作者：Leigh Alexander

游戏如何向玩家传递价值？Spry Fox联合创始人Dan Cook在纽约的PRACTICE大会上分享了自己针对这一问题的答案。

Cook曾在微软和Epic就职，后来因独立工作室在创造新事物上的发展前景而受到鼓舞，并与David Edery合作成立了Spry Fox（游戏邦注：代表作包括《Steambirds》、《Triple Town》）。

SteamBirds(from videogamewriters.com)

他表示，“当你连续两三年开发同一个看似遥遥无期的项目时，我建议你摆脱这种状态，培养自己的业余爱好，着手制作自己的游戏。我现在唯一回避的领域就是主机平台。”

Cook声称他深为游戏如何为世界增添价值这一问题所着迷——价值和效能就是这个问题的关键。

他回忆自己当初制作低成本共享软件，创造自己所热爱项目时的情景，“那时你可以获得远超实际成本的回报，因为人们确实愿意为你所制作的这些小型游戏付费”。但在过去十年，游戏制作成本大幅上涨——在主机游戏领域投入100名开发者，以及4000万美元的预算已经是普遍现象。在Cook看来，作为大型团队中的一员，自己能为设计施加的影响力会被削弱。

主机零售渠道已是目前最为成熟的平台之一，但随着其他平台的兴起，主机领域也因开发成本的上涨而则日趋没落。Steam已不再是独立游戏开发者的天下，App Store的成功门槛也因iOS平台的成熟而不断攀升。Cook指出，“制作一款排在前十名的免费游戏成本正迅速增长。”

提供趣味

开发者总是难以找到一个开发年限与玩家游戏时长相称的基本比例。Cook表示，“你会发现有质量的游戏时长是一个很重要的概念，因为我或许可以让人们长时间玩游戏，但这种游戏体验的质量却很糟糕。”

“我们向他们提问……你觉得好玩吗？这款游戏有趣吗？你会向朋友推荐这款游戏吗？如果继续追究下去，你还可以提到一些关于正面心理调查的问题，你在这个游戏中的体验质量如何？”他解释了有质量的游戏时长这一概念，“你可以随着时间的发展追踪情况……我们通常追踪留存率（以及粘性），但我认为这种体验的质量也很重要。”

Cook认为保证游戏体验的质量，开发者责无旁贷。因此，他正在对此进行尝试：开发商可以在某个项目上持续投入更多开发者，不断增加时间投入，调整项目安排——但为何不采用仅有一两个开发者的小规模团队，例如，只用一个美术人员和一个兼职设计师，在有限的预制作、制作和设计时间中解决提高游戏体验的质量这个设计问题？

据其所述，在早期一款名为《Bunni》的即时战略游戏中，其收割环节专注于讲述故事，这种设计很古怪，但却很可行，有部分用户深为这个游戏时刻所着迷。Cook相信这是因为游戏是围绕引向“丰富、强大、召唤型反馈”的弧线而设计。

“你看到出色的画面或看到一些惊人的体验时，这种感觉会冲击你的大脑……大脑受到刺激，你开始回忆起童年时代荡秋千的感觉，就好像游戏将你带回那种时刻，我觉得这种感觉棒极了。”

经济价值

将游戏视为引发唤醒式刺激物的弧线所存在的问题是，玩家总是过快地燃尽这条弧线，速度就像翻书一样。对多数人而言，瘙痒的感觉很短暂，瞬间即逝。这也正是我们为何可将游戏视为一系列弧线的原因——但玩家很快就会陷入无聊的状态，开发者就不得不持续创造新的刺激物，从而保持玩家的粘性。

用Cook的话来讲，这就像是“一对一的关系：开发者制作内容，用户消费内容，这个过程永无止尽。”

添加“东西”（即拥有经济价值的商品）可以增加玩家游戏体验的价值感。“我们用东西填充车库的原因在于，我们买了一些自认为有用的东西。”因此，给予玩家一些让他们感觉有价值的东西，远比简单地向其抛出内容更能提高粘性。

Triple Town(from plus.google.com)

在《Triple Town》的游戏玩法中有一个物品收集元素，以及一个漫长而曲折的累积曲线。“我们已经算出来了，如果要达到第30级，玩家基本上要投入50亿年，这是一个明智的做法，它确实管用，极有利于扩展玩家在游戏中的粘性。”

但这里也存在一个问题：但并非所有玩家都会投入并且喜欢这种指数型进程系统，也有一些玩家专注于刷任务机制，并且很快就会因为杳无止境的任务而受挫。尽管这些玩家可能会再投入更多时间，但其游戏体验却已经受到影响，他们觉得自己的时间价值大打折扣。

Cook对此表示，“我们通过创造10亿年的游戏内容而耗费玩家的时间，数学是博大精深的学科，但遇上人类心理学时，却并不总是那么管用。”

《Triple Town》是一款讲究技巧的益智游戏，“我将它视为一款单人战术和策略游戏，它主要涉及排列、组织以及提前计划等原理，优秀玩家在游戏中会提供制作好20-50个步骤的计划。”

由于这种技能门槛，约有90%的玩家过后就不再重返游戏，但剩余的10%或20%玩家却会在游戏中投入上百甚至上千小时。Cook称“游戏变成了他们的业余爱好”，游戏并不只是被动地用新内容给玩家填食，而是为玩家提供在游戏中提升技能的机会。

游戏已经成为自成一体的价值系统。即使玩家为掌握技能而得到满足，游戏也并没有因此进入玩家的现实生活。这也正是积分排行榜，社交媒体框架以及身份道具等元素的作用所在，它们可以加强玩家从游戏体验中所收获的价值。

但无法在这类社交状态框架中提升地位的玩家很容易泄气。他们的地位越低，收获的乐趣就越少，尽管他们所做的任务和掌握的技能与他人并无不同。这就会造成一种他们在浪费自己的投入精力的情况，他们会因为身份和地位被降低而失去游戏动力。

Cook指出，“积分排行榜总会让你的水平提升10%到50%，但这其中也有一定的成本。”

这就涉及到他所谓的“价值引擎”这一概念，即设计师制作内容，玩家消费内容。但为何不通过贸易来增加价值？擅长搜集某类道具或物品的玩家之后自然会想同他人互享资源，从而建立起一种增加自身价值的关系生态圈。

他称“这是一个非零和的做法”，它可以创造价值，毕竟聚集到一起的道具远比独自存在的道具更有价值。

在《Realm of the Mad God》中，向地面丢弃道具的能力这种简单的添加设置给该游戏整个生态圈带来了影响。玩家可由此创造和调整自己的贸易文化，创造可促进贸易的应用，以及相关倡导团体和可信赖的人脉网络。

Cook称“我们看到了这种文化规范的爆发。为了相互贸易，这里诞生了多种相互沟通的渠道。玩家创造了一种表达自己所需的语言。我们原先并未在游戏中设置任何货币，结果玩家却自己创造了非官方货币。”

“我还没有机会设计MMO游戏，所以这种情况确实让我很震撼，并让我思考：我们对游戏的看法是不是完全错了？如果没有向玩家传递这些价值，如果没有创造这些引擎，这些微小的真实系统，我们作为游戏设计师的目标又是什么，游戏又该如何创造价值？如果我们不是将玩家视为价值消费者，而是一些能量细胞，我们又该如何刺激他们？”

他表示游戏已超越了业余爱好的范畴，并演变成人们的生活方式。

例如《Minecraft》这款游戏，在Cook看来它的情节很幼稚，游戏充斥着粗糙的木块，并且几乎毫无故事性可言。但是，“虽然它并不具备AAA游戏过去十年所追求的理想元素，但这并不妨碍它成为如此惊人的价值创造器。从玩家在其中掌握的技能来看，《Minecraft》创造了不可思议的人力资本，以及用户同家人一起体验游戏时的社交资本。

重大责任

Cook称这款游戏让玩家创造真正的工艺品。而他自己的游戏《Bunni》也有一个庞大的论坛，玩家在其中创造了许多《Bunni》同人小说，在其中发表了上万个基于该游戏世界的故事贴，以及人们扮演游戏中某个酒馆中角色形象的主题。

“同人小说的概念就是游戏的衍生物，如果你的游戏走对路了，你就能够激发玩家的这种创造力。”他补充道，针对社区文化设计游戏，也应该成为创造价值引擎的游戏目标，将游戏视为人们建立联系的系统，这似乎也是个可行的想法。游戏发展的规模越大，设计师在其中扮演的角色就越为重要。

Cook强调“这是一个重大的责任，展望未来，我认为人们的生活将日趋网络化，人们将通过游戏发现更多生活的意义。未来将有上百万甚至数十亿人，围绕游戏创造自己的社区和游戏文化。在这一点上，我们设计师有能力发挥其他群体所没有的巨大作用。”

作为小型游戏开发者，Cook并不打算在创造内容或媒体上投入精力，“……我将创造不断扩展的价值，这才能有效利用我的时间，有效利用玩家的时间。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The ‘immense responsibility’ of creating value for players

By Leigh Alexander

How do games deliver value to their players? Spry Fox’s Dan Cook, of LostGarden fame, was at NYU’s PRACTICE conference to share some experiments he’s done toward answering that exact question.

