作者：Motoi Okamoto

在电子游戏历史中，《Pokemon Go》的确创造了与以往不同的巨大社会效应。去年，《Pokemon Go》很快便创造了5亿下载量并赚取了10亿多美元的收益。

这款游戏也成功吸引了那些每天只喜欢玩三消游戏的女性用户以及那些通常都不玩游戏的中年人的注意。它让很多人在无需复杂解释的前提下便能够体验AR游戏的种种可能性。很多人都能感受到与现实世界重叠存在的另一个世界。

Pokemon Go(from gamasutra)

我们发现全新世界的新差异

是的，这是与现实世界相关的另一个世界。所以人们也会发现和现实世界一样的新差异。

今天的我们也面对着各种不同的差异，如贫富差距不断变大的收益差。而现在我们也将在基于定位的游戏以及现实世界MMO游戏中感受到全新的差异。

住在一个大城市的手机游戏玩家每天都能在自己生活的街区发现许多Pokestop，但是那些生活在农村的玩家却只能找到星星点点的Pokestop。这种不断扩大的差异问题不仅在《Pokemon Go》中很常见，在其它基于定位的AR游戏中亦是如此。

虽然在现实世界中去减少这种差异很困难，但在虚拟世界中却相对简单些。

我将基于自己过去开发定位游戏的一些经验提供有关解决差异问题的建议。

基于定位游戏的两个参数

首先我想说下自己过去的经验。自2000年代初期以来，日本手机运营商（游戏邦注：docomo，au，Softbank等）便提供了基于定位的信息服务，日本手机游戏开发者也已经创造了超过40款基于定位的游戏。我自己也创造了两款定位游戏，一款是打打杀杀的RPG游戏，另一款则是养狗游戏。

那时候主要有两条关于定位的信息。较简单的是三角化来自手机基站的距离，另一个则是使用GPS并创造更高的精准性。那时候很多手机都只能支持较简单的那种方法。

因为开发者是基于这种局限性去设计游戏，所以用户必须通过点击去测量全新位置以及自己每一次移动的距离。我们通常都是使用“地点”和“距离”这两个参数去设计游戏。而基于我们认为“地点”和“距离”是否重要我们将从整体去改变游戏设计。

基于地点的元素

玩家将前往某个地点，获得某些内容或参与游戏活动，如寻找珍宝遭遇怪兽之类。如果地点与现实世界的场所相联系，游戏机制便能鼓励玩家在特殊场所走动，如所谓的“盖章竞走”，这能够有效带动旅游业的发展。

实际上，日本旅游产业便经常举办限时旅游竞走活动。自从1997年以来，日本铁路公司东日本旅客铁道公司每年都会在小学暑期于几十个站点举办盖章活动。

例如Mapion的 “Keitai Kunitori Gassen”（定位游戏服务）在整个日本便拥有600多个地点。尽管玩家需要花很多时间才能完成它们，但这款游戏在那些经常出差的商业人士中非常受欢迎。但并非所有人都能前往那些地点。基于定位的游戏设计将游戏乐趣与旅游的乐趣（或散步的乐趣）结合在了一起。但这也引出了玩家间的一些不公平。

就像在《Pokemon Go》中，有些元素就和“地点”一样，如Pokestop，gym和Pokesource。四处走动去寻找Pokemon，在Pokestop获取道具以及通过攻击前往gym是很有趣的。在现实世界中四处走动前往不同地点也是定位游戏的内在吸引力。但同时不公平问题也会出现。即在农村总是很难找到Pokestop，但是在城市却随处可见。

基于距离的元素

根据你所移动的距离你将发现游戏中的随机活动或获得像货币，材料等游戏资源。

关于距离游戏设计的例子有“奔跑援助游戏”，如《Zombies, Run!》。市场上还有许多其它的奔跑援助应用。玩家将在现实世界中通过行走，慢跑或奔跑去玩《Zombies，Run！》。在奔跑的同时你将通过耳机听到任务和音乐。你可以收集物品去重建城镇。有时候僵尸会突然出现你便需要加速奔跑！如果你被僵尸抓住了，你便会失去所收集到的物品。

