从极具暴力色彩的视频游戏行业，转向充满卡通风格的游戏领域是一种什么感觉？《毁灭战士》开发者约翰·罗梅洛（John Romero）应该最有感触，在结束20多年的硬核游戏开发生涯后（游戏邦注：他曾在id Software团队开发硬核游戏，后来在Slipgate Ironworks创建MMO游戏），他却来了个180度大转弯，与LOLapps团队共同推出了Facebook社交游戏《Ravenwood Fair》。

现在罗梅洛已经成立了自己的工作室LootDrop，并将于今年8月通过RockYou公司发布其第一款游戏《Cloudforest Expedition》，他在日前的媒体采访中介绍了这款新游戏的相关情况，以及他进军社交游戏领域的体会。以下是游戏邦编译的访谈内容：

John Romero（right）, Brenda Brathwaite（left）, Jon Knight（middle）

为何决定从传统硬核游戏转战社交游戏？Facebook游戏哪些地方最吸引你？

假如把社交游戏开发看成一个金字塔，那么Facebook游戏无疑就是塔尖。Facebook游戏的设计过程的确非同一般游戏，针对这个用户群体设计游戏更有挑战性，而这种游戏的设计风格也和其他游戏极为不同。许多传统游戏中都提供了大量有待玩家探索和发掘的空间，但Facebook游戏往往只有一小块活动区域，并且你得想法让玩家在如此有限的范围中更为投入地参与其中。

另外，设计师还得想出鼓励玩家消费的对策，让玩家在一小块地盘中逗留数月并且让他们不断获得满足感，实在是一个设计大挑战，而要在竞争如此激烈的Facebook游戏领域中脱颖而出，更是增加了游戏设计的难度。总之，对于非大型MMO游戏的小团队来说，Facebook创造了一个极有挑战性而又有趣的开发环境。这相当于创建一款迷你MMO游戏的过程，但与投入数千万美元制作一款前途未卜的大型MMO游戏截然不同，开发Facebook游戏所面临的资金风险更小，而且拥有在线发布游戏的优势。

哪些传统游戏设计技术为你创建《Ravenwood Fair》和《Cloudforest Expedition》提供了最有用处的帮助？

首先就是通过初次体验，掌握扩大用户规模，并且使其成为老主顾的方法。这一点非常重要也很有趣，因为这个领域的游戏设计比硬核游戏更浅显，它虽然没有多少深度，但却具有极大的广度。从根本上来说，将游戏开发知识运用于优化游戏，扩大玩家数量都是非常重要的技巧。

同步化的MMO游戏在这一点上的设计更为复杂，而异步化的Facebook游戏却明显更简洁。总体上来看，我所了解的游戏开发技术都适用于这个领域，只是得摒弃那些硬核玩家喜欢，而休闲玩家不欢迎的设计原则。

在设计社交游戏过程中，是否曾出现一些过去你们在传统游戏中行得通，而在这里却不管用的设计决策？

在《Ravenwood Fair》这款游戏的一个有趣之处就是，我们起初在游戏发布前，将其中商店所有的产品售价都设置得很低，希望能以此吸引更多玩家进入商店看看，然后多买些东西再走人。我们想效仿RPG游戏的做法，循序渐进地重新调整商店中的产品售价，但后来却发现，产品新价格出台后，这些虚拟商品的交易量立即下跌了一半。

所以我们就只好调整为原来的低价模式，因为玩家有可能购买商店中所有种类的东西，所以你虽然不能将每一样道具都设置为收费产品，但一定要确保商店中有大量产品可供选择。假如玩家无法从商店中购得所需产品，就会对游戏虚拟商品交易营收造成影响，如果他们购买的是自己完成任务的必需品，那么他们就会进行消费。所以我们得让他们像走进沃尔玛购买生活必需品一样，在商店找到自己想要的东西。新游戏基本上是因这类营收渠道而幸存下来，所以我们必须确定游戏可以重新回到这一点上。但游戏设计并不只是以创收为核心，而是要让玩家获得更多乐趣，让他们喜爱游戏，所以得适当考虑他们的消费水平。

你认为设计一款成功的Facebook游戏应该抛弃哪些观念，或者采用哪些理念？

作为一个传统游戏设计师，你进入社交游戏领域时不能抱有“我想向Facebook游戏玩家推荐硬核游戏”这种错误想法，正确的态度应该是“这类用户的喜好是什么？哪些游戏最为成功？”自己试玩一些游戏，找到游戏吸引玩家的亮点，并比较多款游戏发现哪种模式最为成功。然后就是从中找到适合自己的游戏设计点，总之就是不能一来就说“我要把Facebook用户培养成硬核游戏玩家”，这种做法是行不通的。

