游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

Lori Taylor:社交游戏成为在线营销新核心渠道的主要因素

发布时间:2010-08-25 13:58:39 Tags:,,

Social game(社交游戏)能够给企业带来什么?形成社区,创造独一无二的内容,形成长期的在线交际关系,提高品牌知名度,成为企业和用户之间的沟通平台。

一:Social Gaming 与传统网络游戏的异同

同:两者都起到娱乐功能,受众宽泛,简单的mechanics和较短的寿命;

异:平台不同,social games建立在社区网络以及用户现存的人际关系网之上,通过invite systems(邀请系统)/news feed posting/user-to-user notifications(用户对用户通告)/paid acquisition(有偿购买)等联系用户.

最大的不同点在于:social gaming的内容和人物与玩家的社区网络相匹配,是独一无二。Crazy Planets, Mafia Wars, and Farmville是在美国相当成功的几款social games。

social-games-played

social-games-played

二:social game的要素和分类

三个核心要素:Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2010 Report(2010年社交游戏前景报告)中确定了social game所要具有的3个核心元素:

1:Social graph data(社交图数据):指玩家的朋友/兴趣/玩家数量/生活信息等一些列资料;

2:游戏方式简单随意(译者:英文用的是casual,有非正式的意思,这里是指social game玩起来很随意,不像传统的游戏那样要投入大量时间和一定技术。),一次游戏的时间短,访问简单,高频率游戏。

3:游戏通常是免费的,收益来源与虚拟货物。

四个分类:

#1: Resource Management and Simulation(资源管理和模仿类)

玩家管理一定的资源来达到一个特定的和提前制定的目标。

FarmVille(译者:就是开心农场)就是这样一款游戏,玩家在农场种植蔬菜水果养动物,据统计FarmVille的活跃用户有8240万以及超过2390万的Facebook玩家。

#2: Gambling(赌博类)

模仿现实的赌博游戏,除了使用数字美元,玩家通过积累点数来获得奖励。ESPN的Streak For Cash每天玩家达300万。

#3: Care-taking(精心护理类)

玩家养一个宠物,这之类的游戏主要满足玩家的情感需求并达到交际目的。

#4: Casual or Arcade(游乐场游戏类)

主要的代表有Tetris, Scrabble, Super Stamp和Bejeweled Blitz。

streak-for-cash

streak-for-cash

三:social game的用户——除了青少年还有谁?

根据2009年Social Game峰会的报告,50%的Facebook玩家年龄在25岁以上,其中女性多于男性,各为56%和44%。而据MSN Games的报告,40%的玩家是本科及以上学历,25%的玩家在工作中属于专家或管理层。55%的玩家的家庭收入在5万美元以上。

四:Social Game的盈利模式

1) Virtual Goods(虚拟货物):虚拟货物的收入占所有收入的90%。

2) Sponsorships(广告赞助):游戏广告虽然增长缓慢却很平稳。

3) White Label Games:研发人员在开发出游戏程序之后与企业洽谈,共同开发有趣的新颖的游戏玩法。

五:企业投入Social Game的原因

Social Game能带来更多的eyeballs(注意力)和更好的brand engagement(品牌互动)。如Arkadium(著名的休闲游戏和广告游戏公司)就将焦点放在为用户品牌公司/广告代理机构/网络游戏玩家等等提供创新的游戏解决方案。由其代理的AARP公司就表示自从Arkadium为其设计的游戏Mah Jongg Dimensions (6)发布后,网站流量就上涨了294%。

AARP-branded games: Mah Jongg Dimensions (6).(以AARP为品牌的虚拟游戏:Mah Jongg Dimensions (6))

social-gaming-monitor-usa

social-gaming-monitor-usa

六:Social Game的前景

有一点很明显了:游戏形成社区,社区又成为游戏。Foursquare就是这样一个例子。而值得一提的就是在中国游戏比广告和搜索都大。GOOGLE就给Zynga(一家优秀的社交游戏公司)投资了1亿至2亿美金。下面是09年和10年社交游戏用户统计。