我们需要记住的是，《Pokemon Go》鼓励玩家积极地去行走，所以在健康支持方面它获得了许多关注。

关于距离游戏设计的另一个例子便是COLOPL的《Colonial Life Plus》，游戏会根据你所移动的距离提供给你资源，你也可以通过消费去创建自己的城市。

Pokemon蛋便是《Pokemon Go》游戏设计中基于距离的元素。孵蛋是获得Pokemon的一种有效方式。而孵蛋器可以缩短你的行走距离与所需时间并能够减少城市与农村间的差距。

更多孵蛋器将大大提高孵蛋的效能。而孵蛋器盈利与一般的Gacha盈利间的显著区别在于，即使没有孵蛋器玩家也可以在自己的国家收集所出现的Pokemon。

伙伴系统也是一种基于距离的元素。如果你选择了Pokemon作为自己的伙伴并基于同样方式移动一个特定距离，你便可以获得你的伙伴的糖果。选择一个较难找到的Pokemon能够帮助你更轻松收集糖果并去进化Pokemon。

基于距离的元素能够保证任何地方的用户间的公平性。但是这也只能将现实世界的差异性简化为一维参数而已。并且这会影响增强现实与定位游戏的必要乐趣。

建议

《Pokemon Go》成功使用了基于地点的元素与基于距离的元素。从整体上看游戏更侧重基于地点的元素。而我认为任何定位游戏都可以通过地点元素和距离元素间的平衡进行评判。

这款游戏拥有的一大弊端便是玩家获取蛋是受限于Pokestop和升级奖励。而在农村很少能找到Pokestop，所以那里的玩家将拥有更少的蛋，这与居住在城市的玩家便形成了差异。

而添加了上面提到的两种获取蛋的方式后，城市与农村建的差异便缩小了。例如每当你移动了特定距离，你便能够随机获取蛋。或者玩家可以从登陆奖励中获得蛋。当然了除此之外也有其它的方式。

（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）

The design to reduce disparities in location-based games like Pokémon Go

by Motoi Okamoto

Certainly, Pokémon Go has caused an incredibly large social phenomenon over the world than ever before in the history of video game. Last year, Pokémon Go quickly reached 500 million downloads and recorded sales of more than around one billion dollars.

The game successfully involved many female-users who like to play only 3-Match every day, a lot of middle-aged people who usually don’t play games. The game made many people experience the possibility of AR (Augmented Reality) games without complex explanation.Many people would have felt the existence of another world overlapping with the real world.

We found new disparities in the new world

Yes, it is certainly another world related to the real world. And so, people find new disparities as in the real world.

Nowadays, we face various disparities, including income in the gap-widening society.And then we are experiencing a new big gap in the location-based game, real world MMO-game.

The mobile gamers living in a large city patrol many PokéStops in the neighborhood every day, on the other hand the rural mobile gamers have to travel away to some sparse PokéStops. This gap-widening problem is common not only in Pokémon Go but also in general location-based AR games.

Please don’t feel a despair another world soon. That is because it is not easy to reduce disparities in the real world, but it might be somewhat easier in the virtual world.

Okay, let me suggest a solution to the gap-widening problem, based on my past experience of developing some location games. I would like to suggest how to approach in order to solve the problem and how to design game balance in location-based AR game.

The two parameters of the location-based game

First, I would like to explain my past experience. Japan’s mobile phone operators (docomo, au, Softbank) have provided location-based information services since early 2000s and Japanese mobile game developers have developed over 40 location-based games. Also, I have developed two location-based games such as a hack-and-slash RPG (confidential) and a dog-breeding game, wan-one GRAND PRIX.

There were two location-based information at that time. A simple one that triangulates the distance from the cellular phone base-stations, and another one that uses GPS and has high accuracy. Much of cellular phones only support simple ones.

