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列举免费增值游戏促使玩家付费的6种情感

发布时间:2012-04-28 15:28:22 Tags:,,,,,

作者:Mike Fahey

“在免费增值游戏中,付费不算是理性的决定,而是感性的决定。”在周3于北卡罗莱纳州召开的East Coast Games Conference上,前BioWare设计总监Ethan Levy解释了免费游戏如何利用玩家情感来实现盈利。

Levy在周3的East Coast Games Conference上发表了题为“游戏设计是商业设计”的演讲。他是EA2D(游戏邦注:现名为BioWare San Francisco)的首批成员,带领团队开发了《龙腾世纪:旅程》、《龙腾世纪:传奇》和《龙腾世纪传奇:外传01》。

所以Ethan了解情感参与,了解免费增值模式。他还知道如何将这两者结合起来,创造出成功的免费游戏。让我们看看Ethan在他的演讲中讨论的游戏以及它们如何利用玩家情感参与来赚钱。

不耐烦

示例:《战争指挥官》(War Commander)

war-commander(from fbgamer)

war-commander(from fbgamer)

Levy说道,Kixeye的《战争指挥官》在Facebook上的日平均每用户盈利是一般社交游戏的20倍(一般社交游戏的这一数据为4美分),它利用的是免费游戏中最普遍的方法。在《战争指挥官》这款战略游戏中,玩家在同一时间只能为军队制造数量有限的道具,而且每个单位都要耗费一定的时间,除非你愿意付费加速道具的制造。

复仇

示例:《黑帮战争》(Mafia Wars)

mafia-wars Hit list(from gogogobox)

mafia-wars Hit list(from gogogobox)

Zynga的Facebook黑帮游戏吸引了无数的玩家,甚至比其融合大量动作内容的续作还要流行。

游戏中盈利最多的部分是“暗杀名单”。玩家可以悬赏击杀敌人,支付高昂的费用让别人教训比他更强大的对手。Levy向听众展示了一个截屏,其中最高的赏金高达6.4亿个虚拟货币,这等同于上千美元的真实金钱。复仇是个很强大的刺激因素。

统治

示例:《宝石迷阵:闪电战》(Bejeweled Blitz)

bejeweled blitz(from popcap.com)

bejeweled blitz(from popcap.com)

在PopCap旗下这款令人上瘾的60秒宝石配对游戏中看到自己在排行榜上超越所有好友,这也是个强大的刺激因素,驱动玩家大量购买维持榜单首位所必需的力量提升道具。

嫉妒

示例:《模拟人生社交版》(The Sims Social)

the_sims_social(from bbgsite)

the_sims_social(from bbgsite)

允许其他玩家访问你在游戏中的小世界不只是让“社交游戏”拥有“社交性”。当玩家访问好友的家园时,发现其中布满了昂贵的虚拟装饰物和家具,点击购买键很可能就成为其本能反应。

成就

示例:Pogo.com

pogo.com(from computertimes.com)

pogo.com(from computertimes.com)

所有Xbox 360或PlayStation 3玩家都知道成就和奖杯的强大力量。现在,想象下,在某个网站上,玩家疯狂痴迷于解锁成就,甚至愿意付费来获得额外的优势。他们并非付钱直接购买成就,而是付钱购买获得成就的能力。如果微软将这种方法移植到Xbox 360上,可能将产生令人难以想象的疯狂态势。

愉悦

示例:《黑色风暴》(Combat Arms)

combat-arms_weapons(from forum.nexoneu.com)

combat-arms_weapons(from forum.nexoneu.com)

Nexon的免费竞技射击游戏有个与BioWare旗下《质量效应3》多人体验极为相似的机制。玩家支付金钱来购买箱子,便有可能获得稀有的强力道具,只是有可能而已。那种感觉类似于购买万智牌卡包,希望打开时能够获得特别稀有的卡片。

Levy回忆起Ngmoco瑞典工作室主管Ben Cousins的一次演讲,演讲的内容是他所谓的“盈利3.0时代”,即玩家支付额外的费用以增加他们得到稀有道具的机率,这项机制目前被运用在Android卡牌游戏《Rage of Bahamut》中。

Levy的观点很强大,利用情感是免费增值游戏成功盈利的关键。在倾听他的演讲期间,我意识到自己已经在《质量效应3》多人游戏中花了近40美元,我本可以联系BioWare,索取些许优惠。但我玩游戏时完全沉浸在兴奋中,根本没想到这一点。

以上便是值得免费游戏制作者采纳的情感行为。(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

The Emotions Free-to-Play Games Prey on to Get Players to Pay

Mike Fahey

“In a freemium game it’s not a rational decision to pay; it’s an emotional one.” Wednesday at the East Coast Games Conference in North Carolina, former BioWare design manager Ethan Levy explained how free-to-play games can harness to emotions of their players in order to profit.