对一些有所侧重、锁定细分市场的游戏工作室有何看法？

这个领域也有一些工作室关注的是硬核游戏玩家，因为他们认为这类用户更舍得花钱。也有些工作室从中摸着了门道，推出了大量成功之作。EA也是其中之一，并且我认为游戏获取多种类型的玩家这一点也很重要。

对《Cloudforest Expedition》以及未来的RockYou项目最为期待的地方是什么？

《Cloudforest Expedition》不同于我的第一款社交游戏，它几乎是为完全不同类型的玩家所设计，但仍然锁定典型的Facebook用户。虽然它的风格设计已经大为不同，但仍然可以吸引大量玩家，所以我很高兴可以推出这款瞄准特定用户群体的新游戏，并且以相同的方式设计其他风格有异的新游戏。

我们团队成员越来越有默契，可以说我们做的事情都有些出人意料和不可思议。运营游戏的重点在于开发这个过程，它并非一切为了创造利润，而是让你享受与志同道合者奋战的快乐。

是否认为当前的项目会体现出你的硬核游戏倾向？为什么？

当然会。我经常在游戏中注入自己的幽默感，无论哪款游戏都是如此。我们现在也正在讨论一些更具有暴力倾向的游戏项目，所以未来也有可能重返射击游戏风格。我已经有一些很棒的想法，但我确实想先做这种项目，我认为这个领域很了不起，也觉得过一段时间后，这些想法总会出现交集。

你认为社交游戏领域最缺乏的元素是什么，有没有填补这个空缺的打算？

在社交游戏领域，我们实际上在促进用户与好友进行积极有意义的互动层面上还做得很不到位。所以我们希望通过自己的游戏设计，改变原来“折磨好友”的社交干扰行为。“为什么我需要这些朋友？是因为我想从他们那里获得一些免费的好处吗？朋友越多我就可获得越多免费的好处？”我们希望能够以多种方式破解这种谜题，以更为互助、友好而有意义的方式让玩家进行互动，而不只是让大家相互利用。

我们致力于解开人们对于好友圈子作用何在的这种困惑，厘清这一点显然有助于社交游戏的设计和开发，从整个行业大局出发，我们很愿意通过创新途径找到答案。

我认为许多人都希望让这种社交联系更有意义。

在Ravenwood这个项目中，我已经通过Heart系统尝试这种做法了，这个系统可让你从好友的好友圈子中结交知己，我很喜欢这种做法。

《Cloudforest Expedition》会添加其他新内容吗？

我们为这款游戏添加了一些非常棒的内容。所以大家看到这款游戏时，不太可能认为它就是Ravenwood的变体，而是会想“这真是一款完全不同风格的游戏”。我们还正在创建一些与音乐相关的内容。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Will Doom creator John Romero return to ‘full shooter status’ on Facebook?

What does it feel like to have made arguably the most violent video games of all time, only 20 years later to make arguably the most adorable? For Doom creator John Romero, it feels like the good old days. After two decades of creating games for the trigger-happy hardcore crowd with originally a team of four at id Software (and later the MMO crowd through Slipgate Ironworks), the game design icon made a 180 and leaped into Facebook games with Ravenwood Fair by LOLapps.

Now, Romero has founded yet another studio, Loot Drop, which its first social game, Cloudforest Expedition, is due out this summer through publisher RockYou. We chatted with Romero recently for more details on his upcoming games, insight on the social games design process, and the answer to the ultimate question: Why?

Why did you decide to make such a leap from traditional hardcore games to social games? What’s so appealing to you about Facebook games?

If you think of game development as a pyramid, I think the tip of the wedge is on Facebook, as far as design goes. The way you have to design a Facebook game is really different than normal games.

It’s really more difficult to design for this demographic, and the kinds of games you design are extremely different from other games. Most traditional games have a lot of space n them and places to go, while Facebook games typically have a small area that you expect players to spend a ton of time in.

And while they’re in there you’re trying to get them to buy stuff. To do that and to keep people excited in that area for months is a pretty big design challenge, and to do innovative things where there are so many people making games on Facebook is even more of a challenge. It’s a challenging area that supports small teams, which is always more fun than, say, mammoth MMO teams. It’s like making a mini MMO; instead of risking tens of millions of dollars on making an MMO that probably won’t launch, you get to risk less money with a smaller and actually do launch it in live mode.

What traditional game design skills have served you well in creating Ravenwood Fair and now Cloudforest Expedition?

First of all, knowing how to ramp players through an initial experience is really important, and paying off players who have played the game for a long time-it’s really important to do that. It’s interesting, because in this space the design is a lot more shallow than hardcore games, but that shallowness is extremely wide. Basically, bringing the knowledge of developing games, knowing how to ramp games, knowing how to scale for millions of people [are all important skills].

