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It Girl和FarmVille展现社交游戏发展新趋势:虚拟人物形象

发布时间:2010-10-20 16:45:28 Tags:,,

虚拟人物形象一直以来受到很多网络用户的欢迎。将虚拟人物形象网络化也一直是《第二人生》、情景聊天等多款网络游戏和虚拟世界的重要主城部分。因此,用户对虚拟人物的装饰消费也是游戏虚拟商品的主要盈利途径。

然而,在社交游戏领域虚拟人物形象的理念却没有得到游戏开发商的重视,他们将更多的精力投注在收获、烘培等游戏元素上。尽管很多社交游戏中也有玩家的虚拟人物形象,但往往只是点缀之用。

最近,在CrowdStar新发布的Facebook游戏It Girl、Zynga热门农场游戏FarmVille的新功能中,社交游戏开发商的观点有了改变。

一个月前发售的社交游戏It Girl试用版十分注重虚拟人物形象。游戏中,玩家可以在虚拟城市的各式商店中购物,穿上各种热辣时尚的衣服和朋友比美,着装最美的玩家将成为赢家。这款游戏的设计理念就是让玩家寻找搭配出罕见但有美感的时尚服装。

CrowdStar - It Girl

CrowdStar - It Girl

其实这种游戏理念历来已久。在过去的几年中,CrowdStar公司一直在日本运营着类似游戏。结合自己和当地发行商的经验,CrowdStar将虚拟人物形象用户化可以创造出高额的人均用户消费。

另外,CrowdStar公司在日本的运营经验为It Girl虚拟人物形象系统的构建提供了支持。据Appdata显示,现在这款游戏每月的活跃用户数高达488万人,而日活跃用户也大约为70万3000人。目前为止,这款游戏的用户平均收入是其他游戏的3倍。

Zynga公司最近也将其热门游戏FarmVille的虚拟人物形象客户化。尽管早在游戏发行之处,Zynga公司就提供了虚拟人物形象的各种基本服装用具,但最近该游戏的虚拟任务装备道具大增,涵盖了衬衫、鞋子、内衣、配饰、甚至万圣节服饰等。其中部分装束道具无需付费,但大部分的则需要支付FarmVille Cash或Coins。如果玩家购买这些服饰道具,还可以获得一定的积分奖励。尽管这些服饰道具没有任何游戏功能,但对玩家而言却有额外的社交价值。

FarmVille

FarmVille

玩家可以让自己的虚拟人物形象到朋友的农场闲晃,帮助朋友耕作换取更多的积分。现在,这些虚拟人物形象可以穿上polo衫或幽灵服等各种服饰。虽然我们不知道Zynga公司是不是受到其在日本运营游戏的影响才在FarmVille中引入了虚拟人物形象功能。但CrowdStar和Zynga实施的这一功能——哪怕是在已经大卖的游戏中加入这一功能都可以让玩家玩得更开心,游戏开发商也可以从中获得更大的利润。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译)

Avatars  have been popular for nearly as long as the web itself, and customizing them has been a key part of gaming and virtual worlds, from Second Life to IMVU to other sites worldwide. Likewise, paying for avatar decorations has been an important source of virtual goods revenue for many games.

But the concept has gotten relatively little attention among social game developers. Most games have been focused on mechanics like harvesting and baking, and while those typically do provide players for avatars, the offerings have been slim.

That’s changing, though, as can be seen in CrowdStar’s new Facebook virtual shopping game, It Girl, and in a new addition to Zynga’s hit farming simulation, FarmVille.

It Girl launched in public beta around a month ago (see our early review here), but it just went fully live, and as you can see, it’s very focused on avatars. The game has users going through stores in a virtual city, trying to collect the hottest outfits to wear while battling each other, with the winner determined by who is dressed the best. The focus, of course, is to find the rarest and most valuable garb to assemble into the most powerfully stylish outfit.

The concept has been in the works for much longer. Crowdstar has been offering games in Japan for the past year, and learned from local publishing partners and its own observations that avatar customization was helping to generate impressively high revenue per user. Executive chairman Peter Relan tells us the company saw that the games that monetized the best focused on building up avatars.

Its Japanese experience helped form the avatar system in It Girl, a growing game that’s now up to nearly 4.88 million monthly active users and 703,000 daily actives, according to AppData. The result so far, Relan says, is three times the ARPU of the company’s other games.

Zynga has also made avatar customization more front and center in FarmVille. Although the company has provided basic avatars and outfits since the game launched last year, it has greatly expanded the possibilities now, including shirts, shoes, bottoms, accessories, and also costumes for Halloween. Some of the outfits are free, but others cost either FarmVille Cash or Coins, and also offer experience points if purchased. While they don’t appear to currently offer any in-game functionality, they have other social value for users.

Users can already have their avatars wander around to friends’ farms, and do things like tend their crops in exchange for more points. Now, those avatars can be fully decked-out in polo shirts, ghost outfits, or anything else. It’s not clear if Zynga was inspired by its own efforts in Japan and what it saw there, other avatars in games, or even CrowdStar, but the feature — even if it was added to an already-mature game — appears set to make users happier, and bring in more money.(Source:Inside Social Games)


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