游戏邦注：本文作者为Alexia Tsotsis，文章主要讨论社交游戏的游戏机制。

游戏机制的关键是要让玩家拥有成就感。施谢尔文·皮什瓦尔（游戏邦注：其为Social Gaming Network创始人）表示，“不论点击田地，还是音乐符号，都是一种成就。”社交游戏使得玩家能够通过社交版图分享这些目标，这样就有很多玩家能够共项该内容，共同合作完成这些任务。

sgn from webpronews.com

在去年的Social Currency CrunchUp大会上，众多社交游戏行业领袖（游戏邦注：其中包括Pishevar、Disney Mobile高级副总裁巴特·迪克雷、美国斯坦福商学院教授Jennifer Acker和SCVNGR首席执行官Seth Priebatsch）汇集一堂共同探讨游戏最新模型。

沉浸式游戏需要具备哪些要素？

巴甫洛夫机制是关键。我们要让玩家觉得所花时间有所收获，查看自己同他人的协作情况，同其他游戏玩家一同体验游戏之类的社交因素能够达到该目的。整合音乐也能够创造情感连接，Tapulous成功的关键在于其具备应用多个艺人音乐内容（游戏邦注：如贾斯汀·比伯和Lady Gaga）。

Decrem表示，“如何获得用户粘性及通过用户创收是门学问，例如《Farmville》的收获机制。手机设备未知因素是游戏是否真的具有魔力？”我们现在所看到的是社交游戏机制学问同iPhone平台的神奇因素结合所产生的结果。

Seth Priebatsch表示，SCVNGR新成员需熟记50个游戏机制，如前进机制或者赚取积分获得前进机制。他们能够将这些元素融入游戏当中，“玩家喜欢进度指示器，如果你看到进度指示器，你会希望完成所有任务。”

游戏如何日益同现实世界达成共鸣？

目前多数社交游戏所创造价值均来源于Facebook平台，但这个局面很快就会发生改变。谈论小组成员都认为近来社交和手机领域的结合是新计算平台的开端，这主要归功于iOS所带来的功能。这个平台的杀手级应用需融入社交元素和娱乐元素才能得以生存。

Pishevar表示，SGN“目前主要开发供玩家植入手机的内容、漫步街头的3D角色以及游戏，玩家能够照料现实生活的花园，并通过iPhone平台关注花园发展动态。”

Decrem表示，“对我来说，通过iPhone体验Tapulous内容和早餐使用星巴克卡具有共通之处，我希望获得15颗星星，这样我就能获得一杯免费咖啡……”

Tapulous from digitaltrends.com

给予在线行为现实奖励是股不容忽视的力量，开发商对此屡试不爽，因此这个策略未来将会得到广泛采用。例如，Yelp发现整合签到元素后，其用户数量显著增加。“你使用真实卡片而非手机签到。我们没有加入什么创新元素。”

Priebatsch表示，“我们在游戏架构中融入一个新元素，那就是开放图谱API。社交能够带来联系，而游戏能够带来影响力。通过将此应用于现实生活中，我们创建一个融入刺激和奖励交易的平台。”

这些游戏机制未来有什么新应用方式？

Pishevar表示，“手机游戏领域才刚刚起步。其未来的创造性和趣味程度将无法估量。”

企业应该争相应用这些机制吗？DeCrem表示，“这是个自然的发展过程。”开发产品的企业应问自己：同联系朋友如何？创造有趣体验如何？

Piveshar不满的是，游戏行业并未充分发挥其潜力。“由于社交版图的出现，开发商可能会为了创收忽视质量要求。我们正处于飞速发展时期。该领域已有众多作品问世，是时候该做些调整。”

Acker认为，帮助癌症治疗是社交游戏能够真实回馈社会的方式之一（游戏邦注：指HopeLab的《Re-Mission》和《Zamzee》）。“向小孩展示多少小册子并非关键所在，他不会想进行化疗。但如果你创建名为Roxy的虚拟角色，让她同癌细胞抗争，当她变得虚弱的时候，你就把她送去化疗，这将会颇具效果。”

