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以PENS模型重新思考社交游戏的设计(二)

发布时间:2014-02-25 09:43:49 Tags:,,,,

作者:David Serrano

这是“反思社交游戏”系列文章的第二部分,在本文中我们将专注于两个剩下的玩家内在动机(自主性和关联性,都是基于Scott Rigby和Richard Ryan所创造的PENS框架),以及如何使用它们更好地推动社交游戏的发展,从而创造出更丰富的体验并延伸游戏可把控的功能。我们是否能够根据社交游戏的实际公式重新思考并创造,从而更好地造福企业和用户?

自主性

这是否是一个人的决定和行动中有关意志力或选择的体验?在我们能够自由选择并创造自己想要的体验的活动中,我们更有可能得到激励并沉浸于这些活动中。

—-Scott Rigby和Richard Ryan

选择的自由,行动的多样性和有意义的结果:当提到满足玩家的自主性需求时,这便是成功的组成要素。自由感是游戏的组成部分,即游戏设计师在创造能够匹配自己游戏的模式时会牢记在心的内容。尽管行动的设计只是基于方向性,但是它们的塑造通常都是为了提供给玩家更强大的自由感。在RPG游戏中更是如此,在这类型游戏中,玩家的决定通常都很广泛,并且它们还会基于不同的方式去重塑历史,从而通过玩家有意义的决定而创造出全新的体验。

在社交游戏中:有意义的行动便等于更棒的结果

首先,让我们着眼于Scott Rigby和Richard Ryan关于游戏《Oportunities for action》中的自主性的一个决定性元素:

这是玩家在游戏过程中的任何时候认为对自己来说有用的选择。它们是1)玩家能够理解的互动物体,以及玩家可以为了获得目标或创造性机遇而根据如何有意义地与这些目标进行互动所做出的选择。

社交游戏中是否呈献给玩家足够有意义的选择?因为某些元素,以及这些游戏所呈现的一些最强大的技术,似乎缺少足够有意义的选择能够塑造玩家关于大多数社交游戏的体验。PENS向我们呈现的是在某些情况下,如策略游戏中,这样的自主性体验是玩家从游戏中所获得的乐趣决定因素,这甚至更频繁地出现在具有较长对话和深入思考选择谁能够帮助实现目标的RPG中。

正如我们所看到的,有些社交游戏已经发现很难添加像PENS框架中所呈现的有意义的选择。有时候,鉴于游戏的本性以及面向广泛公众的目标,并且为了避免更多复杂性,这些基于玩家性能的体验塑造者通常会遭受回避。但这并不意味着玩家就不能在点击目标并执行一个简单的行动后进行比即时反馈更深入的学习。社交是不断提醒玩家他们的行动能够重塑自身的体验以及角色架构的强大工具。那为了获得更有意义的结果而进行农耕或刷任务又是怎样的?如为了阻止一个可能制约着游戏之后发展的强大敌人而创造一个公有建筑或军队。

添加玩家的选择能力(能够进行互动)并让他们进入自己所有物的历史中是怎样的情况?在游戏最后添加一个无形的目标会怎样?这是不同的内容将帮助玩家思考他们决定的能力,而不是只依靠刷任务的无效行动。如果玩家在管理一村的怪物,农场,动物园或鱼缸,那就让他知道自己所做出的每个重要的行动都是有意义的,并呈现达到某一目标的手段,不管是成为世界上的鱼缸领导者或者通过在其它地方创建农场而打败邪恶的腐败势力和污染。

自主性需要得到满足这一点对于那些想要实现长期价值的游戏(游戏邦注:即玩家能在几个月甚至是几年后再次回到游戏中)来说特别重要。

—-Scott Rigby和Richard Ryan

我们可以评估社交游戏的目的并不是在于长期的用户留存,开发者将在拥有完整的支持并在这些支持耗尽前提供给它们一个完整的生命周期,并在之后专注于其它新游戏,如此这些支持将快速下降(尽管这样的下降还会持续好几年)。玩家很难反复回到同一款游戏中,基于玩家的选择创造让人愉快的时刻能够融合到纯粹的社交Facebook游戏所具有的整体感之中。

