作者：Michail Katkoff

《皇室战争》（Clash Royale）发行于2016年1月，的确，根据我之前的预测，这款游戏一问世便登上了畅销游戏排行榜的顶端并让其他游戏制作者变成像刚刚接触游戏开发的菜鸟一般。在我心中，《皇室战争》是迄今为止最优秀的手机游戏。这款游戏就像是在你的手机上上演的4分钟情感过山车。这是一款很容易上手，但同时也非常容易放弃的游戏。

Clash Royale(from wankr)

我第一篇关于《皇室战争》的文章专注于分析成就这款游戏的所有元素。而在经过了4个月关于游戏玩法的专研后，我真的被《皇室战争》搞得精疲力竭，甚至我身边的朋友也有相同的看法。一开始我们觉得很有趣且具有战略性的内容于现在看来却变得非常随机性且很让人受挫。

所以我将通过本文去分析你会退出这款你之前非常喜欢的游戏的5个原因。

1.你厌倦了游戏中的刷任务机制

当你开始玩《皇室战争》时，你会觉得游戏的进程感非常明显。你将从1个奖杯开始累积直至到达400，甚至是800个奖杯—-在这个过程中你将从Goblin Stadium切换到Bone Pit再换到Barbarian Bowl Arena。在进入每个全新Arena时，你将从基于gacha机制的Magic Chests中获取6张新纸牌。

而在投入几个月时间于每日的战斗中后，你会发现游戏变得非常具有竞争性，这时候你能够继续前进的唯一方式不再是去优化，发展并精通你的桥牌，相反的你需要升级你那相对有限的现有的50多张纸牌组合。换句话说你需要拥有大量的复制纸牌以及货币才能够继续前进。但是获得大量纸牌已经够困难了更别说获得大量货币了。除非你愿意为此花钱，否则你需要准备好接受花几个月时间但却不能继续前进的结果。

当你去比较游戏中用于进程所需要的时间与不同纸牌的有限内容时你便会发现《皇室战争》是一款非常注重刷任务的游戏。而他们这么做的原因有两点。首先，因为Arena关卡决定着宝箱奖励，所以如果你降级到较低的Arena（游戏邦注：因为失去了奖杯），你的前进速度便会降低。我想不到其它拥有同样设定的游戏。在其它游戏中，玩家收集资源的能力总是会随着玩家投入的时间的增加而增加。例如在《部落战争》中，我可以在保留生成药剂和金币的前提下一天发动多次攻击，但是在《皇室战争》中，连败便会将我带回较低的Arena中，并且我的宝箱奖励也会随之减少。

其次，游戏进程需要付出多得吓人的货币。这种双重进程机制非常聪明，这也是Wargaming创造出《坦克世界》所使用的方法。首先玩家将挣到足够的资源去开启前进能力，然后游戏将让玩家支付极高的代价才能获得真正的升级。这时候玩家往往会觉得自己已经走到一半了所以会愿意为此掏钱，他们会根据花钱能够帮助自己节省多少时间去做出购买决定。

在《皇室战争》中，玩家将花几周的时间去开启gacha宝箱以获取特定的复制纸牌。当玩家拥有所有需要的纸牌后，他们需要花费收集纸牌一半的时间去进行升级。因为玩家的前进速度可能被降低，所以在《皇室战争》中你很容易会有自己未取得任何前进的感觉。而游戏中缓慢的进程主要是因为游戏中基于不同纸牌的有限内容。随着游戏中出现了更多纸牌和Arena关卡，游戏进程将获得提速，但是基于当前游戏的内容创造速度，你可能还需要玩几年游戏才能看到这种情况。

2.你将因为使用新纸牌遭遇惩罚

当你第一次获得像Hog Rider，Prince，Balloon，Three Musketeers，Mortar等新纸牌时，它们都将改变你的桥牌。但是现在当你在努力获取3000个奖杯时，你将不能再尝试新纸牌。你可能还想着只要复制同伴的桥牌便能够获得帮助，不料在经历可怕的连败后你将失去400个奖杯。

