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如何向亚洲发行商推介你的游戏

发布时间:2014-07-11 16:42:17 Tags:,,,,

作者:Michel Mony

本文旨在帮助确信自己拥有一款过硬产品的开发者找到接近亚洲发行商的机会。请注意以下观察均来自我个人经验,并不包含所有你可能遇到的情况,但还是希望对你有所帮助。

针对亚洲市场开发游戏

“它采用免费模式吗?”

如果你正在接触亚洲发行商,这就是你最可能听到的第一个问题。

出于多种原因,亚洲市场目前是由F2P游戏主宰的天下。这可以避免盗版,降低玩家准入门槛等。如果你的游戏并非F2P产品,你就要想法将它转变成这种游戏,否则就不利于与任何发行商达成协议,并且他们还会告诉你这个项目很有风险。

但事实也没有这么简单。有不少游戏理念并不能简单而有效地转化成F2P游戏。从零售转向F2P模式可能对设计、平衡甚至是“趣味因素”产生可怕的影响。

因此,检验你的游戏理念是否适用于F2P模式就是向亚洲市场进军的关键一步,如果无法采用这一模式,你就很可能前功尽弃了。

F2P=付费获胜?

你可能已经听说过亚洲人总体上已经习惯了F2P游戏中的付费获胜策略,对吗?我的意思是,该市场常有青少年因废寝忘食忙于刷任务而猝死的消息时有耳闻。虽然亚洲人的确总体上并不会很排斥付费获胜策略,但这却有可能导致人们创造出一款毫无意义的付费获胜游戏。

为了更好地理解他们为何对付费获胜如此宽容,我们必须进一步研究他们的文化。我的初衷并非教你去理解他们的思考方式,而是要设定一些指导原则,以便你的产品瞄准正确的目标。希望这也有助于你的游戏获得更高曝光度。

生活艰难

总体而言,亚洲文化充满竞争性,在他们很年轻的时候,就经常被告知生活很艰难。他们已经习惯于接受如果自己想要什么就必须拼命去争取这种理念。

除此之外,他们的文化也极重视社会地位,他们会以自己在“现实生活”中的地位为豪。他们会全力以赴攀向自己所从事行业的高峰。

在F2P游戏中,这可以转变为两种情况:

刷任务

“付费获胜”的合理定义可以是:付费玩家能够获取高级内容,而非付费用户却需要投入合理的游戏时间才能得到相同的东西。

在西方,这里的关键词(合理的)与玩家的神经质颇有关联,这是一个用于应用心理学(在游戏情境下)来确定一个人“愤而离去”的可能性。

在亚洲,虽然人们也会感受到相同程度的紧张感,但其表现方式却是不同的,并且也不太可能导致玩家“愤而离去”。因此,在西方观察者看来似乎“不合理”的行为,亚洲人却能够坦然接受。以上的“付费获胜”定义算是见仁见智的看法,付费获胜在亚洲并没有什么贬义的意味。

一般亚洲玩家都很“勤劳”。亚洲最为成功的游戏是那些复制品:严格的社交结构,多种登顶的方法,但它们都需要玩家付出努力或金钱。这些游戏通常允许玩家刷任务,以远慢于美国和欧洲玩家的速度来获得“一切”。但因为亚洲人处理焦虑的方法有所不同,所以这通常只会强化他们继续努力工作的决心而不是令他们彻底离开游戏。

“付费获胜”

虽然玩家重复采取的行动可能毫无意义,但只要游戏所效仿的社交结构够妥当,其结果就总会具有关联性。对他们来说,游戏经济与社会地位直接挂钩的这种感觉很重要。

换句话说,玩家会通过游戏而变得“更强大”,但却不会为了“更强大”而玩游戏。他们能够为自己的角色购买升级道具,但不一定会购买等级(进程)。他们仍然需要玩游戏才能升级,而金钱则会让他们的这个过程更轻松一点。

如果游戏没有一种强烈象征社会地位的东西,那么玩家就会离开游戏,即使其他一切都没有什么不妥。

league_of_legends(from geek.com)

league_of_legends(from geek.com)