Mafia Wars(from wikipedia)

Mafia Wars(from wikipedia)

尽管自主性似乎不是玩家在玩社交游戏时所掌控的最重要的动机平衡,但这对于不断添加重要性层面去扩展游戏感来说还是非常重要。实际上,尽管玩家会与这样的浏览器游戏建立重要的联系,但是它们的风格和机制却不会留下某些空间让玩家获得沉浸感,或留下更多自主性去改变“世界的命运”。我们也许不是致力于创造倾向于情感边界的游戏,但我们会做出更大的承诺并建议玩家他们所做出的每个重要行动将创造出进一步的效果,即将保持他们1)充满好奇,因此更愿意继续发现游戏中的其它未知元素,2)受到激励而为了更棒的目标与别人进行协作,或者3)更广泛地游戏,在此他那强有力的承诺(受到实践的驱动)将带来更大的消费。

它们之间:沉浸感

沉浸感或“存在感”是一个游戏元素,即意味着玩家在游戏中获得“多少真实感”,从情感上将他带到游戏世界中。

社交游戏(就其休闲分支而言)很难靠近这种抽象且具有较深结构化的世界场景(即能让玩家在此获得沉浸感,并且主要的用户粘性将直接让他们能从情感和身体上感受这个世界)。策略类型并不是我们责怪的对象,开发者并不需要为回避通过深入的故事性,持续的脚本和情感NPC等收费而内疚。

休闲代表的是什么:快节奏的游戏并提供较短的游戏过程而吸引广泛玩家的注意。但社交却不一定就等于休闲,公式的不断改变暗示着迟早我们将在所谓的社交网站或手机游戏中的短时间游戏事件外部看到更多不一样的内容。对于某些开发者而言,似乎“沉浸感”和“社交”(当它们碰撞在一起或运行于同一轨道上时)并不能从目标公众身上赚取多少利益或用户留存,并且比起被当成成功准则的内容,我们总是更加担心在要求更多稳定的变量和动态性的类型中发挥创造性。

因此,在社交游戏中沉浸感是否是一些需要被重视的内容?我们的回答应该是肯定的,即媒体流将开始促进更深层次的体验去吸引需求更高的玩家,由于当前的新游戏正在进入循环中,所以游戏社区将开始需求一些不同于快速触发和爆炸性反馈的内容,并创造出比“宝石迷阵”或农场类游戏更丰富的游戏体验。当然,如果没有任何支持背景去强化沉浸感,我们便很难做出这样的声明,但在过去8年里MMO游戏的成功便足以带领着玩家的新思维去创造虚拟世界以外的自我,并使用它们去打开之前从未有过的独特体验。社交环境能够帮助我们评估这些内容,让玩家能够更轻松地保持与彼此间的联系,帮助他们形成更强大的个性,并从好友社区中获得更多的反馈信息。

Deep Realms(from mmogamesite)

Deep Realms(from mmogamesite)

当玩家在这样的社交网络圈子中发现机遇,害怕可能是阻止他们更深入地沉浸于更复杂(而不只是带有一个愚蠢的角色的疲软的情节内容)内容的最后一个元素。这并不是在呼吁自由或白费力气地重复工作,休闲一直都是带有一定数量玩家的类型,并能够部署许多技巧;社交是开发超越实际内容的更复杂的公式的一个重要工具,而休闲只是其中的一部分。

我们是否能够找到一些为了呈现出更深层次的沉浸感而重新改造的社交游戏?应该没有什么比添加一个有意义的故事层面并将其整合到社交游戏所谓的根源中更不可行的:社区。亲信间的强大圈子将有利地推动更多人去游戏,但前提是存在这样的圈子。帮助用户创造他们的角色,或创建他们的个性,添加一个小情节或故事线,将用户当成是虚拟世界中有意义的对象,并让他们注意到自己对于整体游戏过程的重要性。如果玩家的体验是基于更稳定的沉浸感基础进行创造,那么留存性将获得很大的提高,就像PENS所传达的那样,这种体验将有效地吸引玩家并创造出更棒的商业结果。