在《皇室战争》中，全新Arena让玩家有可能获取新纸牌。但是在游戏之后的阶段获取新纸牌并不具有真正的奖励性，因为游戏并不鼓励玩家去尝试全新纸牌。当前游戏的核心循环只支持升级纸牌，并且不存在任何模式或功能能够推动纸牌收集环节，如此游戏也就变得惨白了。在《皇室战争》中，一个致胜桥牌需要包含一套平衡的高级纸牌，如何使用这些纸牌的肌肉记忆，以及带有桥牌弱点的对手。因为每个模式都有自己的排列，所以不存在任何能让玩家学习如何使用全新桥牌的环境。所以玩家在游戏中便找不到开启全新纸牌的动机。玩家有可能在与同伴的友谊赛中接触到全新桥牌，但是根据我的经验，当你想要玩游戏时你的同伴往往是没空的。

《皇室战争》的进程机制非常直接：玩家只要赢得战斗便能获得奖杯作为奖励。因为奖杯能帮自己前往下一个Arena，所以玩家想要获得奖杯。而因为随着玩家从一个Arena前进到另一个Arena宝箱奖励便会增加，所以玩家便希望能够到达全新的Arena。Arena同样也让玩家能够开启全新且更好的单位，从理论上来看也就是玩家能够获得更多帮助他们获胜的工具。

只要玩家总是希望获得更多奖杯，这一进程机制便能一直发挥作用。但这里存在的问题就在于，在体验了几个月的游戏玩法后，即当玩家获得2000个奖杯并发现自己身处倒数第二的联盟层时，他们想要获取全新纸牌的兴趣便会大大降低，因为这时候的玩家需要努力去精通自己的桥牌，并且这样的精通往往需要他们投入足够的时间和精力。因为每一场比赛都会进行排名，所以玩家不可能去尝试自己新获得的纸牌。而如果玩家不再想获取新纸牌，他们也不会去关心奖杯了，而这将大大阻碍游戏的进程机制。尽管你拥有50张不同的纸牌进行选择，《皇室战争》还是会要求你去使用8张相同的纸牌。

3.你被战斗搞得喘不过气

攻击敌人并获得带有30个奖杯的三皇冠总是很吸引人，但是朋友们，你们可曾想过如果自己变成攻击目标会是怎样的情况？特别是当你在努力为你的桥牌获取新纸牌的失衡。

《皇室战争》中的每一场战斗都具有较高的风险，因为它们都将进行排名，这是其它电子竞技游戏所没有的设定。举个例子来说吧，《炉石传说》拥有两大游戏模式：休闲和排名。

《炉石传说》的休闲比赛让玩家能够无需担心失去自己辛苦获得的排名去尝试所有挑战。休闲比赛是玩家测试新桥牌或衡量新类别的好去处，这也是玩家开始在实践模式中学习了一些基本元素后开始对抗人类对手的理想模式。在许多游戏中，玩家必须到达某一特定的关卡才能进入排行模式中，这能避免玩家失去乐趣。

而《炉石传说》中的排行模式让玩家能够获得特定的排名去反映他们在战斗中的能力。赢取或输掉比赛将提高或降低玩家的排名，这也将决定他们在赛季之后的比赛安排和奖励。在每一个赛季的最后，游戏将分发给玩家奖励，每个玩家的排名也将被重置回最低值。

就我个人来讲我觉得缺少休闲模式是《皇室战争》的最大缺陷。游戏中没有一个让玩家去精通全新战术的安全环境，那些尝试了全新桥牌的玩家又会因为糟糕的连败而遭受惩罚。如果玩家不能在一个不用遭受惩罚的环境中测试对抗人类对手的全新纸牌，他们也就缺少了获取全新纸牌以及向新Arena前进的动机。

4.你输掉了一半的战斗

在一场战斗中，你会觉得自己最终将拥有一个能够马上将自己引向Legendary Arena的无敌桥牌。然后在下一场战斗中你将像个菜鸟似的获得三连冠。你将为此而大怒然后前往下一场战斗中并在此独自获取胜利。这种跌宕起伏的情感在游戏一开始可能会让你有点惊慌，但现在你应该已经习惯这种虐待关系了。