游戏元素会产生强大情感。化疗也会成为积极行为，癌症变成我们能够抗衡的疾病。这股力量着实十分强大。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The New Games People Play: How Game Mechanics Have Changed In The Age Of Social

Alexia Tsotsis

The crux behind game mechanics is the feeling that you’ve accomplished something; “Whether you’re clicking on a plot of land or a musical note, that is an accomplishment” says Social Gaming Network’s Shervin Pishevar. Social gaming gives you the opportunity to share these goals with your social graph so that many people see them, as well as the chance to work on these accomplishments collaboratively.

At Friday’s Social Currency CrunchUp, leaders from the Social Gaming space including Pishevar, Disney Mobile SVP Bart Decrem, Stanford School of Business Professor Jennifer Acker and SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch sat down together in order to discuss gaming’s latest incarnation.

What elements are needed for addictive games?

Pavlovian mechanics are crucial. It’s important as a user to feel like the time that you spent came up with a result, social elements like being able to see how you did with other people, and being able to play with other people play into this. Integration with music also creates an emotional linkage, one thing responsible for Tapulous’ success was the functionality to apply multiple songs from artists like Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga.

Decrem elaborates, “There’s an actual science around how to engage and monetize users, the Farmville harvest mechanic, for example. On mobile, its ‘the x factor’ does the game have magic?” What we’re now seeing is what happens when the science of game mechanics in social games is combined with the quirkiness of what you see on the iPhone platform.

According to Seth Priebatsch, new employees at SCVNGR memorize a deck of 50 game dynamics like the progression dynamic, or earning points to make progress. They then can incorporate those elements into a game, “Humans love progress bars, if you see a progress bar, you want to complete it.”

How will games increasingly square with the real world?

Currently all the value creation happens mostly on Facebook, but that will soon change. The panelists all agreed that this recent integration of social and mobile is beginning of a new computing platform, mainly due to the capabilities introduced by the iOS. Killer apps on this new platform will need to incorporate both a social element and an entertainment element in order to survive.

According to Pishevar, SGN is “Working on things where you’re placing your phone in the real world and seeing 3D characters walking down the street, games where you have a garden in your actual physical yard that you’re actually tending to and it’s growing and you can see it on the iPhone.”

Decrem elaborates “There’s no difference to me between playing Tapulous on the iPhone and using my Starbucks card in the morning, wanting to get 15 stars so I can get a free coffee … ”

Real life rewards for online behavior are a force to be reckoned with, and will increasingly become more prevalent as developers continue to experience success with them. Yelp for example, saw their usage skyrocket when they incorporated the Check-in element. “You’re checking in with a physical card instead of a mobile. We haven’t invented anything new.”

Says Priebatsch “We are bringing one very new thing to the game framework, the open graph API. Social traffics in connections, games traffic in influence. By applying that to the real world, we are building a platform that traffics in motivations and rewards.”

In what new ways can these game mechanics can be applied in the future?

“We’re really in the first or second inning on the mobile side,” says Pishevar, “The level of creativity and fun that’s coming is incredible.”

Should businesses rush to apply social mechanics? “It’s just natural evolution,” says DeCrem. Businesses developing a product should ask themselves, How about if you can connect with your friends? How about if we make it fun?

Piveshar’s one criticism is that the gaming industry could do so much more. “Because of the social graph many have cut corners of quality in order to monetize; We’ve got hypergrowth. Lots of millions have been created and its time to give something back.”

Acker brought up the idea of games that cure cancer as one way social gaming can actually benefit society, referring to HopeLab’sRe-Mission and Zamzee, “It doesn’t matter how many brochures you show a kid, he’s not going to want to [go to chemo]. But when you build an avatar called Roxy, have her shooting the cancer cells, and then when she feels feel weak you go get her a chemo tap … It’s incredibly powerful.”

Elements of gaming engender powerful emotions; Chemotherapy can become a positive thing and cancer becomes something you can beat. And that’s pretty formidable.（Source：techcrunch）