此巨大成功的是两个卡片消费机制：Boosting和Fusing。

Boosting是指牺牲其它卡片去推动XP的提升，从而最终提升所选择卡片的攻击和防御点。虽然看起来很简单，但是这一简单的行动其实具有很大的影响力。现在的情况是，游戏足够慷慨地提供给玩家随机的卡片，让他们可以无需接触游戏经济而在PvE模式中前进。从玩家角度来看，他们希望自己能够获得一些较弱的卡片，因为它们可以用于推动他们自己所选择的卡片。

Fusing是指结合两个游戏的卡片而获得更加厉害且稀有的卡片。Fusing也能够促发每个真正的卡片收集者去获得利益。严肃地讲，我们不能强调获取稀有卡片这种行为的上瘾性，特别是当玩家在找到另外一张稀有卡片后他还能获得更加稀有且更加强大的卡片时。

4.卡片包

玩家可以通过三种方法去获得新卡片。第一种方法便是通过刷PvE模式而每次获得一张卡片。第二种方法则是购买卡片包。而最后一种方法是与好友玩家进行交易，这也是吸引玩家好友加入游戏中的主要刺激元素。

只有一些不同的卡片包是按照不同价格进行计算，而实际上卡片的收益主要是基于博彩和收集机制。在博彩机制中，你从来不知道卡片包中带有什么类型的卡片。而在收集机制中，你永远不想获得相同的卡片，所以你可以将这些卡片进行结合；你也不想换得较弱的卡片，所以你可以使用它们去推动你所选择的卡片。

从盈利角度来看又是怎样的呢？玩家不能直接购买自己真正想要的卡片，所以他们不得不购买以一些片包，并祈祷其中带有自己想要的卡片。当他们获得自己所需要的卡片时，他们便会继续寻找第二张，从而能够将其结合在一起。这与孩子们收集棒球卡片相同——除了棒球卡片是可消费这点外。

5.双重能量机制

在Mobage的卡片游戏中有两种不同类型的能量机制：PvE和PvP能量。这两种能量都具有储备器，即会随着玩家的升级与完成PvE任务而提升。换句话说，当玩家在游戏中前进时，他将因为不断提升的能量储备器而在每个回合获得更多能量。这么做不仅能够约束玩家Ngmoco的卡片游戏中为了提升能量去完成每个PvE任务而不断加快进程，同时也能推动着玩家继续提升他们的最大能量储备器。

最后，Mobage的卡片游戏中所使用的能量机制非常有趣，它能在一开始加速玩家的进程，并在他们开始沉浸于其中时放慢速度。因为在一开始玩家的最大能量级别相对相抵，所以能够很快被填满，但是随着游戏的发展，玩家的最大能量级别将随之上升，也就是时间将能帮助玩家填满这一能量级别。而减慢前进速度便是推动游戏盈利的最佳方式。

6.抢夺

当玩家在执行PvE任务的过程中总是会不时收到财宝箱（游戏邦注：这是一种可收集的道具）。每种可收集的道具都是6件收集品中的一部分。当玩家收集齐6种道具后，她将收到一张特别的卡片，这时她们也完成了收集。完整的收集将转换成收集奖励，并且游戏也将关闭收集机制。

当然了，在Ngmoco的卡片游戏中拥有一张稀有卡片是永远不够的，你至少需要获得两张稀有卡片并将其结合在一起，最终获得一张超级强大的卡片。所以游戏会鼓励玩家去完成收集任务3次：完成第一次收集时他们能够获得卡片XY，第二次是奖金，而第三次则还是卡片XY。

Mobage卡片游戏的刷任务收集之所以有趣的一大原因便是，玩家之间可以互相抢夺对方的财宝箱。并且当玩家完成收集时这种抢夺行为才算真正结束。

抢夺机制能够带来盈利的原因：

1）当玩家下定决定去完成收集任务时他便需要抓紧脚步，因为别人将会一直窥视着他所获得的财宝箱。抓紧脚步便意味着他需要购买PvP能量，因为他不能花太多时间去等待能量再次加载。

