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免费模式崛起是市场需求的必然结果

发布时间:2013-10-21 17:51:54 Tags:,,,

作者:Ethan Levy

我作为专业游戏开发者已经10多年了。过去几年,我一直在经营我自己的独立工作室Quarter Spiral,我与另外两位联合创始人一起制作《Enhanced Wars》。

但那不是你们讨厌我的原因。

为什么你们讨厌我?因为我是一个免费游戏设计顾问。我在开发者会议和网上倡导免费游戏,且我帮助游戏公司设计免费游戏。上周,网上有一篇文章介绍了我在Casual Connect会议上的一次演讲《邪恶的游戏设计挑战》,我在演讲中介绍了我想象的手机免费版《超级马里奥》。大家的回应我已经预料到了。

ku-bigpic(from kotaku)

ku-bigpic(from kotaku)

任何时候我在网上发表关于免费游戏的文章,总是得到玩家的抨击。于是我觉得有必要向把我当作污染行业的瘟神的玩家解释一下。我知道希望不大——改变玩家对我的偏见是不可能的。但我想借机解释我不是游戏行业的瘟神,只是我正巧是一名游戏赢利顾问,我的职业是影响玩家所珍爱的游戏行业的真实问题的副作用。

你看,游戏开发是一门商业,而商业是由市场力量主宰的资本主义社会。我真希望我自己是少数的特权阶层中的一员,能够靠自己的财力实现自己的游戏梦,不必担心销量或赢利。可惜我不是。

大部分游戏开发者是拿别人的钱开发游戏。这些“别人的钱”通常来源于公众投资或私人投资。多亏了众筹网站Kickstarter的兴起,现在我们不必求助于传统的游戏发行商了,而是直接接受粉丝的资助。但那些由EA发行的游戏是由持有该公司股票的人投资的。说到底,这些投资人并不关心游戏有多少艺术性、获得多少评分或有没有涉及数字版权管理,他们只关心股票价格和投资回报。

另一方面,游戏是由游戏开发者团队制作的。有些团队规模很小,就像我们三人组成的《Enhanced Wars》独立开发团队。有些团队人数非常多,比如《星球大战之旧共和国》。像我一样,我的大部分好友都是做游戏开发的,

我们都是因为对游戏充满热情才成为游戏开发者的。每一个为了给你带来娱乐而每周工作80小时以上的程序员本可以靠做银行软件赚更多钱、过上更好的日子。但我们对做银行软件没兴趣。做游戏才能让我们热血沸腾。

游戏开发者花了数年时间,不辞血汗地开发迎合玩家的游戏。这些游戏广受欢迎、评价很高、销量很好。但之后看财务业绩,投资者发现这些游戏并没有达到预期的销量,接着就裁员了。

以Square Enix为例,在过去几年,Square Enix发布了几款不错的游戏。3月,他们公布,《Sleeping Dogs》的销量是175万份、《Hitman: Absolution》的是360万份,《古墓丽影》是340万份。对玩家来说,这三款游戏都很优秀,Metacritic网站的评分都超过80分。但它们的销量都没有达到预期。Square Enix里的几个工作室的几名辛苦工作、满怀热情的游戏开发者被解雇了。

Hitman-Absolution(from pcgamer.com)

Hitman-Absolution(from pcgamer.com)

这个等式有两端。一端是Square Enix在这些游戏中投的钱,特别是其他研发的项目、取消的游戏和日常费用。另一端是玩家购买游戏给我们带来的收益。公司必须对它支出的钱负责。如果340万的实际销量不能达到预期,那么Square Enix必须对这个结果负责。

这就是资本主义的运作方式。公司失误,员工丢工作。据Game Job Watch网站估计,在2013年,被Crystal Dynamics、IO Interactive、United Front Games、Harmonix、High Moon等工作室辞退的员工超过3000人。适者生存,只有最强大的游戏开发工作室才能生存下来。

当必须付房租和生活费的开发者丢掉工作,他必须找一份新工作。越来越多工作并不迎合核心玩家。游戏行业一直在扩张,随着越来越多资金投入手机/平板、PC和主机的免费游戏中,“玩家”与整个游戏行业的关系越来越疏远。

看看免费游戏世界的宠儿之一,《CSR赛车》。其开发工作室Boss Alien的核心团队来自Black Rock工作室。这家归迪士尼所有的游戏开发工作室曾制作《Pure and Split》和《Second》,二者在Metacritic网站上的评分均超过80。当迪士尼于2011年关闭Black Rock工作室,其团队成员组成了开发手机游戏的新工作室Boss Alien。在18个月内,这支团队因为《CSR赛车》惊人的收益而成为新闻头条。从玩家的角度看,《CSR赛车》可能不算一款“真正的”赛车游戏。这款游戏中甚至没有方向盘!但显然,为了继续投资Black Rock,迪士尼没有在“真正的”赛车游戏上花足够多的钱。但对于Boss Alien而言,他们是为对的玩家用对的商业模式做了对的游戏。

csr_racing(from applenapps.com)

csr_racing(from applenapps.com)

并非所有游戏都能执行得好免费模式。无论采用什么商业模式,总有成千上万的游戏不能给玩家带来良好的体验。任何一种商业模式都有它的优势和劣势。我也许能够想象出如何把《超级马里奥3》变成免费游戏,但我不认为它可能成为像《神秘海域》系列那样的神作和基本上不会被过程破坏的单人免费游戏。

但我确实认为免费模式无论是对玩家还是对开发者,都有许多好处。从开发的角度说,免费游戏降低了游戏制作的风险。开发者可以先发布能反映部分设想的高品质的游戏样本,如果玩家看好它并投了钱,开发者就可以继续把游戏做到完。即使游戏样本没有获得市场认可,也比辛苦折腾好几年做出一款游戏却失败了来得好。

对于玩家,免费游戏降低了试玩游戏的成本。玩家只要花一点儿精力就能试玩游戏。所以当《The Drowning》发布时,我关注了它好几个月,我可以在五分钟的安装时间内决定这款游戏是否值得我对它投入有限的闲暇时间。

我不必依靠评论,花60美元,或等着看Steam销量。我可以根据自己获得的乐趣来决定是否继续玩这款游戏。

最重要的是,成功的免费游戏使游戏开发者与玩家培养出维持游戏好几年的牢固关系。以我个人的经历为例,我中学时最喜欢的游戏类型是RTS。不知多少个夜晚,我占用了朋友的老爸的办公室,联网玩《魔兽争霸2》和后来的《星际争霸》。但从《母巢之战》到《自由之翼》的12年之间,我中学毕业了,不联网了,也不玩RTS了。我主要玩单机游戏。在等待续作的漫长时间里,我与Blizzard和《星际争霸》的关系断绝了,所以当《自由之翼》发布时,我一点也没有玩的欲望。

《英雄联盟》很快迎来它的第四个生日。自从发布,这款游戏就没有停止过大大小小的更新,使它的忠实玩家始终有新鲜感。我希望《英雄联盟》继续更新下去。为了制作这款游戏的续篇,“渴望成为世界上最关注玩家的游戏公司”的开发工作室Riot度过了最黑暗的几年。

当我辞掉在BioWare(旧金山)的工作,我已经存够了我认为足够经营一个独立游戏开发工作室一年所需的钱。没有工资收入后,我很快意识到我花钱的速度比预料中的来得快,经营工作室(即使是三个人的小工作室)所需的成本比计划中的来得多。

dragon-age-legends(from pocketgamer)

dragon-age-legends(from pocketgamer)

发布免费游戏《Dragon Age Legends》后,我开始在行业大会上演讲我制作我的第一款免费游戏时学习到的教训。我努力为Quarter Spiral争取知名度。