向亚洲发行商推介游戏

亚洲发行商很强大。他们是大型公司,通常发迹于与游戏毫不相关的部门。例如,腾讯最早就是以QQ这种即时通信工具起家的。

虽然几乎所有发行商都发端于软件领域,但它们多数都没有钻研过游戏,直到MMO在亚洲开始大放异彩。它们并不像西方的育碧、EA、动视等公司那样拥有悠久的游戏开发史。

重要的是记住,虽然这些公司有一个专门处理游戏业务的部门(有时候甚至是它们最大的部门),其思维方式会受到更大的企业需求的影响,并且其针对任何一款游戏的开发计划也要遵循它们投入的其他任何领域的相似计划。

了解这些情况后,你就可以更好地制定计划,知道你的产品如何服务于它们的全球战略。

它们的计划是什么?

你得知道他们的“宏观”计划是什么。例如,我接触大量此类发行商时,它们所有的精力都用于支持自己的新移动平台。我所呈现的游戏并非移动版本,所以你就可以想象它们看到这款游戏时究竟有多“不感兴趣”了。

我的成功来自于指向了一个潜在的手机移植版本。这引起了他们的注意并开始展开讨论。这个举措令我得以在早期的“筛选”讨论阶段幸存下来并继续推进项目。虽然实际的移植版本之后并没有派上用场,但它却让我获得了他们的关注。

汲取教训:要知道他们的计划,全球战略,并找到“切入点”。这有助于推进你们的项目讨论。

你该如何切入?

亚洲发行商每个月都会收到大量提案。“切入点”并不容易找到,但你必须考虑到一些因素:

我有一个想法并且……:不,这款游戏必须是完整的,或者至少已经具备了公开Beta测试的形态。

我有一些用户并且……:不,这款游戏必须在他们关心之前就获得了可观的参数(F2P游戏必须有100万用户,零售游戏必须有50万以上的销量)。

原罪是这些发行商无法因“一时冲动”而制定决策。他们中的许多人没有批准一个游戏理念和确定其生存能力的资格。事实上,许多申请人会提供已经拥有庞大安装量的完整游戏以便减轻他们的风险。

你得在游戏已经在西方世界获得成功时再去接触他们。不要将西方与东方的交叉发布视为单向的步骤。要知道本文开头就提到了“在亚洲发布成功的游戏”这样的字眼:如果你现在还没有什么成功的游戏可以推广,那么本文的指导对你也没有什么意义了。

本土化内容

向亚洲市场发布一款游戏通常需要进行一系列本土化调整:该产品必须符合亚洲人群的需求。这正是为何这些地区通常要选择不同的商品编号(而不只是简单地进行翻译)。

以下是你很可能被问到的一系列关于游戏功能的问题:

*积分排行榜(必需)–游戏必须以一种或多种方式模拟社会地位。

*重新平衡经济–游戏中的经济系统必须针对亚洲人群而定制。有些付费获胜策略是可被接受的,但不要失去重心。

*“永久丧失”–亚洲人通常能够接受那些道具会永远“消失”的游戏。这可以同博彩混合使用。

*博彩–博彩机制通常很管用,尤其是与一些升级或锻造系统结合使用的时候。“失去”道具的风险也是可以接受的,甚至是受到欢迎的。这会令玩家所拥有的一切更具价值感。

*PVP或PVE–游戏应该含有一些PVP或PVE形式。没有人想玩独角戏。任何单人模式功能都可能在这个版本中被砍掉,所有的重心都将转向多人模式。PVP通常要占据上风,虽然有些PVE理念也很棒。

*轮换服务器策略–许多游戏题材将需要进行困难的“重置”。在像《Evony》这种城建竞争型游戏中,很可能出现新手太弱无力与骨灰级玩家较量的局面。其目标是提供一个软重置并开启一个新“时代”,这样人人都可以公平地开始竞争。竞争型玩家会为了跻身前列而奋战。那些已经登顶的玩家会继续在其中逗留,而其他排名下降者则会在新服务器中开始新的局面。这些游戏只有在轮换服务器节奏充分的情况下才能够幸存下来。游戏应该采用这种类型的“软重置”。

总结

即便是成功的游戏也必须入得了亚洲发行商的法眼。这些公司总会收到大量申请,它们有很多选择。希望以上建议能够让你更为了解这些公司,并且试试自己的运气,但并不能保证你就能获得成功。(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

Pitching Your Game to Asian Publishers UNDER REVIEW

By Michel Mony

This article aims at helping you find your way to Asian publishers once you’re confident that you have a solid established product. Please note that these observations were based on my experience and may not cover the full spectrum of what you’re likely to encounter, but I hope this is helpful to you.