Social Game Users in 2009 (09年社交游戏用户数量)

Texas HoldEm Poker: 7,324,970

Hug Me: 5,455,522

Pet Society: 4,965,532

WHTBB : 3,703,659

Birthday Cards: 3,582,843

Social Game Users in 2010 (10年社交游戏用户数量)

Farmville: 73,852,787

Birthday Cards: 32,330,476

Café World: 31,129,783

Happy Aquarium: 27,506,324

Fishville: 24,957,268

[09年总数为25,032,526;2010年总数为189,776,638;增长了164,744,112。]

根据Zynaga,一个公司的成功取决于下面三个因素:

Ability to drive new users (吸引新用户的能力)

Ability to create an engagement loop (互动平台的创建能力)

Access to an open communication channel (开放式交流渠道)

另外social game游戏的成功还得依靠于Facebook等平台对游戏开发商的支持。

virtual-good-buyers

virtual-good-buyers

Social gaming is barely 3 years old, and already companies such as Zynga are reportedly earning $500,000.00 per day! And your brand can benefit from this hot market.

“OK, I’m impressed. Now what is social gaming exactly and where do I play?”

At first blush, social games aren’t too different from traditional online gaming. Both types focus on entertainment appealing to a wide audience, with simple mechanics and relatively short periods of play. Yet unlike traditional gaming, social games are distributed through social networks and existing relationships with other users through invite systems, news feed postings, user-to-user notifications or paid acquisition.

Social gaming allows games to create unique content and characters by tapping into a player’s existing social network. This social DNA has made games such as Crazy Planets, Mafia Wars, and Farmville incredibly successful.

According to the Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2010 Report, there are three core elements a game or service should have to be considered social:

1. Social graph data is an aggregate profile of revealed preferences such as your friends, interests, demographics, and lifestyle information.

2. Game play should be casual and designed for short duration, leveraging-high frequency and brief visits.

3. Games are usually free to play with revenue generated through virtual goods.

Though there are numerous types of social games, the Inside Virtual Goods Report does a great job of chunking them into four basic buckets.

#1: Resource Management and Simulation

Players are responsible for managing resources to achieve a specific, somewhat predetermined goal. With finite resources, players are left to make key decisions.

An example is FarmVille where you grow delicious fruits and vegetables and raise adorable animals on your very own farm. Watblog reports that FarmVille has an astonishing 82.4 million active users and over 23.9 million Facebook application fans.

#2: Gambling

Social gambling mimics popular examples from real life, except games are played with digital dollars, rather than hard currency. Alternatively, you can accumulate points to win a prize. ESPN’s Streak For Cash boasts over 3 million players per day and is a seven-figure earner for the sports giant, according to John A. Walsh, executive vice president and executive editor of ESPN。

#3: Care-taking

These allow users to care for a pet or avatar, like in Nintendogs or Tamagotchi. This type of game serves a specific emotional need, and promotes healthy nurturing and social interaction.

#4: Casual or Arcade

Tetris, Scrabble, Super Stamp and Bejeweled Blitz are all excellent examples of popular arcade games now played on social networks.

“Who Has Time for this Besides Kids?”

Social games are rapidly maturing and currently span numerous demographics. Teenagers to grandparents are enjoying games from Farmville to Mafia Wars, spending endless hours with fellow players and then posting their scores for the entire world to see.

According to the Social Game Summit in 2009, 50% of Facebook gamers are over 25 and women outnumber men, 56% to 44% respectively. At the time of the summit, there were 100 games with at least 100,000 players, 30 games with 1,000,000 and 3 games with 10,000,000+ users!

MSN Games reports 40% of their casual games customers are college graduates or higher, 25% are in a professional or managerial role at work and 55% have a household income of $50K or more.

“How Do Social Media Games Get Monetized?”

Though some games still rely on traditional advertising models, an increasing number of game makers are trying new ways to monetize their efforts, and with success. It’s often a numbers game, with developers focusing on simple design supported with incentives through progress and rewards.

