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平台在我们发展道路上的重要性

发布时间:2015-06-16 14:54:28 Tags:,,,,

作者:James Moak

这是我在一年前(2014年6月31日)写的一篇旧博文,但却从未公开发布。而它刚好与最近问世的Valve的付费模组相关。

很快用户生成内容将爆发。如果你在Twitter上关注了一些开发者或者你阅读过有关这一主题的博文,你便会看到Valve告诉人们如何将自己的游戏变成一个平台以及这么做能够获得怎样的好处。除了那些并不重视游戏的开发者,几乎所有的开发者都会想办法将自己的游戏变成一个平台。

仔细想想—-探索这一策略的好处是无穷无尽的。这是人们通过玩游戏与朋友互动的另一种形式;这是人们尝试着亲自为别人创造价值的一种方式—-能够为他们所喜欢的世界作出贡献。对于开发者来说,这意味着能够减少自己的工作量,因为玩家将为他们创造内容。就像你可以基于《物理沙盘》创造出一款一开始毫无意义的游戏,让用户能够在游戏玩法中做出自己的贡献。对于用户生成内容系统来说,这里的唯一缺陷在于,即使是高质量的内容也不能获得更多奖励,如此人们便缺少足够的动机去树立名声。

Garry's Mod(from openshop)

Garry’s Mod(from openshop)

事后看来这是非常明显的,Valve通过使用金钱或游戏内部道具去奖励这些价值贡献者而做出了改变。这能够推动人们去创造高质量的内容并更加忠实于该平台。反之这些高质量内容也能够带来更多用户,强化现有用户的体验,并进一步发展之后的内容。很快地内容标准将再次被提升,所有人将创造更多价值,这样的循环会一直持续着,直至游戏变成用户选择的一种数字体现。

创造一个正反馈循环去推动这样的内容的发展其实只是冰山的一角。比起将游戏资产或机制作为平台的唯一内容,如果将用户当成内容本身会怎样?在许多游戏中,虽然不如体验的质量重要,但是你的游戏对象也非常重要。你可以尝试着判断并奖励那些非资产的价值贡献者,创造更多循环去提高平台的质量。例如,一个更强大的模组能够生成游戏资产/机制价值,一个外观更突出的玩家能够生成社交价值。优秀的队友能够生成整体的游戏体验价值,而能够教授玩家如何游戏的玩家则能够添加教授价值。

开发者可以监管玩家并识别哪些玩家添加了哪些价值,并相对地给予奖励。进一步来看,平台能够识别趋势推动者(游戏邦注:即那些在你的好友列表中并最先找到新内容且将其与你分享的人)并奖励他们,从而创造另一个正值循环—-我敢保证Valve便是致力于创造我们所说的所有这些价值循环。

在这些过程中的某些点上,我认为Valve会问自己一个重要的问题:“为什么只将游戏变成平台?”让我们着眼于Steam—-所有的一切都变成一个平台,甚至连Guides和Reviews也是如此。实际上当你想到这点时,几乎所有的一切都可以变成平台。例如Unity是一个游戏开发工具,也是人们创造并向其他开发者销售自产/代码的平台。我敢保证,甚至连Microsoft Work也能变成一个平台,即人们可以在这里销售他们所传真稿的定制菜单布局/主题/字体。

通过有效使用价值循环去奖励价值贡献者,平台将成为未来我们前进道路中一个不可忽视的重要部分。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Thinking with Platforms

by James Moak

This is an old blog I wrote a year ago (JAN 31, 2014), but never got around publishing. I think Valve’s recent paid mod move makes it relevant.

Very soon User Generated Content is going to explode. If you’ve been paying attention to developers on Twitter after Dev-Days, or maybe you’ve read the blogs covering the topics of it, you’ve seen that Valve told people how to make their game into a platform, and the benefits of doing so. With the exception of the devs where that sort of game isn’t their thing, almost every developer is going to jump and make their game into a platform.

Think about it for two seconds – the benefits of employing this strategy are insane. It’s another way for people playing the game to interact with friends by producing content for one another; it’s a way for people to try their hand at creating value for others – a way to contribute to the world they enjoy. To the developer, it means less work since the players create content for you. Heck, you could pull a Garry’s Mod and make a game that initially has no point and let the users contribute the gameplay themselves. The only flaw to the user generated content system was that there was little to no reward for high quality content, so there wasn’t much incentive to produce it outside of prestige and fame. Valve took it upon themselves to set it straight.

In a move that’s obvious in hindsight, Valve changed the game by rewarding these value givers with actual things like money or in-game items. This drives up the quality of the content and commits people to the platform even more. This higher quality content in turn pulls in more users, enhances the experiences of the existing ones, and raises the bar for future content. The bar is soon raised again, everyone gets more value, and the cycle continues forever until the game becomes the digital manifestation of your choice of deity.

Creating a positive feedback loop to drive content like that is just the tip of the iceberg. Instead of seeing game assets or mechanics as the sole content of your platform, what if you viewed your very users as content themselves? For many games, the people you play with are as important if not more important to the quality of your experience. You could try to identify and reward these non-asset value givers, and make more loops that drive the quality of your platform even higher. For example, while a modder could be said to generate game asset/mechanics value, a nice player could be said to generate social value. A good teammate could be said to generate general game experience value, and a player who teaches others how to play could add teaching value.

A developer could somehow monitor the players and identify those who add value of any kind, and reward them in some way. To take it a step further, the platform could identify “trend-setters” (that guy in your friends list who finds new things first and shares them to you) and reward them, creating another positive value loop – and I’m absolutely sure Valve is working on setting up all these value loops as we speak.

At some point during all this I assume Valve asked an important question to itself: “Why only make games into platforms?” Take a look at Steam – everything is a platform now, even Guides and Reviews. In fact when you think about it almost anything can be a platform. For example Unity is a game development tool and a platform where people create and sell assets/code to other devs, driving the value it offers through the roof. I’d bet that even Microsoft Word could become a platform, where people could sell custom menu layouts/themes/fonts they create.

With the proper use of value loops to reward value givers, thinking in terms of platforms is going to be a distinct part of the future as we go forward, since it just makes too much sense.(source:gamasutra)

 


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