作者：Gamezebo Staff

Facebook最近在其移动网站上做了较大的更新。这次的更新不只停留在视觉上的变化，而且也为玩家们带来一个大消息，即Facebook用户现在可以使用自己的手机玩HTML5游戏了。已经有9款已发行的游戏正在等待试验，而且我们也认为是时候更深层次去挖掘并分析Facebook上的HTML5游戏。

我认为gamezebo网站社交游戏编辑Andrew Webster以及手机游戏编辑Jim Squires对此更有发言权，以下是他们的一些看法：

Andrew的观点

第一波的Facebook手机游戏充满复古感。而现在我们在这个平台上看到的更多是带有文本和菜单的角色扮演游戏，扑克游戏，文字游戏等等。这些游戏登上Facebook后，人气就开始飞升，《FarmVille》便是个典例。但是很遗憾的是，现在的这9款游戏都不具有太大的吸引力。所以对于这种重要的新发展而言，这并不是一个很好的开端。

但其中还是有一些发展潜力。

大多数游戏都只是一些受菜单驱动的事件组合体，就像《FarmVille》已经缩略为一个有动物庄稼而无真实农场（尽管玩家仍旧需要忙活着收割农作物）的清单。德国社交游戏开发商Wooga的《Magic Land: Island》却是一款富有潜力的游戏，尽管它其实并没有多大的乐趣。

Magic Land Island(from gamezebo)

基本上来看，《Magic Land: Island》是主体网页版本《Magic Land》的衍生手机游戏，所以与主体游戏一样，玩家在这个版本中也拥有一个王国，可以在这里建造房屋，收租金，种植农作物，修剪枝条并与怪物打斗等。虽然游戏中也有任务，但是却极其单调（游戏邦注：即种树砍树之类的琐事），而且玩家也感受不到故事中真正的游戏世界。更让人失望的是，这款游戏并不能与其主体版本相连接。只能说这只是一款能够让玩家随身携带的独立小游戏罢了。

但是它仍是迄今最让人印象深刻的游戏。因为，不管它存在何种缺陷，它从外表还有游戏玩法看来都属于Facebook游戏。这款游戏的图像都很明亮很可爱，而你可以无需输入任何文字就可以直接控制游戏角色和建筑。这更像是一款真正的游戏在萌芽时期的状态。如果你仔细观察，你将会发现其实这款游戏还未真正成熟。

《Magic Land: Island》中还设置了一艘未成品的船，并且上边标记了“即将问世”的字眼，有趣的是，在主体版本《Magic Land》中也有类似的场景。也许这只是一种巧合，或许最后，这两款游戏将会出现更多联系。而这也是我们的终极目标：让玩家能够在任何设备上玩游戏。

尽管还未准备妥当，但是至少《Magic Land: Island》让我们看到了希望。

Jim的看法

对于Andrew的观点我是再同意不过了。虽然不乏一些大作，但是Facebook手机游戏的创造性已经渐渐淡了下去。迄今为止我们只看到一些较为基础的好游戏，但是却没有一款游戏能够真的说上有趣。尽管如此，这里还是存在着巨大的潜力。

对于这种潜力，值得我们展开讨论。Andrew列举《Magic Land: Island》作为Facebook手机游戏发展的一支潜力股，而我则想说说另外一款游戏《FarmVille Express》及其风格。

这款游戏并不是《FarmVille》，而只是《FarmVille》的移动精简版游戏。如果玩家带着想要体验《FarmVille》的想法打开这款游戏，那么他们一定会对此感到失望。所以我认为对于这款游戏来说，第一步要做的就是改变玩家的这种“期望”。

FarmVille Express(from gamezebo)

对于高级用户来说，《FarmVille Express》真的是一款完完全全的应用。比起不断在自己的农田里点击，收割，犁地，种植，玩家可以排队等候做自己想做的事，甚至像个疯子似的狂敲屏幕。如果你拥有超过200块的农田，那么《FarmVille Express》会提供给你10分钟的务农时间，并帮助你在30秒钟内快速解决所有问题。同样地，处理邻居间的请求问题也不是件容易的事。

问题便在于，你在《FarmVille Express》中并不能随心所欲地做任何事。如果你想要扩展自己的农田，收集果实，或者点击动物，你便必须购买这款游戏的完整版本。而正是这点让玩家不用在《FarmVille》以及《FarmVille Express》之间做出选择，但是却仍会花时间去玩这两款游戏。如果Zynga能够想出如何利用这两款游戏分别盈利，那么他们便能轻而易举地从中赚大钱了。

虽然我相信Facebook能够推动手机游戏的变革，但是它们呈现给玩家的游戏却不足以称为优秀的游戏应用。Facebook似乎也意识到了这一点，所以它才会从iOS应用中选择一些游戏，如《Zynga Poker》等去打造HTML5版本游戏，但是这么做不仅不能让玩家感受到HTML5的魅力，而且会迫使玩家最终转战App Store去下载更完整的游戏。

如果Facebook能够改变玩家对于游戏的“期望”，并让Facebook移动平台成为真正能够提供Facebook游戏体验的地方，而不仅是对于原有平台游戏的复制品，如此玩家才有可能会真正把在手机上玩Facebook游戏当成日常生活中的一个重要部分。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Facebook Mobile’s HTML5 gaming – can it succeed?

By Gamezebo Staff

Last week, Facebook unveiled a major update to its mobile site. Along with all of the visual changes came some pretty big news for gamers: Facebook users could now play HTML5-based games on Facebook using their mobile phone. Nine games have been available since launch, and with a week to ponder, we decided it was time to dig a little deeper and analyze just what we thought of Facebook’s HTML5 gaming.

Rather than just grabbing one opinion, though, we couldn’t imagine any better pair to share their thoughts on a big happening in social mobile gaming than our own Social Games Editor, Andrew Webster, and our Mobile Games Editor, Jim Squires. Here’s what they had to say;

Andrew says…

Playing the first wave of Facebook mobile games feels like stepping back in time. Right now the platform is full of text and menu heavy RPGs, poker games, and word games. The kind of stuff that was popular when games first came to Facebook. Even FarmVille is there. But amongst the nine games that are currently available none of them are particularly engaging or striking. It’s an inauspicious beginning to what could eventually be a very important new development.

There’s potential, though.

While most of the games are simple menu driven affairs and FarmVille has been reduced to a list of animals and crops with no actual farm (though it is an easy way to do some harvesting on the go), wooga’s Magic Land: Island shows the most promise. And it’s not even that fun. At least not yet.

Basically, it’s an incredibly stripped down version of the main, browser-based version of Magic Land. You have a kingdom and you build houses, collect rent, farm for food, clear trees, and fight trolls, which are many of the same activities found in the main game. There are quests, but they’re pretty drab (plant 10 of these, chop down four trees, etc.) and so there’s no real sense of the world you’re in or any sort of story. Even more disappointing is that it doesn’t connect to the main version in any way. It’s just a smaller version you can put in your pocket.

It’s still the most impressive game so far. And that’s because, in spite of its shortcomings, it both looks and plays like a Facebook game. The visuals are bright and charming and you are actually tapping on characters and buildings instead of simple lines of text. It’s more like the embryonic stage of an actual game. You can see a game there if you look closely, it’s just not fully formed yet.

There’s an unfinished boat washed ashore on the island along with the words “Coming Soon…” Funnily enough, the main version of Magic Land also has a boat feature that’s coming soon. It could be a coincidence, or, more likely, eventually these two games will eventually have some sort of interconnectivity. And that’s really the ultimate goal here: to be able to play games where ever you are on whatever device you want.

Magic Land: Island provides hope that this is on the way. Even if it’s not quite ready yet.

Jim says…

It’s hard to not agree with Andrew’s overall sentiment. As far as big launches go, Facebook’s mobile gaming initiative is something of a bust. Only the most basic of games are available so far, and none of them could really be considered fun by any real standards. Still though – it has potential.

The kind of potential it has, however, is up for debate. While Andrew sees games like Magic Land: Island as paving the way for proper Facebook gaming, I think there’s something to be said for the style of integration we see in FarmVille Express.

This isn’t FarmVille, but merely a FarmVille player aide. Anyone booting this up expecting a proper FarmVille experience is going to be sorely disappointed. I think the trick here is getting people to change their expectations.

FarmVille Express is the ultimate app for power users. Rather than clicking on square after square of land to harvest, plow, and plant, you can queue up what you want to do and tap like a madman. If you have over 200 squares of land to tend to, FarmVille Express takes a 10 minute chore and turns it into a 30 second solution. Likewise, dealing with neighbour requests has never been easier.

The trick, though, is that you can’t do everything from FarmVille Express. If you want to expand your farm, collect from trees, or click on animals, you’ll need to hit the full version. This gives players good reason to not choose between FarmVille and FarmVille Express, but to spend time using both. If they can figure out how to monetize both separately, developers like Zynga will be laughing all the way to the bank.

As much as I’d like to believe Facebook can launch a mobile gaming revolution, it just doesn’t seem like what they’ve presented here is capable of the same polish and presentation as a standalone gaming app. Facebook seems to agree, as selecting something like Zynga Poker from inside of their iOS app will bring you not to the HTML5 version, but the App Store to download the bigger offering.

If they can change that expectation though, and make Facebook mobile a place to extend your Facebook gaming experience rather than simply duplicate it, your mobile phone might just become an essential part of your daily FB habits.（source:gamezebo）