本文原Allen Bevans 译者ciel chen

全世界手游数量的剧增证明越来越多的人喜欢上了玩游戏，在此之前，这样的体验还限于电脑平台和游戏主机平台的用户。

这样的扩张意味着那些玩游戏的性格、需求以及动机变得更加多样化了。尽管这种玩家的多样化是一种难得的机遇，但这也可能是一种挑战。为了构建出能吸引多样化受众，激起他们兴趣的游戏，开发者需要构架出针对他们现有及潜在客户的独立见解，这样的见解需要具备足够的深度以及意义。

为了构架出这样的见解，Google Play委托开展了一项研究，该研究帮助我们了解全世界手游玩家在行为与需求方面的异同。一开始我们做这个研究是为了内部需要，但是我们相信，我们的发现将对更多的游戏开发者有所价值。

曾经我们认为玩游戏的人是“gamer”，现在我们认为是“player”。

人们一般都会觉得玩游戏的人属于两种极端群体——一个是“骨灰级”玩家，他们爱高技巧游戏爱到骨子里；另外一个是“休闲”玩家，他们喜欢玩一些不需要太多技巧，没什么挑战性的游戏。这两种极端的看法也跟一系列对玩家的年龄和性别假设与刻板印象有关——就像“骨灰级”玩家都是年轻男性，而“休闲”玩家都是年长女性这样的看法。事实上，在游戏中，大多数玩家都不属于这两种玩家类型。

游戏在玩家生活中所扮演的角色和玩家的社会行为有着最大的相似性和差异性。

当我们想到给玩家分类时，我们遇到了第一个挑战，就是要做出某种形式的顺序。有数以百万计的玩家，他们对手游的态度、需求和行为有着怎样的或相似或不同之处？

在对八个市场的两万多手游玩家进行的调查中，我们问了一系列他们在游戏中不同方面的问题：他们是如何找到他们手头的游戏的，游戏中哪些内容是他们看重的，他们玩游戏的方式和时间，游戏是如何融入他们生活的等等。我们发现了真正区别玩家群体的因素在于他们的社会行为和他们对游戏的热情。

社会行为的例子包括在游戏探索和选择中其他玩家对自身造成的影响，还有与其他玩家的竞争、或者参与联盟社区成为其中一员。对游戏的热情则包括在游戏上花的时间、游戏在他们的身份和粉丝行为的中心地位，比如购买该游戏品牌的商品。

我们根据这些维度确定了五种不同的玩家群体：

five player segments（from gamesindustry.biz）

这五种玩家群体也有不同的行为，开发者可以通过这些行为了解他们的游戏偏好和动机，然后我们把发现的内容解析成以下四种关键见解：

游戏玩家的年龄和性别不是造成差异的主要原因

一旦我们确定了基于这些维度的5个群体，我们开始从他们的身份以及他们的行为中了解到更多关于他们的信息。要强调的很重要一点是——尽管在不同群体中的年龄和性别存在差异，但它们并不是造成群体差异的主要原因。像这样的群体分类指标通常是从生活层次或者性别上进行群体分类的，这样的分类方法会隐藏住那些真正发挥作用的不同维度之间的关键异同点。虽然较年轻的“游戏爱好者”会稍微多一些，或者较年长的“被动玩家”会多一些，但两个玩家类别的大多数人年龄都在26-45岁之间。相似的还有——属于“游戏爱好者”以及“玩法探索者”的男性会稍微偏多一些（也就只略高于50%）。

不同玩家群体通过不同渠道和传播者发现游戏

“游戏爱好者”发现新游戏的途径最多，但是他们所有渠道几乎都有赖于社交——不论是生活中或者是网络中（比如Youtube）的朋友都可是他们发现新游戏的传播者。他们也是最有可能对软件内广告做出反应的群体。“玩法探索型玩家”在社交上依赖度较低，他们发现新游戏的主要依据就是游戏商城的榜单、Youtube、游戏内广告以及游戏评分等等。正如所料，对于“受影响玩家”和“试探性跟进型玩家”都是受到别人影响才发现的新游戏——可以是他们的朋友，还是看到什么人在玩一款游戏，又或者是看到有人在Youtube上看到谁谁谁在玩某款游戏。“被动型玩家”更容易受到排行榜和应用内广告，还有“其他”的发现渠道（不在调查所定义的范围内的方法）的影响。

