Zynga的《FarmVille》早在2010年2月就吸引了8000万用户，这对整个行业来说是一件振奋人心的大事。这个游戏吸引了许许多多新用户，他们中有许多人之前都没有玩过任何游戏。此外，《FarmVille》的问世也为新一代Facebook游戏树立了标杆，使许多踌躇满志的投资者和开发商们纷纷向这一领域投入资金，企图复制这一力作的成功模式。

《FarmVille》的成功无疑让Zynga大为振奋，但这也是一个定时炸弹。《FarmVille》忽然之间就吸引了成千上万的玩家来种庄稼，建房子，并在游戏中一步步快速升级。

但这种局面能持续多久呢？

《FarmVille》有很多玩家之前都未曾如此投入地玩游戏。他们接下来几个月该怎么做呢？接下来一年呢？

对于这个问题，有几种可能的答案。第一，8000万的用户可能全都不玩社交游戏了。毕竟，他们之前并不是游戏迷。在享受完大量的小麦和南瓜之后，他们可能就回到自己原来的休闲活动中去，比如电视、电影、书籍以及其他娱乐活动。

第二种可能是他们或许会转移到竞争者的游戏中去。在他们成为在线社交游戏玩家后，其他社交游戏公司如Playdom和Playfish就会开始加快发展步伐，它们要虏获这些用户并非难事。

游戏邦认为，这两种可能对Zynga来说都是极具灾难性的一大打击，毕竟那时它还只是一家年轻的企业。不难想象，Zynga在短短6个多月中就吸引了8000万用户，那么在接下来6个月，用户要流失也会相当迅速。

但Zynga绝不会让这一切发生，通过快速思考和采取明智的行动，Zynga顺利留住了8000万用户，维持其热门游戏的长远发展。

farmville

步骤一：为现有用户升级游戏

如果玩家持续专注玩一款游戏，他们最终都会变得成该游戏的行家。简单的游戏环节已经无法满足他们的需求了，他们也会要求更为复杂的游戏设置和目标，这样才能增加游戏的趣味性。

Zynga深谙此道，除非《FarmVille》能够和玩家一同发展，否则很快就会有成千上万块农田变成荒芜之地。没有人希望上升到70等级后就停滞不前，持续重复同样的事情。

因此，Zynga开始逐步在游戏中添加新功能和游戏设置，以满足这些高手级玩家们的需求。2010年6月，《FarmVille》把游戏等级从70提升到90，并向玩家提供更丰富的庄稼、内容、动物和建筑。Zynga也通过持续举办活动，推出限量版商品，其中包括“夏日7天”（7 Days of Summer）活动，限时发布一些旧款道具。2010年7月，《FarmVille》团队推出了“Crafting Buildings”，为游戏添加了温泉、酿酒厂以及面包店等新内容。这些新功能支持一些高手级玩家自制礼物送给朋友，这一点确实取悦了不少玩家。

据游戏邦了解，该游戏的升级进展虽然缓慢但从未中断，它的进步推动了玩家数量的增长。游戏的升级经过了夏天、秋天和冬天三个季节，冬天的时候还添加了雪人和雪球的社交功能。新的游戏设置是特为熟悉《FarmVille》基本功能的玩家服务的，它在保证用户留存率方面很成功，不仅添加了新内容，还增加了新功能，甚至还为成千上万的新晋级用户提供迷你游戏。

步骤二：将玩家转移至新游戏

但是《FarmVille》也不可能无限制地升级。Zynga也明白不论添加了什么新的游戏设置，很多用户终有一天会对游戏感到厌倦。因此，Zynga的第二个生存策略就是把这些用户转移到新游戏，而这些新游戏的主要目标就是之前的《FarmVille》用户。

Zynga发行的《FrontierVille》从本质上来说更像是《FarmVille》的续集。它使用了许多与后者相同的游戏机制，好让《FarmVille》用户一开始就能上手，这些设置包括种庄稼、收集材料和建房子等。但更重要的是，该游戏提供了更多功能和高级设置，供《FarmVille》的高手级用户体验，例如养家糊口、新的故事情节和名誉等新设置。

但是Zynga的策略并不仅仅局限于迁移用户。它在2010年底推出的《CityVille》延续了《FarmVille》玩家所熟悉的农场游戏设置和风格，但又带来了惊人的制作效果和出众的用户体验，这是Zynga从之前的农场游戏汲取经验所获得的结果。该游戏支持用户邀请朋友聚居到某个地方，参观他人的城市，这些都和之前的游戏很相似，但提供的是更高级的用户体验。据游戏邦了解，该游戏还参照了《FrontierVille》的能量和口碑等游戏设置。

在发行了这一系列的游戏之后，Zynga通过游戏条幅链接到新游戏，或通过强大的内部推广，让《FarmVille》玩家找到了新的归宿。Zynga通过广告推广《CityVille》，或者弹出信息通告让玩家去探索《FrontierVille》这个有趣的世界，成功转移了许多玩家，让他们继续在Zynga网站上玩游戏。

Zynga的发展并未止步

2011年2月，《FarmVille》的用户数量并没有向许多人预测的那样，缩减到了原来的1/10。相反，该游戏用户仅比原先减少了一半，它还是继续推进自己的成功之路。这同时也让Zynga成功采取策略将许多用户转移到《FrontierVille》和《CityVille》，后两者是《FarmVille》的高手级玩家、中途退场玩家的理想去处。

据AppData数据显示，之前有许多评论家认为《FarmVille》会走下坡路，但一年后的今天，《FarmVille》每月用户仍高达5000万，它的DAU/MAU比值在整个行业中依旧很高，约达30%。此外，《FrontierVille》目前每月也有1900万用户，而《CityVille》的用户更是高达9300万，这些用户之前大多是《FarmVille》玩家。一款大型成功社交游戏总会面临巨大的挑战，但通过游戏与用户的同步发展，以及将用户转移到更高级的游戏中，Zynga成功地为用户提供了更多的选择，从而保证了理想的用户留存率。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

How Zynga Defused Its FarmVille Time-Bomb

When Zynga’s FarmVille hit 80 million players on year ago in February 2010, it was a breathtaking event for the entire games industry. The title had brought millions of new players into the market, many of whom had never played games of any sort before. And it encouraged a new generation of Facebook games, fueled by capital from excited investors and developers who would try to emulate its breakout success.

