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游戏设计需明确游戏空间vs.奖励空间布局

发布时间:2012-06-08 14:21:47

作者:Elizabeth

尽管像《Farmville》和《黑帮战争》等社交游戏已经拥有了很大的名气,甚至比MMO和一些AAA游戏拥有更强大的用户基础;但是也有些玩家却始终不能认同这类游戏,即认为它们不仅机制设计糟糕,而且连核心的社交互动元素都很无趣,甚至只能说是一种“垃圾”体验。

为了进一步研究这些社交游戏,我开始尝试着玩几款不同的Facebook游戏,并发现我真的很难融入这些游戏。为了扮演一名称职的Facebook好友,我尽量避免在涂鸦墙上发布任何游戏“垃圾信息”,并避免向好友们索要任何道具,而是自己花更多时间在游戏中纠结。当最终实在忍无可忍时,我将自己遇到的所有困境都发布到了涂鸦墙上,并得到了Scott MacMillan的回复,我才发现自己完全做错了。

作为我最尊敬的一名游戏设计师,Scott告诉我,“掌握”社交游戏的诀窍便是不再烦恼自己所发布的信息是否会打扰到其他好友。要不“阻止来自该应用的推送”按钮还有什么存在价值?你要把玩游戏当成是你有理由这么做的行为。当我们真正不带自我意识地玩游戏时,我们才能真正地融入游戏并理解它们。

很多社交游戏反对者认为:这种游戏一点都不有趣,而且游戏还要求玩家必须在游戏外部说很多废话!的确存在一些糟糕的社交游戏,但一概而论是对于整体社交游戏的误解;我们只有投入更多时间去理解这些游戏的运行才能真正感受到游戏世界的内涵,并帮助自己更好地设计社交游戏。

奖励空间vs.游戏空间

Gardening Mama(from appsmenow.com)

Gardening Mama(from appsmenow.com)

当你在iPhone上玩《园艺妈妈》时,你会发现整个游戏空间和奖励空间是相互分离的:游戏空间充满各种帮助玩家栽培并养育花和蔬菜的任务,而奖励空间则包括玩家所建造的花园以及他们为“妈妈”所挣得的所有时尚装饰。也就是玩家在一个空间里玩游戏,并在另外一个空间收获奖励。

而《Farmville》等游戏却彻底颠覆了游戏空间的相关理念。在游戏中所有策略社交行动(游戏邦注:包括寻求帮助,尝试着战胜其他玩家并在好友的涂鸦墙上索求资源等)都是发生在游戏空间中;而游戏空间也将提供给玩家额外的资源让他们能够用于奖励空间——也就是所谓的农场模拟器。

“游戏”本身的机制其实非常简单,即玩家通过在社交空间努力工作而在奖励空间获得收获。因为涉及到了社交元素,所以“游戏”就必须比AAA游戏来得简单——否则便不再适合玩家的休闲娱乐。

尽管《Farmville》可能是Facebook上最受欢迎的游戏,但是它却并非最受欢迎的社交游戏。这一殊荣应该颁给《开心农场》这款备受中国QQ用户欢迎的《FarmVille》模仿游戏。《开心农场》之所以能够大获成功是因为其开发者真正明确了游戏空间的始末;提供给玩家一个广阔的社交互动平台,包括在好友的农场中偷菜以及抢牲畜等机制。

奖励空间 & 游戏化

这便是为何很多产品不能实现“游戏化”的重要原因——只创造了奖励空间但却大大忽视了游戏空间。如果徽章和分数对于你在游戏中的行动没有任何帮助,那么这些奖励也就没有什么意义了;从技术上来看,“进入星巴克”算是一种游戏空间,但是我们必须正视这一点,因为它只能创造出一款蹩脚的游戏。

SCVNGR-iPhone(from theiloop.com)

SCVNGR-iPhone(from theiloop.com)

SCVNGR是一款类似于Foursquare和GoWalla的地理签到应用——采取最常见的游戏化理念而创造出一些让人印象深刻内容:支持实际的游戏体验。通过使用SCVNGR,企业可以创造挑战,并为了获得更多忠诚点数而提供给用户各种奖励。其中一个例子便是玉米煎饼折纸,即用户使用自己的玉米煎饼包装纸进行折纸,并将其拍下来上传到应用中与别人分享,从而挣得分数——而拥有了足够分数后便能够免费获得一个玉米煎饼。通过扩展游戏空间并在奖励空间中提供给用户满意的结果,SCVNGR在签到应用市场中迅速掀起一股热潮,并通过创造性和游戏化而推动着更多用户前来尝试。

如果奖励不能用于实际游戏中或不具备内在价值,它们便是毫无意义的。如果你拥有足够活跃的游戏空间,那么较小的奖励空间(游戏邦注:只包含排行榜,分数以及成就)也是可行的。就像人们总是希望他们的Prius车能够呈现出最大的燃料功率,从而提升驾驶速度并节省加油的费用——这便是它的内在价值。另一方面,相对简单的游戏空间(如《FarmVille》中的社交互动元素)也是可行的,因为游戏中也同时拥有大片的奖励空间。