So, having run a MMO [massively multiplayer online game] company before this, that part of it on an MMO was actually more sophisticated with a synchronous MMO game than an asynchronous Facebook game. So, that’s actually great preparation for doing this. Pretty much everything I know about making games is applicable, but having to unlearn a lot of those things in design that hardcore players like and these casual players are not interested in.

Was there any specific instance that you felt like you had to let back on a design decision where normally you would have just went with it in a traditional game?

One interesting one on Ravenwood Fair was that we actually had everything in the store was basically priced really low when the game launched. We kind of went in and applied a formal ramping to the prices in the store. So, players would open the store and look at the stuff they wanted to buy and go, ‘Oh, well I’m going to have to work to get that.’ You know, just kind of ramping the game like normal RPGs [roleplaying games] do. When we put that new ramp in place, monetization just dropped in half immediately.

And we had to revert back to the previous cheap model, and basically we figured out that players want to buy everything in the store. So, you can’t make every single thing purchasable, but you have to have a lot of stuff purchasable. [The players] not being able to buy the things in the store was gating monetization, because when they bought something from the store and placed it in the world they needed to finish it, and they could monetize. And the barrier was basically, ‘Oh, now I need to work for these things, I can’t buy as many.’ And-boom-there goes monetization. So, letting them basically walk into Walmart and buy everything was exactly what they wanted to do. New games survive through monetization, so we needed to make sure we could get back to that. But it’s not only about monetization, it’s about the players having a great time, loving the game, but making things available for them to buy.

Loot DropWhich design attitudes did you have to leave behind or take on to create a successful Facebook game?

As a traditional designer, if you come into the social game space with an attitude like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna’ bring hardcore games to Facebook gamers,’ that’s not the right attitude. The right attitude is, ‘What do these people like? What games are doing a successful job?’ Let’s play them and get hooked by them to know what makes them tick, and do that with several games and see what patterns are successful. Then, figure out how to apply those patterns to your own design. Not basically steamrolling in there and going, ‘I’m bringing hardcore to the Facebook crowd.’ That’s not going to work.

Now, what can you say of certain studios that have made that their entire focus?

There are some studios out there focused on those hardcore gamers, because their belief is that the hardcore gamer is going to spend more money. Some studios are being smart about it and making multiple kinds of games. EA does stuff like that, and it’s important to spread it around and get all kinds of players.

What are you most excited about when it comes to Cloudforest Expedition and your future RockYou project?

The second game is not like this first game-it’s almost, possibly for a different kind of player, but still within the same demographic. So, the thing that you do is different, but it should appeal to a wide range of people. So, it’s exciting to take this first game that’s got it’s own little world, and then start another game that’s similar in a lot of ways but still really different.

The people on our team are getting better and better at working together, so at some point we’ve got to do something unexpected and crazy. Developing games is all about the process of developing games. It’s not all about the profits you make; it’s about the people you work with and how fun it is to actually do it.

Do you think your hardcore tendencies will ever find their way back into your current projects? Why?

Oh yeah, definitely. I always throw my humor into games, no matter what. There are some games that we’re talking about doing that are definitely more on the violent shooterish side. A return to full shooter status is sometime in the future. I got some cool ideas, but I really want to do this first, because I think that the space is just awesome. And, somewhere down the road, I think that the ideas are going to converge.

What ultimately do you think is missing from the social game space, and how do you plan to fill that void?

In the social space, we have a long ways to go to be able to play these games with our friends in a more meaningful way. So, in our game design we’re trying to evolve the ‘friend grind’ into something that is not your typical friend grind. We want to explore different ways of like, ‘Why do I have this friend? Is it because I just want to go take stuff from his land for free, and the more friends I have I get more free stuff?’ Or can I do something more beneficial, helpful or meaningful with this friend than just going there and using him.

I think the evolution of that kind of thinking-what the friend ladder really is for-is something we’re trying to work on. Well, obviously it’s got to be applicable to the game, but in a wider industry sense we want to work on innovating what that ‘thing’ is.

I think a lot of people want to see those social connections injected with a little more meaning.

I kind of started playing around with that on Ravenwood with the Heart system, where you could take friends from your friend ladder and have them live in your space. I kind of like that direction.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about Cloudforest Expedition?

There are some really cool things we’re doing with this game. When people look at Cloudforest they’re not going to think, ‘Oh, it’s like Ravenwood exactly.’ It’ll be like, ‘Wow, this is a really different game.’ We’re doing some amazing stuff with music-I’ll just say that.（source:games）