The end game, though, is always easy sharing.

To leverage word of mouth, developers must focus on creating dynamic game titles that incorporate the ability to build social capital for bragging rights; leader boards that aggregate statistics, achievements, user rankings; and access to tools that improve status. Facebook makes it easy to spread the word with features such as Facebook connect publish2stream, notifications and “liking” a page, as well as other sharing features.

However, popular doesn’t mean profits unless you have a longer-term monetization strategy in place.  CNET recently reported that gamers are actively making purchases to enhance their gaming experience, with free-to-play games paving the way for monetization.

According to Inside Virtual Goods, monetization strategies are usually one of the following:

Virtual Goods

A rising trend with promised growth. Virtual goods are the new Holy Grail for game designers, allowing developers to monetize products that don’t technically exist. Virtual goods include in-game items like power-ups, avatar accessories, or decorative items users purchase within the game itself.

Virtual goods account for over 90% of all revenue generated by the world’s top social game developers. Designers optimize user experience through additional gameplay, missions, and quests, without having to worry about overhead or unused stock. It’s no wonder they are so popular.

Sponsorships

In-game advertising is gaining slow but steady traction in the world of virtual fun, with sponsorship from premium brands also growing at a modest but steady pace. So far, social game developers have been far more focused on building small, scalable virtual goods-based models than building games tailored to pitch to brands.

White Label Games

White label games are built once, then individualized and licensed again and again. A developer can create a quality app focused on fun while leaving the edges of the game open for branding. This allows developers to market their game to companies that can find new and interesting ways to bond with, expand, or sell to their audience.
Why Should Brands Start Jumping Into the Social Gaming Space?

The name of the game is more eyeballs and longer brand engagement. And companies such as Arkadium are planting their flag in this trend. As stated on their site, “Arkadium creates innovative game solutions for consumer brands, ad agencies, online gamers, and any company looking to expand their presence. Our games reach millions of people across all demographics through the most popular online destinations.”

Their client roster is impressive, with some detailed testimonials from clients such as AARP that said, “After the launch, traffic shot up to an average of 4.5 million page views, an increase of 294 percent.”

What’s the Future of Social Gaming?

It’s clear—games are becoming the community and community becoming the game. Foursquare is a perfect example, with social capital badges given out or unlocked based on offline behaviors.

Foursquare has exploded to 1.8 million users, and with a rumored cash infusion coming its way, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Gaming in China is bigger than ads or search, which might explain Google’s reported $100-$200 million investment in Zynga, a top social gaming company. Even a listing by appdata.com of the top five games paints an astonishing picture of growth in social gaming.

Just look at 2009 and the first half of this year and it’s easy to see where we’re headed.

Social Game Users in 2009

* Texas HoldEm Poker:   7,324,970

* Hug Me:   5,455,522

* Pet Society:  4,965,532

* WHTBB :   3,703,659

* Birthday Cards:   3,582,843

Social Game Users in 2010

* Farmville:  73,852,787

* Birthday Cards:  32,330,476

* Café World:   31,129,783

* Happy Aquarium:   27,506,324

* Fishville:   24,957,268

Social media is a game-changer. It’s impacting who plays, along with when and where they do it. Because of the viral aspect, social media even affects how games are developed and their shelf life.

According to Zynga, a company’s success revolves around three factors:

1. Ability to drive new users

2. Ability to create an engagement loop

3. Access to an open communication channel

Gaming success is dependent on platforms such as Facebook for continued benevolence to their developers.

Are You a Social Gamer?

If you’ve ever counted followers, retweets, comments or even sent a good-karma chain letter, then you, my friend, are probably “guilty.”

If you Twitter, link, Stumble or Digg, share, measure, collect bookmarks… If you have created an avatar, asked for notification of messages, events, comments, etc… by definition, you’re a social gamer.(source:social media examiner/social beta)


上一篇:

下一篇: