原文作者：Jon Jordan 译者：Megan Shieh

2010年3月的时候，我试着玩了F2P模拟经营手游《We Rule》，当时只坚持了一个星期。

2013年9月的时候，我挺认真地玩了一年的《Clash of Clans》，不过后来也玩不下去了。

从那以后，几乎没有什么游戏能让我玩过六个月，这可能更多的是因为新游戏发行的数量远远超过了它们的质量。

那么为什么21个月后，我还在玩《星球大战：银河英雄（Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes）》呢？

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes（from pocketgamer.biz）

新希望

该游戏于2015年11月发布，从一开始就给我留下了深刻的印象。尽管跟星球大战系列的其他产品比起来，它就只是个打酱油的，但我仍觉得它是‘2015年度最值得玩的游戏之一’。

它将西方游戏设计和用户体验与亚洲RPG中常见的‘自动战斗’功能结合到一起，这点令我印象深刻。

在这款游戏里，玩家可以通过“奖励加速机制”来“更好地利用他们的时间”并“确保进阶”。

但良好的设计和对玩家心理的理解，通常不足以让我继续玩游戏。

实际上在最初的6个月里，我本来是打算在几个月后再开另一个账号，然后使用正派（Light Side）的角色从头开始玩。

虽然游戏中有一个模式会迫使你选择一个Light Side小队来击败Dark Side角色(反之亦然)；但游戏的PVP模式允许玩家通过混合和匹配正反两派的角色来创建一个小队。

我不是星球大战的粉丝，但不知道为什么这样一个不规范（与电影情节不符）的选项让我很恼火，于是我决定重新开始。这种自我施加的限制并没有让游戏变得更容易，我也还是得从头开始玩。

然而真正让我停不下来的是游戏在2015年4月新增的公会系统。

一起玩更好玩

我一向不喜欢加入游戏中的社区，因为几乎没有游戏会提供像样的奖励，而且被无缘无故地踢出社区是能让我删除APP的最快途径。

《银河英雄》的公会系统不是最具深度的，但结合游戏的其他留存功能（例如：事件、每日活动以及对新碎片和装备永无止境的需求），再加上我之前的游戏体验，足以让我继续玩下去。

某天一个业内人士突然邀请我加入他的公会，直到这时，我的《银河英雄》之旅才算真正开始。

但是我在我们公会里也不算很活跃，所以这并不是我决定继续玩这个游戏的主要原因。

我之所以选择继续玩这个游戏，其实是因为有朋友邀请我加入公会，而且公会里的一些人我在现实生活中也见过，因此产生了相互作用，我可不想让他们‘失望’。

更新

我已经达到了等级上限，也把我所有的关键角色都刷爆了；但考虑到游戏的最近一次更新，我认为我还会接着玩。

这次更新的规模虽然可能比3月份（增加飞船系统）小，但相比起来，领地争夺的更新更令人兴奋。

这次更新为公会添加了一种新模式——公会成员选择战场的不同部分来攻克，然后集结地面部队和飞船舰队的力量，在规定的时间内完成相关任务。

参与战斗的每个公会成员都能得到同样的奖励，更新的奖励是一种名为Guild Event Tokens的新型货币，这种货币可以用来解锁角色，包括新版的Leia,Han和Yoda。

这种更深层次的合作方式将会提供更多的社交凝聚力，推动公会之间的联系。

和朋友一起玩

对于像我这样的长期玩家而言，有朋友同玩一个游戏是件非常好的事，但它同时也凸显了其他手游开发者的一个大问题。

越来越少的开发者使用Facebook Connect作为游戏的社交工具，这样的话他们怎么能让那些知道彼此的人加入到社区中来，并在最初的3-6个月里保持玩游戏的状态呢?（游戏邦注：Facebook Connect，是指一些网站为了使自己更加社交化，在首页加入“login with facebook”按钮，这样用户可以不用注册而直接通过已有的facebook帐户来加入该游戏。）

这也是移动游戏开发者在2010年面临的问题，Ngmoco,OpenFeint和Scoreloop，甚至是苹果和谷歌也难逃一劫。此外，Line和Kakao等消息传递网络也遇到了同样的问题。

当然，微信为某些游戏在中国提供了垄断性地位，但很难看出腾讯是如何在全球市场占据主导地位的。

让人哭笑不得的是，如今我们和爱人、家人、朋友、甚至素未谋面的人都能通过社交网络来拉近彼此之间的距离，但是要让这些人同玩一个手游却变得前所未有的困难。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Like a lobster boiling in a pan, it’s difficult to look back and remember exactly when the heat got turned up and my tolerance for playing F2P mobile games changed to enjoyment.