意料之外的结果是,开发商开始联系我,让我当他们的游戏顾问。他们已经决定开发免费游戏,因为这些年来,市场力量一直把开发商从AAA游戏机领域推出去。在许多时候,开发商寻求我的帮助是因为他们正在制作他们自己的免费游戏,希望避免一些开始运营后才可能发现的问题。多亏了顾问工作,我能够以“独立之身”继续开发《Enhanced Wars》。

我认为驱动开发者进入免费游戏市场的力量,说到底也是一种供求关系。从玩家的角度来说,可以玩的游戏太多了。我本人在202年就购买了187款游戏。当游戏《最后的生还者》推出时,我迫不及待地购买了。但之后我看看我的游戏未玩列表:精装版《神秘海域3》、《Ni no Kuni》、《Sin & Punishment》和《Okami》(PS2)都是打算花一些时间玩的。然后我想到我的Steam游戏库。如果我没有安装《暗黑血统2》、《Hitman: Absolution》、《Cannon Brawl》、《Mercenary Kings》、《Orcs Must Die》、《Dear Esther》或《幽浮:未知的敌人》,我真的需要购买《最后的生还者》吗?

我小时候,有大把的时间沉迷于游戏世界,但我没有钱买游戏。现在,我有钱买游戏了,却再也没有时间玩了。我知道自己不会玩,但还是买了,因为我想支持开发者。我希望看多更多像《Mark of the Ninja》这样的好游戏,所以即使我可能不会安装游戏,我也愿意购买。

为玩家而开发独特的、高品质的游戏才是最重要的,比用金钱来衡量的对那些游戏的需求更重要。这就是为什么工作室会倒闭。这就是为什么开发者会被解雇。这就是为什么开发者转向免费领域。在付费游戏领域,玩家没有花足够的钱把他们留下来,而同时,《CSR赛车》、《Puzzle & Dragons》和《Clash of Clans》等免费游戏又能那么轻松地挣钱。

所以如果你讨厌我,因为我从事免费游戏的顾问工作,只有一个办法能让我淘汰掉。你必须用你的钱投票。你必须让付费游戏成为一门有利可图的商业。所以,去购买精装的《Dragon’s Crown》吧。到Steam网站购买先玩权限吧。到Kickstarter网站资助《Enhanced Wars》吧。只有你用你的钱创造需求,游戏开发者才可能继续提供为你而做的游戏。(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

I Am Not A ‘Cancer’ On The Game Industry

by Ethan Levy

I can already predict the comments on this article. You will tell me I’m a horrible person. I’m a cancer on the games industry. Everything I’ve ever worked on is terrible. My existence offends you.

I have worked as a professional game developer for over 10 years. For the past year and change I have been working on my indie studio Quarter Spiral where I am making Enhanced Wars with two co-founders.

But that’s not why you hate me.

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Why you hate me is that I work as a free-to-play design consultant. I advocate for free-to-play games at conferences and online and I help companies design free-to-play games. Just last week, Kotaku ran an article about one of my talks: an entry for the Evil Game Design challenge at Casual Connect where I presented a vision for a free-to-play version of Super Mario Bros. 3 on mobile phones. The response was entirely predictable.

Whenever I post up something online about free-to-play, I get a tired response from Gamers. I asked Kotaku if I could respond to last Wednesday’s post to talk to all the Gamers out there who think I am a cancer ruining the industry. I know it’s hopeless; it is impossible to change someone’s mind on the internet. But I wanted a chance to explain that I am not a cancer on the games industry and if anything, my accidental career as a monetization consultant is a side effect of the true problem affecting the version of the games industry that Gamers hold dear.

11SEXPAND

You see, game development is a business and businesses in a capitalist society are ruled by market forces. I wish I was one of the privileged few who are able to self-finance their dream game for years on end with no concern for sales or profits. But I’m not.

The majority of game developers make games with other people’s money. This generally means some sort of public or private investors. Thanks to the advent of Kickstarter, now we get games that cut out traditional game publishers and are financed directly by fans. But games like those published by Electronic Arts are paid for by the people who own stock in the company. At the end of the day, these investors do not care about artistic integrity, Metacritic score or DRM solutions, they only care about stock price and return on investment.

On the flip side, games are made by teams of game developers. Some are tiny, like my three-man indie team on Enhanced Wars. Some are gargantuan, like the hundreds large SWTOR team. Like me, most of my closest friends are game developers and as a whole, we are a group motivated by our passion for video games. Every programmer who is working 80+ hours for weeks on end to bring you electronic joy could make more money and lead a more balanced life working on banking software. But we are not inspired by banking software. We are inspired by video games.

When a developer loses her job, she needs to find new work. More and more, jobs are coming in the form of games that do not cater to the core Gamer who reads Kotaku.

Game developers spend years pouring blood, sweat and tears into games specifically targeted at Gamers. These games are well received, get high review scores and sell millions of copies. But then financial results are released, investors learn that these games did not meet sales expectations and layoffs ensue.

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Take Square Enix for example. Over the past few years Square Enix has released some fantastic games for Gamers. In March, they reported physical sales of Sleeping Dogs at 1.75 million units, Hitman: Absolution at 3.6 million units and Tomb Raider at 3.4 million units. These are three fantastic games for Gamers, all with Metacritic scores of 80 or above. (Kotaku loved Tomb Raider, for example.) They all failed to meet sales expectations. Hard working, passionate game developers across different studios in Square Enix got laid off.

There are two sides to this equation. There is the money Square Enix invested in these games specifically as well as other R&D projects, canceled games and company overhead. And there is revenue from the games we Gamers purchase. A company must be responsible for the money it spends. If 3.4 million physical units fail to meet expectations, then Square Enix must deal with the consequences.

SEXPAND

This is how capitalism works. Companies fail, and people lose their jobs. Game Job Watch estimates that over 3,000 people have lost their jobs in 2013 at companies including Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive, United Front Games, Harmonix, High Moon Studios…the list goes on and on. Only the fittest game development studios survive.

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When a developer loses her job—when she’s got rent to make and bills to pay—she needs to find new work. More and more, jobs are coming in the form of games that do not cater to the core Gamer who reads Kotaku. Gaming as an industry has been expanding outward for a long time and increasingly, the “Gamer” is becoming a less relevant part of the overall gaming pie as more dollars are spent on free-to-play games for mobile/tablet, PC and now consoles too.

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Just take a look at one of the darlings of the free-to-play world, CSR Racing. The heart of the team at Boss Alien came from Black Rock Studios, a Disney owned game developer that scored high marks on Metacritic for Pure and Split/Second, both 80+ rated games. When Disney shut down Black Rock in 2011, members of the team formed mobile focused studio Boss Alien. Within 18 months the team was making headlines because of the jaw dropping revenue it was reporting with CSR Racing. From a Gamer’s perspective, CSR likely falls far short of being a “real” racing game. There isn’t even steering! But clearly, not enough money was being spent on “real” racing games for Disney to keep investing money in Black Rock. But as Boss Alien, the same game developers made the right game for the right players with the right business model.

Free-to-play is not always well executed. Like any business model, for every League of Legends or CSR Racing there are hundreds of games that deliver a poor quality experience for the player. Like any business model, it has advantages and disadvantages, good fits and bad. I may be able to imagine a way to turn Super Mario Bros. 3 into a free-to-play game, but I do not think it is possible to take a cinematic masterpiece like the Uncharted series and deliver a single-player, free-to-play game that is not fundamentally broken by the process.

But I do believe that free-to-play has a number of advantages for players and developers alike. On the development side, a free-to-play game lowers the risk involved in making a game. A developer is able to release a high quality game that represents a fraction of the total vision, and if players think it is fun and justify it by spending money, the developer can continue to improve the game for months or years on end. If the game does not find success in the marketplace, it is far better to release a game and fail after a year of work than it is to fail after six years of blood, sweat and tears.