这时候你会觉得不管你是失败还是胜利都与自己的技能无关了，特别是在更高的关卡中。相反地，在这里胜利是取决于你的对手使用什么类型的桥牌与你的桥牌进行对抗。例如我使用的是依赖于Royale Giant的桥牌。如果对手拥有一个Cannon能够吸引Giant的注意，我便有可能遭遇失败，因为操控Giant需要付出比Cannon多出两倍的万能药。再一次地，如果对手并没有Cannon，我便很有可能获胜。而这种情况只是无数纸牌和相对纸牌中的一种。我之所以列举这样的例子是想跟你们说，因为桥牌的规格非常有限，所以玩家在战斗期间是不能改变自己的策略。如果某个玩家拥有与你的桥牌相对立的桥牌，那么你们所面对的情况就像是在剪刀石头布游戏中你选择了剪刀而对方选择了石头一样。

让我们将其与更深层次的策略游戏进行比较，如MOBA，即道具构建是在游戏期间进行的。玩家可以实时改变他们的比赛方式，即基于对手的行动去创造道具。换句话说也就是基于对手的行动去决定策略。

大量玩家拥有0.5获胜记录的原因便是源于过于平衡的小套纸牌和只有8张不同纸牌的桥牌规则。你会发现这里不存在比其它纸牌更厉害的的无用桥牌，就像《炉石传说》那样。在这里每张纸牌都有对抗另一张纸牌或抗击对手塔防的作用。伴随着只有8张纸牌的桥牌，这种平衡结构将创造出对于某些特定桥牌来说是无敌的但是对于其它桥牌来说却是无用的桥牌。这也是你会经历不断的获胜与失败，但最终只有纸牌升级能够推动你在游戏中前进的原因。

因为《皇室战争》拥有非常有限的纸牌，所以大量拥有超过2000个奖杯的玩家必须开启90%的纸牌。因为几乎所有玩家能够使用同样的纸牌，所以游戏是基于反应性。也就是当游戏中的纸牌能够进行升级时，特定的纸牌也将被削弱，所有玩家需要马上去升级自己的桥牌。身处更高Arena关卡的玩家会看到大多数桥牌发生改变，一些非常厉害的纸牌遭到了削弱，所以玩家对于这些纸牌以及用于对抗这些纸牌的需求便会下降。

在我印象中这种对于元游戏的突然改变是不曾出现在任何其它游戏中的。例如当《炉石传说》发布了全新的纸牌组合时，元游戏也不会马上发生改变，因为那时候只有少部分玩家拥有所有纸牌。在像《英雄联盟》等MOBA中也是如此，即削弱获胜元素并不会对元游戏产生即时且深刻的影响。

5.每天都一样

打开《皇室战争》。开启一个宝箱。送给同伴一些纸牌。加入一场战斗。被抛弃或抛弃某些人。开始开启一个全新宝箱。在三小时内回到游戏中并重复这些过程。有时候你会沉迷于将自己带出连败中或沉迷于连胜中。这便是《皇室战争》。

除了通过添加一些新纸牌而定期对元游戏进行升级外，玩家在《皇室战争》中的每天都是一样的。相反地在《炉石传说》中，游戏每天都会以挑战将我们带出安逸区并激励我们去尝试还不怎么熟悉的英雄。在《英雄联盟》中玩家每周都能开启一组全新目标，这能够鼓励玩家去尝试一些新内容并因此影响团队结构。还有《智龙迷城》中的地下城也会提供给玩家每天不同的挑战和一些特殊的战利品。

比起其它游戏公司，Supercell总是能够凭借少数开发者去创造出真正的杰作。但有时候越少并不代表越好。作为玩家的我们已经被每周都能玩到新鲜游戏的市场宠坏了。在我看来《皇室战争》受益于源自每日挑战和奖励的活跃的有效运行。但因为这么做需要更多内容的支持，而更多内容便需要更多开发者和美术师的参与，所以我们很容易看到被端出来的菜品上只摆着牛肉和鸡蛋而没有其它装饰。

《皇室战争》开启了全新的手机游戏时代

《皇室战争》是否是触屏设备上出现过的最出色的游戏？如果你这么问我的话我会回答是的。这款游戏完美地将策略性游戏玩法，可靠的核心循环，惊人的用户体验，华丽的用户界面，美轮美奂的图像与超高性能结合在了一起。

但这同时也是一款需要更多地进行完善的游戏。《皇室战争》缺少MOBA游戏所具有的团队协作以及纸牌游戏的深度。缺少足够的事件和每日任务也让游戏变得更加乏味且具有重复性。虽然在某种程度上来看这是一款基于技能的游戏，但是之后它也逐渐变成一款需要花钱才能获胜的游戏了。

我想关于《皇室战争》最出色的地方便是它重新点燃了手机游戏市场的生命之火。当然了，在接下来的时间里我们会看到无数《皇室战争》的复制品问世，但我们同时也会看到具有创造性的玩家对抗玩家手机游戏在游戏社区和流媒体渠道的支持下不断发展。《皇室战争》已经开启了全新的手机游戏时代，我也非常期待它接下来的表现。

（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）

5 Reasons Why You Want to Quit Clash Royale

by Michail Katkoff

Clash Royale launched in the first months of 2016 and yes, as I predicted in my previous post (Deconstructing Supercell’s Next Billion Dollar Game), it took its place at the top of the grossing list and made the rest of us game-makers look like rookies. Clash Royale is in my mind the best mobile game made to date. The game can be simply described as a four minute emotional rollercoaster packed onto your phone. It’s a game that is extremely easy to pick up and also extremely easy to quit.

My first post about Clash Royale concentrated on all the elements that make the game so phenomenal. After four months of very devoted gameplay, I’m burned out by Clash Royale and it seems that so are the people around me. Where it previously felt strategic and fun, it now feels random and frustrating.

This post breaks down five reasons why you are thinking about quitting the game you loved so much just a short while back.

1. You Are Tired of the Grind

When you started playing Clash Royale, the feeling of progress was very tangible. You racked up Trophies first to 400 and then to 800 – graduating from the Goblin Stadium to Bone Pit and then to the Barbarian Bowl Arena. With each new Arena you also unlocked 6 new cards, which you hunted from the gacha based Magic Chests.

After devoting few months of daily battles you’ve realized that the game has gotten extremely competitive and the only way to make real progress is not through optimizing, growing and mastering your deck, but through upgrading your relatively limited existing set of 50 or so cards. In other words, you just need an awful lot of duplicate cards and tens of thousands of Coins to progress. Getting the hundreds of cards is hard enough, and getting the thousands of Coins to upgrade them is even tougher. Unless you’re willing to spend, prepare to play for months without any meaningful progress.

Clash Royale is simply an extremely grindy game if you compare the amount of time needed to progress to the limited content of different cards. This is due to two reasons. Firstly, because Arena levels determine the chest rewards, the speed of progress can actually decrease if you get relegated to the lower Arena (by losing trophies). There’s no other game that comes in into mind where this would occur. In all other games players’ ability to accumulate resources increases with time played and this is offset with an increase of in-game prices. For example, in Clash of Clans, I can be raided multiple times a day without a decrease to my ability to generate Elixirs and Gold – whereas in Clash Royale a losing streak can result in a regress to a lower Arena, and a decrease to my Chest rewards.

Secondly, the progress is halted through insanely high Coin costs. This double progress mechanic is very clever and something Wargaming has perfected in World of Tanks (read: World of Tanks Liberates Players from Mid-Core). First, a player earns enough resources to unlock an ability to progress, after which the player is presented with the extremely high price to actually upgrade. When this happens, players monetize because they feel that they’re halfway there, and can make a clear purchase decision based on how much time they will save by spending.

In Clash Royale, the player opens up the gacha chests for weeks to earn enough of a specific duplicate card. After the player gets all the needed cards, they’re hit with an upgrade cost that takes them easily half as long to accumulate. Due to the fact that the speed of your progress can decrease and because there are two price points for each upgrade, it’s no wonder if you feel like you’re actually not making any progress in Clash Royale. The painfully slow progression is simply due to the very limited content in terms of different cards. As more cards and Arena levels are added, the progress will speed up but given the current speed of content creation, this will take a couple of years.

2. You’re Punished for Using New Cards

Hog Rider, Prince, Balloon, Three Musketeers, Mortar… All these amazing new cards changed your deck when you first got them. But now, when you’re clawing your way up to 3000 Trophies, you simply can’t afford trying new cards. You still probably remember when you thought that copying your clan mate’s deck would help, only to drop 400 Trophies in an awful losing streak.

In Clash Royale new Arenas unlock the possibility to get new cards. But drawing a new card at later stages of the game isn’t really rewarding simply because the player is discouraged to experiment with new cards. The core loop currently supports only upgrading cards and there are no modes or features to push the collection portion – making the game feel stale. Having a winning deck in Royale is quite simply a combination of a rightly balanced set of highly upgraded cards, the muscle memory of how to use them, and an opponent with the right weaknesses in his deck. Because every mode is ranked, there’s no safe environment to learn how to play with the new card decks. Thus, there’s ultimately little motivation to unlock new cards. One can practice new decks in friendly matches with clan mates, but based on my experience, clan mates are usually not available when you want to play.

Clash Royale’s progress mechanic is very straightforward: winning battles rewards a player with Trophies. Players wants Trophies because they allow them to progress to the next Arena. Players want to reach the next Arena because chest rewards scale up as they move up from one Arena to another. Arenas also unlock new and better units, which in theory should give a player more tools to win.

This progress mechanic functions perfectly as long as the player craves for more and more Trophies. The problem is that after a couple of months of gameplay, when a player hits 2000 Trophies and finds him or herself in the second-to-last league tier, the player’s interest for unlocking new cards drops, because a player needs to seriously master their deck and, well, mastery takes time and practice. As each match is ranked, there’s no possibility to train the newly unlocked cards. And, if a player doesn’t want new cards, they don’t care about Trophies and that breaks the progress mechanic. Clash Royale forces you to play with the same 8 cards even though you have 50 different ones to choose from.

3. You Are Stressed Out by the Battles

It feels so amazing to snowball an opponent and get those three Crowns accompanied by some 30 Trophies. But man, how bad does it feel to be on the receiving end of that carnage? Especially when you were trying out some new cards in your deck.

Every battle in Clash Royale has high stakes because it’s ranked, which is something no-other esport game does. For example, in Hearthstone, which Supercell thoughtfully used as a benchmark title, you have two main game modes: Casual and Ranked.

Hearthstone’s Casual matches allow you to experience all the challenges of the game without worrying about losing your hard-won rank. Casual is the perfect place for testing a new deck, or leveling a new class, and is the ideal mode in which to start playing against human opponents, after learning the basics in Practice mode. In many games, the player needs to reach a certain level before they’re even let into the Ranked mode – to protect fun for all players involved.

The Ranked mode in Hearthstone allows a player to earn special ranks to reflect their abilities in battle for the season. Winning and losing matches can increase or decrease a player’s rank, which determines matchmaking as well as grants rewards at the end of the season. Just like in Clash Royale’s Legendary Arena the ranked play in Hearthstone occurs in seasons. At the end of each season, rewards are handed out, and each player’s rank is reset to a far lower number.

Personally I feel that the lack of a casual mode is the biggest flaw in the near-perfect Clash Royale. Without a safe environment to master new tactics, players who try new decks are penalized by awful losing streaks. If players are not allowed to test out new cards against human opponents in a non-penalizing environment, they will not be driven to get new cards and strive to progress to new Arenas.

4. You Lose Half of Your Battles

In one battle, you feel that you finally have an unbeatable deck that will take you to the Legendary Arena in no time. Then, in the next battle you get triple Crowned like a noob. You rage and go to the next battle that you handedly win just to get your ass handed to you in the following match. This emotional roller-coaster was pretty amazing in the beginning but now it feels like you’ve had enough of this abusive relationship.

