作者：Michail Katkoff

当Facebook成为休闲游戏领域的霸主时，我才开始入行游戏业。在很长一段时间里，我把社交机制简单地当作虚拟机制——游戏开发者刺激老玩家回到游戏和吸引新玩家进入游戏的工具。但（幸运的是）我的观点和这个统治平台都变了。（请点击此处阅读本系列之核心循环、留存率篇）

迫使玩家连接Facebook和让他们发送邀请和请求给好友，对一些开发者来说仍然是管用的策略，但你会惊讶地发现，这些机制在中等硬核游戏中的效果有多么糟。所以我不打算讨论K因素和病毒传播力，而是专注于真正的社交机制。这种社交机制与玩法相结合，优化了整体的玩家体验，给游戏增添了活力。

合作

游戏如何“社交”起来？那就是允许玩家们一起玩游戏——或至少让玩家产生与别人一起玩的错觉。在我看来，社交机制存在的首要目标应该是提高留存率。正如我在之前的文章中所说的，留存率主要与进度有关。但进度是相对的，不同的玩家对进度有不同的衡量标准。例如，玩游戏几周以后我可能觉得自己的进展得不错，但对于玩了几个月的玩定来说，我仍然是菜鸟。

为了解决进度可测量性的问题，我们可以使用社交机制。当玩家与游戏中的其他人合作时，他们就一定会互相比较进度。比较进度导致玩家产生两种感觉：一是，显然落后于人的玩家会想奋起直追，赶上进度在他之前的玩家；二是，进度超前的玩家会自我感觉良好，并且不想失去这种先于别人的感觉。

当设计合作机制时，你必须记住一点，玩家之间的合作应该允许玩家轻易地炫耀自己。另外还要记住，合作必须对于玩家双方都有利。

《Puzzle & Dragons》

每一次玩家进入地下城，他们都必须选择另一名玩家来协助他。当玩家扫荡完地下城，他们就可以互加好友了。请朋友协助可以增加你的“好友点数”，你可以用这些点来换怪物。

social(from gamasutra)

（《Puzzle & Dragons》的“帮手功能”遵守社交机制的黄金法则：双方都会从合作中得到好处，并且给玩家炫耀的机会。）

在进入地下城以前，玩家总是要选择一名帮手，也就是其他玩家的怪物。每一次玩家使用其他玩家的怪物作帮手，帮手的主人就会得到好友点数——可用于获得新怪物的一种游戏币。玩家上线越频繁，他的怪物就越有机会被其他玩家选为帮手，这样他就能挣到更多好友点数。

玩家扫荡完地下城后，他可以通过发送好友请求添加帮手的主人为自己的好友。根据等级，玩家的好友数量有上限。等级越高，可添加的好友数量上限越高。使用好友的怪物作为帮后可以产生好友点数，以及额外的领导技能—-这可以让你的怪物更强大。所以，结交活跃的好友是很重要的，因为玩家只能使用帮手一次，一次过后必须等待帮手的主人下次上线才能再求助。

总之，《Puzzle & Dragons》中的社交机制通过鼓励每天多次上线来提高留存率。社交机制也促进玩家进展，因为玩家的怪物越好，被其他玩家选为帮手的可能性就越大，这就给玩家带来更多好友点数，然后玩家又可以拿这些点数换到新怪物。

但最重要的是，这个功能是发生在游戏中玩家可以炫耀的地方。我的意思是，如果你的怪物很强大，其他玩家选择你的怪物当帮手，这就是一种炫耀。另外，双方玩家都从这个社交机制中获得好处。借出怪物的玩家得到好友点数，使用别人的怪物的玩家得到帮助，完成关卡。

《Clash of Clans》

现在，我们都知道《Clash of Clans》中的军队捐赠机制很有效。当玩家加入一个部落时，他可以请求和捐赠军队。捐赠的军队可以帮助防御玩家的村庄，也可以用于进攻。这个功能除了简单，也是我见过的最强大的社交机制之一。

Clash donate(from gamasutra)

（《Clash of Clans》的捐赠功能是我见过的最强大的社交机制之一。）

游戏没有规定玩家每周可以捐赠的军队数量是多少。当然，捐赠得越多并没有额外的好处，而捐赠得少也不会被惩罚。捐赠促进玩家之间的合作和交流，使玩家得以制定自己的规则——能够将玩家踢出部落，这些规则也是强制的。

所以事实上，如果玩家加入活跃的部落，他就必须不断地捐赠。活跃的部落往往规定每个成员每周必须捐赠多少，如果玩家达不到规定的量且说不出充分的理由，那么就会被踢出部落。捐赠拉动留存率，因为玩家不仅必须不断地训练军队用于捐赠，还要赶进度，因为部落当然要求玩家捐赠的军队是最好的。