其它社交游戏类型

当然了,并不是每一款社交游戏都适合将社交空间当成游戏空间。就像《Echo Bazaar》便是将游戏空间扩展到社交领域,但并不受社交空间所限。大多数互动机制都是发生在游戏中,而奖励空间则被定义为玩家在机制互动过程中所经历的故事(或者是在你的工具和角色页面中)。

老实说,创造一款社交游戏并不需要基于社交互动去定义游戏。但是如果你想要设计出最优秀的游戏,你就需要明确游戏空间的终点和奖励空间的起点,这样你才能以正确的心态去处理游戏中的每个区块。

游戏邦注:原文发表于2011年5月5日,所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。(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

Social Structure in Game Design

Posted by Elizabeth on May 5, 2011

Despite the fact that social networking games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars are incredibly popular, with user bases as large or larger than many MMOs and AAA titles, these Facebook-enabled social games tend to get bad press from gamers who see the gameplay as poor mechanical design, and the social interaction element as annoyance— or spam.

In my quest to understand social gaming, I started playing a few different Facebook games and had trouble getting into them. Trying to be a good Facebook friend, I studiously avoided publishing game “spam” to my walls, requesting things from my friends, and spent a number of frustrated hours unsure of what the point was. Eventually I posted on my Facebook wall about my frustration, and got a fantastic response from Scott MacMillan: I was doing it wrong.

Doing it right

Scott, a game designer I strongly respect, said that the trick to “getting” social gaming was to stop caring about whether or not you’re spamming your friends. The “Block posts from this application” button is there for a reason. Play the games like you’re supposed to play them— simple advice that never occurred to me. And when I started playing without that self-conscious editor, I got what was going on.

Many of the social networking game naysayers give the same argument: the game isn’t fun, and the game requires you to do a bunch of extraneous crap. While there are certainly bad games out there, that generalized argument is a misrepresentation of social games in general; and taking the time to understand how these games work can help you appreciate what’s really going on in the game space, and also give you something to think about if you’re considering designing a social game.

Reward Space vs. Game Space

When you play a game like Gardening Mama on the iPhone, the game space is clearly delineated from the reward space: the game space is full of tasks to grow and tend your flowers and veggies, and the reward space is being able to view both the garden you’ve created and all of the fun fashion accessories you’ve earned for Mama. You play the game, and reap the rewards in a separate space.

In games like Farmville, the idea of the game space is turned on its head; all of the tactical social actions— asking for help, trying to beat other people to claim limited resources on your friends’ walls, and the like— are actually the game space. The game space gives you additional resources to use in the reward space— which is the farm simulator.

The reasons the mechanics in the “game” itself are so simple is because that’s the place where you reap the rewards of your hard work outside, in the social space. Because the social stuff is so involved, the “game” has to be simple in comparison to AAA titles— otherwise the game is no longer a casual investment of time.

FarmVille may be the most popular game on Facebook, but it’s not the most popular social network game. That particular distinction belongs to HappyFarm, a FarmVille clone popular with the Chinese users of QQ— the Facebook alternative available beyond the Great Firewall. One of the reasons HappyFarm is so successful is because its creators understood where game space starts and ends; there’s a wider variety of social interactions available, including stealing veggies from your friends’ farms and organizing cattle raids. I’d play THAT in a heartbeat.

Reward Space and Gamification

This is also where many poor implementations of “gamification” fall apart— with the creation of a reward space, but no game space. Badges and points mean nothing if they’re simply toothless rewards for things you’d do anyway; “checking in to Starbucks” might technically count as game space, but let’s face it— that makes for a pretty crappy game.

SCVNGR— a check-in gamification app like Foursquare and GoWalla— takes the most familiar and over-used concept in gamification and does something impressive: supports actual game play. With SCVNGR, businesses can create challenges, and offer rewards for getting a certain amount of loyalty points. One of the examples used is a burrito joint that offers points for creating tinfoil origami with your burrito wrapper, and taking and uploading a picture to the app for others to see, which gives you points— and with enough points, you can earn a free burrito. By expanding the game space and offering desirable outcomes in the reward space, SCVNGR is able to take on the heavy hitters in the check-in app market with innovation and a game that really encourages play.

Rewards are essentially meaningless if they’re not recognition for substantial play, or have intrinsic value. A small reward space— only including things like a leaderboard, points and achievements— only works if you have a robust game space. People like trying to get the maximum fuel efficiency to show on their Prius’ display because driving is already a high-engagement activity and saving money at the pump has intrinsic value. And on the other hand, relatively simple game spaces such as what you find in the social interaction of FarmVille only work because they have a substantial reward space.

Other Types of Social Games

Of course, not every game which ties into the social network fits into the model of social space as game space. Echo Bazaar, for example, is a much-beloved social game in which the game space extends into the social sphere, but is not defined by it. Most of the actual mechanical interaction happens within the game itself, and the reward space is defined as the narrative you uncover through your mechanical interaction (and, to a recently increased degree, in your gear and character page).

So clearly, in order to make a social game, it is not necessary to define your game by its social interactivity. But to design the best game possible, you need to decide where the game space ends and the reward space begins, so that you approach each section of the game with the right mindset.(source:likeable)


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