2）抢夺其他玩家的财宝箱便要求你具有较强的攻击包。所以当玩家的多次进攻都被击倒时他们便会花钱去购买额外的卡片包。

3）当玩家在寻找其它收集品时，如果想要成功保护好自己已经获得的道具，他便需要拥有强大的防御包。当玩家的防御多次被突破时他便想要购买其它的卡片包。

4）玩家可以在他们刚抢到的道具上放一个定时防御盾牌。当玩家想要去抢夺带有防御盾牌的道具时，他们便只会遭遇失败。

7.事件

为了丰富Mobage的卡片游戏，开发者引进了各种主题的事件。基本上这些事件都包含了一些新的PvE任务，并且在商店中也会出现一种有关该事件的全新卡片包。游戏将鼓励玩家去完成这些事件任务，并奖励给他们能够换取卡片包的限时资源。

为了推动事件盈利，Mobage添加了计时器元素（游戏邦注：让玩家能在事件结束前完成任务并收集独特的资源）和进度墙（就像在最难的boss战斗中）。我们可以发现，事件中的boss战斗非常困难，所以为了能够打败boss玩家便需要去购买基于事件的特定卡片包（当然是限时的）。

8.团队和联盟

玩家是否希望与别人交换卡片？或者在艰难的boss战斗中获得帮助？如果玩家都这么想的话你便有必要为他们添加一些团队成员。当玩家拥有更高级别时，他便能够获得更多团队成员。并且他们不需要在Facebook，Game Center等平台发送“官方”的邀请，而是只需要从所有玩家列表上选出一些对象，向他们发送游戏内部请求便可。

而对于那些追求更深层次的目的并希望获得更多奖励的玩家来说，联盟便是一种很好的选择。当玩家加入联盟时，他们便是朝着一个共同的目标前进，并且能够与联盟中的其它成员进行交流。玩家在联盟中的状态是基于他们贡献给联盟的软货币数。通过向联盟贡献软货币，玩家能够推动联盟规模的扩大。如果成为联盟中的一员，玩家便能够收到各种个月的奖励（基于联盟所完成的任务类型）并加入联盟与联盟间的战斗。

联盟能够为加深游戏的用户粘性

不是卡片游戏而是卡片收集游戏

基于《Rage of Bahamut》，《Marvel：War of Heroes》，《Hell Fire》以及《Blood Brothers》等同样类型的游戏，Mobage已经成功吸引了世界各地玩家的注意，并获得了巨大的利益。因为这些游戏都未具有绝妙的图像，精致的优化或让人惊艳的游戏模式，所以很多人都不敢相信它们能够取得成功。但是当你花些时间去玩这些游戏时，你便会发现它们的成功只是基于人类对于收集和比较（与世界上其他收集者）行为的需求。

（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）

How Rage of Bahamut Monetizes

By Michail Katkoff

When Rage of Bahamut (from DeNA’s publisher Mobage) conquered the top grossing charts on iOS and Android I was stunned. I just couldn’t understand how this web port with no sounds, sexist anime graphics and absolutely terrible player flows makes any money. I asked my gaming colleagues around the world and none of them understood why people play this game. After few tries I uninstalled the game thinking that this was one of those one hit wonders. A Gangnam Style of gaming.

Then came Marvel: War of Heroes, Hell Fire, Blood Brothers and other card (or collecting) games from Mobage that continued the success. It was time to give these games a proper shot. After a month of daily sessions I believe that I now understand the 8 core mechanics, which make these games successful.

*most of the images are from Marvel: War of Heros, which is essentially Rage of Bahamut’s re-skin.

The Core Loop

The core loop of Mobage’s card games is pretty straightforward comprised of two main elements – Single Player Mode (PvE) and Player Versus Player Mode (PvP). Both of the game modes have their own specific energies ensuring that one mode adds onto another instead of cannibalizing from it.

The Single Player Mode

The single player campaign may not look like much. Actually it looks down right awful. But the mechanics are simply amazing! Basically what happens is a series of 9 taps onto the screen of your mobile device, which contain elements from action, casino, collecting and role-playing games. A series of actions that you keep on repeating several sessions a day and feel always more and more engaged and entertained.