Clash Donation(from gamasutra)

（通过添加捐赠追踪，合作开始变成竞争。）

因为捐赠与游戏的核心循环相结合，且要求进展，所以它也是相当强大的赢利机制。游戏每个月都会推出新军队和等级的更新，因为部落要求玩家捐赠最好的军队，所以玩家通常会购买自己缺少的资源（加速研究时间）以完成军队更新。成为部落中第一个捐赠最新军队的人可以提高该玩家的声望，同时刺激其他玩家赶紧更新。

与《Puzzle & Dragons》一样，《Clash of Clans》也遵循合作机制的黄金法则。捐赠军队一定程度上也是一种炫耀，因为玩家让别人看到了自己的军队多么高级和自己出手多么大方。最终，双方都从捐赠中获得好处。那些收到捐赠的人得到战争支援，那些捐赠军队的人提高了自己在部落中的声望。

竞争

在玩家当中制造竞争是让玩家互相比较进度的另一个好办法。游戏中的竞争设计的问题是，大部分开发者太早让玩家进入竞争。在我看来，最好的过程应该是让玩家先享受游戏，再通过结交游戏好友来强化社交机制，然后让玩家与好友合作，最后再刺激他们展开竞争。

通常说来，游戏中存在两种竞争：玩家个人之间的竞争和玩家团队之间的竞争。最重要的是，当设计竞争玩法时，社交机制应该是重要的一部分，因为它可以极大地强化竞争玩法。

排行榜

如果你希望找出顶尖玩家，排行榜可以帮助你。简单地根据玩家进度或玩家消费来排名，只能影响一小部分玩家。然而，它所影响的玩家往往是最痴迷游戏的人，且会把这种排行榜当作一种炫耀。

Leaderboard(from gamasutra)

（团队排行榜，如《Clash of Clans》中的部落排行榜，就是扩大玩家排行榜的影响力的好办法。）

另一种排行榜是团队排行榜，如《Clash of Clans》中的部落排行榜。这个功能不仅影响大部分玩家，而且迫使作为团队中的一员的玩家拿出最好的表现。通过直接交流方式如团队聊天和发送信息，可以刺激成员之间的竞争，因为部落成员会迫使落后的玩家跟上进度，同时公开表扬进度靠前的玩家。

公会战争

公会战争是发生在两个玩家团队这间，由他们自己直接触发的定时事件。与排行榜一样，公会战争的效力来自它的社交性。另外，同伴竞争也有重要影响，因为公会内部的交流话题总是关于谁在战斗中表现最活跃、谁没有发挥作用。

holy war(from gamasutra)

（《Rage of Bahamut》中的圣战是发生在短时间内的大规模公会战斗。当公会领袖宣战时，圣战就会被触发。对手公会是随机选择的，该公会的所有成员都会收到战斗通知。）

除了是定时事件，公会战争不同于排行榜的地方还有使用任命功能来吸引玩家加入公会。通过允许公会任命特定的成员作为会长、副会长、战将和守卫长等，使公会更加高效地运作，因为少数被任命的玩家会促进整个公会的发展。

打副本

本质上，打副本类似于公会战争，因为也是让一队玩家在指定的时间段内对抗共同的对手。但打副本在两个方面不同于公会战争：第一，玩家在副本中对抗的是AI；第二，因为对抗的是AI，所以往往有剧情元素，而在公会战争中是没有剧情元素的。另外，副本往往用特殊道具奖励表现突出的玩家。

Kixeye工作室非常擅长制作副本机制。他们的游戏根据玩家打副本的表现奖励玩家。通过打副本，玩家可以获得特殊的道具。是的，副本也是游戏和剧情的必要部分。

不要强迫

说到社交机制，我知道有许多人都不同意我的观点。对于那些人，社交游戏只与可测量的病毒传播力有关，社交功能可以直接与留存玩家和新玩家数量挂勾。发送X数的邀请换来Y数的新玩家。

然而根据我的经验，这些无意义的社交机制并不能期生效。发送邀请带来的第一波新玩家峰值后，以后的每一次新安装都要求越来越多的邀请。这就使玩家对邀请和请求功能越来越反感，最终导致用户体验恶化和留存率下降。

我的意思是，在设计社交功能时，你必须遵守一些非常简单的原则。首先要让玩家有时间按自己的方式玩游戏。让他们学习和享受游戏。然后把他们引入游戏的社交系统中。一旦玩家喜欢上这款游戏，他们就会希望自己的朋友也来玩它，这时你可以加入社交机制，让玩家合作。合作应该有利于玩家双方，允许玩家炫耀。一旦玩家习惯合作后，你就可以加入竞争元素。

说到底，还是留存率的问题。社交机制是提高长期留存率的好工具。（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 3: Social

by Michail Katkoff

Having started my gaming career back when Facebook was the ruling gaming platform for casual games, for a long time I saw social mechanics simply as viral mechanics – levers, which game teams could use to drive up the returning and new users to the game. But (luckily) both my perspective and the ruling platform have changed.

Forcing players to connect via Facebook and making them send dozens of invites and requests a day may still work for a few developers, but you’d be amazed how poorly these mechanics fit and work in mid-core titles. So instead of K-factors and virality, I want to write about true social mechanics. The kind of social mechanics that add to the gameplay, improve overall player experience and make the game feel more alive.

Collaboration

What makes a game social is that it allows players to play with each other – or at least create an illusion that this is happening. In my mind, social mechanics should be implemented first and foremost to improve retention. As I discussed in the previous post, retention is mainly about progress. But progress is a player-specific metric. For example, I might see myself as well-progressed in a game after few weeks, but to players who have been playing the game for months, I’m still a noob.

To solve the issue of progress measurability we can use social mechanics. When players collaborate with each other in a game they are bound to compare each other’s progress. Comparing progress leads to two kinds of feelings. Firstly, those players who are clearly lagging behind will want to progress and catch those ahead of them. On the other hand, progressed players will feel good about themselves and won’t want to lose the feeling of being ahead and above.

The key thing to remember when designing collaboration mechanics is that collaboration between players should take place in an area of the game, where players can easily show off. Also to keep in mind is that collaboration must benefit both of the players.

Puzzle & Dragons

Every time players enter a dungeon they have to choose a player to help them. When the players have cleared a dungeon they can become friends. Having friends helping you out gives you more Pal Points, which are then used to get monsters from the Machine.

Puzzle and Dragons relies mostly on one social feature: Helper. There’s no chat in P&D. No player versus player mode. No direct messaging with other people. No guilds. And no social network integrations. Yet every time player enters a dungeon they have another player as their helper – and the amount of friend requests players send to each other is huge, due to this simple mechanic.

The Helper feature in Puzzle & Dragons follows the golden rule of social mechanics.

It allows players to collaborate so that both parties benefit and occurs in an area of the game where players can show off.

Before entering a dungeon, the player has to always choose a helper, which is a monster from another player. Every time players use another player’s monster as a helper, helper’s owner receives Pal Points, which are a sort of currency consumed to operate the Machine and get new monsters. The more often a player logs into the game, the higher the chance there is to appear as a helper for other players and thus earn more Pal Points.

After a player has cleared a dungeon, they can add helper’s owner as a friend by sending a friend request. Players can have a specific amount of friends based on their rank. The higher the rank the more friends players can have. Using friends’ monsters as Helpers results in getting more Pal Points, as well as getting additional Leader Skill, which makes your monsters more powerful. Having active friends is thus crucial, as players can use helper only once, after which they have to wait until helper’s user logs out and logs back into the game.

So in short, the social mechanics in P&D drive retention by encouraging several logins per day. Social mechanics also drive players to progress, as the better helper monster they have to offer the more often it will be used, which will result in player getting more Pal Points, which are then used to get new monsters from the Machine.

Most importantly though, the design of this feature takes place in an area of the game where players can show off. I mean, it’s all about how tough of a monster you have, and giving another player a chance to play with your monster is the ultimate show off. Also, both players benefit from these social mechanics. A player who borrows a monster gets Pal Points and a player who uses other player’s monster gets much needed help to complete levels.

Clash of Clans

Now we all know how Troop donation mechanic in Clash of Clans works. Once a player joins a clan they can request and donate troops. Donated troops will either help to defend a player’s village, or they can be used in attack. Despite the simplicity of the donation, it is one of the most powerful social features I’ve experienced.

Donation feature in Clash of Clans is one of the most powerful social mechanics I’ve seen.

From the game side, there’s no set number of troops a player should donate weekly. Neither is there a bonus for donating more, nor punishment for failing to donate. Yet nothing is followed by players as much as donations. Simply by enabling players to collaborate and communicate, the game allows players to create rules themselves – and with the ability to kick players off the clan, these rules are also enforced.

So in practice, once a player joins an active clan, they have to donate constantly. Active clans tend to set a number of donations each clan member has to make in a week. If a player falls behind without a good reason, they get kicked out of the clan. Donation drives retention, as players not only have to constantly be training troops for donation, but they also have to progress in the game because clans naturally demand the best type of units for donation.

By adding tracking to donation collaboration starts transforming into competition.

Because donation follows the game’s core loop and requires progression, it is a very powerful monetization feature as well. With every monthly update there are new troops and troop levels. Because clans demand the best possible troops for donation, players tend to buy the missing resources (and speed up research times) to finish the troop upgrades. Being the first one in the clan who donates a new unit raises that player to a social pedestal and drives everyone else to hurry up their upgrades.

As with P&D, Clash of Clans also follows the golden rule of collaboration mechanics. Donating troops to other players is – in a way – a show-off, as players can boast on the level of their troops as well as on how generous they are. And, in the end, both partiers benefit from donations. Those who receive them get help in battle, and those who donate improve their status inside the clan.

Competition

Creating competition between players is another excellent way to have players compare their progress. The problem with competition designs in games is that most of the developers want to get players into the competition phase too early. The best way, in my opinion, is to have players first enjoying the game, then enable social mechanics by acquiring in-game friends, have them collaborate with these friends and only after that incentivize them to compete.

Generally speaking, there are two types of competitions: the ones where players compete against each other individually and the ones where players form groups to compete with other groups of players. Most importantly, when designing competition features, social mechanics should be an important part of the conversation, as they intensify these features tremendously.

Leaderboards

If you want to target your top players, the leaderboard is one of the best features for that. Simply putting players into order based on how they have progressed or how they fare against other players will affect only a very small percentage of your players. Yet those who it affects tend to be the most engaged ones and will appreciate this opportunity to show off.

Group leaderboards, such as the Clan Leaderboard in Clash of Clans, are an excellent and very easy way to broaden the effect of simple player based leaderboards.

The next step is group leaderboards, such as the Clan Leaderboard in Clash of Clans. Not only does this feature affect a larger percentage of players, but  putting players into teams and grading them as one will force every player in the team to do their best. By enabling direct communication such as group chat and direct messages, you basically enable peer pressure, where clan members will force lagging players to up their game while publically praising the top performers.

Guild Wars

In all its simplicity, guild wars are timed events between two groups of players triggered directly by players themselves. As with leaderboards, what makes guild wars powerful is the social aspect. Again, peer pressure plays an important role, as communication inside the guild is all about who’s active and who isn’t doing her/his part in the war.

Holy Wars in Rage of Bahamut is a large scale Order battle where within a very short time frame, order members will engage in battle against each other. Holy War will trigger when leader of an order declares a war. Opposing Order is chosen randomly and battle notification will be sent to all members in the Order.

Apart from being a timed event, guild wars also differ from leaderboards by using nomination techniques to super-engage a few players in the battling guild. By enabling guilds to nominate specific players as leaders, vice leaders, attack and defense leaders and others, you will enable the guild to run more efficiently during the event, as these few nominated players will drive the whole guild to over-engage.

Raids

Essentially, raids are like guild wars, as they unify a group of players against a common opponent for a specific set of time. Yet raids differ from guild wars in two ways: Firstly, raids are against AI. Secondly, because raids are against AI, there tends to be a story element in raids, which is lacking in guild wars. Also, raids tend to award participating players with unique items based on how active they’ve been.

Kixeye has pretty much mastered raid mechanics. All of their live games run periodic raid events in which players are rewarded for the level of engagement they show during the raid. By participating in the raids, players gain access to special units and parts. And yes, raids are promoted heavily, like the video above shows, which make them an essential part of the game and storyline.

Just Don’t Force It

I know a lot of people are against my opinions when it comes to social mechanics. For them social games are all about measurable virality, where social features can be directly tied to the amount of returning players and new installs. For them, X amount of invites sent is Y amount of new installs.

Yet from my experience these unmeaningful social mechanics just don’t work on a long-term basis. After the first couple of spikes in metrics, you’ll need to generate more and more invites for one single installation. This leads to an increasing amount of slapped-on requesting and inviting features that degenerate user experience and hinder retention.

What I’m saying is that you should follow a very simple approach when it comes to social features. First start off by giving your players time to play the game by themselves. Let them learn and enjoy it and have fun, then allow them to turn social. Once they like the game and want their friends to play it as well, you can introduce social mechanics, that let players collaborate. Collaboration should benefit both of the players and occur in a game area where players can show off. Once players are collaborating you can start adding competitive element.

In the end it’s pretty much all about retention and social mechanics are an amazing way to improve especially long term retention. (source:gamasutra)