同一种玩家群体不会只玩同一种游戏

当我们问到玩家关于他们玩的游戏类型时，我们看到在不同玩家群体之间存在很多相似性，解谜游戏是所有玩家群体都喜欢的，还有策略游戏也是（除了被动玩家之外），当然还是某些玩家群体所喜欢的特定游戏类型的。

“游戏爱好者”几乎每种游戏都玩，并且似乎不怎么偏向某一类型的游戏。然而，“玩法探索者”更倾向于动作和冒险类游戏；“受影响型玩家”最迷解谜游戏，不过也喜欢冒险和策略类游戏；“试探性跟进型玩家”喜欢卡牌、小游戏和文字游戏；而“被动型玩家”喜欢的都是解谜类和卡牌游戏。

游戏动机并非仅仅是放松和排解无聊

人们玩手游的普遍动机是用来放松和排解无聊的。然而，我们还看到一些其他驱使人们投入到手游当中的原因。特别是对于“游戏爱好者”而言，他们重视在游戏上取得进展、测试提高自己的游戏技巧（包括单机和联机对战）以及喜欢通过玩游戏获得愉悦感来“奖励自己”。“玩法探索型玩家”和“受影响类型玩家”也把玩游戏和取得游戏进展作为一种奖赏自己的方式，不过他们比较不注重技能方面的比试。“试探性跟进型玩家”以及“被动型玩家”都比较少关注玩游戏带来的欢愉感。

这些结论对开发者的含义

为自己游戏玩家的各种需求做考虑。除非你的游戏对玩家年龄和性别有高度针对性，不然不要想当然地对玩家按照年龄和性别分类。要想想你的游戏能提供哪些不同的游戏需求和关键经验。

设计游戏以及添加游戏功能时，考虑到玩家的差异性：要够精确，这个功能是只针对某个玩家群体的吗还是面向全体玩家的；要掌握实时信息，从合适玩家群体哪里过的反馈；要专注，清楚地说明某个功能特性将如何改变玩家特定方面的游戏体验，以及说明这些功能对他们来说重要在哪里。

定制你的用户获取策略。要用最好的市场营销渠道，让游戏覆盖到每个你的目标玩家群体。所有类型的玩家都有发现新游戏的多种方式，不过如果你所构建的游戏是针对某一类型的玩家，你就应该优化你的营销策略，把重点放在他们使用最多的渠道上。

定制参与策略来鼓励你的目标玩家群体更多地参与到游戏中。“游戏爱好者”喜欢占领排行榜前排以及挑战他们的社区，然而“玩法探索型玩家”则更喜欢在个人的游戏进展。要利用对你的玩家来说最有意义的游戏内容来让他们发现并参与到你的游戏当中。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The amazing growth of mobile games across the world means more and more people engage with gaming experiences previously limited to users of other platforms such as PCs and consoles.

This expansion means the characteristics, needs and motivations of those playing games are more diverse. While this diversification of players is an amazing opportunity, it also can be a challenge. In order to build games that excite and engage such a diverse audience, developers need to build deep and meaningful insights about their current and potential customers.

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Allen Bevans, Google Play
To help build such insights, Google Play commissioned a research study to understand differences and similarities in the needs and behaviors of mobile game players across the world. Initially we ran this research for internal purposes, but we believe our findings are of value to the wider community of mobile game developers. The research report can be found here.

We used to think ‘gamers’, now we think ‘players’

It can be easy to think of people who play games belonging to one of two extreme groups – the ‘hardcore’ gamers living and breathing complex highly skilled games, and the ‘casual’ gamers playing low skill, non challenging games. These extremes are also associated with a range of demographic assumptions and stereotypes, like “hardcore” gamers being young and male, and “casual” gamers being old and female. The reality is a majority of players fall somewhere between these two extremes along the game playing spectrum.

The role of games in a player’s life and their social behavior drive the most similarities and differences

Our first challenge when considering the spectrum of players was to create some form of order. How were these millions of players similar or different in terms of their attitudes, needs and behaviors when it came to mobile games?