Here’s the flow. You open up the mission view, tap on the screen and see enemy going down with a blow after each tap (Action).  Three taps and three enemies down a treasure chest will appear asking you to tap to open it (Casino). Fourth tap and you open the chest and see a new card added into you collection (Collecting). Then back to the mission mode. One more tap and you’ve completed the mission. Completing mission rewards player with an attribute point (RPG), which can be used to increase one of the three: maximum PvP Energy, maximum PvE Energy and maximum Defense Power.

PvE mode is wrapped around a super simple story line to keep the tapping meaningful and structured. A set of missions is called a campaign and each campaign ends in a boss battle after which a new campaign with new enemies and new quest giver is presented. So apart from being extremely engaging PvE mode is also the best way to level up, get Soft Currency and earn new cards early in the game.

Player Versus Player Mode

In the beginning challenging other players is the only thing players can do. The battles are asynchronous where attacker first choses opponent based on their level, owned resources or rivalry. Then the attackers chosen attack pack (5 cards) are put against defenders defensive card pack of five cards.  After few seconds and a very simple animation player is declared as a winner or loser.

Each PvP battle consumes PvP Energy based on how powerful cards player uses. Winning a battle earns players Soft Currency and card specific XP. Losing on the other hand simply leaves player empty handed and without any PvP Energy. As player progresses the focus of PvP will shift towards looting specific Treasures and guild wars both of which I’ll go through in more details in this post.

The 8 Core Elements of Success

1. Core Element  – The Simplicity

I thing 99% of you will argue that simplicity is an adjective, which can be used to describe this game. In a way you’re right. The game is full of text instructions, terrible UI and absolutely the worst user flows I’ve experienced on mobile. Yet again once you’ve gotten into the game, leveled up few times, beaten bosses and earned few of the first cards there’s just no simpler game sessions and more satisfying game sessions.

The application is light on the battery, there are no skill elements, sessions are super short, replayable and ultra rewarding. I mean which game lets you play a productive session in the time it takes you to walk from a one meeting room to another?

2. Core Element  – The Complexity

While being simple Mobage’s card games can also be very complex. After few sessions new elements and meta-games are slowly but steadily introduced. For example each card has its own faction, which means that player has to start thinking more about which cards to put into same attack and defense packs.

This complexity leads into different kind of gaming behavior for us, the engaged players. During the day we play our short sessions with the aim to simply progress and gather all kind of resources. In the evening we enter the meta-game of reconstructing the perfect attack and defense packs, making use of the new cards and attributes we earned during the day.

3. Core Element  – The Card Consumption Mechanics

Earning one card after another is alright but what makes Mobage’s card games pop are the two card consumption mechanics: Boostin and Fusing.

Boosting is basically sacrificing other cards to boost the XP and thus the Attack and Defense points of the chosen card. Pretty simple, but there’s a bigger effect of this simple action. What happens is that the game can now be extremely generous with random cards that are given to player for progressing in the PvE Mode without flooding the game economy. And from players perspective it’s great to earn even those weak cards as they can always be used as boosters for the chosen dozen cards.

Fusing is combining two same cards in order to make them into one better and rarer card. Fusing is also something that drives every true card collector to monetize. Seriously, you just can’t emphasize the addictiveness of getting a rare card and realizing that if only you can find another of these rare cards you’ll have a SUPER rare and SUPER powerful card. And of course combining two of these SUPER rare cards…

4. Core Element  – The Card Packs

There’s three ways player gets new cards. As mentioned the initial way is by grinding the PvE Mode and earning one card at a time. The second way is by purchasing card packs and that’s where the monetization seriously kicks in. And the third way is trading with friends players, which is major incentive to get playing friends in the game.

There are only few different card packs priced at different price points but the beauty is in the fact that monetization on cards is based on casino and collector mechanics. Casino in the sense that you just never know what kind of cards the card pack will have. Collector in the sense that you WAN’T to get same cards so that you can fuse them and you WAN’T to get weak cards so that you can use them to boost your chosen cards.

And the beauty from monetization point of view? Well think about it. Players can’t directly buy the cards the really truly want so they have to buy several card packs just and cross their fingers that one of them will have the card they’re looking for. And once they get the card they’re looking for they will most likely search for the second one so that they can fuse these two. Just like kids collecting baseball cards – except that these kids have credit cards and the cards are consumable.

