作者：Michail Katkoff

艺电的Firemonkey团队所开发的《极品飞车：无极限》真的是一款让人印象深刻的游戏。而成就这款游戏的正是其华丽的图像，精心设计的关卡以及具有直觉性的游戏控制。并且这款游戏的出现让传统的一键式飙车游戏瞬间过时了。

现在，距离游戏发行只过去短短几个月，《极品飞车：无极限》已经成为排行前三的畅销赛车游戏。虽然这款游戏的下载量已经达到顶峰，但是因为其本身强大的IP以及艺电强大的发行力，游戏的全新安装量仍然非常高。而当我们比较了游戏的下载量和收益，就像AppAnnie所提供的报告那样，我们会发现游戏的用户留存和盈利并不像我们想象中的那般优秀，即《极品飞车：无极限》在前100名畅销游戏榜单上的位置很靠后，即偶尔才能凭借游戏内部活动和促销挤进前50名中。

《极品飞车：无极限》出色的3D图像需要以较长的加载时间，巨大的应用规格和过于耗电等为代价，并且也不只有这些元素阻碍着这款游戏到达排行榜的顶端位置。在我看来，《极品飞车：无极限》以及其它所谓的赛车游戏所面临的真正问题是，开发者并不能真正投入去创造复杂的元游戏。

我认为，赛车游戏的基础便是去精通能够呈现不同赛车体验的不同赛车的不同赛道。玩家之所以喜欢赛车游戏是因为他们热衷于钻研每个拐角并熟悉每一条赛道。与主要竞争对手《CSR赛车》和《强力竞速赛》等游戏一样，《极品飞车：无极限》其实也不能算是一款真正的赛车游戏，尽管它是以赛车游戏的形态销售给玩家。这也是这款游戏及其竞争者永远都难以成功的原因。

赛车与控制

我们并不能否认《极品飞车：无极限》中真正的赛车体验。在这里大多数比赛都拥有完美的加油时间设定和转速计，就像《CSR赛车》等游戏中那样。油门踏板踩得太轻会导致起步太慢，踩得太重又会导致你飞出赛道。当玩家按压油门踏板并启动发动机，倒计时归零之时游戏的乐趣也将由此开始。

一旦汽车开始行走玩家便可以无需担心汽油或刹车而左右控制汽车的移动。汽车驾驶非常简单，并且异常精准。玩家只要敲打屏幕左边或右边便能够控制汽车方向，并且长按还能保持方向盘的的转动。虽然新玩家总是不能有效驾驶汽车，但正是一次又一次的失败让赛车游戏变得更有趣且让玩家更希望再次游戏。

在屏幕右边轻敲油门踏板将启动倒计时。玩家将不断轻敲油门踏板以确保转速计始终都是绿色的，如此便能确保他们有一个完美的起步，而不会偏离轨道或起步过慢。

在完美起步后，玩家便要开始避开拥堵的交通并通过巧妙的转向去节约时间或追赶其它赛车。为了让游戏更有趣，《极品飞车：无极限》添加了飘移和turbo技巧。在大坡度转弯中飘移很有用，但这也不是玩家使用飘移的唯一原因。除了有趣外，玩家使用飘移还是因为这能够不断累积turbo，而turbo则是他们赢得比赛的必要元素。

玩家将通过向下滑动操纵杆并转向去完成飘移。一旦汽车进行飘移时，turbo指标便会开始累积。而为了启动turbo，玩家只需要向上滑动操纵杆便可。

简单的控制，华丽的图像以及飘移和turbo等技巧都让《极品飞车：无极限》变得更加有趣。碰撞所创造的破坏力以及各种不同的关卡和关卡目标也进一步完善了游戏的体验。所以当玩家玩过《极品飞车：无极限》后，他们便不大可能再去玩《CSR赛车》，《强力竞速赛》或《真实赛车》了。这也是这款游戏在完善赛车体验方面优于竞争对手的地方。

核心循环

就像大多数免费赛车游戏那样，《极品飞车：无极限》的游戏循环也非常直接。玩家将通过赢得比赛去赚取货币。并使用这些货币去完善现有的汽车并打开或购买一些更厉害的新车。游戏将通过不断提高比赛难度去强化这一循环。

《极品飞车：无极限》的游戏循环遵循了免费赛车游戏的传统循环，即玩家将通过比赛去升级自己的汽车。

传统意义上，这种直接的赛车游戏核心循环都是伴随着一个简单的核心循环，即玩家将在此通过赢得比赛赚取软货币并使用软货币去升级自己的汽车。而这些游戏都是通过玩家购买更多汽车壮大自己的车库而获得盈利。你会发现当玩家拥有更多汽车时，他们便需要更多软货币，因为他们想升级更多汽车。而成功提高赛车游戏的用户留存和盈利的方法便是提高玩家对于软货币的需求并添加能量机制去限制玩家每个回合的比赛次数。

《极品飞车：无极限》的核心循环拥有我们之前玩过的赛车游戏所拥有的相同元素，唯一的一处不同便是汽车零部件形式。在《极品飞车：无极限》中，玩家赢得比赛不仅能够获得软货币和体验点数等奖励，同时也有机会打开汽车的零部件或设计图。零部件能够升级每辆车的独立元素，如引擎和变速箱。但很少有计划图能够用于升级整辆车，这反过来也让玩家能够在车里安装更厉害的元素。

从理论上看，核心循环中的改变理由很简单：随机掉落一个玩家所需要的零部件能够鼓励他们重新尝试能够让自己获得奖励的比赛。重玩关卡的价值以及能够限制玩家每个回合完成比赛次数的能量机制将减缓玩家的游戏速度，从而进一步为游戏创造盈利。在此就更不用提战利品掉落机制和设计图所引出的gacha机制，这也是许多游戏专家用于获取巨大盈利的魔法机制。

实践中的核心循环

不管一个核心循环在黑板上或展示中看起来有多出色，对于核心循环的真正测试只有在游戏真正具有可玩性时。在《极品飞车：无极限》例子中，零部件和gacha机制的添加有效提高了游戏的复杂性并且也避免了玩家在前进过程中所感受到的控制感。

在《极品飞车：无极限》每一次有趣的比赛后，玩家都将面对两个奖励窗口。第一个奖励窗口将呈现出玩家所获得的软货币（游戏邦注：基于按时间，飘移距离等评判的比赛表现）。第二个窗口将让玩家翻一张纸拍，并将奖励他们一部分的软货币或一个零部件。

在成功完成每一次比赛后，玩家都将打开四个窗口。第一个是最基本的完成比赛窗口，第二个是呈现玩家在比赛中的排名的窗口，第三个是翻牌窗口，还有最后的纸牌被翻过的窗口。

一旦玩家收集到了零部件，车库图标的上方便会出现一个行动号召指示让玩家去安装零部件。玩家可以进入车库窗口，并使用上方的行动号召去定位汽车，然后进入汽车窗口寻找拥有行动号召标识的汽车元素，打开元素窗口并安装最新获得的零部件。这样的安装很快并且不需要消耗太多软货币，同时还能提高汽车的性能等级。

像变速箱，ECU，引擎等汽车元素都拥有自己的星星级别。为了提高每个元素的星星级别，玩家就需要收集特定的零部件。一旦玩家收集齐并安装了所有零部件，元素的星级便会提高。每个元素都拥有一个最大的星级。例如普通轮胎的最大星级是2。而用特殊轮胎换掉普通轮胎将让玩家能够继续安装零部件直至轮胎到达3颗星，同时一个特殊的变速箱也能够将它带向4颗星。

《极品飞车：无极限》中的升级流非常复杂。首先玩家将发现显示器上的行动号召标识，并被带到车库。然后在车库中玩家将轻敲带有行动号召标识的汽车。因此将打开带有零部件的汽车视图，对的，这里也有行动号召标识。玩家将轻敲其中的一个零部件，浏览零部件细节，并轻敲安装，然后升级一个零部件。我已经经历了这样的流程好多次，并越来越觉得这个过程很无聊且很让人受挫。

而将本来就很复杂的零部件流整合到元素升级中也让汽车关卡变得更让人受挫。就像每个元素那样，每辆汽车也拥有自己的星级。这些星级将决定每个元素能够升级到几颗星星。例如我的VW GTI便拥有一个能够升级到3颗星的稀有变速箱。为了提高我的汽车的星级，我便需要获得一个特殊的VW GTI设计图。只有获得这些VW GTI设计图，我的星级才有可能从2颗星变成3颗星。

在《极品飞车：无极限》中升级汽车是必要的，因为这让玩家能够使用零部件进一步升级其它元素。升级汽车需要更多汽车设计图。当玩家升级汽车时，游戏的视觉效果并不会发生变化，比起做到这点所需要经历的每个步骤，这样的设置似乎太过虎头蛇尾了。

我已经尽所能简单地描述《极品飞车：无极限》的核心循环了。如果你还是对零部件，元素，设计图和星级等内容感到混乱，也不要担心：这是游戏的原因而不是因为你。玩《极品飞车：无极限》的元游戏可能会让人感到迷惑，没有奖励感，不断刷任务且各种受挫。我们可以看到，游戏中的升级元素或汽车级别并不存在视觉上的进程感。在赛车的时候完善汽车的性能级别并不会让人感到什么不同。这只能打开一些全新比赛并奖励给玩家较稀有的零部件。而当那些更厉害的变速箱和nitro需要你去刷更多更稀有的零部件时，你便会更迫切地需要这些零部件。

就像之前提到的，《极品飞车：无极限》的核心循环会鼓励玩家不断重复之前的比赛，这便是非常无聊的设定。当玩家不得不重新挑战一场比赛时，因为现在的玩家驾驶的是比之前玩过的关卡中同样AI对手厉害许多的汽车，所以他们将不能再感受到挑战性。在每个关卡中缺少有关比赛，飘移距离等目标是非常糟糕的。最终游戏的目标将只是玩家在赛车过程中收集汽车。而最终的核心循环也将只是一些复杂，不清不楚且不断刷任务的内容。

模糊的进程感

关于《极品飞车：无极限》元游戏最糟糕的部分便是它大大阻碍了玩家对于进程的控制。当我在玩游戏时，我所做出的任何选择并不存在真正的意义。这让我觉得游戏虽然拥有华丽的图像，出色的关卡设计和优秀的控制，但却太过机械化且没有灵魂。

玩家的比赛被划分成名为Underground和Car Series的核心故事模式。随着玩家的升级并从比赛中赚取XP，故事模式便会被打开。当玩家在Underground模式中尝试了不同关卡时，他便不能再接触进程（游戏邦注：因为玩家需要更多XP），因此玩家将只能去尝试Car Series。Car Series规定玩家车库中的每辆车只能进入特定的关卡。一旦玩家拥有一辆汽车，他便能够进入相对的Car Series关卡中。Car Series中的每个关卡都对应着拥有不同性能级别的汽车。

换句话说，为了使用我最厉害的汽车在一个关卡中比赛，我便需要升级汽车零部件去提高它的性能级别。这一进程也将迫使我使用较糟糕的汽车与其它赛车比赛或重新尝试之前玩过的一些关卡以寻找最佳汽车所缺少的零部件。找到并安装这些零部件能够提高我最喜欢的汽车的性能级别并为其打开更多关卡。

有4种类型的比赛是玩家随时都能参加的：1）Underground，即故事模式，2）Car Series，即针对玩家车库中的特定汽车的特定比赛，3）Tuner Trials，之后会作为零部件资源出现，4）Timed Events，它将提供特殊奖励并需要Tickets作为能量。

在其它像《CSR赛车》，《强力竞速赛》和《真实赛车》等免费手机赛车游戏中，玩家能够更轻松地理解并计划游戏进程。因为所有的赛车升级所需要的货币数都相同，所以我必须决定自己要专注于哪辆车。同样需要注意的是在其它赛车游戏中，玩家可以遭遇失败，这也将推动他们去寻找完善自己汽车的方法。但是在《极品赛车：无极限》中，玩家只有在自己的汽车拥有足够性能级别时才能打开一些特定的比赛。

在我看来进程感是提高游戏用户留存和盈利的决定性元素。在游戏中创造一个目标并让玩家能够轻松推测出自己需要花多长时间才能到达该目标是玩家做出购买决定的主要影响元素。但是在《极品飞车：无极限》中，玩家总是很难判断自己需要花多长时间才能到达特定目标，如获取一辆新车。因为这里有无数虚假的进程墙和随机掉落的零部件，而玩家需要做的只是遵循着HUD上的行动号召指示，打开窗口并在自己并不想完善的汽车上安装零部件。

选择一个合理的基准

平心而论，我很开心能够看到艺电努力通过更具活力的元游戏去完善赛车游戏类型。但同时我也认为他们使用了错误的基准，即依赖于侧重美术的纸牌收集元游戏，而这一元游戏在《极品飞车：无极限》中显得过于复杂且执行起来也很糟糕。

除了复杂性外，《极品飞车：无极限》也不能让玩家感受到对于自己游戏进程的控制，他们会觉得自己被迫基于特定顺序去驾驶特定汽车参加比赛。《坦克世界闪电战》便有效地解决了这两个问题，所以我认为它能够作为对《极品飞车：无极限》更有帮助的基准。

《坦克世界》通过技术树提供了非常清晰的进程。这是一个从表面看来便非常清楚的方法，既能够提供给玩家选择，也能激励玩家使用不同的坦克（游戏邦注：即使用特定坦克体验点数作为货币）。

在《坦克世界》中，玩家要想打开下一个层面便需要升级每一辆坦克。

在《坦克世界闪电战》中，玩家将通过消耗战斗获得的指定坦克的体验点数和软货币去开启全新坦克并完善现有的坦克。实际上这意味着如果玩家想完善自己车库中的特定坦克，他们便需要使用特定坦克进行多次战斗去升级它。如果他们想要获得一辆全新且级别更高的坦克，他们便需要先升级现有的坦克并收集足够的特定坦克体验点数去开启全新坦克。

《坦克世界闪电战》元游戏中最棒的地方便在于它能够清楚地展示在玩家面前，同时还能提供给玩家各种选择。如此清楚的视觉研究让玩家能够为自己设定一个明确的目标。一旦他们设定了获取特定坦克的目标，玩家便会进入具有较高娱乐性的核心游戏玩法中。

在我看来《坦克世界闪电战》的元游戏更适合《极品飞车：无极限》。我认为如果是为了开启Toyota GT我需要完全升级自己的Toyota Celica，并且开启BMW M3我需要完全升级BMW 1的话便是有意义的。同时我需要使用特定汽车去比赛才能升级这里汽车的规定也是合理的。更别提升级汽车需要具有明显的视觉性了，就像《坦克世界闪电战》那样。如果我升级了我的汽车的nitro，我便希望看到汽车上的指示发生变化。

总之我认为我们必须仔细检查这些循环并问自己一些特定问题，如这么做是否有意义？如何才能让汽车变得更厉害？更厉害的汽车是怎样的？它的表现如何？我是否能开启全新的汽车？如果你不能询问并回答这些问题，你的玩家便会感到困惑并不可能再次回到游戏中。虽然游戏总是充满乐趣和想象力，但同时你也必须确保它们是具有意义的。

不错，但还不够优秀

我是gacha机制的忠实粉丝，因为它能让游戏经济不断地奖励玩家。在像《炉石传说》等拥有优秀gacha机制的游戏中，玩家能够不断获得纸牌包等奖励，这也是到目前为止游戏中最棒的奖励类型。《炉石传说》的经济形式之所以有效是因为玩家能够将他们不用的纸牌变成Dust并使用Dust去创造错过的纸牌。这将让玩家对纸牌包具有无尽的需求，并且不会带给他们强迫干。

在《炉石传说》中玩家可以将纸牌变成dust并使用dust去创造他们需要的纸牌。这便是依赖于gacha机制的简单并且完整的游戏系统。

而受gacha影响的《极品飞车：无极限》的元游戏之所以失败便是因为它带给了玩家混乱感与强迫感。玩家通过赛车而获得的零部件和设计图都太过随机，并且通常只拥有一个消费点。在比赛后获得一个普通弹簧或一个稀有的紧固件意味着一般玩家不可能获得什么，并且如果没有通过窗口呈现出的行动号召指示，玩家便不可能知道该使用这些随机零部件去做什么。玩家只会在游戏要求他们重新玩一个非常简单的关卡多次（只为了获得零部件）时才会对紧固件或弹簧感兴趣。

《极品飞车：无极限》为玩家提供了手机上最棒的赛车体验之一。它具有非常华丽的视觉效果。游戏控制虽然很简单但也能够呈现出真正的速度感。并且还带有飘移和nitro机制，让游戏赛车变得更加有趣。但其过度复杂且死板的元游戏却是巨大的败笔。

我认为确保内容足够简单与优化总是能够创造出更好的结果。《极品飞车：无极限》的成功是源自大量的安装，可靠的游戏玩法，华丽的图像与强大的IP。虽然这款游戏当前在畅销赛车游戏的排行榜位置还不错，但我们知道因为游戏过度复杂的元游戏以及它并非真正的赛车游戏这一事实，它很难再挤进前10名的畅销游戏排行榜中。

（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）

Why Racing Games Aren’t Winning On Mobile

by Michail Katkoff

EA’s Firemonkeys’ Need for Speed: No Limits (NFSNL) is truly an impressive car game. What makes NFSNL great is the combination of stunningly beautiful graphics, well-designed levels, and intuitive driving controls. The game simply makes traditional one-tap drag race games feel instantly outdated.

NFSNL is currently a top three grossing racing game, at just a few months apart from its launch. The game’s downloads have peaked although the number of new installs is still very high, due to both the strong IP and EA’s publishing power. A quick comparison of downloads and revenue, as seen in AppAnnie, implies that the retention and thus monetization are not where they should be, as NFSNL is stuck in its low spot on the top 100 grossing chart, with only occasional bumps to top 50, which are driven by in-game events and sales.

NFSNL’s stunning 3D graphics come at a cost of long loading times, large app size and overheated battery, but these are not the only issues keeping the game from the top position. In my mind the true problem for NFSNL’s, and other so called racing games, is that they don’t deliver when it comes to actual racing choosing to put all their effort in creating complex meta-game.

In my mind, the foundation of a racing game is mastering the different racetracks with different cars that act as a variable of the driving experience. Players love racing games because they’re about perfecting every corner and knowing each track like the back of your hand. Need for Speed: No Limits, just like it’s main competitors CSR Racing and Racing Rivals, isn’t a racing game even though it’s sold to players as one. And that’s why it, and it’s competitors, will never win.

The Racing & Controls

There’s no denying that when it comes to the actual driving experience in NFSNL. Most of the races start from the perfect timing of gas to tachometer, just like in CSR Racing and other legacy titles. Being too light on the gas pedal will result in a slow start while pushing too aggressively will lead to spin out. After making the motor roar with a press on the gas pedal and hitting that perfect launch as the countdown goes to zero the true fun begins.

Once the car is on the move player steers it to the left and right without having to worry about gas or breaks. The steering is extremely simple yet surprisingly accurate. Short tap on the left or right side of the screen will result in a light nudge of the car to that direction while a long hold will have the steering wheel turning all the way. It’s easy for new players to fail with the steering but then again failure is what makes racing games so enjoyable as it makes you want to race again.

Tapping on the gas pedal on the right side of the screen will start the countdown. Player keeps tapping on the gas pedal to keep that tachometer in the green, which will reward with a perfect launch instead of a spin off or a slow launch.

After the perfect launch player starts avoiding the traffic and making subtle turns to shave time or catch up to the other racers. To make things more fund NFSNL introduces drifting and the turbo. Drifting, which is initiated by swiping down, is helpful in steep turns but that’s not why players drift. The reason for drifting, in addition to being fun, is that in accumulates the turbo and turbo is essential for winning races.

Drifting is initiated by swiping down and steering. Once car is drifting the turbo meter starts accumulating. To initiate turbo player simply swipes up.

The combination of simple controls, stunning graphics, drifting and turbo makes racing very enjoyable in NFSNL. The racing experience is further improved with damage sustained by crashing and a large variety of levels and level objectives. Playing CSR Racing, Racing Rivals or Real Racing after Need for Speed: No Limit is close to impossible. That’s how much this game has improved the its driving experience compared to its competitors.

The Core Loop

Just like in most freemium racing games, the game loop of NFSNL is very straightforward. Winning races earns player currency. Earned currency is used to improve existing cars and to unlock and purchase new and better cars. This loop is enforced by gradually toughening races.

The game loop of Need for Speed: No Limit follows the traditional loop of freemium racing games as player move between racing to upgrading their cars.

Traditionally, this straightforward core loop of a racing game has been accompanied with an equally simple core loop, where a player earns soft currency for winning races and uses this currency to purchase gradual upgrades for their cars. These games monetize as a player’s garage expands with more cars. You see, the more cars a player has, the larger the demand for soft currency becomes, as there are several cars in need of upgrading. The way to successfully drive retention, and monetization of a racing game is to increasing the player’s need for soft currency and adding an energy mechanic, which limits the amount of races a player can play per session.

The core loop of NFSNL has all the same elements as we’ve experienced in racing games before, with one key difference in the form of car parts. In NFSNL a player is rewarded for winning races with, not only soft currency and experience points, but also with a chance to unlock a part or a blueprint for a car. Parts are used to upgrade individual elements of each car, such as engines and gearboxes. The rare blueprints are used to upgrade entire cars, which in return allow a player to install better elements into the vehicle.

The reason for the change in the core loop was in theory simple: a random drop of needed parts encourages a player to replay specific races that have a chance of rewarding them. The increased value of replaying levels, accompanied with an energy mechanic that restricts the number of races a player can complete per session, results in slower player progression, which again tends to lead to monetization (deconstructor of fun: primed to spend). Not to mention that the loot drop mechanic of parts and blueprints leads to gacha mechanic, which in the minds of many game executives tends to be the magical mechanic to endless profits.

The Core Loop in Practice

No matter how great a core loop may look on a whiteboard or in a presentation, the true test for the core loop comes only when the game is actually playable. In the case of NFSNL the addition of parts and gacha has resulted in significantly increased complexity in combination with a reduced feeling of control over progress.

After each highly enjoyable race in NFSNL, a player is presented with two reward windows. The first window shows how much soft-currency a player has earned, based on how the race went in terms of time, distance drifted and air time. The second window has the player flip a card, which rewards him/her with either a small amount of soft currency or a part.

After every successfully completed race player has to plow through four window. First the basic race completed window, then a window showing players position in the race, followed by a window of flipping cards and window where the cards are flipped.

Once the player collects the part, there’s a call-to-action on top of the garage icon (see image) inviting the player to install the part. The player enters the garage window, locates the car with a call-to-action on top of it, enters the car window, looks for a car element that has a call-to-action on top of it, opens up the element window and installs the newly earned part. Installation is instant and consumes a small amount of soft currency while increasing the car’s performance rating.

Each car element such as gearbox, ECU, engine and nitro has its own star level. To increase the star level of each element, the player needs to collect a specific set of parts. Once all the parts are collected and installed, the star rating of the element increases. But there’s an additional rule here. Each element has a max star level. For example, a common tire can only reach two stars. Replacing a common tire with an uncommon one allows the player to install parts until three stars have been reached while a rare gearbox takes it up to four, and so forth.

The upgrade flow in Need for Speed: No Limits quite complex. First player find the call to action icon on top of the hud that takes him into the garage. Then in garage player taps on a car that has call to action icon. This opens that car view with parts that again have call to action buttons. Player taps on one of the parts, sees part details, taps on install and finally upgrades a part. I’ve done this flow numerous times and it just feels more and more tedious and frustrating.

The already complex flow of parts into element upgrades is made even more frustrating with the car levels. You see, just like the individual elements, each car has a star level of it’s own. This star level determines how many stars each element can be upgraded to. For example, my VW GTI has an uncommon gearbox that can be upgraded to three stars. After I’ve acquired and installed all the needed parts into the gearbox I can’t upgrade it to level three as long as the star level of my VW GTI is two. To increase the star level of my car I need to now play and hope to receive a specific VW GTI blueprint. And it takes several of those VW GTI blueprints to upgrade the star level from two to three.

Upgrading cars is essential in Need for Speed: No Limits as it allows player to further upgrade elements with parts. Upgrading cars requires ever increasing amount of car blueprints. There’s no visual change as player upgrades his car, which is quite anticlimactic compared to the amount of steps needed to achieve this milestone.

I’ve done my best to keep the description of NFSNL’s core loop as simple as possible. If you feel lost in the midst of parts, elements, blueprints and star levels don’t worry: it’s not you, it’s the game. Playing the metagame of NFSNL can be quite confusing, very unrewarding, grindy and simply frustrating. You see, there’s no visual progression for upgrading elements or car levels. Improving a car’s performance rating also doesn’t feel any different when racing. It just unlocks new races, which reward with more rare parts. And you need those rare parts at an increasing pace as better gearboxes and nitros require more and more of rare parts that you have to endlessly grind for.

As mentioned before, the core loop of NFSNL encourages a player to infinitely replay old races, which is sadly very boring. By the time the player is forced to replay a race, there’s absolutely no challenge left as the player is now driving a far better car against the same AI opponents on the same level over and over again. The lack of mastery goals around race time, air time and drifting distance for each level is almost insulting. In the end, the goal of the game is to collect cars through racing. The way the core loop is implemented makes to just too hard, unclear and grindy.

Hazed Sense of Progress

The worst thing about NFSNL’s meta-game of parts is that it significantly hampers the player’s control of progress. As I’m playing the game, I don’t really have any meaningful choices I can make. This makes the game feel mechanical and a bit soulless, despite the amazing graphics, the excellent level design, and really great controls.

The player’s races are divided into a core story mode called the Underground and Car Series. The story mode levels are unlocked as the player levels up, which is based on earning XP from finished races. After racing a few levels in the Underground mode, a player is locked from progress (as the player needs more XP), and hence pushed to play the Car Series. The Car Series are sets of levels for each car in the player’s garage. Once the player owns a car, they can enter the respective Car Series. Each level in the Car Series is locked with the performance rating of the car.

In other words, in order to race a level with my best car I often need to upgrade the parts of that car to increase its performance rating. This progression wall forces me to either race other car series with my far worse cars or to start re-racing some old levels from the story mode in order to find missing parts for my best car. Finding and installing these missing parts will increase the performance rating of my favorite car and unlock more levels for it.

There are four types of races player can play at any given moment: 1) Underground, which is the story mode 2) Car Series, which is a specific set of races for specific cars in players garage 3) Tuner Trials, which was added lately as source of parts 4) and Timed Events, which give unique rewards and require Tickets as energy

In other freemium mobile racing games like CSR Racing, Racing Rivals and Real Racing progression is much more simple for a player to understand and also plan for. Because all of the car upgrades require the same currency, I have to make decisions, which car(s) I want to concentrate on. It is also worth to notice that in other racing games a player is allowed to fail races, which leads them to seek for ways to improve their car. In NFSNL races are generally artificially locked till the player’s car has a sufficient performance rating.

In my mind, sense of progress is the key driver for retention and monetization. Creating a goal in the game and allowing players to easily guestimate how long it takes to reach that goal is crucial when a player is making purchase decisions. In NFSNL it is really hard to understand how long it will take to reach certain milestones, like earning a new car. Because of the endless artificial progress walls and random part drops I’m just following call-to-actions on the HUD, opening windows and installing parts on cars that I don’t really even want to have let alone improve.

Choosing a Benchmark That Makes Sense

In all fairness, I think it’s great that EA has made an attempt to spice up the racing game genre with a more robust meta-game than we have seen before. At the same time, I believe that they have used the wrong benchmark, relying on an art-heavy card collecting meta-game, which is far too complex and poorly implemented in NFSNL.

In addition to complexity, NFSNL fails in allowing players to feel control over their progress, as players are forced to race specific cars in a specific order. These two elements are beautifully solved in World of Tanks Blitz, which in my mind would have served as a far better benchmark for NFSNL.

World of Tanks offers clear progression through a tech tree. This approach is visually clear, offers player choice and incentivizes player to player with different tanks through the use of tank specific experience points as currency.

Each tank in World of Tanks needs to be upgraded before the next tier can be unlocked.

In World of Tanks Blitz (WOTB) a player unlocks new tanks and improves existing ones by consuming tank-specific experience points and soft-currency, which are both earned by battling. In practice this means that in order to improve a specific tank in the player’s garage, they need to play several battles with that exact tank to upgrade it. And if they want a new higher-level tank, they need to first fully upgrade their existing one and collect a significant amount of tank-specific experience points to unlock the new one.

The best part about WOTB’s meta-game is how very clear it is for players, while at the same time it offers plenty of choice. The visual research tree allows a player to set goals for themselves. Once a goal of acquiring a certain tank is set, a player plunges back into the highly entertaining core gameplay.

In my mind the meta-game of WOTB would have been far more suited for NFSNL. It would make much more sense to me if in order to unlock Toyota GT I need to first fully upgrade my Toyota Celica while unlocking BMW M3 requires a fully upgraded BMW 1. It would also make a lot of sense that upgrading a car requires me to race with that specific car. Not to mention that upgrades to a car should be visual, just like in WOTB. If I’m upgrading the nitro of my car I’d like to see a change of a spoiler on the roof of that car.

for more, please see Deconstructor of Fun: World of Tanks Blitz

Overall, I just think it is very important to review these loops and ask important game specific questions like: Does this make sense? What does it take to make a car better? How will a better car look like? How will it perform? How do I unlock new cars? If you fail to ask and answer these questions, your players will be puzzled and likely not retain. Games are fun and full of imagination, but they also have to make sense.

Good, not Great

I’m a big fan of the gacha mechanic as it enables game economies to endlessly reward players. You see, in a good gacha mechanic, like say Hearthstone, the player is constantly rewarded with card packs (coins that purchase card packs), which is by far the best type of reward in the game. Hearthstone’s economy works because the player can disenchant extra cards or cards they don’t use into Dust and use Dust to craft the missing cards. This creates almost endless demand for card packs without actually forcing them on the players.

In Hearthstone player can disenchant cards to dust and use dust to craft missing cards they need. This is a simple and far more complete system for games that rely on gacha for progress.

The gacha infused meta-game of Need for Speed: No Limits fails because it’s confusing and forced. The parts and blueprints the player gets from racing are too random and often have only one point of consumption. Receiving a common spring or a rare fastener after a race means nothing for your average player and without a flow of call-to-actions through multiple windows, the player wouldn’t even know what to do with these random parts. The only point when a player is interested in a fastener or a spring is when the game forces him/her to replay an overly simple level many times in a row just to get the part.

Need for Speed: No Limits offers one of the best racing (but definitely not car collecting) experience on mobile. It is incredibly beautiful. The controls are simple yet they give a real feeling of speed. Not to mention drifting and nitro, which make the races so much more fun. But the game is slowed down by an overly complicated and very rigid meta-game that surrounds the beautifully crafted racing experience.

In my opinion, keeping things simple and polished often lead to better results. Need for Speed: No Limits success at the moment is driven by a massive amount of installs, solid gameplay, beautiful graphics and strong IP. Yet despite its current position in the grossing charts for racing games, it’s hard to see this game breaking to the top 10 of the overall grossing charts due to its overly complicated meta-game and the fact that it’s not really a racing game.（source：Gamasutra）