游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

中等硬核游戏的成功要素之留存率

发布时间:2013-10-30 14:00:39 Tags:,,,,

作者:Michail Katkoff

留存率是免费游戏成功的基础。每天每月坚持上线的玩家使游戏作为服务的模式成为可能。但制作那种吸引玩家不断回归的游戏,绝对是游戏开发团队面临的最严峻的挑战。在本文中,我打算详细地分析如何用紧密的核心循环、平衡的游戏经济和巧妙的使用事件来克服这个挑战。(请点击此处阅读本系列之核心循环篇

注:当增加留存率和进度时,社交机制是必须的,但我不打算在这篇文章中介绍它,而是留给下一篇文章。

主要目标

在我看来,没有什么比“让玩家自己给自己设目标”更能让玩家留下来的了。为了达到目标,自我激励的玩家会每天上线,而且每天上线多次。但为了培养这类内在动机强的玩家基础,游戏开发团队必须首先通过奖励玩家的进展和惩罚玩家的满后,使玩家想变得更好。

进步的渴望来自进展的渴望。渴望进展是极其强大的,因为玩家会自己为自己创造过程目标,并且努力优化自己的操作。我的观点是,渴望变得更好应该总是成为所有玩家的主要目标。因为在设计良好的免费游戏中,进步等同于进度,而进度应该与玩游戏所花的时间成正比。

我个人喜欢把进度动机分成积极的和消极的两类。积极的动机让玩家觉得自己一旦达到目标就会变得更强更好;消极的动机让玩家觉得自己一旦停止朝着主要目标前进就会有落后于人的危险。

进展的积极动机

内置游戏商店是鼓励进展的最好办法。获得特殊单位的价钱和解锁要求成为玩家的明确目标。另外,内置游戏商店的特殊单位的位置也是很重要的,因为它传达价值——最后一个解锁的总是最强的、最令人渴望的。

clash store(from gamasutra)

clash store(from gamasutra)

(在《Clash of Clans》中解锁新单位是玩家的明确目标。新单位能提高战斗表现,这就给进展创造了积极动机。)

进展的消极动机

玩家的进展速度随着时间而下降。计时器会增加,价格会上涨,使进度更加难以获得。到某个时刻,下一个新单位或建筑可能看似太遥远。这时候,消极动机就产生了,让玩家不能忍受进度滞后。

defeat(from gamasutra)

defeat(from gamasutra)

(抢劫是一个消极动机。玩家意识到当前防御不足,他们必须进展才能保护自己。这时候的消极动机最盛。)

最重要的是,当设计进展动机时,设计师应该总是记住,社交元素是一股重要的进展驱动力。进度很难客观地测量,这就是为什么游戏设计应该鼓励玩家把自己的进度与其他玩家作比较,无论是通过合作还是竞争。我将在本系列的第三篇文章中介绍社交元素。

过程目标

过程目标是玩家认为他们达到主要目标必须经历的所有步骤。我个人喜欢给可独立的游戏经济设置过程目标。与其他策略游戏一样,《Clash of Clans》是一个使用这种经济结构的好例子,它给玩家提供了明确的目标,且隐藏了达到那个目标必经的漫长路径。这样,玩家就会觉得通向那个最终目标的路径很短、是可以达到的。只有当他们走完一半路径,才开始意识到,那个目标其实还很远,但在那个时候,他们已经投入太多了,根本不舍得半途而废。

CC_Kiev(from gamasutra)

CC_Kiev(from gamasutra)

(解锁下一个单位看似相当简单的任务——玩家只需要更新兵营。但在那之前,他们必须更新市政厅。而更新市政厅太贵了,因为还要先更新金库。很直接,对吧?用最理想的玩法,只需要21天就能达到目标。如果遇到抢劫,那21天就要翻倍了……)

过程目标可以分为两类:有些设计师喜欢向玩家透露过程目标,这就近乎强迫玩家遵循一条固定的进程路线;也有些设计师倾向于让玩家自由选择进展方式,即使这通常导致不太理想的进度。另外,自由进展使追踪一般玩家的进度变得更加复杂,进而导致内容更新的困难。

global-warfare-mission(from gamasutra)

global-warfare-mission(from gamasutra)

(在Kabam的游戏中,为了完成主要目标,玩家必须遵循严格的任务结构。这有助于控制玩家的游戏流程,从而优化它。)

Achievements(from gamasutra)

Achievements(from gamasutra)

(Supercell的游戏使用成就系统,刺激玩家重复核心循环中的活动。这个系统无助于优化玩家流程,但确实允许玩家自由地组织自己的过程目标,而不是游戏让他们做什么就做什么。)