Given I’ve been writing about mobile games for the past decade, there are a couple of headlines that stand out, though.

Back in March 2010, I only lasted a week in pioneering F2P mobile kingdom builder We Rule.

But by September 2013, I’d manage to play Clash of Clans pretty solidly for a year before logging off.

Since then, few games have stretched me much beyond six months. Perhaps that’s more to do with the relentless churn encouraged by the sheer number of new releases than a mark of their quality, however.

So why I am still playing EA Mobile’s Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes?

A new hope

Released in November 2015, I was impressed from the get-go, calling it“the most significant game” of the year and that despite being no more than a passing fan when it comes to all things Star Wars.

Instead, what had impressed me was its combination of Western game design and user experience with the aggressive autoplay features more typically seen in Asian RPGs.

As discussed with Executive Producer John Salera, this was a game that enabled players to “optimise their time” and “ensure player progression” through “reward acceleration”.

But great design and an understanding of player psychology isn’t usually enough to keep me playing. What actually got me through the first six months was the decision, after a couple of months, to open another account in the game and start from scratch just using Light Side characters.

A new Light Side character for me to collect

Although one mode does force you to select a Light Side squad to defeat Dark Side characters (and vice versa), the game’s PVP mode (and other challenges) enable players to create a squad by mixing-and-matching characters from both sides.

Not caring much about Star Wars, I’m not sure why such a non-canonical option annoyed me to the extent I decided to start over. This self-inflicted restriction certainly doesn’t make the game any easier and saw me repeating a couple of months of sustained grind.

As with any F2P experience, however, it was the game’s guild system (added in April 2015) that provided the glue which has kept me playing since.

Better together

I have a tendency not to join in-game communities. They are hard places to find comfort.

Few seem to offer decent rewards while, in my experience, repeatedly getting booted out by the moderator for no apparent reason is the fastest track to app deletion.

Galaxy of Heroes’ guild system wasn’t the deepest – originally offering raids, donations and a store – but combined with the game’s other retention features such as events, daily activities and the neverending need for new shards and items – my initial experience was strong enough to keep me going.

The new Territories Battles update screen

Yet, it wasn’t until a surprise invitation from an industry insider to join his guild that my Galaxy of Heroes experience really took off.

Significantly, this is not because I’m particularly active on our guild’s Facebook chat or a star player, although I am proud to be ranked second in terms of lifetime item donations. No, it’s just the fact I’d previously met some of the people and was invited to join the guild, which then generated enough reciprocity to want to not ‘let the team down’ in some weird way.

Something new

Given I’ve hit the level cap and maxed out all of my key characters, no doubt, this attitude will be tested in future, but given the scope of game’s latest update, I don’t think I’ll be leaving anytime soon.

Perhaps not as large as the March 2017 update which added space ships, the Territory Battles update is more exciting.

Adding a significant new mode for guilds, for the first time it sees players choosing different parts of a battlefield to conquer, then combining their ground troops and ships together to fight through the relevant missions within a restricted timeframe.

This activity is rewarded by a new currency which unlocks characters, including new versions of Leia, Han and Yoda – if that sort of thing appeals. What seems more interesting will be the way in which this deeper co-operative play will provide more social glue to bind guilds together.

You’ve got a friend

That’s great for long-term players of Galaxy of Heroes like me, but it does highlight a wider issue for other mobile game developers.

With declining use of Facebook Connect as a social enabler, how can they get people who know each other to join together into the communities that will sustain the game past the first three or six months?

This was the same problem mobile developers faced back in 2010, and which companies such as Ngmoco, OpenFeint and Scoreloop, even Apple and Google, promised – but failed – to fix. The shine has also gone from messaging networks such as Line and Kakao, which at one point did solve the issue, at least in some countries.

Of course, WeChat/Weixin is enabling a monopolistic position for certain games in China, but it’s hard to see how even Tencent can take that dominance global.

Ironically then, given we’ve never been more connected to the people we love, as well as the friends we know or may have never even met, getting them together to play a mobile game has never been harder.（Source: pocketgamer.biz ）