At this point, it just feels that whether you win or lose has very little to do with player’s skills, especially at higher levels. Instead, winning depends on the type of deck your opponent has in comparison to your deck. For example: I’m dominating and being dominated in turn with my deck that relies on the Royal Giant. If the opponent has a Cannon to draw the Giant’s attention, I’ll likely lose end up losing since playing the Giant costs twice as much elixir as the Cannon. Then again, if the opponent doesn’t have a Cannon, I’ll very likely win. This is just one of numerous examples of cards and counter-cards. What I’m trying to say is that because the deck size is so limited, a player can’t change his strategy during the battle. If someone has a counter against your deck it’s really like playing rock-paper-scissors where you’re the scissors and your opponent is the rock.

Compare this to a deep strategy game, like a MOBA, where item builds are crafted during the game. A player can change the way their champion performs on the fly – it’s about building and counter building based on what your opponent is doing. In other words… strategy.

The reason why the vast majority of players have a 0.5 winning record is the careful balanced small set of cards and very small deck size of only 8 different cards. You see, there are no useless cards or cards that are simply better than others, like in Hearthstone. Every card has its purpose to either counter another card or hit the opponent’s Towers. Together with a deck of only 8 cards, this balancing practice leads to decks that are unbeatable against certain decks but useless against others. That’s why you constantly win and lose and only card upgrades will truly allow you to progress in the game.

Because Clash Royale has such a limited amount of cards, the majority of players with over 2000 Trophies must have 90% of the cards unlocked. Since almost all players have access to the same cards, also the meta-game is very reactive. What I mean by this is when there’s a tuning update to cards, and certain cards are weakened, everyone updates their decks instantly. Players at the higher Arena levels see most of the decks change as highly preferred cards get weakened resulting in decreased demand for those cards and the cards that were used to counter them.

This instant change of the game’s meta is something that doesn’t happen (to my knowledge) in any other game. For example, when Hearthstone releases a whole new set of dozens new cards, the meta is not changed at that exact moment because only a small portion of players have all the cards. Same thing in MOBAs like League of Legends, where nerfing of a champion tends to have less profound and instant effect on the meta.

5. It’s the Same Everyday

Fire up Clash Royale. Open up a Chest. Gift a few cards to your Guild. Jump into a battle. Get trashed or trash someone. Start unlocking a new chest. Come back in three hours and repeat. Sometimes you get hooked to either digging yourself out of a losing streak or riding a winning streak. That’s about it.

Apart from regular updates to the meta-game through tuning and adding new cards, Clash Royale is the same steak and eggs every day. In Hearthstone I’m welcomed with daily challenges that push me out of my comfort zone and incentivize me to play with a hero I haven’t played for a while. In Leagues of Legends a new set of champions is unlocked for the player every week, encouraging players to try something new and thus influencing the team structures as several players are picking up the free champions in rotation. Then there are the event dungeons in Puzzle and Dragons that offer daily challenges and unique loot.

Supercell has excelled at creating masterpieces with just a fraction of developers compared to any other game company. But sometimes less is not more. We the players are spoiled with games that feel fresh on a weekly, if not a daily, basis and expect it from all games. Clash Royale would in my mind benefit greatly from more robust and active live operations driven by daily challenges and tournaments. But because that requires content, and content requires developers and artists, we’ll likely be left with the steak and eggs and none of the frills.

Clash Royale Has Kicked Off the New Era of Mobile Games

Is Clash Royale the best game ever released for touchscreen devices? If you ask me, I’ll say it is. It’s a perfect combination of tactical yet accessible game-play, a super solid core loop, amazing user experience, phenomenal user interface, beautiful art, and high performance.

But it’s also a game that wants to be more than what it is. Clash Royale lacks the team-play of MOBAs and the depth of card games. The lack of content makes it extremely grindy and random. The lack of events and daily quests make it feel repetitive and stale. It’s also a skill-based game to a certain extent, after which it becomes pretty much pay-to-win. And it’s as much of an esports game as craps with loaded dices is a skill game.

The utmost best thing about Clash Roayle is that it has reignited the stale mobile gaming market. Sure, we’ll see infinite amount of Roayle clones rolling in this and next year but we’ll also see innovative mobile player-versus-player games that will grow with a support of community and streaming channels. Clash Royale has started a new era on mobile and I’m very excited about it.(source:gamasutra)