事件

游戏内的事件是促进短期沉浸感和提高长期留存率的强大工具。因为其限时属性,事件可以刺激玩家在比较短的时间内对游戏产生很强的沉浸感。

一般来说,事件持续的时间从几个小时到几天不等,但有时候会长达数周。事件通常是为已经玩该游戏有一段时间的玩家设计的。总体说来,事件给那些老玩家的游戏过程增加了趣味,进而提高长期留存率。

成功的事件往往具有以下几个关键元素。第一个自然是限时性。第二个是事件专属的不可购买的奖励——如果玩家在给定的时间内完成事件,就能获得这种奖励。为了增加沉浸感,奖励必须是独一无二的,同时不可购买意味着这种奖励也是一种地位象征。另外,当事件结束再给予完成事件的玩家以奖励,可以提高留存率。有些玩家在事件正在进行时就感到厌烦了,因为耗时太久。但是,考虑到事件结束就能获得实用的奖励,这些玩家就会继续玩下去,因为他们将获得新东西。最后,事件必须紧接着游戏的核心循环,而不是给核心循环增加新元素。

案例:《Marvel War of Heroes》

在做PVE任务的过程中,玩家会不断获得宝物(可收集道具)。玩家必须收集6个才能完成一个收藏。一旦玩家拥有所有这6个道具,收藏就完成了,同时他就会得到一张独特的卡牌。完成收藏转变为收藏奖励,同时玩家停止通过抢劫获得可收集道具。

Deconstructor_of_Fun(from gamasutra)

Deconstructor_of_Fun(from gamasutra)

(玩家可以从其他玩家手中抢走自己缺少的宝物,同时,玩家可以购买限时盾牌以防止别人抢走自己的宝物。)

当然,在Ngomoco的卡牌游戏中,拥有一张珍稀卡牌是不够的,因为你必须至少有两张相同的卡牌才能组合成一张超级卡牌。这就鼓励玩家完成收藏三次:第一个收藏奖励是卡牌XY,第二个奖励是增益效果,第三个奖励又是卡牌XY。

Ngomoco的卡牌游戏为什么能使收集变得这么有趣?这是因为你可以从其他玩家处窃取特殊宝物——当然,其他玩家也会窃取你的。当收藏完成,窃取活动也结束。

抢劫这种赢利策略非常有意思:

1、当玩家开始收集时,必须快,因为这时候别人也在盘算着你的宝物。快意味着尽量购买PVP精力,因为没有时间等精力补满。

2、为了抢到宝物,玩家必须有强大的攻击牌组。当你被打败太多次时,购买额外的牌组似乎是一笔划算的投入。

3、为了保护你自己的宝物,同时寻找自己缺少的宝物,玩家必须有强大的防御牌组。当你的防御一次又一次被攻破,购买牌组似乎是个好主意。

4、玩家还可以在自己抢来的收集道具上放一个限时盾牌。当一名玩家试图抢走被加了盾牌的道具时,他会自动失败。当玩家抢劫失败时,会看到定制动画,让他觉得很难堪。有些玩家会把自己的所有宝物都加上盾牌,让所有那些想抢宝物的人都后悔。

每一次上线都是重要的

留存率是游戏最重要的指标。成功的中等硬核游戏能够吸引玩家玩上好几个月,每天多次上线,每次玩上个把小时。

为了达到这样的留存率指标,开发者必须确保玩家想继续进展下去,然后用可靠的游戏经济创造完成目标的路径。我不会花太多时间在所谓的“留存率特征”如每日奖励和推送通知,因为它们的意义并不大。相反地,我更加关注游戏经济和平衡性,保证玩家想进展下去,并为此树立目标。然后,无论是引导玩家对过任务结构达成这些目标,还是让他们自己创造自己的过程目标,务必保证每一次上线都让他们至少更加接近自己所树立的目标一点点。(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

Mid-Core Success Part 2: Retention

by Michail Katkoff

Retention is the foundation for a successful F2P game. Players who keep coming back to the game several times a day, day after day and month after month enable the game as a service model. But creating that drive for players to keep returning is without a doubt the toughest challenge for a game team. In this post I’ll break down how to overcome this challenge with a well thought out core loop, balanced game economy and clever use of events.

*Social mechanics are essential when building retention and progress, yet I’ll leave them mostly out of this post and instead concentrate on them in the following post.

The Main Goal

In my mind, there’s no better way to retain players than to have them set up goals for themselves. Self-motivated players will be logging in numerous times per day just to achieve that goal. But to create a user base of self-driven players, the game team has to first make players want to become better by rewarding them for progress and punishing for falling behind.

With the desire to improve comes the desire to progress. And desire to progress is extremely powerful, as players will self-create sub-goals for themselves and work to optimize their gameplay. My opinion is that the desire to become better should always be the main goal for every player. Because in a well-designed f2p game, improving equals progressing and progressing should equal the amount of time spent playing the game.

Personally, I like to divide progression incentives into positive and negative, where positive incentives promise players that they’ll be stronger, tougher and better once the goal is achieved. Negative incentives on the other hand threaten players that they’ll fall behind if they stop progressing towards the main goal.

Positive Incentive to Progress

In-game shop is one of the best ways to encourage progression. Price and unlock requirements needed to gain access for specific units create a very clear target for players. Also, the position of a specific unit in the in-game shop is important, as it communicates value – the last ones to unlock are the strongest and the most desired.

Unlocking new units in Clash of Clans is a clear goal for players. New units also promise
better results in battle creating that positive incentive to progress.

Negative Incentive to Progress

Players’ progression slows down exponentially with time. Timers will increase and prices will rise, making it harder and harder to progress. At some point the next unit or a building just might seem bit too far away. This is when negative incentives should kick in, showing players that slowing down just isn’t an option.

Getting raided is a negative incentive. Players realize that current defenses aren’t enough and that they need to progress to defend themselves. Negative incentive at its best.

Most importantly, when designing progress incentives, one should always keep in mind that the social element is an important driver for progress. Progress is hard to objectively measure, which is why game design should encourage players to compare their progress with other players be it through collaboration or competition. I’ll cover social elements in the third part of mid-core post series.

Sub-goals

Sub-goals are all the steps players acknowledge they need to take in order to reach their main goal. Personally I like setting up sub-goals with interdependable game economy. Clash of Clans, among other strategy games, is a great example of this kind of economy structure as it presents a clear goal for the player hiding the long path it actually takes to get to that goal. This way, the road to that ultimate goal might seem short and very achievable to players. Only once they are mid-way through the grind will they start realizing how long it actually takes to reach the target, but at that point they’ve already invested too much to stop.

Unlocking the next unit might seem like a pretty easy task – all a player needs to do is upgrade the Barracks. But before that they need to upgrade the Town Hall. Oh and Town Hall upgrade is so expensive that they have to upgrade Gold Storage. Pretty straightforward. Right? It only takes 21 days to get there with an optimal gameplay. Add few raids and the 21 days get doubled…

There are two schools when it comes to sub-goals: Some designers like to communicate sub-goals to players and almost force them to follow a set path of progress. Another way to handle sub-goals is to give players the freedom to progress as they will, even though this often leads to not so optimal progress. Also, free progress makes tracking of an average player’s progress more complicated, which leads to challenges in content updates.

Kabam likes to manage players towards the main goal with strict mission structure.

This allows control over player flow and thus helps to optimize it.

Supercell uses an achievement system, which incentivizes players’ repeat actions in the core loop.

This system doesn’t help to optimize the player flow but it does give players freedom to make up their own sub-goals instead of just doing what the game tells them to do.

Events

Regular in-game events are a powerful tool for driving short-term engagement and long-term retention. Because of their timed nature, events encourage players to heavily engage with a game for a relatively short period of time.

Typically, events last from a few hours to several days, but sometimes events might last for weeks. Usually events are designed for players who have already been playing the game for a while. Overall, events are an excellent way to spice up the gameplay for these retained players resulting in increased long-term retention.

There are few key elements all successful events tend to have. The first one is naturally the limited time the event is active.  Second is the event-specific inconsumable reward, which players receive if they are able to complete the event in a given time. Uniqueness of the reward is important for engagement, while the inconsumable nature of the reward turns it into a status symbol.

Also, giving the reward for completing an event after the actual event has ended is a way to boost retention. Some players do get tired of the game during an ongoing event, as it requires so much playtime. But, giving that usable reward after the event has ended will keep players playing the game, as it will have something new for them. Finally, it is important that events follow a game’s core loop instead of adding new elements to it.

Example: Marvel War of Heroes

From time to time the player receives a Treasure (collectable item) when grinding through the PvE quests. Each collectable item is a part of a six piece collection. Once a 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.

Players can loot the lacking treasures from other players while buying timed shields to protect looted ones.

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 into one super-powerful card. So the 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:

A 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.
To loot a Treasure a 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.

To successfully defend the collection while looking for missing pieces, a 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.

Players can also put a timed defensive shield over the collection items they just looted. When a 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.

Make Every Session Count

Retention is simply a games most important metric. Successful mid-core titles hold on to players for months, having them play over half a dozen daily sessions and spending well over an hour interacting with the app daily.

To reach these retention numbers, developers need to make sure players want to progress, then create paths to these goals with an interdependable game economy. I wouldn’t spend too much time on so-called retention features like daily bonus and push notifications, as they bring nothing more than cosmetic improvements. Instead I’d concentrate on the game economy and balancing. Make players want to be better and set up goals into the horizon. Then, either guide players to these goals via mission structure, or let them create their own sub-goals. Just make sure that every session takes them at least a bit closer to that goal they’ve set up.(source:gamasutra)


上一篇:

下一篇: