作者：Jaime Skelton

对于游戏开发者和投资者来说，社交游戏是一个充满机遇与诱惑的产业。光速创投总经理Jeremy Liew表示，社交游戏之所以具有如此强大的诱惑力，不仅因为它能够降低商业风险，缩短开发时间，而且对于市场营销成本的要求也比较低。社交游戏有“能力”从竞争激烈的游戏市场中脱颖而出，例如大受欢迎的《CityVIlle》。决定社交游戏成败的四大关键因素是：游戏的简易性，时间的敏感性，社交互动性，以及病毒式传播。

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游戏的简易性

“游戏的简易性”是根据游戏控制，复杂性以及游戏整体的难度量表进行衡量的。游戏开发者必须牢记“精于心简于形”这个道理。

玩家对于社交游戏的成败至关重要。社交游戏玩家对于视频游戏的控制与操作都不是很熟练，更别说是精通了。根据NPD Group的统计，约有35%的玩家喜欢社交游戏，而他们也多是之前未尝试过视频游戏的玩家。社交游戏经常被冠以“休闲”游戏的称号，因为比起传统的视频游戏，它更能迎合广大游戏玩家的需求。

最大限度地适应游戏市场也是个关键问题，这就意味着游戏必须在保持简易性的同时也不能完全抛弃复杂性。游戏开发者应该提供给玩家简单的游戏操作（游戏邦注：例如指向-点击设置，并使用较少的键盘操作键等），同时保持游戏设置始终围绕游戏的核心元素，并带有较少的复杂性。开发者可以让玩家在游戏中从事简单的活动循环，如此让玩家感受到游戏的简易性而不被游戏设置弄得晕头转向，例如玩家在游戏中种植庄稼并为了获得奖励或者累积“经验”而回到游戏中收获这些庄稼。

时间的敏感性

社交游戏设计的第二大核心理念便是时间的敏感性问题。有些社交游戏玩家乐于长时间地进行自己喜欢的游戏，也有一些社交游戏玩家不愿意花费太长时间于游戏中，而这正是社交游戏的又一大魅力，即能够帮助玩家快速地获取游戏目标，这对玩家来说具有很大的吸引力。

休闲游戏玩家并未把游戏当成他们的首要爱好。他们不会购买游戏硬件或软件，也不会每周或每天晚上投入大把的时间于游戏世界。在社交游戏中，玩家可以在一天中快速登录游戏1次或多次，并在游戏中快速前进，升级等。一般如果一款游戏的时间超过15分钟或者30分钟，那么它的魅力便会大大减弱。一款好的社交游戏对于玩家的游戏时间具有较高的敏感度，并且会适时根据玩家的时间标准作出相应调整。开发者最好能把游戏控制在较短的时间内，特别是在游戏初期，因为那时候新玩家刚开始接触游戏，并开始测试这款游戏的可玩性，如果游戏时间太长将会让他们感到厌烦而离开游戏。而往后的游戏关卡则可以适当地放慢游戏节奏，延长游戏时间，以此鼓励玩家再次回到游戏，而最终提高游戏的用户留存率。

社交互动性

社交游戏很少会遗漏社交因素，但是当它们被投放到市场中时，这些关键的社交因素却常常消失无踪了。

“社交性”不只是因为它们存在于社交网站（像Facebook等）或者社交平台（像iPhone等）上，更是因为它们能让玩家在游戏中与他人进行交流与互动。社交游戏之所以会如此受欢迎，是因为它允许并鼓励玩家在游戏中与好友互相交流，相互协助，包括赠送好友礼物并在Facebook的好友状态上做出更新，或者向好友发出游戏挑战邀请等。重点是，在这里玩家不仅能够进一步融入游戏世界中，也能与好友一起体验游戏的乐趣。

因为社交互动性能够促进玩家间更深层次的交流与互动，所以很大程度地决定着社交游戏的成败。除此之外，针对于休闲玩家的游戏设计较为简单，而且也能推动玩家在游戏中进行更多互动。社交互动性在社交游戏的四大关键因素中占据着极其重要的位置，同时也很大程度地影响着游戏的病毒式传播。

病毒式传播

社交游戏既能够帮助开发者避免风险，也能够帮助他们承担这些风险。因为一般来说社交游戏都采用免费模式，所以开发者通常使用微交易来弥补游戏的开发成本，而因此降低了游戏的市场营销预算。而这些社交属性便为开发者创造了一种新型的市场营销机遇，即病毒式传播。