In our survey of over 20,000 mobile game players across eight markets, we asked a series of questions about different aspects of their game playing: how they find out about games, what about games are important to them, how and when they play, how gaming fits into their lives, etc. We found the questions that truly differentiated groups of players from each other centered around their social behaviors and their passion for games.

Examples of social behaviors include both the influence of others in game discovery and choice, as well as playing against others, or as part of a community or alliance. Passion for games includes time spent playing, the centrality of gaming to their identity and fan-like behavior such as purchasing branded merchandise.

We identified five distinct segments of players based on these dimensions:

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These five player segments also have different behaviors which can be used to understand gaming preferences and motivations, and we have analysed the findings into the four following key insights:

1. Demographics are not the primary drivers of difference

Once we identified the five segments based on these dimensions, we started to learn more about them in terms of who they are and how they behave. It is really important to highlight that while there are demographic differences between these segments, these are not the primary drivers of segment differences. Too often segmentations like this primarily differentiate segments in terms of life stage or gender, which can hide key commonalities and differences across dimensions that really matter. While there are slightly more younger ‘connected enthusiasts’, or older ‘passive players’, the dominant age profile for both segments is between 26 and 45 years old. Likewise, there is only a slight male bias (just over 50%) for ‘connected enthusiasts’ and ‘playful explorers’.

2. The player segments use a range of channels and influencers to discover games

‘Connected enthusiasts’ use the most channels to discover new games, but nearly all their main channels involve other people – either in real life or online, e.g. YouTube. They are also the most likely to react to in-app advertising. ‘Playful explorers’ are less socially dependent, with their main sources of game discovery coming from Play Store top charts, YouTube, in-app ads and game ratings. As expected, it’s all about influence from others for ‘influenced players’ and ‘tentative followers’ – either their friends, seeing someone else play a game, or watching someone play on Youtube. ‘Passive players’ are more influenced by top charts and in-app ads, as well as “other” sources of discovery – sources that don’t fit into the pre-defined categories in the segmentation surveys.

3. Player segment does not equal one genre

When we asked players about the types of games they play, we saw similarities across all the segments. Puzzle games are universally appealing, as well as Strategy (except for the ‘passive players’). We did see some specific clusters of game types for certain segments.
‘Connected enthusiasts’ play nearly every genre and are less likely to skew towards any one in particular. However, ‘playful explorers’ skew more towards action and adventure games. ‘Influenced players’ are big puzzle fans, but also enjoy adventure and strategy. ‘Tentative followers’ enjoy card, trivia and word games, while ‘passive players’ are all about puzzles and card games.

4. Motivators of engagement go beyond just relaxation and boredom

Relaxation and boredom relief are universal motivators to keep people playing mobile games. However, we see some other more actionable drivers of engagement that vary across segments. In particular, the ‘connected enthusiasts’ are all about making progress, testing their skills (both personally and with others) and ‘rewarding’ themselves with the pleasure of game play. ‘Playful explorers’ and ‘influenced players’ also see playing games and making progress as a reward, but are less focussed on testing skills compared to others. ‘Tentative followers’ and ‘passive players’ are less likely to focus on the pleasure of game playing.

Implication for developers

Consider the various gaming needs of your players. Unless your game is highly targeted towards a specific demographic group, don’t fall for demographic stereotypes. Instead, think about the different gaming needs being met by your game and the key experiences your game provides.

Take player differences into account when designing your game or adding new features:

Be specific: Is this feature for a certain segment of players, or all players in general?

Be informed: Get feedback from the right segments of players.

Be concrete: Articulate how a feature will change specific aspects of these players’ experience, and why that is important to them.

Tailor your customer acquisition strategy. Use the best marketing channels to reach each desired player segment. Players of all kinds discover new games in many ways, but if you’re building a game for a specific kind of player, you should optimize your strategy to emphasize the channels they engage with most.

Tailor engagement strategies to motivate your target player segment(s). ‘Connected enthusiasts’ love leaderboards and challenging their community while ‘playful explorers’ are more interested in personal progress. Use the game content that is the most meaningful to your players to help them discover and engage with your game.（source：gamesindustry.biz ）