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电子游戏的现在与未来:大型多人在线游戏(MMO)

发布时间:2018-03-02 09:09:40 Tags:,,

原文作者:Bill Murphy 译者:Megan Shieh

自《魔兽世界》首次发布以来,已经有13个年头了,至今它仍然是西方世界中最受欢迎的大型多人角色扮演游戏(MMORPG)。尽管有少数表现不错的同类游戏,比如《激战2》、《上古卷轴》、《最终幻想14》,甚至《星球大战:旧共和国武士》,但是自《魔兽世界》以来,MMORPG领域就没有出现过真正热门的内容。

然而,作为MMORPG.com和GameSpace.com的总编辑,我认为MMORPG并没有消亡,它一直都在,它是电子游戏领域的未来。MMO就在我们身边……只是你看不见而已。

World of Warcraft(from venturebeat.com)

World of Warcraft(from venturebeat.com)

不知道你们有没有听说过《Destiny命运》?有没有在《绝地求生》里面吃过鸡?有没有在《坦克世界》里面消灭过敌人的坦克?如果有的话,就证明你一直在玩MMO,它们只是不把自己标榜为MMO而已。当普通玩家听到“MMO”这三个缩写字母的时候,他们会感到恐慌、他们的手心会冒汗、他们害怕自己需要无止境地各种刷、害怕自己需要深夜组队突袭别人。MMO是《魔兽世界》巨大成功的牺牲品。暴雪娱乐的这款作品在行业中创造了一片“蓝海”,以至于在接下来的几年间,许多大型工作室都试图复制它的成功。

蓝海战略

有一种叫做“蓝海战略”的东西,它的意思是超越竞争的思维,开创新的市场需求、新的/未知的市场空间。当一家公司发现自己身处一个竞争激烈的市场时,它必须寻找一个新的切入点来取得成功。任天堂两次实现了这种战略,之前是Wii主机蓝海战略,最近是Switch蓝海战略。这种情况也会发生在特定的游戏类型上。MMORPG就是一个非常典型的例子,因为自《魔兽世界》首次发布之后,市面上就充斥着各种“克隆版的魔兽世界”。把整个市场想象成海洋,把产业想象成鲨鱼,这片海洋由“蓝海”和“红海”组成。“蓝海”比喻的是一片空旷的、未知的海域;而“红海”指的是一片鲨鱼密布的水域,所有的鲨鱼都在互相撕咬、抢夺食物,能活下来就算幸运了。

同样的市场狂热也曾发生在“多人在线战术竞技游戏(MOBA)”领域,在《英雄联盟》和《刀塔2》的最初成功之后,有多少同类游戏存活了下来,并且欣欣向荣?接着是持续不断的“集换式卡牌”热潮(也是起源于暴雪)。然后是《DayZ》掀起的僵尸热潮。而现在,《绝地求生:大逃杀》又掀起了一股“吃鸡”热潮。由此可见,历史在不断地重演。这种现象是周期性的——市场繁荣、萧条、重复。《超级马里奥64》开创了3D沙盒先河,在此之前是16位机的格斗游戏。市场的繁荣和萧条是注定会重复的。

持久性

但是MMO在整个电子游戏领域烙下了一块永久的烙印,我们谁都躲不了,那就是“持久性”。用户希望他们玩的游戏能够永久地持续下去,希望自己能够永无止境地进阶,或者至少希望他们在游戏中付出的所有努力不会最终沉入大海。你可以在《命运》、《绝地求生》、《英雄联盟》,甚至《使命召唤14》中看到我所谓的这种“持久性”,这些游戏提取了促使《魔兽世界》成功的极小因素之一,将它加入到了曾经长度有限的体验中。但是这种做法也不总是奏效:没有什么比粉丝的愤怒更可怕,看看《命运》的开发商Bungie就知道了,他们现在还在处理《命运2》的社区危机呢。(游戏邦注:为了避免部分玩家过度Farm扭曲游戏造成虚拟经济,使得游戏内物品贬值和玩家兴趣降低,在《命运2》的XP获取上,Bengie设置了一个“经验值递减系统”,引起了广大玩家的愤怒。)

将MMO比喻为一幢房子,如果说《魔兽世界》把MMO的天花板给摘了,然后其他的失败者又直接把它给盖上了,像《命运》、《坦克世界》、《绝地求生》的这类游戏就等于是开了一点窗户。MMO不是MMORPG,像《无尽的任务》和《网络创世纪》这类游戏的传统玩家会第一个冲上来告诉你这点。然而,目前几乎每款大型热门游戏都会带有MMO的影子。举个例子,根据SuperData发布的数据,此前提到的《英雄联盟》、《绝地求生:大逃杀》、《命运2》、《坦克世界》等都在2017年10月的全球营收榜上占主导地位。

它们的共同点是什么?持久性!即将发布的MMO《双重宇宙》也带有同样的持久性。而这就是我年复一年地回到“艾泽拉斯”(魔兽中的一个地点)的主要原因。这是一个熟悉的地方,变化不大,但是在天气寒冷的几个月里,让我想起了凌晨在“塔伦米尔”(魔兽中的一个地点)的土地上奔驰的情景,缓解了我怀旧的心情。《阿瑟龙的召唤》和《网络创世纪》也为它们的玩家创造了同样难忘的回忆。

今天,有数百万名的MMORPG粉丝渴望一个全新的、更令人兴奋的游戏,那些千篇一律的游戏,大家都玩累了。每次我叫别人去玩《命运》的时候,人家都会叫我滚开…他们说“那不是真的MMO!”从某种角度上看,我认为他们的想法是对的。在像《命运》、《絶地求生》、《星际战甲》和《坦克世界》这样的游戏中,无论是游戏世界、游玩进度、故事还是角色进阶和解锁,都带有了“持久性”这一关键要素。但是它们未能提供一个真正庞大的、相互关联的世界,让玩家们可以看到对方的一举一动。

尽管人们对Chris Roberts的《星际公民》抱有很高的期望,但是MMORPG似乎一直都是墨守成规、千篇一律的。不过,它正在静悄悄地复兴——世界各地的独立开发者都试图为经典MMORPG的粉丝们创造一些新的东西,让他们为之着迷,比如《灰烬创世纪》、《乌鸦陨落》、《伊利里亚编年史》、《解放圣城》和《Legends of Aria》。也许在未来的某一天,他们中有人会发布一款完整的游戏,我很期待这天的到来。但是在那之前,我会继续玩《魔兽世界》、《命运2》和《绝地求生》。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

It’s the end of 2017 and World of Warcraft still dominates the western hemisphere as the most popular massively multiplayer role-playing game on the planet – 13 years after its initial launch. While there are a few stalwarts (Guild Wars 2, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, and even Star Wars: The Old Republic), the MMORPG hasn’t seen a true hit since the year Azeroth broke the Internet. And yet, as editor of MMORPG.com and GameSpace.com, I’m here to tell you that the genre isn’t dead. It’s the future. It’s the always. The MMO is all around us…you just can’t see it anymore.

See if you all can follow me here, have you heard of Destiny? Have you celebrated a Chicken Dinner in PUBG? Have you decimated opposing tanks in Wargaming’s World of Tanks? Well, then you’ve been playing MMOs that don’t call themselves MMOs. When your average gamer hears that three-letter acronym, they panic, their palms sweat, fears of endless grinding and late-night raid schedules creep in. The MMO genre was a victim of WoW’s mammoth success. The Blizzard-made behemoth created such a vacuum in the industry, that for a good few years every blockbuster studio was trying to replicate its success.

The big fish

There’s something called the Blue Ocean Strategy, in which when a company finds itself in a crowded market, it must seek a new angle to find success.Nintendo famously did this with the original Wii console, and recently again with the Switch. It happens with specific game genres, too. The MMORPG was one that people remember and point to often, because so many “WoW Clones” flooded the market. Blue Ocean is a reference to sharks in the sea, ergo when it’s too crowded in a market it’s a red ocean – a feeding frenzy is in place and you’ll be lucky to make it out alive.

The exact same market frenzy happened with MOBAs. How many are still alive and thriving after the initial success of League of Legends and DOTA2? Then came the ongoing Collectible Card Game craze (again, thanks to Blizzard). Then there was the DayZ clone craze. And now, we’re seeing history repeat itself with the PUBG -styled Battle Royale game, thanks to Bluehole and modder-turned-game-dev-all-star Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene. (Interesting to note that DOTA 2 and League of Legends also came from modders.)

This sort of market boom, bust, and repeat is cyclical. It happened with 3D platformers in the wake of Mario 64. Before that it was fighting games on 16-Bit systems. We are destined to repeat this, as much as the mobile market is destined to go after anything Supercell makes for the foreseeable future.

Be persistent

But there’s one thing that the MMO made permanent in all of gaming that we cannot escape: persistence. People want their games to last forever, their progress to be undying, or at the very least to have the idea that all their hard work having fun wasn’t wasted. Persistence, as seen in Destiny, PUBG, League of Legends, and now even Call of Duty WWII, is akin to taking the tiniest sliver of what makes games like World of Warcraft stick and slapping it on what used to be a finite experience. It doesn’t always work out, though: hell hath no fury like a fan pissed off though: just ask Destiny’s developer Bungie who is still dealing with the community fallout from Destiny 2.

If World of Warcraft tore the lid off the roof of the MMO, and then all its also-rans put it right back on, games like Destiny, World of Tanks, and now PUBG are opening the window just a crack. The MMO is not the MMORPG. The traditional fans of games like EverQuest and Ultima Online will be the first ones to tell you that. But then here we are – a world where most every major release has some form of MMO-lite feature tacked on. Just a look at recent SuperData findingsshows how many online games are leading the pack of top earners.

The main one? That’s persistence, as found in the upcoming MMO Dual Universe). It’s arguably why I still return to Azeroth myself year after year. It’s a place that’s familiar, changing but a bit, and offering a nostalgic respite during the cold months when I remember what it was once like raiding Tarren Mill in the wee hours of the morning. The same sort of memories were made for others in Asheron’s Call (rest in peace), EverQuest, and Ultima Online.

Today there are millions of MMORPG fans longing for a world to call home that’s newer, fresher, more exciting than those we’ve been visiting for years.  Every time I point them to games like Destiny, I’m told to bugger off. “That’s not really an MMO”. And in some ways, I think they’re right. Games like Destiny, PUBG,Warframe, and World of Tanks sprinkle in the key ingredient of persistence, whether in a full world or in character progression and unlocks. Whether it’s in the characters, the progression your account makes, or the story. But they fail at providing a truly massive interconnected world where players can and do see each other doing everything from fishing to dancing on mailboxes.

Lofty expectations placed on the shoulders of Chris Roberts’ Star Citizennotwithstanding, the MMORPG has been in a rut publicly. Although it’s quietly enjoying a renaissance in games like Ashes of Creation, Crowfall, Chronicles of Elyria, Camelot Unchained, and Legends of Aria — indie devs all over are trying to make something new for fans of the classical massively multiplayer role-playing game to become enamored with. And maybe, one day, one of them will release a finished game. Until then, I’ll be killing kobolds in Elwynn Forest gleefully in between Nightfall Strikes on Nessus, and eating Chicken Dinners in PUBG. (Source:venturebeat.com


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