作者：Azam Khan

社交游戏独特的吸引力让传统游戏行业大为震惊。现在你可以在slideshare.net上看到许多阐述社交游戏应该包含哪些功能的文章，但除了Nicole Lazarro的文章外，可用的综合解释社交游戏对普通用户的心智影响的内容却并不多。近期Clubv3发表了一篇新文章，解析玩家在社交游戏中的情感体验诉求。文章中建议开发商能够提供：认知、低感知需求、减弱的游戏障碍和社群感。

情感是社交游戏的关键，也是许多传统游戏开发商参考社交游戏范例的原因。各大开发商不再只专注于游戏的视觉效果，更侧重为那些想要与他们的好友产生联系并一起玩游戏的玩家提供极具吸引力的奖励。

nightclub-city(from unigamesity.com)

该文章中的第1个主题说的就是认知的重要性。对游戏内容的认知使受众能够更深刻地理解他们正在参与的内容。在本部分中，作者给出的重要建议是，大众市场游戏应该尽量满足玩家的诉求，让他们知道无需精通某些技能也能够在游戏中享受。

文章的第2部分关注的是保持游戏可接入性，而且初学者易于上手。延迟和加载时间关乎成败，因为玩家更倾向于那些流畅运行的游戏。让玩家在游戏中体验到乐趣应该是每个开发商的目标，教程可以帮助新用户熟悉游戏，只要这些教程不让玩家感到反感。

文章还强调了社群感的重要性，因为休闲游戏玩家多数是女性。病毒性行动也是种加深玩家群体归属感的手段。重要的是要注意到，在线游戏玩家想要的是独立于其他用户，同时还要有归属于社群的感觉。在社群驱动游戏（游戏邦注：多数社交游戏均属此类游戏）中，恰当的交流生态系统很重要，因为这允许玩家通过赠礼来加强他们的联系。开发商应当通过不断演变的内容提供游戏世界持续发展的感觉，这样玩家一旦参与进去就会受到吸引。

在游戏中发展和获得回报的想法是多数玩家行动的驱动力，吸引着他们一次次地回到游戏中。开发商可以利用这个机制，在玩家加入游戏时加快他们升级的节奏。另一个在玩家间产生联系的关键方法是，在游戏中设计自定义特征，这样玩家的个性方能得以彰显。但必须注意的是，给玩家提供的选择不宜过少，也不宜过多。最后，社交游戏重在控制，玩家也想要利用他们的控制力量。在《Nightclub City》中是否解雇NPC之类就属于玩家对游戏的控制，其关键在于会让玩家认为他们可以控制并影响游戏的结果。

随着行业逐渐成熟，并往我们所熟悉游戏主题之外的边缘化及创新型可玩性方向发展，充满挑战性以及更具协作性的玩法会改变社交游戏的生态系统。玩家也希望能够通过社交游戏来逃避工作或生活等现实行为，尽管只有几分钟时间。玩家会控制他们花在游戏上的时间和金钱，逐渐偏向情感体验。对于这种社交游戏变化趋势，你要如何改变游戏来应对呢？

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2010年6月16日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Can Social Games Act As A Form Of Psychotherapy?

Azam Khan

Social gaming has a unique appeal that’s taken the traditional industry by storm. One can now go on slideshare.net and find an influx of presentations on what features social games should include, but there’s not much availability of literature, asides from works from Nicole Lazarro, that invigorates the intellectual mind about the appeal of social gaming to average consumers in a comprehensive manner. A new white paper released by Clubv3 details the emotional experience players look for in a social game. The advice for developers is to provide: recognition, low perceived effort, reduced barriers to play, and a sense of community.

Emotion is key to social games and the reason many traditional game developers suffer in embracing the social gaming paradigm which is less about the arms race to better looking games and more about engaging and subtly rewarding the players who want to connect with their friends and play for short periods of time.

The first theme discussed in the white paper is the importance of recognition. Having recognizable content allows audiences to better identify what it is that they are engaging with. One important piece of advice mentioned in this section is for mass market games to appeal to as many audience members as possible by letting them know symbolically that they do not need to be a subject matter expert to enjoy a particular game.

The second section delves into the idea of keeping game play accessible and easy for starters. Mitigation of lag and loading time can spell the difference between success and failure as players will flock to better performing games from those that don’t operate smoothly. Taking players from game launch to pleasure should be the goal of any developer and the tutorial can help new users get into the game seamlessly as long as they don’t clutter the process of doing so.

The white paper stresses the importance of a sense of community, especially because the mass of the casual gaming player base consists of women. Viral actions also provide an avenue for players to deepen their sense of belonging to a group. An important point to note is that players like being ‘alone together’, a notion that depicts an online player wanting to be distant from other users yet still feeling inclusive to a community. A proper communication ecosystem is important in community-driven games (which make up most games) as they allow players to reinforce their membership and connection through gifting, provides a channel for bragging rights and creates a sense of a persistent world with evolving content that players don’t want to miss out on once engaged.

The desire to progress and receive feedback drives much of players’ actions and compels them to return to games time and time again. Developers can leverage this mechanic by making it easy for new players to level up as soon as they join a game. Another critical facet of creating connections with players is to implement customizable features through which identity can be formed. Caution should be taken, however, when dealing with choice as to not overwhelm players with too many options but not to underwhelm them either with minuscule selections. Lastly, social gaming is about control and players want to harness their powers of controlling. Whether its kicking out an NPC in Nightclub City or rotating their buildings around, the illusion of control, at a minimum, is essential so players feel like they are in control and able to affect the outcomes of the games, in an inconsequential manner of course.

Challenges and more cooperative play will alter the social gaming ecosystem as the industry matures towards edgy and innovative game play away from the safe haven of familiar themes. Players will also want a sense of escapism, which social games endow them with albeit it for a few minutes only, at work or elsewhere in short bursts. Players are in control of how they spend their time and money and will lean towards emotionally gratifying experiences. How will you position your game for the next frontier in social gaming? (Source: Social Times)