When Cook, formerly of Microsoft and Epic, co-founded Spry Fox (Steambirds, Triple Town) with David Edery, he was excited by the independent company’s opportunities to build new things.

“When you’ve been working on the same game for two to three years and it never seems to release, I highly recommend stepping outside of that, getting a hobby and starting some new games on your own,” he says. “Pretty much the only place I’m avoiding right now is console,” he adds.

Cook says he’s “completely and utterly obsessed” with how games can efficiently add value to the world: Value and efficiency being the key words. “That ‘efficiently’ part comes from almost like a famine time in my career,” he says, recalling the days of being a low-cost shareware developer creating passion projects.

“You’d get remarkably outsized returns because people would actually pay you money for these little, small games you’d been making,” he says. But over the last decade the cost curve has ramped up massively: 100 developers and a budget of $40 million is commonplace in the high-end console market — and personally Cook feels that as one person in a massive team, the quality of the design he can implement and his ability to create an impact is diminished.

Console retail is now one of the most mature platforms extant, however — and it trickles downward from there as other platforms follow, with cost curves continuing to escalate. Steam is no longer an easy indie playground, and the barrier to success on the App Store has ramped up massively as the platform matures. “The cost to make a top ten free-to-play game has increased dramatically,” he notes.

Are you having fun?

It’s harder to find a basic ratio of development years to quality hours for the player. “What you find is that the quality hours of play becomes a really important concept, because I can get people to play something for a very long period of time, and the quality of that experience is absolute crap,” Cook notes.

“We ask people, and we track… are you having fun? How fun is this game? Would you recommend this to a friend? And if you go down there’s some positive-psychology survey questions you can ask about, what is the quality of this experience you’re having?” he explains of quality hours. “And you can track this over time… we’re used to tracking retention [and engagement], but I think the quality of the experience also ends up mattering.”

Cook feels a huge responsibility to quality of play. As a result, he’s been experimenting: One can always dump more developers onto the project and increase the time investment, and scale activities — but instead, why not assume a small team of one to two devs, an artist and a part-time designer, for example, can tackle the design problem of how to increase quality hours given a limited number of preproduction, production and design hours?

Historically the commercial industry has been media-focused. With an earlier game called Bunni — “the harvesting portion of a real-time strategy [game],” he describes — there was a focus on storytelling (“there’s a marriage, bunny strippers… very disturbing”). It was strange, but it worked, and a certain population adores some of the game’s moments because, Cook believes, the game is built out of arcs, an execution that leads to “rich, strong, evocative feedback.”

“You see an amazing picture or you see some stunning experience, and it hits your brain… it’s stimulated, you start remembering that time in your childhood when you were on a swing, at the peak of a swing, and it’s like… ‘this game brings that back, and I feel wonderful’,” he enthuses.

Economic value

The problem with conceiving games as an arc leading to evocative stimuli is that players burn through an arc quickly, like flipping pages of a book. For most people, the tickle is brief, and then subsides. That’s why it’s possible to conceive of games as sequences of arcs — and yet you end up in a treadmill model that forces the developer to continue cranking up new and stimulating content to keep the player engaged.

“It’s a one to one relationship: Make content, consume content,” Cook notes. “It never ends.”

Adding “stuff” — goods with an economic value — can often enhance players’ sense of value in their experience. “The reason we fill our garages with stuff is because we bought something [that] we thought would be useful to us,” Cook says. Giving players things to own that they feel are valuable can be more efficient than simply throwing content at them to enhance engagement.

In Triple Town, there’s an object-collecting aspect to the gameplay, and a long, steep accumulation curve. “We calculated it out: To reach tier 30, it’s going to basically take players about five billion years… this was a clever hack. This works,” he says. “This was extraordinarily effective in terms of stretching out players’ engagement with the game.”