5. Core Element  – The Double Energy Mechanics

There are two different types of energies in Mobage’s card games: PvE and PvP Energy. Both of the energies have a cap, which can be increased by leveling up and completing PvE quests. In other words, as player progresses in the game he’ll have more energy per session due to increased Energy cap. To restrict the progress Ngomoco’s card games increase the energy it takes to complete each PvE quest, which at the same time forces player to keep on increasing her max energy cap.

Time is money

In the end the way energy mechanics are implemented in Mobage’s card games is pretty sweet as it enables fast progress in the beginning and slows the progress down once player is hooked. This is because in the beginning players max energy levels are very low and thus quickly replenished, but as the game progresses players max energy level will grow and so will the time it takes for energy to be replenished. Slowing down progression is the best way to drive monetization.

6. Core Element  – The Looting

From time to time player receives a Treasure (collectable item) when grinding through the PvE quests. Each collectable item is a part of a six piece collection. Once player possesses all six items in the collection she’ll receive a unique card and the collection will be completed. Completed collection transfers into collection reward while also closing the collection from looting.

Of course having one rare card is never enough in Ngomoco’s card games as you need at least two of the same to fuse the into one super powerful card. So player is encouraged to finish the collection three times: first collection reward is the card XY, second reward is Bonus and third reward is again the card XY).

What makes grinding collections interesting in Mobage’s card games is the fact that you can steal specific Treasures from other players – and other players will try to steal the Treasures you posses. Stealing ends only when collection has been completed.

The way looting monetizes is amazing:

1.Player has to be fast when he sets to complete a collection as somebody is always looking for the Treasures he has at the moment. Being fast means usually buying PvP energy as there’s no time to wait for energy to reload.

2.To loot a Treasure player needs to have strong attack deck. Buying an additional card pack seems like a good investment when you get beaten one too many times.

3.To successfully defend the collection while looking for missing pieces player needs to have a strong defensive deck. Buying a card pack sounds like a great idea when your defenses have been defeated over and over again.

4.Players can also put a timed defensive shield over the collection items they just looted. When player tries to loot an item protected by a shield they automatically lose. There’s a custom animation to this kind of battle and it sucks to be on the receiving end. It actually sucks so much that you want to put shields on all of your Treasures just to make all those players who try to steal from you regret it.

7. Core Element  – The Events

To spice up the daily grind Mobage’s card games introduce various themed events. Events are basically comprised of new PvE missions and a new event specific card pack in the shop. Players are encouraged to complete these event missions as the reward from these missions is a new limited time resources that can be exchanged for card packs.

To drive the monetization from the events Mobage adds a timer element (complete missions and collect uniques resources before the event is over) and pushes also a progress wall in form of super tough boss fights. You see, the boss fights in event PvE are so tough that in order to beat them player is encouraged to purchase event specific (and of course limited time) card packs.

8. Core Element  – The Teams and Alliances

Need someone to trade cards with? Or how about getting help in a tough boss fight? In case you’re in demand of these two you can add some team members. The higher your level is the more team members you can have. And no, you don’t need to send Facebook, Game Center or other “official” requests. Just look at a list of all players and simply send them in-game requests to join your team.

For those seeking for a deeper meaning and higher rewards the Alliance (guilds) is the way to go. Once in Alliance player starts working towards a common cause and can interact with other members of the Alliance. Players’ status in an Alliance is based on how much soft currency they donate for the Alliance. By donating soft currency to the Alliance players also increase the size of the Alliance. By being a member of Alliance players receive various bonuses (based on what kind of researches their Alliance completes) and gets to battle it out in Alliance vs. Alliance wars.

Alliances add a deeper engagement to the game

Not a Card Game but a Card Collecting Game

With Rage of Bahamut, Marvel:War of Heroes, Hell Fire, Blood Brothers and other similar titles Mobage has succeeded to hook and monetize players around the world. The success of these titles seems very odd as there’s no stunning graphics, extreme polish or new and exciting game play modes. But once you give some time to these games you’ll understand that their success is based simply on our natural need to collect and compare what we have with other collectors around the world. (source:blogspot)