Developing a Game for the Asian Market

“Is it Free-to-Play?”

This is the first thing you’re most likely to hear if you reach out to publishers in Asia.

For a number of reasons, the Asian market is currently dominated by F2P games. This prevents hacking, reduces friction to entry, etc. If your game isn’t a F2P, you need to look into ways to turn it into one, otherwise you’ll fall short from landing a deal with any publisher and will be told that your project is risky.

That may however not be as straightforward as it seems. A number of game concepts simply can’t be translated into a F2P efficiently. Changing from Retail to F2P can have dire consequences on design, balancing, and even “fun factor”.

Verifying that your game concept could work as a F2P is thus the first critical step to making it work in the Asian market, and there’s a probability that your effort might end right there if you believe it can’t be done. The good news is you won’t have to sink thousands of dollars to figure it out. Phew!

F2P = Pay2Win?

So you’ve probably heard that Asians, in general, are ok with Pay2Win when playing F2P games, right? I mean, who hasn’t heard the story where two Korean kids died while grinding because they forgot to eat? While it’s true that Asians, in general, are ok with Pay2Win, it would be possible to build a Pay2Win game that would totally miss the point.

To better understand what makes them tick, we need to take a closer look at their culture. My intent is not to teach you how they think (I don’t know nearly enough), but rather, set a few guidelines so that your product hits the right target. Hopefully, it will also help you see your own game under a better light.

Life is Hard

In general, Asian cultures are very competitive and, from a young age, these people are taught that life is hard. They are already familiar with the concept that if they want something they will need to fight for it.

Furthermore, social status is something highly regarded in their societies, and they take great pride in the positions they occupy in “real life”. It is highly desirable for them to reach the top of whatever they undertake (work, etc.)

In F2P, this translates into two things:

Grinding

A decent definition of “Pay2Win” would be: an environment in which the paying user has access to premium content otherwise unavailable for non-paying users within a reasonable amount of play time.

In the west, the key word (reasonable) is loosely related to a player’s neuroticism, a concept used in applied psychology (in the context of games) to determine how likely an individual is to “rage quit”.

In Asia however, though the same level of anxiety may be felt by the person, it manifests differently and is less likely to cause “rage quit”. Thus, what may appear as “unreasonable” to the western observer may be quite acceptable to the Asian crowd. Since the above definition hinges on the “eye of the beholder”, the pejorative connotation of Pay2Win is hereby lost.

The average asian player is a “hard worker”. The games that achieve the most success in Asia are those that replicate work: strict social structure, several ways to the top, but each of them either involve hard work or money. These games generally allow the player to grind for “everything” at a much slower pace than their American and European counterpart. But because the Asians deal with their anxieties differently, it usually reinforces their resolve to continue their hard work rather than turning them away from the game altogether.

“Pay2Win” (But…)

Though the actions players can undertake repeatedly (read: grind) may be meaningless, the end-result is always relevant so-long as the game emulates that social structure well enough. It is important for them to have the feeling that the game economy is directly tied to social status for this to work.

In other words, players will play to become “stronger”, but won’t seek to become “stronger” to play. They should be able to buy upgrades for their character, but not necessarily levels (progression). They will still need to play in order to level up, and money will only help them ease the process a bit.

Failing to have a compelling representation of a social status order that matters will result in players leaving the game, even if everything is done right.

Pitching your Game to Asian Publishers

Publishers in Asia are strong. They are LARGE corporations, often originating from sectors that have nothing to do with games. Tencent, for example, started as OICQ (QQ), an instant-messenger.

Though nearly all publishers started in software, most of them did not delve into games until MMOs started to get big in Asia. They do not have the same history as Western publishers such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision, etc.

It is important to bear in mind that, though these businesses have a division that focuses exclusively on games (sometimes even being their largest division), their mindset is heavily influenced by the greater corporation’s needs and that their development plan for any given title follows a roughly similar cadence plan as would any other field in which they have invested.

With that knowledge in mind, you can better plan your approach by finding how your title can contribute to their global strategy.

What’s their Plan?

Coming in, you should know what their “macro” plans are. For example, at the time I came into contact with a number of these publishers, all of their efforts were deployed to support their new mobile platforms. The game I was representing was’t mobile, so you can imagine how “uninteresting” that was for them at that precise point in time.

My success came from hinting at a potential mobile port. That caught their attention and got the discussion going. This, alone, allowed me to survive the early “screening” phase of the discussion and move forward. Though that actual port did not come into play later, it allowed me to get their attention.

Lesson Learned: Know what they’re up to, their global strategy, and find ways to “fit in”. This will allow you to keep the discussions alive (even if you’re being sent to somebody else internally).

How do you fit in?

Asian publishers receive an insane amount of pitches every month. “Fitting in” is not easy, but there are a few absolutes that you should consider:

I have an idea and… : No. The game needs to be complete or at least in some form of open Beta.

I have a few users and… No. The game needs to have favorable metrics before they care (1 Million users in a F2P, or 500,000+ sales in retail).

The reasoning here is that these publishers can’t afford to make decisions based on a “hunch”. Many of them are not qualified to vet a game concept and determine its viability. And the truth is, many of the applicants already offer completed games with a strong install base which mitigates their risks.

You should come in, all guns blazing, once your game already works in the West. Don’t plan on cross-launching in the West and East as a single move. The teaser paragraph of this article mentions “publishing their successful games in Asia”: If you’ve read this far but don’t have a successful game to promote, then consider this article as information that’s impractical for now.

Localizing Content

Publishing a game to the Asian market usually comes with a series of localized modifications: the product needs to be adapted to the Asian crowd before it makes any sense. This is why these regions generally get different SKUs (not just translation itself).

Here’s a series of highly prized features you’re likely to be asked:

Leaderboards (essential) – The game needs to emulate social status in one or many ways. I’ve gone through this earlier in this article.

Economy re-balancing – The economy should be tailored to the Asian crowd. Some Pay2Win is acceptable, but don’t lose focus (I’ve also covered this earlier).

“Perma-loss” – Asians are generally receptive to a game where items can be “lost” altogether. This can be mixed with gambling (see below).

Gambling – Gambling generally works well, especially when coupled with some form of upgrade or crafting system. The risk of “losing” the item altogether is also acceptable (unlike in the West) and is even perhaps desirable. This grants more value to everything a player has.

PVP or PVE – The game should have some form of PVP or PVE. No one plays “alone”. Any single player feature can be axed for this version, and all focus should be shifted towards multiplayer. PVP generally takes precedence although some PVE concepts work great.

Rolling Servers strategy – Many game genres will need hard “resets”. In a city-builder competitive game like Evony, there will come a point where newcomers are too weak to compete with veterans. The goal is to provide a soft reset and start a new “age” in which everybody starts equal. Competitive players will fight for the top. Those that attain it will stay, others will drop and start games in new servers, etc. These games can only survive if the rolling server cadence is adequate. The game should thus favor this type of “soft reset” (it should not feel alien to the game design).

Conclusion

Even successful games can have a hard time going through to Asian Publishers. These organizations are receiving tons of applications and have to choose. The above guide will help you dent the crust of these corporations and try your luck at getting a share of the pie, but it far from guarantees success.

Should you find yourself unable to break through, or if you happen to have an unfinished game and/or poor metrics, there’s always the self-publishing path. More and more, this is becoming a viable option (through Steam for example, which now has roots in Asia). It is also possible that you’d wish to go down that road so as not to split profit with a publisher.(source:gamedev


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