作者：Wilhelm Oesterberg

你是否想过究竟什么是社交游戏，在wooga看来应如何设计游戏？不妨听听wooga产品经理Wilhelm Oesterberg发表的看法。

Monster World(from gamesfacebook.net)

究竟什么是社交游戏？

社交游戏的重要特点是你是同现实好友以合作或竞争形式共同参与游戏。我们依托Facebook平台，所以玩家能够在游戏中联系其现实好友、同事和家人，我们添加社交网络以外平台无法实现的乐趣和社交互动。

《Monster World》融入哪些社交机制？

《Monster World》走的是社交农场游戏路线，我们不断调试游戏，增添新机制。以下是3个成功社交机制：

1. 邀请好友协助完成游戏任务。当机器人Robert要求提供10束玻璃花时，你有两个选择：自己耕作，完成任务；或者在消息动态中提出请求，请求好友帮助。若有足够好友回应，你就能够收集足够玻璃花，完成Robert的要求，获得相应奖励（游戏邦注：无需自己种植）。

2. 神秘礼物。你能向好友送出神秘礼物，他们需登陆接受。接受礼物后，礼物就会自动打开，你就能够看看里面究竟是什么东西。这是个很棒的功能，因为你能够向好友表达友善之情，赠予他们神秘礼物。若你有好友也在体验游戏，你通常能够在登陆时获得意外惊喜。好友是神秘礼物的唯一来源，这是个真正具有社交性的功能。在《Monster World》中，赠送玩家比索要玩家多，玩家喜欢在游戏中赠与好友东西，同他们保持联系。

3. 建造材料。我们最近在游戏中引入手工艺元素。玩家可以制作不同物品，如糖果（游戏邦注：把不同植物混合在一起），但就像在《CandyWorks》，玩家需具备特定建筑物。获取建造建筑的材料的方式有3种。首先，你会在收割庄稼过程中无意发现某个材料。其次，你可以通过facebook credits购买材料。再次，你可以向好友寻求帮助。这对我们而言是个好机制，因为玩家不仅能够从中获得材料，而且还能让好友获悉《Monster World》最新、最具吸引力的添加物。

我们如何借助这些机制提高玩家体验？

首先，《Monster World》从本质看是个合作型游戏。这表示你能够通过多种方式帮助好友前进。就像上面提到的，赠送礼物是个提供帮助的方式，但还能够通过拜访花园或帮好友的作物施肥，向园丁提供食物，检查装饰物，或者赠与额外装饰品。其中也有友善竞争元素：通过拜访好友，查看其花园及进展情况，从而萌生加快发展步伐的想法。而在传统游戏中，每个人都有自己的小世界，没有或很少有合作或竞争机会。

其次，通过引入社交机制，玩家拥有另一前进选择。传统游戏玩家只有一个晋级选择，那就是点击50次，杀死20个怪物，完成预定目标。引入微交易后，玩家能够通过facebook credits跳过或加快他们没有时间完成的特定任务。wooga还给予玩家第三个选择方案，同好友进行社交互动以在游戏中前进。

社交游戏未来将会什么样子？你觉得“社交玩家”和“硬核玩家”未来会玩同种游戏吗？

从某种程度而言，是的。很多硬核玩家如今也开始体验社交游戏，虽然他们还是普遍认为Facebook平台没有“真正的游戏”。但我觉得社交游戏日趋复杂化，越来越有深度，这是为迎合休闲玩家而形成的自然演变（游戏邦注：而且也让游戏越来越吸引硬核玩家眼球）。这让wooga处在一个非常有利的发展位置：我们瞄准大众制作游戏，而不再是游戏市场过去所谓的细分领域。随着时光流逝，我们将会在游戏中融入更多策略性深度，但我们另辟蹊径，而非追随硬核游戏步伐。

《Monster World》未来会有什么新元素？

就像上面提到的，我们最近刚添加用作物作为原材料制作物品内容。这在玩家中的接受度很高，所以我们将继续拓展。除此之外，就像对待其他游戏一样，我们也在努力完善和添加《Monster World》内容。我们希望我们的忠实玩家能够不断享受到有趣新内容，即便是在体验几个月之后。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How to Make Monsters Play Nice with Each Other

By Wilhelm Österberg

Have you ever wondered what exactly a social game is, and how wooga believes our games should be designed? Read below to find out what Wilhelm Oesterberg, a Product Manager at wooga, thinks.

