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解析Zynga公司及《CityVille》的成功之道

发布时间:2011-05-21 10:57:44 Tags:,,

作者:Stuart Richardson

Zynga游戏力作

《FarmVille》、《Café World》和《Mafia Wars》都在Facebook上取得成功,接下来就是《CityVille》了。毫无疑问,用户确实渴望获得这种特别的半即时战略式社交网络游戏。这股潮流何时出现很难说清楚,此类游戏也只是这些年才出现在网络上。

社交游戏行业巨擘Zynga英明地用一系列以“Ville”为后缀的精致游戏席卷整个市场,而且用户对公司产品的需求依然旺盛。运营餐馆、边境小镇、水族馆,你有机会在社交游戏中运营所有你能想到的事物。随着《CityVille》的发布,Zynga又在农场游戏(游戏邦注:这里指《FarmVille》)的基础上往前迈了一步。

cityville

cityville

《CityVille》游戏特点

就游戏玩法而言,《CityVille》位于《模拟城市》和Tamagotchi之间。只是都市中来来往往的居民不会受到死神的威胁,此举为与游戏的简单美学相契合。游戏设置了许多任务,教会玩家如何使用布局精巧的用户界面,熟悉《CityVille》王国中城市规划的基本原理。

用户掌握这些知识后,游戏便对其开放Zynga精通的社交机制。用户建设城市的资源可以在好友间共享,可以开启他人城市中的商店并收获现款。

市民支付房租,作物需要收获,店铺需要供给货物,而且随着城市逐渐扩张,基础设施也需要逐渐增加。游戏中存在某个有争议性的问题,事实上Zynga所有的游戏中都存在这个问题,那就是如果要将游戏玩到极致,每次更新玩家都要投入大量的金钱。

Zynga自身优势

Zynga几乎已成为目前最有创意的游戏工作室。公司备受某些人赞誉,因为他们把非游戏玩家带入游戏中,而有些人觉得它的成功仅仅是幸运而已。外界对这家公司不乏争论。

但不可否认的是公司创建出令人称奇的运营技巧,拥有大量的忠实粉丝,而且所有人都陶醉在这些游戏中。在这个自诞生起便几乎不断发生改变的行业中,Zynga睿智地看到巨大且几乎未曾发掘的市场,迅速占领该市场大片区域,也聪明地将其产品做得十分吸引人而且有极大的包容性,所有人都可以玩这些游戏。

独特的卖点

用上“独特”这个词其实不太恰当,因为赋予此作非凡魅力的是以往游戏所获得的成功。但是,所塑造的作品本身也有着自己的吸引力。1989年至2005年间,模拟类游戏获得了巨大的成功。Zynga从那些游戏中总结经验,让每个拥有Facebook账号和闲暇时间的用户都可以玩到此类游戏。

《CityVille》之所以获得成功有两方面的原因。首先,建造个人世界对全球玩家都有吸引力,完全控制某种事物是人性的基本乐趣所在。其次,游戏投放在Facebook上。

成功的原因

尽管Facebook游戏的盈利方式曾引发争论,但确实也引发在线游戏的革命。

虽然对游戏零售模式的未来走向之类的争论愈演愈烈,但Zynga已成为在全新行业耕耘的主导公司,这个行业萌生自社交网络。该行业之所以能获得成功,是因为受众的关注。当整个市场尽其所能为用户提供满足诉求的丰富体验时,用户就会加倍投入其中。

当这些体验的价值可能永无休止地重复下去时,公司和用户双方都不希望这种供需满意的情况戛然而止。Zynga投入得越多,产出也就越多。

其他开发商的机会

Facebook游戏的发展还远未到头。事实上,这可能代表未来游戏的发展趋势。如果要想在此市场中分一杯羹,就必须投入大量的工作。

尽管这个看起来很受人欢迎的“Ville”系列游戏玩法有些过时,但确实是个精心策划的产品。Zynga在游戏中提供恰到好处的内容让任何人能够参与其中,享受令人着迷的游戏并和其他玩家互动。

一旦玩家在游戏中变得投入,就会产生很大的盈利机会。虽然更新没有极大改变游戏玩法的做法存在争议,但对那些投入其中的粉丝确实很有吸引力。这种方法已证实是Zynga的巨大金矿,因为公司在了解和满足广大游戏受众需求方面投入了大量的时间。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Anatomy of a Blockbuster: CityVille

Stuart Richardson

THE SENSATION

FarmVille did it. Or maybe it was Café World. There was also Mafia Wars. It could have even started with that game. The untamable lust that exists for a very particular style of semi-RTS social network title is undeniable. Where it began is very difficult to pinpoint, even only these few years after the games themselves began to appear online.