For Zynga, the success of FarmVille was exciting for sure. But it was also a ticking time-bomb. Suddenly, FarmVille had amassed millions of players who were farming their crops, building their buildings, and slowly leveling up through the game very quickly.

But for how long?

Many of these were players who had never been so involved in a game before. What were they going to be doing a few months from now? A year from now?

There were a few possible answers to this question. First, the 80 million could quit playing social games entirely. After all, they hadn’t been avid gamers before. After enjoying more than their fair share of wheat and pumpkins, they might just go back to where they came from: television, film, books, and other forms of entertainment.

A second possibility was that they could migrate to competitor’s titles. After having the door of online social gaming opened for them and other social game companies like Playdom and Playfish starting to pick up steam, it would be an easy transition.

Both of these options would mean a disastrous and mighty fall for Zynga, which at the time was still a young company. But it was easy to imagine — growing from 0 to 80 million users in a little over six months, a reversal in the next six months could happen just as fast.

But Zynga wasn’t going to let this happen, and through quick thinking and brilliant execution, it was able to defuse their 80 million strong time-bomb and keep their flagship franchise going.

Step One: Evolve the Current Game With Existing Players

When players play a game repeatedly and with a dedicated passion, they eventually evolve into experts. While simple raspberries were more than enough to keep early players entertained, later players require more complex gameplay and goals in order to keep them having fun.

Zynga knew this, and unless FarmVille was able to develop along with their player base, they would soon find millions of farms abandoned. No one was going to hang out at level 70, doing the same thing over and over, for very long.

Thus, Zynga began to ramp up, systematically providing new features and gameplay targeted for the expert players who wanted something more. In June of 2010, the FarmVille team unlocked levels 70 through 90, giving expert players more crops, content, animals, and buildings to create. Zynga also continued hosting new events and limited edition items, including the “7 Days of Summer” where old items were released for a limited time. In July of 2010, the FarmVille team released Crafting Buildings, including a Spa, Winery, and Bakery. These massive new features allowed advanced players to create their own goods to give to friends, something that delighted advanced players.

The updates didn’t stop. Slowly but surely, the game continued to grow along with its players, more advanced and more complex. They continued through the summer, fall, and winter, adding snowmen and snowball social features. The new gameplay, made specifically for players who had mastered the basics of FarmVille, was a huge success in retaining players, not just by adding new content, but by adding new features, gameplay, and even mini-games for their millions of newly minted experts.

Step Two: Offloading Players to New Games

But the FarmVille updates would only hold but for so long. Zynga also knew that many of its players were going to grow tired of the title, no matter what kinds of new gameplay was added. Thus, part two of Zynga’s survival plan was to help players migrate to new games, games that were designed with the former-FarmVille player in mind.

With the launch of FrontierVille, Zynga had created what was essentially a sequel to its farm-based hit. The game used many of the same gameplay mechanics that FarmVille players would recognize immediately, such as growing crops, collecting ingredients, and constructing buildings. But more importantly, it had even more features and advanced gameplay for FarmVille experts to enjoy, such as raising a family, a storyline, and reputation.

Yet Zynga wasn’t done with their migration yet. With the late 2010 launch of CityVille, previous FarmVille players were greeted again with a title that conformed to the same gameplay patterns and habits they had learned on the farm, this time with incredible production values and the polished experience that the Zynga studio had learned from previous titles. Slotting in friends to fill buildings, visiting others’ cities, all very similar, but more advanced. The game also built on gameplay that players had learned from FrontierVille, such as energy and reputation.

After each of the games launched, Zynga helped FarmVille players find their new homes not only with their Zynga Game Bar pointing to the new titles, but also strong in-game tie-ins. Billboards advertising CityVille and pop-ups calling farmers to go explore the Frontier were plentiful, helping to move millions of players over so that they could continue playing within Zynga’s network.

The Story Continues

In February 2011, FarmVille hasn’t deflated to one-tenth of its glory days as many predicted. Instead, it has only been reduced by a half, a success story on its own. Meanwhile Zynga has also been able to strategically migrate many of its users to FrontierVille and CityVille, games built for the FarmVille expert as well as the FarmVille dropout.

Today, FarmVille has 50 million monthly players and still one of the highest DAU/MAU in the business at roughly 30%, a full year after many critics said it was on the way down, according to AppData. Additionally, FrontierVille has 19 million players while CityVille holds a staggering 93 million players, many of these former FarmVille players. The blessing of a massively successful social game presented an oncoming challenge, but by growing the game along with the players as well as authoring their migration to more advanced titles, Zynga was able to keep their players playing on their terms.

A game designer who has worked at EA and CrowdStar, Brice Morrison is the editor of industry game design website The Game Prodigy and has been with teams for major titles like The Sims 3, Happy Aquarium, and It Girl.（Source：Inside Social Games）