游戏邦注：本文作者为CJ Arlotta，其熟知社交游戏开发商及不同用户世界情况。目前他正在深入研究国际游戏市场，探索全球开发商立足该竞争激烈市场之道。

Social games

小型开发商可以参照以下图表。该图将EA、CrowdStar和Zynga三大公司的MAU数据同MAU 5万的小型开发商进行比较。

chart

有没有发现丢失了什么？是的，缺少了小型开发商的份额。四舍五入后，小型开发商的份额只有1%的1/10。面积还不及小银鱼的体积。

小型开发商对于自己同大型开发商之间的差距应该心中有数。但小型开发商们也无需气馁，以下4点建议能够帮助他们在众多同伴中脱颖而出。

推出更具社交性的游戏体验

社交游戏显然应当具备社交性，但他们需要牢记的是尽力使自己的游戏体验更具社交性。在开发具有社交性的游戏体验方面，大型开发商显然更胜一筹。也许小开发商们觉得自己的游戏已经极富社交性，但其实不然。他们需要深入研究《CityVille》、《Zynga Texas Hold’em Poker》和《FarmVille》之类的游戏，了解Zynga是利用何种社交体验吸引玩家的。

借助Quora进行交流

Quora

Quora（游戏邦注：其为问答网站）对于小型开发者来说简直就是座小金矿。他们应该每天抽空关注Quora资讯。对他们而言，了解社交游戏领域顶尖人士的热议话题很重要。何处还能为他们提供诸如此类的珍贵信息呢？如果他们羞于提问问题，那么浏览附有答案的问题也能获得很多新知识。

保持更新

众所周知，一成不变的生活很容易变得枯燥乏味，社交游戏亦是如此。不要认为玩家对于当前游戏体验很满意，因为事实可能并非如此。即便是像《FarmVille》、《CityVille》和《FrontierVille》这样的游戏也有需要调整的地方：小型开发商应该寻找自己游戏需要改进的方面。

有这样一个观点：对玩家进行民意调查。了解玩家希望改变的地方，然后做出相应调整，优化游戏体验。通过不断更新游戏，避免玩家对游戏产生厌倦感，玩家因此会持续回访游戏（游戏邦注：如为游戏玩家添加新道具或者新奖励）。

游戏体验差异化

小型开发商们应该寻找自己的差异化出口。《CityVille》、《FrontierVille》和《FarmVille》拥有玩家喜爱的独特主题。小型开发商可以选择这些主题以外的游戏题材。推出的游应该具有鲜明的主题，避免玩家在体验过程中联想到其他游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

4 Humble Suggestions for Small Scale Game Developers

If you’re a small scale developer, take a look at the chart below. I took the MAUs of three large scale developers: Electronic Arts (EA), CrowdStar and Zynga and compared them to a developer that received 50,000 monthly active users (YOU).

Notice anything missing? Yes, it is your slice of the pie. After rounding off to the nearest tenth of a percent, you don’t even receive the slice covered in anchovies (sorry to offend any anchovy fans out there).

As a small scale developer, you need to understand how small you really are compared to some of the top developers in the industry. However, don’t be discouraged. Here are some tips that can help you succeed a little better than some of the other small scale developers out there:

Be more social…

Obviously a “social” game needs to be social, but always think of how you can make your game even more social than it already is. When it comes to making a game social, large scale developers are always ahead of the learning curve. If you think your game is social enough, it’s not. Take apart games like CityVille, Zynga Texas Hold’em Poker and FarmVille to understand what social aspects of the game Zynga uses to attract its users.

Communicate through Quora…

As I stated in an earlier article, Quora is an absolute gold mine for small scale developers. Take a look at Quora every single day when you get the time. It’s important to know what the individuals at the top of the social gaming industry are discussing. Where else will you be able to obtain valuable information like this? If you are too nervous to ask a question, skim through the already answered questions and you will find yourself learning things that you never knew before.

Update frequently…

As most of you know, life gets boring, which means social games do as well. Don’t just assume gamers are happy with your game’s current status because mostly likely they’re not. Even games like FarmVille, CityVille and FrontierVille have little things about them that users would like to change: find out those changes for your games.

Here’s an idea: poll your gamers. See what options the users of your games would like to see changed and then change them, make the experience better for them. By updating your games constantly, users will not be bored and will most likely continue coming back. Add a new item or a new reward of some type for your gamers to obtain.

Be different…

Always strive to be unique in some sort of way. Games CityVille, FrontierVille and FarmVille have their own unique themes that users enjoy. All of your games do not have to be related in any sort of way. It’s imperative for you to have a game that stands out and doesn’t remind people of another game.

CJ Arlotta covers the world of social gaming for development firms as well as the average consumer. Currently, he is accumulating more knowledge of the international gaming market to follow and understand what global developers may need to compete with already striving markets.（Source：socialtimes）