I do believe that free-to-play has a number of advantages for players and developers alike.P

As a player, free-to-play lowers the risk of checking out a game. I am able to try a game by spending only my attention. So when The Drowning is released after I have been following it for months, I can decide within five minutes of installation if the game is worth spending my limited downtime on. I do not have to rely on reviews, spend $60, or wait for the inevitable Steam sale. I can make an informed decision whether or not I should play based on how much fun I am having.

Most importantly, a successful free-to-play game allows game developers to forge a direct relationship with their players that keeps a game going strong for years. As a personal example, back in high school I considered RTS to be one of my favorite genres. Many a night was spent using a friend’s father’s office as the LAN party location for games of Warcraft II and then StarCraft. But in the 12 years between Brood War and Wings of Liberty I moved away from high school, from LAN parties and from RTS. I mainly played single player games. My relationship to Blizzard and Starcraft had been severed over the long wait for a sequel, and when Wings of Liberty was released I did not feel compelled to spend my attention on it.

League of Legends, on the other hand, is rapidly approaching its fourth anniversary. Since its release, the game has seen frequent updates big and small that keep the game fresh for its loyal legions of fans. I fully expect League of Legends to still receive updates eight years from now. The idea of that game’s development studio, Riot, going dark for years in order to make a League of Legends sequel seems unlikely since from a studio that “aspire[s] to be the most player-focused game company in the world.”

When I left my job at BioWare San Francisco, I had saved up what I thought would be enough money to fund a year as an independent game developer. Once I stopped drawing a salary, I quickly learned that I spent money faster than expected and that running a game studio, even at three people small, is more expensive than planned.

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Coming off of the free-to-play Dragon Age Legends, I started speaking at conferences about the lessons I had learned working on my first free-to-play game. I was trying to build awareness for Quarter Spiral as we developed our tech stack.

The unintended consequence is that developers started approaching me asking if I would consult on their games. They had already made the decision to make a free-to-play game as a result of the market forces that have for years been pushing developers away from AAA console games. In many cases, developers ask for my help because they are making their first free-to-play game and they want to avoid the sorts of mistakes that become obvious only after you have operated one. Thanks to consulting, I have been able to keep working on indie game development and Enhanced Wars for longer than the originally planned year.

I believe that the forces driving developers to the free-to-play market all comes down to supply and demand. From my anecdotal experience as a Gamer, there are too many games to play. In 2012 I purchased 187 video games. When a game like The Last of Us comes out, I have the deep urge to buy it. But then I look at my backlog: shrink-wrapped copies of Uncharted 3, Ni no Kuni, Sin & Punishment and Okami (on PS2) all of which I fully intend on playing some day. Then I think about my Steam library. Do I really need to buy The Last of Us if I haven’t even installed my copies of Darksiders II, Hitman: Absolution, Cannon Brawl, Mercenary Kings, Orcs Must Die, Dear Esther or X-Com: Enemy Unknown?

The supply of unique, high quality games being developed for Gamers is too great. Greater than the total demand for those games, as measured by dollars spent on (non-used) copies. That is why studios get shut down.

When I was younger and had all the time in the world to play games, I did not have the money to buy them. Now that I have money to spend on games, I have very little time to play them. I buy games I know I won’t play because I want to support the developers. I want more games like Mark of the Ninja to exist, so I do not mind buying it even if it may be months or even years before installing.

The supply of unique, high-quality games being developed for Gamers is too great. Greater than the total demand for those games, as measured by dollars spent on (non-used) copies. That is why studios get shut down. That is why people get laid off. That is why developers move to free-to-play. Gamers like you and me are not spending enough money to keep them in business, meanwhile CSR Racing, Puzzle & Dragons and Clash of Clans are bringing in money hand over fist.

So if you hate me because I consult on free-to-play games there is only one way to make my job obsolete. You have to vote with your dollars. You have to make working on pay-to-play games a viable alternative. So go buy a shrink wrapped copy of Dragon’s Crown. Buy into early access for Cannon Brawl on Steam. Support Enhanced Wars on Kickstarter. Game developers will only be able to keep supplying games made specifically for you so long as you create the demand with your dollars.(source:kotaku)


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