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Facebook社交网站游戏逐步向高品质游戏看齐

发布时间:2010-12-23 15:39:28 Tags:,,,

针对在全球拥有5亿用户的大型游戏平台Facebook,不少传统游戏爱好者和开发者指责Facebook游戏过分简单,并认为Facebook游戏仅仅以盈利为目标。因此,社交游戏巨头公司Zynga市场被冠上“邪恶”之名。然而近年来这一情况似乎有所转变。

据游戏邦了解,过去被大量的农场和文本类游戏占领的Facebook社交网站如今引进了大量高品质的大型多人网络角色扮演游戏,其中不乏Ubisoft, Electronic Arts和Square Enix等知名的老牌视频游戏开发商。最近,Sid Meier公司正在为Facebook平台开发新款游戏《文明》。令许多业内人士也正致力于开发各种独一无二的游戏体验。Facebook游戏绝对不是FarmVille可一言概括的。

Civilization

Civilization

对游戏开发者而言,网络世界中不乏各种类似Facebook的社交网站。社交网站为游戏开发公司提供了一定的玩家基础和货币化手段。也正因此很多人将社交游戏直接与“赚钱挂钩”,认为FarmVille等社交游戏根本不配称之为游戏,而只是一种盈利手段。

社交游戏通常的开发过程就是将各种病毒式传播方式与货币化手段进行融合,在此基础上适当添加一点游戏功能。对此,开发了《Fantasy University(FU)》Facebook游戏的Simutronics公司总裁兼首席执行官David Whatley表示其对FU的开发已经打破了这一常规做法。“在FU开发过程中,我们首先进行的是游戏体验的开发,之后再想办法将病毒式传播渠道和货币化方式添加到游戏功能之中。FU十分注重高品质的游戏内容和丰富多样的游戏机制。”

虽然Simutronics公司的名号算不上家喻户晓,但在其创建至今的20年间该公司开发了诸如GemStone系列和DragonRealms等知名游戏。

众所周知,开发传统视频游戏投资巨大且耗时久,最终成品还难以与《魔兽世界》等知名网游一较高下。因此,Facebook社交网站无疑为广大游戏开发商提供了新的发展机会。Whatley认为开发Facebook社交网站是一种新兴游戏平台,各游戏开发商可以在低成本的情况下完成游戏开发。

魔兽世界

魔兽世界

另外,Simutronics公司发现抗拒FU社交游戏的人群往往与厌恶Facebook社交网站的人群相重合,这部分玩家总是抱怨Facebook游戏的品质,然而当Facebook推出真正的高品质游戏时,他们又不愿意尝试。

如此看来,或许不是Facebook平台或其中的游戏体验令玩家产生抵触,而是玩家本身并不愿意在Facebook平台进行各种社交游戏?

对此,迪士尼旗下Playdom工作室的Scott Jon Siegel认为这类抵触现象十分常见,随着Facebook社交网站越来越受欢迎,必然就容易激起部分人的反感。另一方面的原因是社交游戏仍然处于初步阶段,目前该领域的游戏还无法完全体验社交平台的真实价值。

值得一提的是,最近PopCap公司将旗下两款受到视频游戏玩家热烈追捧的游戏《宝石迷阵》和《祖玛》搬上了Facebook平台。Facebook版本的PopCap游戏较之原版游戏更加快速和刺激,同时添加的排行榜等社交功能激起了玩家与好友的激烈竞赛。

据游戏邦了解,近期许多知名游戏公司纷纷开始向Facebook社交网站迈进,Sid Meier公司更是将开发《文明5》的重任委以年轻的Jon Shafer,投入大量的精力打造面向Facebook平台的新款游戏《Civilization Network》。

与此同时,老牌视频游戏公司EA也早就采取了行动。首先是花巨资收购了社交游戏工作室Playfish,其次开始将旗下知名游戏纷纷搬上Facebook平台。另外曾开发Mirror’s Edge 2D和Dragon Age Journeys(龙腾世纪)而赫赫有名的EA2D也开始全力开发面向Facebook平台的《Dragon Age Legends》。

Dragon Age

Dragon Age

预计将于明年初发布的《Dragon Age Legends》是一款“动作策略RPG游戏”,这款血腥暴力的Dragon Age系列游戏是否能令人们对社交游戏有所改观呢?在此,EA2D总经理Mark Spenner表示将在未来的游戏运营中不断地拓展游戏内容和功能。

Dragon Age legend的诞生说明了现在游戏开发公司开始将Facebook社交网站作为一种通行平台。各大游戏开发公司的追随潮流的同时,十分注重根据该平台的游戏开发出引人入胜的游戏体验。

尽管现在Mafia Wars和FarmVille等简单社交游戏在用户数量上保有绝对的优势,但我们相信未来在无数天才游戏开发者的努力下,Facebook平台必然涌现出更多的高品质游戏。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

The biggest gaming platform in the world has 500 million users and zero respect. Traditional gamers and developers bemoan the lack of complexity of Facebook games and the shady business practices of those who create them. It’s not uncommon to hear the word “evil” tossed around during discussions of social gaming giant Zynga. But that’s changing.

Once the domain of farming simulators and text-based gangster games, Facebook is now home to in-depth role playing games, full-blown MMOs and some of the biggest names in game development. Names like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Square Enix.

Sid Meier is crafting a new version of Civilization specifically for the platform and indie developers are creating unique experiences you can’t find anywhere else. There’s more to Facebook games than just FarmVille.

From the developer’s perspective, there’s a lot to like about the world’s largest social network. For starters there’s the massive built-in audience and the potential for monetisation that hundreds of millions of users provide. And money makes people take notice.