病毒式传播的道理其实很简单，即吸引玩家进行一款游戏，让他们能够与好友进行互动，并促使他们在互动中宣传这款游戏。Facebook上有两种最简单的病毒式传播方法，即好友状态（包括玩家自己以及好友的状态栏）和游戏邀请机制。很多手机社交游戏都绑定了社交游戏平台，例如OpenFeint和Game Center等。同时它们还提供了“分享”按钮，让玩家能在Facebook，Twitter，StumbleUpon，Reddit以及Digg等平台上向好友宣传这款好游戏。对于社交游戏来说，这种病毒式传播不仅是一种针对于目标用户群体的免费广告模式，同时也可以说是一种最有效的广告宣传手段，因为它是通过玩家口述传播游戏的。比起其它广告模式，玩家更信任同一圈子里的朋友说的话。这种广告形式不但可让拦截传统广告的技术和手段对之束手无策，而且其积极的口碑营销还有助于树立良好的品牌形象。因为在病毒式传播机制下，每一名玩家都可以变成一种有效的市场营销工具，而帮助扩大每一款社交游戏的品牌价值。

具备了这四大核心设计因素，社交游戏将能够在竞争激烈的游戏市场中快速发展，并获取最后的胜利。虽然，忽略了其中一大因素，游戏也能继续发展，但是如果想取得长远的发展，游戏开发者就必须重新审视游戏设计，并针对今天的社交平台做出最适当的调整。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Four Core Elements Social Games Need to Thrive

Jaime Skelton

Social gaming can be a lucrative and appealing industry, for game developers and investors alike. Jeremy Liew, Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners, attributes this appeal to the ability of social game development to mitigate risk, cut down development time, and keep a low marketing cost. There’s more to making a social game go from one in a million to a powerhouse like CityVille , however. Four core elements – ease of play, time sensitivity, social connectivity, and viral transmission – are key for any social game’s success.

Ease of Play

“Ease of play” refers to the difficulty scale involved in controls, complexity, and overall game play. Here, game developers must make use of the philosophy “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Audience is key in social gaming, and the social gaming audience is one that is less familiar with and, therefore, less adept, at video game controls. While many people who identify themselves as gamers enjoy social gaming, about thirty-five percent, according to the NPD Group, have never played video games before in their life. Social games are often dubbed “casual” games, as they are meant to cater to a wider audience than the traditional video gaming enthusiasts.

Adapting to the market is key, and this means keeping game play simple, without losing sophistication. Controls should be relatively simple (point-and-click, perhaps very limited keyboard shortcuts), and gameplay should stick to its core elements with little complication. A simple cycle of activity – such as the often used theme of planting virtual crops and returning later to harvest for profit and experience – allows new gamers to enjoy social games without feeling overwhelmed.

Time Sensitivity

The second core concept in social game design is time sensitivity. While many social gamers enjoy long hours at their favorites, the core appeal for any social game – its “hook” – is how quickly a player can achieve goals.

Casual game players do not make gaming their prime hobby. They generally do not purchase the hardware or software or set aside hours of game time each week or each evening. Being able to quickly check in on their game, one or more times a day, allows them to manage a quick and progressive play style over the course of time. Games which require long investments of time – usually deemed as more than 15 or 30 minutes – are less appealing because they require more significant time investment from the player.

A good social game will be sensitive to the time of its users, and adapt accordingly. Play should be able to be managed in short bursts, especially in the early stages of a game when new players are testing it for enjoyability. Later progression can slow down or encourage longer bouts of time spent, to encourage retention.

Social Connectivity

The idea that a social game would forget to include social elements seems unlikely; however, many new social games that arrive on the market forget this key element.

“Social” in relation to a game means more than offering the game on a social network, like Facebook, or a social platform, like the iPhone. Instead, “social” should refer to the connectivity of a single player in the game to other players. Social games thrive when they not only allow, but encourage, friend-to-friend game play and assistance, including posting gifts on Facebook walls and sending personal high score challenges. The key here is that the player not only needs to interact with the game, but with others playing the game.

Social connectivity is vital to a social game’s success because it encourages depth of interaction for each player. While the game may be simpler than games designed for a less casual audience, it can also encourage more social play. Social connectivity also plays a core role in the fourth element, viral transmission.

Viral Transmission

Social game development is both good at hedging risks and taking them. Because social games are typically free, development costs must be compensated by micro-transactions, limiting marketing budgets for social game developers. The social nature of these games, however, offers a new marketing opportunity – viral transmission.

The idea behind viral transmission is simple: get a player hooked into the game, offer them an opportunity to connect socially with others, and then offer them a method to share the game. Facebook offers two simple methods for viral transmission: wall posts (both on the player’s own wall, and that of their friends), and game requests. Many mobile social games use social gaming networks, such as OpenFeint or Games Center. Other options include offering “share” buttons that let the player post about the game to Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Digg.

This not only offers a social game free advertising to its core audience, it also offers the best kind of advertising: word-of-mouth. This effective method of advertising works so well because people trust the words of a peer more than they do a simple advertisement. It is also a form of advertising that still thrives on technology that seeks to block out traditional forms of advertisement, and positive word-of-mouth works excellent for brand building. Offering methods of viral transmission, then, enables each player with effective marketing tools for expanding each social game’s brand.

With these four core design elements, social games are given a solid framework that enables their growth and success in an increasingly popular and crowded market. While games missing one of these elements are still capable of growth, they are less likely to succeed in the long-term without re-evaluating their design for the social platforms of today.（source:associatedcontent）