Up until recently Levy, who delivered the “Game Design is Business Design” talk at the East Coast Games Conference Wednesday, was a design manager at BioWare, a company famous for its dedication to emotional engagement. He’s been working in the business for nearly a decade, starting as an intern and tester for Pandemic Studios working on Star Wars: Battlefront. Since then he’s been a producer, designer, external consultant and metrics analyst.

No stranger to freemium titles, Levy was the first employee at EA2D (now BioWare San Francisco), where he led development on Dragon Age Journeys, Dragon Age Legends and Dragon Age Legends: Remix 01.

So Ethan knows emotional engagement, and he knows freemium. He also knows how to put the two together to create a recipe for free-to-play success. Let’s take a look at the games Ethan discussed during his talks and the emotions they target for big money.

Impatience

Example: War Commander

Kixeye’s War Commander, a game that Levy says garners 20 times the four cents daily revenue per user average on Facebook utilizes one of the more common methods free-to-play titles employ to get its players to pay. A strategy game, in War Commander players can only have a finite number of items being built for their army at any given time, and each unit takes time. That is unless you pay to speed up production.

Revenge

Example: Mafia Wars

Zynga’s Facebook mobster sensation continues to engross countless players, more popular than even its action-packed sequel.

One of the most lucrative aspects of the game is the Hit List. Here players can place bounties on the heads of their enemies, paying top dollar to those that can take their more powerful rivals down a peg. Levy showed the crowd a screen in which the highest bounty would pay out some 640 million in-game dollars. That’s more than a thousand real dollars. Revenge is a powerful motivator, and a passable television series.

Dominance

Example: Bejeweled Blitz

Seeing yourself at the top of your friends leaderboard in PopCap’s incredibly addictive 60-second gem matching game is a powerful motivator, driving massive sales of the power-up items necessary to stay in first place.

It bears nothing that the top of Ethan’s screenshot leaderboard included BioWare community guy Chris Priestly, along with Duane Webb and David Silverman. Apparently they’ve had a little down time since Mass Effect 3 shipped.

Jealousy

Example: The Sims Social

Allowing other players to come and visit your little in-game world isn’t just a matter of putting the “social” in “social games”. When a player visits a friend’s home and finds it filled with high-priced virtual furnishings, reaching for the buy button is almost instinctual.

Accomplishment

Example: Pogo.com

Any Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 gamer knows what a powerful force achievements and trophies are. Now imagine a site where players are so rabid to unlock achievements that they’ll pay extra for additional sets. They aren’t paying for achievements: they are paying for the ability to gain achievements. Can you imagine the uproar if Microsoft tried pulling this sort of thing on the 360?

Exhilaration

Example: Combat Arms

Nexon’s free-to-play competitive shooter features a mechanic much like that employed recently in BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 multiplayer experience. Players shell out money for Supply Crates, which are effectively booster packs that have a chance – just a chance – of containing a rare powerful item. It’s the same rush as opening up a pack of Magic cards and finding that one special rare card.

Levy recalled a talk by Ben Cousins, the current head of NGMOCO Sweden, about something he called Monetization 3.0, in which players pay extra in order to increase their chances of receiving a rare item, a mechanic currently employed in Android card game Rage of Bahamut.

Levy’s point is a strong one; playing on emotions is the key to successfully monetizing a freemium title. During his talk I realized that I had paid around $40 on Mass Effect 3 multiplayer boosters, and I could have just contacted BioWare and asked for some credits. I was caught up in the thrill, not thinking with my head.

That’s the sort of impulsive, emotional behavior freemium game creators are banking on. (Source: Kotaku)


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