关联性

关联性是基于真实感和支持性与其他人相连接的内在欲望。

—-Scott Rigby和Richard Ryan

在社交游戏中:社区就是关键

每个人都会认为关联性是刺激社交游戏玩家的主要动力,社交的主要滋生地并不需要过多玩家间的互动。

但社交游戏的分支总是不断降低这样关系的质量,并创造出玩家间无效或空洞的互动,更重要的是:环境提供了一个惊人的系统并且只能基于一个肤浅的方式进行使用。玩家对于周围圈子的归属感,关联性,以及有意义的互动的可能性都能够有效地提升游戏能量,从而提升玩家花费在游戏中的时间。

关于到目前为止我们所看到的,社交互动只是专注于1)寻求玩家的帮助,不过只是点击某些内容而没有太多物质性要求,2)让玩家在某些PVP系统中今后互动,3)吸引新玩家,4)创建公会。

在新环境中思考玩家的动机需求以及过去的AAA级游戏公式,我们将看到一些其它的要点,如下:

1.使用玩家去创造他们之间一个具有协作意义的历史:如果玩家所分布的整体网络能够推动游戏的改变将会是怎样的情况?他们可以基于每周或每个月的民意调查决定新的单位类型,也可以重塑游戏的整体连续性:让玩家能够决定游戏的历史环境将如何发展,并基于此去设置图像的改变和与历史相关的内容。因为社交游戏的第一个幻影是基于社区的表现(游戏邦注:这是创造病毒式元素去提升吸引力的有效方法),但它们似乎已经止于此。AAA级游戏,如《Defiance》尝试着留给社区巨大的自由去基于他们的投票和想法而重塑历史。

我们的回答是基于两者之间:不管奖励是否只是简单的一个道具,或者是对于整体游戏故事的重塑,这都能让玩家觉得他们的自主感得到了重视,并且他们的行动也能够更好地改变他们所处的环境。如此我们会想,这样的话新人便会感到失落,而大多数开发者会因为失去潜在的用户而拒绝它,提高用户获取成本,但这与引进新玩家到重塑玩家所处世界的新方法一样简单。为了阻止可能破坏世界的粗暴力量,事件可以进行广泛的分布,并要求玩家承诺执行特定的行动去阻止它,从而发展环境或推动情节的进一步发展。

2.让玩家角色可以进行更丰富的互动:基于MMO(甚至是MMORPG),将角色置于玩家身上是一个艰难的决定,对于设计师来说更是一个深刻的开发过程,并且在提到限制玩家的选择范围时它甚至不能有效地运行。但当它们发挥功效时,它们便能够创造出一个社区,在此所有玩家都能为推动游戏进程而有事做,并会因为自己的行动收到奖励,如1)帮助其他玩家,2)取得进步,获得声誉和体验。这一方法并不是为了创造带有股票规则那样深刻的游戏内部市场,即玩家可以在此提供他们的报价和工资(我们也知道这样的功能将破坏基于升水货币的游戏,要求重新设计经济系统并最终导致某些内容陷入混乱)。

能力中所存在的问题将提供给玩家一些他们可以做的事,前提是他们选择将其用于一个特定角色身上。如果这是关于一种类别或将其带进预先设置好的行动数量,这便不是什么特别重要的事。角色将帮助玩家发现新方法去与整个社区进行互动,或者将通过以来其他角色而延伸他们的体验。变成某些对象的感觉将添加一个重要性层面并让玩家能够起草一份我不只是玩家的声明。角色也是推动玩家为了完成自己团队的组建而寻找特定的玩家的主要因素。在好友群组中也会发生同样的情况,即当他们决定加入一款MMORPG,并为了帮助自己的好友且基于更有趣的方式快速前进时,他们将决定哪个角色更可信。