Zynga, the superpower of the social games industry, has wisely flooded the market with a daunting array of ‘Ville’-esque titles, and still the demand for them flourishes unabaited. Run your own resteraunt. Run your own frontier town. Run your own, um, aquarium. If you can imagine it, the chances are there’ll be a social network game where you can run it. With the release of CityVille, Zynga took the next logical step in scaling the equation up from its agricultural begginings.

THE GAME

In terms of gameplay, CityVille sits somewhere inbetween SimCity and a Tamagotchi, though with any threat of death for the wandering inhabitants of your very own metropolis removed to fit in with the game’s simple, block-colour aesthetics. The opening stages of the game are made up of a gentle series of challenges that teach the player how to use the well laid out UI, as well as the basics of civic planning within the CityVille universe.

With this knowledge in-hand, the game opens out into the same socially-focussed machanic that Zynga has become so well-known for. Resources for city-building can be shared between friends, and businesses in other people’s cities can be established and milked for cash.

Citizens pay rent, crops need harvesting, shops need supplies and your ever-expanding burg needs an ever-expanding infrastructure. Somewhat controversially, and as with all of Zynga’s titles, playing the game to its fullest extent requires a microtransaction frenzy on the part of the player every time a new update is released.

THE STUDIO

Zynga is almost certainly one of the most devisive studios making games today. It is hailed by some as a great equaliser bringing games to those who would otherwise not play them, and by others as a chancer getting lucky on the lowest common denominator, it is a company not without controversy.

What cannot be argued is the outstanding levels of business finesse that the studio has developed, and the inordinate number of loyal fans that it has, all of whom have been entertained by its games. In an industry that has been undergoing a near-constant shift in focus since birth, Zynga has been wise enough to identify a huge and mostly untapped market, fast enough to corner a large part of that market and clever enough to make its products compelling and inclusive enough that anyone can play them.

UNIQUE SELLING POINT

‘Unique’ is a difficult word to use in relation to a game that draws so much from the successes of gaming history for its charms. There is a level at which the compilation effect that is produced has a brilliant attraction all of its own, however. After the monolithic success of any and every game that featured the word ‘Sim’ in its title from 1989 to 2005, Zynga has filtered the greatest hits of those games into an experience that is available to anyone with a Facebook account and some free time.

The reasons CityVille has done as well as it has are two-fold. Firstly, the attraction of building a personal world is universal, and taps in to a fundamental enjoyment in the notion of total control that is a shared trait in human beings. Secondly, it’s on Facebook.

WHY IT WORKS

The monetisation element of Facebook gaming has certainly raised a few heckles in its time, but it has also served as the engine to an online gaming revolution.

While the argument as to the future of games retail continues to rage, Zynga has served as one of the primary companies cultivating an almost entirely new industry born of social networks. This works because the audience makes itself and is as captive as an audience has ever been. When this market is offered experiences intelligently tailored to appeal to as much of it as possible, it won’t turn its nose up.

When these experiences contain an almost limitless potential for replay value, both studio and audience hit upon an everlasting well of supply and demand that neither party will ever wish to see abandonned. The more Zynga puts in, the more it can draw out.

TRY IT YOURSELF

The Facebook games phenomenon is far from over. Indeed, it may well represent the shape of things to come. Considering that, there is no way that someone seeking to grab their own slice of cake can do so without putting in a good deal of hard work.

The ‘Ville’ franchise, while endearing on a visual level and ingeneous on a gameplay one, is a very slick and well calculated product. Zynga has offered just enough of a game that anyone can get involved and enjoy an impressive amount of gameplay variation and interaction with other players.

Once a player has become committed, a wealth of monetised options are also available that, while arguably not expanding gameplay a great deal, are clearly very attractive to committed fans. This formula has proved a goldmine for Zynga because the company has dedicated so much of its time to understanding the wants of a broad gaming audience, and catering to those wants entirely. (Source: Develop)


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