The developers have designed their games under the restriction that users must click to measure a new position and a distance each time they move. Therefore, we usually used two parameters “spot” and “distance” mainly to design our games. We changed the design of the game as a whole, depending on whether “spot” or “distance” we see heavily an importance on.

The spot-based elements

You go to the spot, and get something or find in-game events like finding treasures, encounter of monsters. If the spot is linked to the real site-seeing site, the mechanics that motivate players to move around all specified sites, such as so called “Stamp Rally”, will have a very beneficial effect for the tourism industry.

In fact, the Japanese tourism industry often holds a limited time stamp rally. Since 1997, Japan’s railroad company, East Japan Railway Company holds a stamp rally over dozens of stations at the elementary school summer vacation season almost every year.

Also, for instance, Mapion’s “Keitai Kunitori Gassen” (it means mobile warring states) has about 600 spots throughout Japan. Although it took much time to complete all of them, the game got a large popularity among business people often having business trips. But not everyone can go to the spot. The spot-based design connects an enjoyment of a game with that of a trip (or a walk). However, it causes inequality among players.

In Pokémon Go, there are some kinds of “spot” like PokéStop, gym, Pokésource (a Pokémon appears every hour). It is a lot of fun to walk around searching for Pokémon, get items at PokéStop, and attack to the gyms here and there. Moving around various spots in the real world is one of the intrinsic attractions of location-based games. At the same time, however, the problem of inequality happens. There are few PokéStops in the countryside, on the other hand, there are many PokéStops in the city.

The distance-based elements

You find in-game random events or get in-game resources like coins, materials and others according to the distance you moved.

A representative example of the distance-based game design is a genre of “running aid game” such as Zombies, Run!. There are so many running aid apps in the market. You walk, jog or run anywhere in the real world to play Zombies, Run!. While runnnig, you hear missions and music through headphones. You can collect supplies to rebuild your town. Sometimes, the zombie’ chase happens and you have to speed up! if you are caught by zombies, you lose supplies you picked up.

Please remember that Pokémon Go encouraged players to walk actively and it gathered a great deal of attention in terms of health support.

Another representative of the distance-based game design, COLOPL’s Colonial Life Plus gives you resources according to the distance you move, and you can develop your city by paying them.

The egg of Pokémon is a distance-based element in the game design of Pokémon Go. Incubating egg is a good way to get those Pokémons that won’t appear in your neighborhood. The Egg Incubator shortens your time and walking distance to completion and reduces disparities between city and countryside.

More Egg Incubator would boost efficiency of incubating eggs nine times! The obvious difference between Egg Incubator monetization and usual Gacha monetization is that you can collect all of Pokémons appearing in your country without Egg Incubator.

The buddy system is also a distance-based element. If you would pick a Pokémon as your buddy and move to a certain distance in the same way, you can get a candy of your buddy. Pick a Pokémon that is hard to find, and it will be a bit easier to collect candies and evolve it.

The distance-based element ensures the equality for users living everywhere. However, it simplifies the rich diversity of the real world to a one-dimensional parameter. It reduces the essential fun of augmented reality and location based games.

The suggestions

Pokémon Go successfully adopts both spot-based elements and distance-based ones. As a whole, the game emphasizes spot-based ones. I think that any location -based game can be defined by the balance of spot-based ones and distance-based ones.

The game has a large disadvantage that the means to obtain the egg is limited to the PokéStops and the level-up bonus. There are fewer PokéStops in countryside, so players living there can get fewer eggs that can reduce the disparities than players living in city.

Adding a means to get eggs other than the above two, the disparity between urban and rural areas will be reduced. For instance, every time you move a certain distance, you pick up eggs randomly. Or you get an egg from login bonus. Of course, other means can be considered variously.

Thank you for reading so far. You can apply the above concept of game design to any location-based game except Pokémon Go. I hope this article gives you valuable insights. Ask me in the comments If you have questions about this article.(source:gamasutra)