在真正的市场中,按照惯例,我们总是觉得技能游戏不能使用这样的功能,除非进行有效的重造(游戏邦注:就像我们很难想象“宝石迷阵”游戏中的玩家角色,尽管《智龙迷城》在这方面上一直向前发展着),这都是可以理解的。但整体的策略游戏设置了丰富的基础,在此玩家将准备好执行更复杂的互动,并会更加恪守留在游戏中的承诺。玩家可以帮助朋友,具有许多单位,能够选择在特定任务中与朋友相互合作,共同击败邪恶势力,在一些关键位置创建公会,推动其他玩家的发展,分享购自商店中的商品等等。

3.允许玩家基于不同目的(如公会,派系等)进行合作,重组或创造群组,这将提升他们的归属感。对于社区的归属感是玩家在考虑大型多人游戏时所追求的一个内在需求。我们不能忘记那些强调社区的手机游戏也同样是大型多人游戏,尽管这一功能是异步的,并且围绕着玩家的整体感觉并不如我们在AAA级游戏中看到的那般活跃。没有什么比设置能力去聚集朋友或玩家到一个群组中更能有效地创造子社区。在公会或群组中,玩家可以作为一个带有自己规则的强大子系统,在这里他们可以彼此帮助,提供提示和技巧,创造事件,做决定并扮演角色等等。

集会是人类历史上一直存在的一种技巧,不管是蒸蛋还是Facebook的朋友群,我们需要归属于某些群体,如果人们并未处于某些特定圈子(能够支持并影响他们的感受或兴趣)中,他们便会感到失落或忧虑。游戏提供给这些的群组较不稳定的解决方法:离开一个地方很简单,进入另一个地方也很简单,如果玩家数量是重要的(指的是活跃玩家的数量),那么这里将存在有关新玩家以及中核玩家和精英玩家的报价。

社交网络会提供许多工具去推动这些圈子的创造,尽管它们可能不是源自这些圈子的特别游戏,它们也有可能提供这样的网络去输入好友清单,并追踪他们的信息,从而去发送邀请并创建一个公会,这与人们同联合创始人共同创建一家初创企业的方法是一样的,这是关于知道与升级,谈论与反应,并面向那些需要管理而不是置于策略游戏的实际活动的内容去扩展游戏玩法。几年前,我们根本不会想到在《魔兽世界》中执行Facebook上的功能去扩展用户于虚拟世界以外会进行的互动,并提供某种API或支持让玩家能够在社交网络上交谈,寻找一起游戏的朋友,并依赖于游戏子社区所创造的论坛。但当提到手机环境所掌控的不稳定的游戏,使用Facebook作为工具去寻找有兴趣归属于一个群组中的人便是一种有效的解决方法,将帮助那些想要开启一项带有角色的虚拟企业的人,提供一套广泛的角色和深刻的承诺,并将其转变成更有趣的机遇。

最后

到目前为止一切都很棒,在社交游戏中改变社交的能力总是取决于设计师,而实现玩家动机需求是更好地适应游戏体验的一种方法。我们已经看到这三种关键元素的运行,以及某些技巧是如何用于寻求类型的解决方法,那么我们是否能够在更多游戏中看到它们的身影呢?我真心希望我们能够迎来一个巨大的机会,因为如今的社交游戏还很年轻,还有巨大的发展空间。

社交网络所提供的工具能够用于我们到目前为止所看到的一些互动设备中。尽管它们是可行的,它们同样也在我们所谓的社交资深玩家面前创造了一道障碍,玩家社区不断发展着,这也将导致人们对于内容游戏的需求不断增加。技术将基于平行大道相继出现,推动着我们基于一些小型设备和浏览器而创造更加复杂的系统,并为了给创造性提供一个广泛的机会而留下带有广泛工具组的白色帆布。

尽管在之前,休闲并不等于社交,但在不远的将来,我们将看到带有沉浸感,能力,关联性以及自主性的游戏的出现,在这里玩家的决定将不再是决定命运的齿轮或紧密的互动,他们将基于特定的层面而获得奖励,如此玩家将会觉得自己的行动能够获得奖励。我们也发现挑战是适应于不同类型的玩家,社交互动需要发出协作请求,并强调朋友在游戏世界的重要性。

我希望不管是小型工作室还是大型公司都能够有效地推动这条道路继续向前发展。

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

Rethinking social games part 2

by David Serrano

This is the second part of the Rethinking social games’ series, in this article we’ll focus on the two left intrinsic motivations of the player (Autonomy and Relatedness, both based on the PENS framework from Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan) and the way they can be boosted in social games for betterment, in order to create a richer experience and to extend the features that they actually hold. Can social games be re-thought and re-invented from their actual formulas to be both profitable for enterprises and users? Check it by yourself down below!

