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是否应该删除社交游戏中的凋谢机制?

发布时间:2013-04-09 15:52:13 Tags:,,,,

作者:Simon Newstead

在第一波社交游戏热潮中,收获(约定)和凋谢(逾期罚款)便是两种最常见的机制。

玩了收获机制后,凋谢机制将帮助游戏推动玩家定期回到游戏中。而它又是如何做到这一点呢?

whither(from iteratingfun)

whither(from iteratingfun)

玩家总是拥有很强的损失恐惧感。害怕自己所种植的珍贵庄稼衰败(或被偷)的情感将有效地鼓励玩家在睡觉前,或者早上给孩子准备便当前登录游戏进行检查。

而现在,也就是这一热潮过后的两年,凋谢机制似乎变得不再那么受欢迎了。

那一年,最成功的手机农场模拟游戏《Hay Day》便避开了这一机制。

其它的许多游戏也是如此。甚至连Zynga的《CastleVille》团队也在当年的GDC大会上表示他们想要删除该机制,但却因为其它元素而暂时搁置了。

所以为何会出现这种情况呢?

1.社交玩家已经习惯于回归与收获。最初的社交游戏热潮中涌现出了上百万的新人“玩家”。早期的热门游戏,如《FarmVille》便注重教授玩家如何游戏,定期回到游戏中进行检查,并一小步一小步地发展。

2.其它系统提供了行动号召。在出现越来越多能够吸引鲸鱼玩家的机制的同时,我们也能看到其它引导玩家回到游戏中的机制。根据Zynga,64%的“回头客”要归功于平台提醒——图像,通知和请求。而额外的设置只能给游戏增添复杂性。

3.较年长的玩家总是会受到效能的推动。举个例子来说吧,深层次的锻造和请求系统能够有效地推动玩家再次回到游戏中去争取奖励。对于资深玩家来说,这种提供奖励的机制便是强大的留存动机。

4.凋谢并不是一种有效的盈利动机。有些游戏让玩家能够通过花钱去拯救凋谢的庄稼(游戏邦注:或濒临死亡的小狗)。如果是作为基于时间的盈利动机,这种方法便能够奏效,但是我们却很难做到平衡,例如玩家在任何特定时间所种植的庄稼数量都会有很大的差异。这也是核心循环的一部分,并且会影响游戏的核心满意度。相反地,像限制时间的事件等其它方法则能提供简单的单一盈利请求(如推广24小时的复活节菜单寻找活动?)。同时这一方法也不会惩罚玩家,而是提供给他们赢得其它特别工具的机会。

5.凋谢是一种消极体验。失去某些事物并不是一种有趣的体验,特别是在面对那些需要投入大量时间和努力而创造出来的事物。惩罚在游戏设计中占有一定的分量,但却绝非你的主要留存机制。而处理这种消极体验的更好方法便是删除它,或者将其变成积极体验。

举个例子来说吧,Playforge的《僵尸农场》一开始设置了凋谢机制。但是在之后的续集中却将其变成了奖励系统—-如果玩家可以准时回到《僵尸农场2》中,他们便能够获得最新的奖励,而即使他们是在一周或一个月后才回到游戏中,也不会完全失去所有的庄稼。

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

Whither the wither mechanic?

By Simon Newstead

In the first social game wave, two common mechanics were harvest (appointment) and its companion, wither (delay penalty).

Playing off the harvest, the wither helped reinforce the regular return cycles those games were designed around. How?

The fear of loss can be strong.  The feeling that your precious crops would decay (or be stolen) was a strong motivation to log on that one last time before sleep or early morning before packing lunch for the kids.

Fast forward two years later, the wither mechanic seems to be falling out of favor.

This year’s most successful mobile farming sim, Hay Day eschews it.

So do many others that have ranked in recent times. Even Zynga’s Castleville team at GDC talked about how they wanted to remove it, but were constrained due to other factors.

So why this trend? Some thoughts…

1.Social players are already conditioned to return and harvest.  In the inital social game wave there were millions of first time “gamers”.  Early hits like Farmville trained them how to play, checking back regularly to collect and progress in bite size chunks.

2.Other systems provide calls to action.  With development of more mechanics for high grossing whales (eg events), there are other drivers for players to return.  Zynga shared that 64% of players are prompted to return through  platform reminders – a growing set of open graph stories, pictures, notifications and requests.  An extra set just adds more complexity.

3.Elder players are motivated by efficiency.  For example, a deep crafting and request system provides strong drivers for players to be optimal in their return schedules to gain ever increasing rewards.  This desire for increased payoff turns out to be a very strong retention motivator for experienced players.

4.Wither unwieldily as a monetization driver.  Some games allow you to rescue decayed crops (or revive near death puppies) for a cost.  This can help as a time based monetization driver, but it’s hard to balance.  eg- the amount of crops a player may have growing at any particular time could vary greatly.  It’s also something part of the core loop, which can affect core satisfaction with the game, in the case you couldn’t log on last week due to, you know, real life.  Instead, other approaches such as time limited events provide a simpler single monetization request (extend the easter egg hunt by 24 hours?).  It’s also one that doesn’t punish you as part of the core loop, and instead gives you an chance to win something extra special, if you chose to.

5.Wither is a negative experience.  Losing something isn’t pleasant. Especially when that thing may have taken plenty of time and effort to create. Punishment and its avoidance has a place in game design, but arguably not as your primary return driver.  What are the options? A better way to handle that could be to remove it, or flip it around to be something positive.

For example Zombie Farm by Playforge originally had a wither mechanic.  However the sequel was changed to be an early bonus system – i.e. when you returned to Zombie Farm 2 on time you got a freshness bonus, but no matter if you returned a week or month later you never lost all your crops outright.(source:iteratingfun)


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