But there’s a problem: For all the players who engage with and love this exponential progression system, there’ll always be some who are focused on grinding and become discouraged to realize there’s a billion hours ahead. There may be more hours gleaned from the player, but that player experiences a reduced sense of value for their time.

“I’m wasting their life by going and being clever and creating a billion years of content for them,” Cook reflects. “Math is great, but it doesn’t always work when mixed with human psychology.”

Triple Town is a puzzle game that requires skill: “I think of it as a single-player tactics and strategy game,” he says. “It’s all about placement, organization and planning ahead, and a good player plans ahead anywhere from about 20 to 50 moves when playing Triple Town.”

The game has a skill barrier past which about 90 percent of the players drop off, but the remaining 10 or 20 percent will put hundreds, even thousands of hours into the game. “Your game becomes a hobby for them,” he says — rather than feeding the player content, they’re receiving an opportunity to invest their time in improving their skill at that game.

Games become a self-contained value system. Even though players are gratified by attaining skill, it doesn’t cross the barrier into people’s lives outside of that game. That’s why leaderboards, social media infrastructure and status items are another way to increase and enhance the value players glean from the experience.

But players who don’t climb the status infrastructure so quickly or easily feel deflated. The lower one’s status is the less pleasure they take in doing the exact same game tasks at the exact same level of skill. This effectively creates a situation where people waste their investment — they feel and act less intelligent due to being relegated to a lower status.

“Leaderboards will often get you 10 to 50 percent improvement, but there’s a cost to that,” Cook points out.

This is where his idea of a “value engine” comes in, a new take on the mode where the designer creates and the player consumes. But what about increasing value through trade? Players who specialize in certain types of item gathering and creation naturally end up wanting to share with others who’ve invested their resources differently, and it builds a relationship ecosystem that adds player value.

“It’s a non zero-sum act,” he says. And it creates value, since items that go together are more valuable as a set than as items on their own.

In Realm of the Mad God, one simple additon made a difference to the entire ecosystem: The ability to drop items on the ground. From there players began to create and modify their own trading culture, creating new applications that facilitated trade, along with advocacy groups and trust networks.

“We saw this explosion of cultural norms,” Cook says. “In order to trade with each other, it’s a highly inefficient process… there were ways of communicating with each other. People created languages for talking about what they want, how they could get it in a very efficient fashion. We didn’t have any money in the game so people started creating their own unofficial currency.”

“I hadn’t had the opportunity to design an MMO, so this was kind of a shock to me. It blew my mind, and it made me think: What if we’re thinking about games completely wrong?” What poses. “What if instead of delivering these packages of value, what if instead our goal as game designers is to create these engines, these littel tiny rule systems, that instead generate value? What if we think of players not as consumers of value, but as these energy cells, where our job is to activate them?”

That takes games beyond hobby and into lifestyle, he argues.

Look at Minecraft — in Cook’s view its plot is childish, it’s made of crude blocks, and there’s hardly anything there in the way of narrative. And yet: “Given how much it fails at all the ideals that AAA games have pursued for the past decade or so, it still ends up being this amazing value generator,” Cook continues. Minecraft creates incredible human capital in terms of the skills people can gain, and social capital, as when families play together and share the experience.

An immense responsibility

Crucially it lets players create actual artifacts, Cook says. The world of his Bunni had a massive forum on which players ended up creating Bunni fanfiction (“which was a lot more tame than you might expect given the contents of the game,”). There were thousands of posts with intricate player-created stories based on the game’s world, and threads with people roleplaying characters within one of the game’s taverns.

“This concept of fanfiction really is something that comes out of, if you do it just right you can actually trigger this explosion of player creativity,” Cook notes. Designing for community and culture, with shareable artifacts, should also be a goal in building a game that can act as a generative value engine for players, and thinking of games as systems that build relationships between people seems to work, he adds. And the bigger games become, the more significant the designer’s role in making millions-strong worlds with their own rules and cultures becomes.

“This is an immense responsibility,” Cook emphasizes. “I look forward, and I see that we’re only going to be more online; people are only going to find meaning in their life through games more, not less, and we’re going to have millions of people, probably billions of people, that are building their community and their culture and their art around our games. And we have an immense power to shape that, probably like no other group of people probably ever in the history of time.”

As a creator of small games, Cook will invest his energy not in creating content nor in media. “I’m going to drop a ruleset into the ocean of humanity, and create an ever-expanding tidal wave of value,” he declares. “This seems like an efficient use of my time, and an efficient use of the player’s time.” （source：gamasutra）