And if you’re actually feeling lost, take a look at the first entry here.

Autonomy

Is the experience of volition or choice in one’s decisions and actions. In activities in which we feel we have the freedom to choose and create the experiences we want for ourselves, we are more likely to be energized and intrinsically motivated to engage in those activities.

Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan

Freedom of choice, variety of actions and meaningful outcomes: ingredients for success when it comes to fulfill the player’s need of autonomy. A sense of freedom is a part of games which game designers actually have in mind when creating the patterns that will fit their games. Even though actions are designed to be in just a directional way, they usually be managed to be shaped in order to give the player a powerful sense of freedom. And even more in RPG titles, where often player’s decisions are wide but even more, they’re way to powerful to reshape the history in different ways, therefore creating new experiences out of meaningful decisions.

And in social: meaningful actions equals to better outcomes

First of all let’s give a look at what  Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan says about a decisive key factor of autonomy in games called Oportunities for action:

The options the player perceives as available to them at any given time during gameplay. They are a function of a)the interactive objects perceived by the player and b) the choices the player can make about how to meaningfully interact wit those objects in order to achieve goals or create new opportunities.

Are enough meaningful choices given to the player in social games? Due to several factors, and being some of the most powerful the technology in which such games are display, seems there is a lack of deep meaningful choices which shape the player’s experience regarding the majority of social games. PENS show that in some cases, such as strategy games, this experience of autonomy is a clear determinant of the fun and enjoyment the player gets from the game, and its even way more present in RPGs where long sized dialogs and a deeper thinking of choosing who-to-be helps to achieve goals.

Far as we’ve seen, some social games have found way difficult to add a layer of meaningfulness above choices as PENS figures in its framework. Sometimes, given the nature of the game and the aim for a wide public, and for avoiding more complexity such experience shapers based on the player’s performance are usually avoided. But it doesn’t mean that players will be unable to learn anything way deeper than instant feedback after clicking on an object and doing a simple action. Social is a powerful tool for constantly reminding players that their actions are able to reshape their own experiences and their characters constructs, as well as the other ones. How about farming and grinding for a greater meaningful outcome? Such as creating a communitarian building or army for stopping an enormous enemy that may decide how the game evolves in a future.

How about adding player’s the ability of choosing which ones to interact with and therefore making them participle on the history of his belongings? How about adding an intangible goal at the very end of the game (even though it is unreachable) rather than adding no one? Such different things may help players to think about the power of their decisions, rather than void actions related just to grinding. If the player manages a village of monsters, a farm, a zoo or a fish tank, let him know that every important action he does is meaningful and represents the means to an end, whether if it is becoming the world leader of fish tanks or just defeat the evil forces of corruption and pollution by building farms elsewhere.

Autonomy needs satisfaction is particularly important for titles that achieve perennial value (from when players return to again and again for many months and even years)

Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan

We could asses that social game’s aim really isn’t much of a long sized retention, provided that developers give them, from its start, a determined life period from when it will have full support until its depletion and therefore focusing on another new titles, in some sort of a quick rush (even though this rush can last more than a couple of years). Though players will hardly come back over and over again to the same title, creating enjoyable moments based on the player’s choices is not that bad to be put into the overall feeling that pure social facebook games have.

Mafia Wars as continuously adding new cities for players who reached up max levels. How could it help player’s sense of autonomy if such new fixed places could be driven by player’s choices or at least dressed to look like it?

