作者：Jeff Grubb（编译时，因为原文相对基础，有做了较大的改动）

毫无疑问，Midcore是近期游戏领域最为火爆的概念之一，作为介于Casual和Hardcore游戏之间让开发者沟通不同类型游戏玩家游刃有余的游戏形态，确实是更多开发者着力钻研的类型 。

按照Jeff Grubb的说法，Midcore值得关注的要素包括11个层面，典型的诸如：

Midcore

确实有相当比例的玩家非常喜欢稍微严肃一点的游戏（比如相对于那些非常休闲的游戏），但却没有足够的体验时间，而开发者很容易就在其中发现了商机并娴熟地在休闲和硬核 两种类型的游戏中植入过渡环节，既满足玩家的游戏体验需求，又能完美匹配玩家在时间方面的顾虑。

User acquisition

和大部分的游戏类型相似，Midcore游戏也寻在如何获取用户的困扰。

当然开发者很快就祭出大法宝：免费体验+小容量加载+大量的系统自动完成。

midcore game(from venturebeat.com)

DAU

每日活跃用户对于任何一款游戏都至关重要，不管下载量再庞大，只要存在大面积的用户不活跃就会遭遇麻烦。

这个活跃的用户可以不需要花钱消费，但他的存在给游戏的其他商业化操作腾出了非常重要的操作空间。

MAU

每月活跃用户的统计重要性要弱于DAU，因为那些每月才可能稍微活跃那么一两次的数据对于在线要求高的游戏仅存在统计上的意义，他可以让整个数据看起来更加庞大。

ARPDAU和ARPPU

F2P游戏因为基础量相对庞大，ARPDAU和ARPPU看起来就不会显得那么可观，但作为一种分配到头的效益统筹方式，ARPDAU和ARPPU呈现了开发者对每一个存在的活跃用户的一种变现 能力。

Whales

对于F2P游戏，因为付费率和ARPDAU整体不高的情况，以及市面上所调研的二八法则效力，鲸鱼玩家几乎是每款游戏都必然全力争夺的对象。

很多人把消费500美元以上当成了是否能够成为鲸鱼玩家的门槛。

Dolphins和Minnows

与鲸鱼玩家相对应的就是付费率更高但付费额度较小的海豚和小鱼玩家。虽然这些类型的玩家所贡献的平均值和绝对值都不高，但撑起了整款游戏的付费率。

月消费10美元就能晋升为海豚玩家，而消费1美元就可以当成小鱼玩家了。

Freeloaders

免费玩家不一定就是纯粹蹭便宜的看客，免费玩家是最重要的比较支撑量，让付费玩家觉得游戏有玩家基础，还能有让自己更显得高大上的比照。

Conversion rate

最后就是转化率了，在免费玩家和付费玩家之间，小比例更能显示出金字塔顶端人群在游戏中的尊贵性。（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

You don’t grow into a $25 billion industry without making up a few words along the way, and mobile gaming is no different.

This industry is overflowing with jargon and nonsense acronyms. Well, the days of you looking confused when the chief executive of a mobile-gaming startup corners you and starts yelling about “our poo” is over. We’re here with a useful lexicon to help you make sense of this crazy industry.

Let’s get to it.

Midcore
Midcore is a group of people who like games a lot but maybe don’t have enough time for them as they used to. It is a term that a lot of mobile developers use to indicate that they are making a “serious” game. It’s also the result of the rise of casual games for “casual gamers” as opposed to traditional console games for “hardcore gamers.” Developers have noticed that a lot of people, especially adults, come from hardcore-gaming backgrounds and they are looking for free-to-play experiences on mobile in their very limited free time. That’s the midcore audience.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“Our free-to-play mobile strategy game features a mature story and deep mechanics that midcore gamers are going to love.”

User acquisition
User acquisition is the process or methods by which games, typically of the free-to-play persuasion, entice consumers to download and try their game. You’ll read and hear this term a lot because it is probably the thing that mobile developers are thinking about the most. Examples of user acquisition include ads for games in other free-to-play games or those commercials you see on TV with Kate Upton. Oh, and we don’t write “user acquisition” on this website. We say “player” or “gamer acquisition.” That goes for the other examples of “user” you’re about to read as well.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“Our company just raised $1 million from venture capitalist firms to help us expand our user acquisition.”

DAU
DAU is an acronym that stands for daily active users. It is a number that denotes how active a game’s player community is on a day-to-day basis. For example, last year, publisher King’s Candy Crush Saga had 93 million daily active players.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“We’re keeping our DAU high by regularly adding new content.”

MAU
MAU is very similar to DAU, only it is for monthly active users. This is the number that most developers and investors talk about when referring to the health of a game.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“We’re investing in this developer because its games have 30 million MAUs, and we want to help take that to the next level.”

ARPDAU
More acronyms! This time we’re talking about ARPDAU, which stands for average revenue per daily active user. This is another number that represents the health of the game, but instead of talking about the audience size, it signifies how much that audience is spending.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“Our ARPDAU reached 10 cents after we implemented virtual hats into our game.”

ARPPU
ARPPU is a very common acronym in mobile-gaming circles. It stands for average revenue per paying user, and people actually say it out loud as “are pu.” While MAU is the key metric developers use to measure the size of their audience, ARPPU is how developers measure how well they are squeezing money from those gamers. It is just a technical way of saying how much money a paying customer spends on this game during a certain period of time.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“This game’s ARPPU is higher than many other games because the developer is using cutting-edge monetization tactics.”

Whales
Whale is a term that mobile developers (as well as social-game developers and casinos) use to refer to the small group of people who spend the most on a game by a wide margin. Most people don’t spend anything on a game, but a very tiny percentage will spend potentially hundreds of dollars. These gamers drive up that ARPPU, and they are important to the free-to-play ecosystem — although, their importance has shrunk as developers have learned to get more money from
other players as well.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“The top whales in this game have spent more than $500 on improvements for their character.”

Dolphins
Staying with the aquatic animal theme, Dolphins are the middle-of-the-road spenders. These are players who maybe spend $10 a month on a game when they get their paycheck. They are also of growing importance as mobile games get better and more people are willing to spend money.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“We’ve added several new items in our store to better serve our dolphins.”

Minnows
I bet game developers love using the “plenty of fish in the sea” metaphor. Minnows are the lowest rung of gamers that still spend money. They only put around $1 into a game, and that is it.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“We don’t want to ignore our minnows, so we are holding a sale for items that many of the top-spending players already have.”

Freeloaders
I guess we’ve run out of fish. Freeloaders are the vast majority of gamers who don’t spend anything on free-to-play games. Developers often focus a lot of effort on trying to turn these players into paying customers.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“We’ve added new video advertisements to make more money from our freeloaders.”

Conversion rate
Conversion rate is a number that usually measures two things in mobile gaming. First, it tracks what percentage of people who see a player acquisition ad go on to download and play the game. Second, it measures the ratio of freeloaders that end up spending money.

Let’s use it in a sentence

“Our conversion rate on our Facebook ads nearly doubled after we started running our television campaign featuring that swimsuit model.”（source： venturebeat.com ）