Unfortunately, the pursuit of profit doesn’t always result in great games. That’s part of the reason that the current generation of social games is often treated with such disdain – FarmVille isn’t seen as a game, but a way to make money.

“The traditional way to develop these games seems to be to cobble together a strong viral-monetising machine. Then, if time permits, maybe add something like a game on top of that,” says David Whatley. He’s the president and CEO of Simutronics Corp, the company behind Facebook RPG Fantasy University.
‘Are Facebook games getting better?’ Screenshot 1

Fantasy University parodies everything. Even Scrubs.

“With FU we put gameplay first, and we knew [we] would have to figure out how to fit the viral and monetising bits in there over time. A product like FU is very heavy on high-quality content and rich game mechanics, both of which we are rapidly expanding as we go.”

While Simutronics may not be a household name, the developer has been around for more than two decades, crafting MMORPGs like the GemStone series and DragonRealms. But developing MMORPGs is expensive and it’s not easy to compete against the likes of World of Warcraft. So Facebook offered a new opportunity.

“Facebook represented a new type of gaming platform that had a more reasonable development and operational cost structure,” Whatley says. “You can launch a online game using cloud-based infrastructure that scales as you grow.”

Fantasy University is a deep, menu-based RPG that’s rife with cultural references. Think of it as Harry Potter if Harry, Ron, and Hermione made fun of Spongebob and Star Wars all day. It’s funny and engaging and it’s unlike anything on the platform. It’s a hardcore game for a hardcore audience. But it seems that audience isn’t taking notice.

“FU is growing steadily, though hardly at a rate commensurate with our wildest dreams,” Whatley says. “We found out that, again much to our surprise, the crowd that seems most likely to get a kick out of FU’s snarky take on modern culture is exactly the crowd that loathes the idea of Facebook games.”

So, in spite of the huge audience of Facebook users, Simutronics is planning to make the game available to even more players through OpenID. But FU represents quite the quandary: gamers complain that there’s no good games on Facebook, and then when one shows up, they don’t play it.

The platform itself is what’s turning off many players. It’s not just the games.Maybe gamers just don’t want to play games on Facebook?

“I think part of it is the wide reach of the platform itself,” says Scott Jon Siegel, a designer at Disney-owned social game studio Playdom. “Facebook and social networking have become so ubiquitous that there’s almost an anti-establishment backlash against their popularity.

“Another part of it has to do with the established library of games, and a major misconception that we can do no better. Because social gaming is still in its early stages, most games in the space aren’t really indicative of what I see as the platform’s true potential.”

If there’s one thing gamers like it’s familiarity – names they know, franchises they trust. Popcap has managed to score a pair of hits with Facebook iterations of puzzlers Bejeweled and Zuma, two of the few casual games that have respect amongst the traditional gaming audience.

On the social network they’ve both been trimmed down into bite-sized, one-minute rounds of gameplay. It’s as fast and exciting as ever, and there’s an extra touch of competitiveness thanks to the inclusion of leaderboards featuring your very own Facebook friends.

That ability to tap into the social aspects of Facebook is what’s attracting plenty of other big-name developers. While the lead design duties of Civilization 5 were handled by his much younger protege Jon Shafer, Sid Meier has been hard at work on a project called Civilization Network.
‘Are Facebook games getting better?’ Screenshot 2

The Zuma frog wants to steal your soul. And free time.

According to the game’s Facebook page, Civ Net will be a persistent world with everything you’d expect from a Civilization game. Except it’s on a social network. And it’s free.

EA, too, has taken notice. Aside from spending loads of money picking up social game studio Playfish, EA is also taking some of its biggest names and bringing them to Facebook. And you can thank EA2D. The internal studio is best known for browser games like Mirror’s Edge 2D and Dragon Age Journeys, and now it has its sights set on Facebook with the upcoming Dragon Age Legends.

Set to be released early next year, just prior to Dragon Age II, Legends is described as an “action-packed, strategy RPG.” And if there’s one franchise that can change the way people think about Facebook games, it’s the bloody, violent Dragon Age series.

“We want Dragon Age fans to play Legends for a long time and we have ongoing content plans to introduce great gameplay features to keep the core Dragon Age fans engaged,” EA2D GM Mark Spenner explains.
‘Are Facebook games getting better?’ Screenshot 3

You can’t do this in FarmVille.

“We love BioWare games and admire BioWare as a studio, so we also want to help bring more people to the Dragon Age franchise. We think we can reach a broad audience and introduce them to the franchise. To achieve either of these goals, we need to make a great game that stands on its own and hits the quality bar that people expect of a BioWare game.”

Dragon Age Legends is indicative of the way developers are beginning to recognise Facebook as a viable platform. Instead of simply trying to follow the next big Facebook trend, many developers are instead trying to craft more engaging game experiences that leverage the strengths of the platform.

“From the outset of our development effort on Legends, we’ve had to change the conversation in our studio,” says Spenner. “By default, the team wants to make great core gameplay.”

Hopefully gamers will take notice. Facebook games continue to improve in quality, even if games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars garner the most users and make all the headlines. It may take a while for the knee-jerk reaction to Facebook games to change, but there are many talented developers working hard at making Facebook a place for gamers.

“I think it’s up to the less risk-adverse among us to keep pushing quality gaming on that platform,” says Whatley. “Even at its best, this might be a long road before gamers regard Facebook as a source for high quality gaming experiences. But if it’s going to happen, we aim to be one of the pioneers.” (Source:eurogamer)


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