Though autonomy may not seem the heaviest weight of the motivational balance the player actually holds when playing social games, is still important to be progressively adding layers of significance to extend the feeling of the game. Actually, though players may establish significant bonds with such browser games, its style and mechanics doesn’t leave much space to feel some sort of immersion and even more an autonomy able to change the “destiny of the world”. We may not be aiming to extremely sentimental-boundary kind of games, but asking for a greater commitment and to suggest the player that every significant action taken is the way, and thus may lead to a further effect that will keep him a)intrigued, therefore more willing to keep on discovering the rest of it;  b)motivated to cooperate and collaborate for a greater purpose based on the community actions or c) having an extended play in which his strong commitment (driven by this practices) may particularly lead to a greater spend.

Between them all: Immersion

Immersion or “presence” is an aspect of games which means how much the player feels to be “truly in the game”, involving him emotionally and drawing him in to the world it creates.

Social Games (in its casual branch) will hardly try to move towards such abstract and deeply structured scenery of a world where the player may feel immersed, and where the main engagement line will flow directly from making him being able to be emotionally and physically on it.  The strategy genre(often present in social games for its unique set of features that allow the asynchronous and re-takeable play over time and the slow-paced progression) is not a one to blame and developers aren’t guilty for avoiding charging games with deep storylines, consistent scripts, and emotional npcs and so on… when we talk about casual.

Social is a powerful tool for developing far more intricate formulas beyond the actual ones and casual is just a portion of the cake.

Casual stands for what it is: just a pass, short streak and fast paced kind of games, made for quick fun providing, small play sessions and a widespread range of players. But social doesn’t have to be casual, and the constant evolution of the formulas are suggesting that sooner or later, we’ll see something pretty much outside from what we call a simple short time play event inside social networks and/or mobile games. For some developers, seems that “immersion” and “social are two forces that, when they collide or run on the same track,  aren’t able to produce anything profitable in terms of revenue or retention for the public it is aimed to, keeping the fear to innovate inside a genre that is asking for more solid variations and dynamism than the one that actually is treated as a formula of success.

We shall not forget that social isn’t always meant to be casual, both concepts are usually merged together due to the treatment it has had recently. But MMOs actually created before networks where players could interact as well.

Therefore, will immersion be something to take care of inside social games? We could assess that yes, that the media streams will start to promote deeper experiences and more demanding players, out of the current new ones which are entering in the circle (and we always thought they would never do it), and that possibly ,such community will start demanding for something far from a fast trigger and explosive-run feedback, and develop an interest in experiences way richer than bejeweled or farm-like games. Of course, it’s hard to make such statements without any supporting background to reinforce that immersion will be successful in social games, but nothing far from reality the MMO success on the last 8 years has been enough powerful to bring players a new dimension to create another egos alongside virtual worlds, and using them for unlocking unique experiences never though before. Social environment helps incredibly to asses such things, making players able to keep in touch easier with each other and to help them build their personalities stronger and more consistently with an way higher feedback from the community of friends the player actually has.

When a player finds opportunities in such circles of social networks, fear shall be the last thing to keep in mind when it comes to engage deeper in the creation of titles with something far more elaborated than just a weak plot with a dull character. It is not a call for freedom and to reinvent the wheel, casual is and will always be, a genre with an easy number of players, and with loads of techniques to be deployed; but social is a powerful tool for developing far more intricate formulas beyond the actual ones and casual is just a portion of the cake.

Could we ever find some examples of reinventing social games for a deeper immersion? Nothing less viable than adding a meaningful layer of storyline and engaging it deeper into the roots of what social is: a community. A powerful circle of relatives whose boundaries hold enough significance to contribute to an end that can be to play, but way more decisive:  to be. Helping users create their characters, or build their personalities, add an small plot or storyline, treating users as meaningful subjects inside a virtual world and leaving him attended as they were important to the overall course of the game, these kinds of things, actually misunderstood or rejected because of the prime childhood stage in what social actually is found, will perhaps be a common ingredient for some upcoming formulas. If the player’s experience is created on a more solid base of immersion (though as we’ve seen not everything at all is needed of such deep procedures) retention will significantly increase, as PENS states that such experiences contribute both player’s ones and commercial outcomes as well.

Relatedness

Relatedness is the intrinsic desire to connect with others in a way that feels authentic and supportive.

Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan

In social games: community is the key

Provided is definition, everyone should be thinking that relatedness is the key motivator for social players, just because the main breeding ground of social wouldn’t ask for anything as much as it does from players interaction between each other.

But a branch of social games are constantly diminishing the quality of such relationships, and creating null or void interactions between players that feels kind of useless when the opportunity is offered, and what seems more important: the environment offers an incredible system way richer to be left aside and only used in a superficial way. Player’s need to feel inside a surrounding circle of belonging, the need of relatedness, and the availability of meaningful interactions are way helpful to maximize the energy games could provide to them ,and therefore increasing the time player’s may spend in a game.

For what we’ve seen so far, social interactions (on top of the notch games) are just focused on a) asking players for aid without anything more substantial that just clicking a thing (instrumentalization of relationships), b) interacting with each other in some sort of PVP system and c) capture new players and, rarely but seen, d) creating guilds.

In the new environment, and thinking about the player motivational needs and past formulas of AAA games we could see some other points such as:

1. Using players for creating a collaborative meaningful history between them: how would it be if the overall network in which players are distributed is contributing to some changes in the game? They can range from deciding a new type of unit based on polls placed weekly or monthly up to a more intricate reshape of the overall continuity of the game: making the players able to decide how the history surrounding the game is going to advance and therefore placing art changes and history-related things (such as quests) based on that. Since the first apparition of social games the closest thing we’ve seem if the current prize giving based on the community performance (which is a powerful way to make the viral factor to increase if the rewards are enough attractive), but they seem to have stopped there. AAA games, such as Defiance, tried to have an approach to leaving the community a huge freedom to reshape the history based on their votes and thoughts.

Our answer lies within the middle of both: whether the reward is just not simply an item, isn’t as well a reshape of the overall lore of the game, is a minor tweak but a significant change to make player’s feel that their sense of outonomy is being treated as it should be, and that their actions helps to change the environment in which he is, always, for betterment. It is possible to think that therefore newcomers could feel lost by such practices, and that most developers woul probably reject it by the sense of losing potential users, increasing their user adquisition costs, but it is as simple as introducing the new player to this new way for reshaping the world in which he plays. Events could be more heavily distributed if they ask for quick rushes in order to, as an example, stop an outrageous force that is invading the world, and asks for the player’s commitment to perform certain actions to stop it and therefore evolving the envirnoment or the plot a step further.

2.Having roles on players to make richer the interactions available: based on MMOs (and even more MMORPGs), the ability to place roles on players is a tough decision and even more a deeper development for designers, and not always works the way it should when it comes to constraining the players range of choices. But when they work, they are able to create a community in which every player has something to do, in order to contribute to the game progression, receiving in exchange the reward of a) helping others and b) advancing, gaining reputation and experience. The way is not to create a deep ingame market with stock rules and so on where players place their offer and wages (we could also know that such feature will possibly hurt significantly games based on premium currencies, requiring for an economy system redesign that will end up in something chaotic).

The answer lies within the ability to offer players a range of things they can do if they chose to apply to a specific role. It doesn’t matter if it’s related to a class (being a merchant, or being proficient at building) or to an amount of actions done that places them into a preset one. Roles will aid players to discover new ways to interact with the whole community and even more, expand their experience by having a feeling of dependency to other roles if the design is made properly. The sense of becoming something more adds a layer of significance and makes the player able to formulate the statement of I am something else than just a player”. Roles can also be a key factor to make players seek for specific users to get into the game in order to complete their team or they ring of relatives in which they can rely into. Just the same that happened on the friend groups when they decided to take part in an MMORPG, deciding which role could be more convenient in order to aid his friends and progressing faster and in a more enjoyable way, with less anxiety given by the empty position left by a left unchosen class.

In the actual market, by convention, skill games  feel les able to apply such features unless a masterful reinvention of the wheel is done (it could be hard imagining playing roles on a bejeweled game, though Puzzle and Dragons is an step forward), and that’s perfectly understandable. But the overall strategy-related ones have placed a fertile ground where players are ready to perform interactions more elaborated and that tend to a greater commitment to the game. Players can aid friends, have loans of units (both getting done), choose to collaborate in specific quests or objectives, fight against a menace together, create guilds with key positions, have a key role in the progression of other players, sharing purchased goods from the store(unthinkable by lots of developers but possible if well designed).

3. Allow players to collaborate or to gather, reunite and create groups with different purposes such as guilds, factions, etc. which increases the sense of belonging. The sense of belonging to a community is one of the intrinsic needs that players actually seek when they think about a massive multiplayer game. We cannot forget that mobile games with an emphasize on community are also massive multiplayer, even though this feature is asynchronous and the overall feel of being surrounded by players is not as alive as we could see in AAA titles. Nothing helps better to creating subcommunities than placing the ability to gather friends or players inside a group and therefore pushing it towards a rank for betterment. Inside a guild or group players can work as an incredible subsystem with its own rules, where they can aid each other, offer tips and tricks, create events, take decisions, have roles (it’s possible!), and so on.

Gathering has always been an inherited historical technique that humans have, from political parties up to facebook friend groups, the need to belong often surpasses some other ones, and people can feel from upset to anxious if they aren’t inside a specific circle that supports and contributes to their feelings or interests. And games provide a more volatile solution for such groups: exiting from one is as easy as may get, entering in another is as well, and if the amount of players is somewhat significant (talking about number of active players) there will always be offers for newcomers as well as for midcore and for elite players.

Social networks do provide an incredible set of tools that help to drive the creation of such circles, even though they’re not specific games from them, they can offer connections to such networks in order to import friend lists and to keep them in track, in order to send invitations and to start a guild, just the same way somebody launches an start-up with a co-founder, it’s all about knowing and upgrading, talking and reacting, and extending gameplay for those who need something else to manange rather than the actual activities placed on strategy games. A few years ago we couldn’t though of World of Warcraft thinking about implementing features in facebook in order to extend the interactivity that users do outside the virtual world, and offer some sort of APIs or support to make players able to talk in social networks and find people to play, they relied on forums created by subcommunities in a game that took years to be developed. But when it comes to volatile titles that the mobile environment holds, using facebook as a tool to find people with an interest on belonging to a group is a fantastic solution for those who seek to start a virtual enterprise with roles, which provide a wider set of decisions and a deeper commitment, translated into more fun opportunities.

In the end…

So far so good, the ability to change social in social games is always up to the designer, and fulfilling the players motivational needs is a way to go when it comes to adapt the experience the best available way. We’ve seen how the three key factors work around and how some techniques can be applied in order to see an evolution of the genre, could we seen them applied in further titles? I wholeheartedly believe that there is a huge chance, and that social games are actually at a young, not to say child, stage.

The tools that social networks provide are enough powerful just to be diminshed into the few instrumentalizations of the interactions we’ve seen so far. Though they’ve worked, they also have created a resistance barrier on what we call social-veterans, the community of players that is growing significantly and that will end up demanding richer in content titles. Technology will come in a parallel road, pushing forward the chances to create more intrincanted and complex systems in small devices and browsers, leaving a white canvas with almost an uber-set of tools in order give creativity a broader chance.

Though before that casual is not social, we should be seeing, in a not so distant future, titles with immersion, competence, relatedness and autonomy, in which player’s decisions aren’t meant to be the wheel of destiny or voidless interactions, they can just be rewarded equally with a significance layer, making the player feel in a network in which his acts have a reward that matches the spirit of it. We could see challenges adapted to every different kind of player, and social interactions that asks for collaborative requests and to give the concept friends the place it deserves in the world of games.

I wish all the best to the ones who will push towards this path, which I clearly undestand that sooner or later will be the majority of developers, from small studios up to the cosmo-giants.(source:game4breakfast)


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