Q. What exactly are social games?

The key characteristic of social games is that you play with or against your real-life friends. Because we use Facebook as our platform, we can allow you to connect with your real-life friends, colleagues and family from within the game, adding another layer of fun and social interaction that’s not possible from outside of a social network.

Q. What are some social mechanics that are used by Monster World?

Monster World was specifically built to be a social farming game, and we are constantly tweaking the game and adding new mechanisms. Three well-known and successful social mechanics are:

1. Asking your friends to help you complete goals in the game. When you are presented with a demand from Robert the Robot for, say, 10 Glass Flowers, you have two options: you can either plant, harvest and turn in the required crops, or you can post a request to your news feed, asking for your friends help. If enough of your friends respond to your call for aid, you will have enough Glass Flowers in stock to fulfill Robert’s demand and get the reward, even without growing any yourself.

2. Mystery Gifts. Right now, you can send your friends a mystery gift, which they will have to log in to accept. Once you accept the gift it will unwrap and you get to see what’s inside the box. It is really a great feature, because you get to be nice to your friends and give them a meaningful present, and if you have some friends playing, you’ll often log on to a nice surprise. Since the only way of getting mystery gifts is from your friends, it’s a truly social feature. On a side note, way more people send gifts than ask for them in Monster World – people enjoy giving stuff to their friends, and involving their friends in their games.

3. Materials for building. We recently introduced crafting in the game. You craft different things, like candy, by combining plants together, but for this you need to have certain buildings, like the CandyWorks. There are three ways to get the materials you will need to construct the buildings. First of all, you might randomly find the right piece when harvesting a crop. Secondly, you could buy the materials using facebook credits. Lastly, you can always ask your friends for help. This is a good thing for us, because not only do you get your materials, but now your friends know about the latest and coolest additions to Monster World!

Q. How do we utilize these mechanics to improve the game experience of our users?

First of all, Monster World is in its nature a cooperative game. This means that there is a lot you can do to help your friends advance. As mentioned, sending gifts is one way to help, but I could also for example visit your garden and help fertilize your plants, feed your gardener or just check your decorations out and perhaps send you a couple of extra ones that fit in. There is however a definite element of friendly competition too: By visiting my friends I will see how their gardens look and how they advance and might have the idea that I want to advance faster. In a traditional game on the other hand, everyone is segmented into their own little world, given little or no opportunities to cooperate or compete.

Secondly, by introducing a social mechanic, users have an alternative path to advance. In a traditional game, users have only one way forward – to click 50 times, kill 20 monsters, or complete some pre-defined objective. With the introduction of micro-transactions, users can also use facebook credits to bypass or speed up the path to certain objectives they don’t have time to do. wooga also offers users a third option – to interact with their friends socially to advance.

Q. What do social games mean for the future of gaming? Do you think that “social gamers” and “core gamers” will ever play the same games?

To some extent, yes. A lot of core gamers do play social games already today, although a common attitude among them still is that there are no “real games” on facebook. I think that social games are going towards slightly more complexity and a lot more depth though, which is following the natural evolution of the casual audience, but also making the games more and more appealing to the core gamers. This puts wooga in a very good spot for the future: we make games for everyone, not for just the niche market that the entire games business used to cater to. Over time, we are going to add a lot more strategic depth to our games, but we are blazing our own trail – not chasing the core game genres.

Q. What can we expect from Monster World in the future?

As mentioned, we recently added the possibility to craft stuff using our plants as raw materials. This had a great reception among the players, so we will be expanding a lot on that. Apart from that we are always hard at work on improvements and additions in Monster World, just like in all our games. We want our dedicated players to constantly have new exciting stuff to come back to, even after playing for months.（Source：wooga）