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阐述提升游戏虚拟商品销售的5大技巧

发布时间:2012-12-05 11:22:21 Tags:,,,,

作者:Ben Sipe

在过去一年里我始终致力于帮助免费游戏开发者提高游戏的用户留存和盈利,所以我决定在此列出几点能够促进手机游戏收益发展的5大技巧。

1.不要让玩家感到压力

根据各种研究,让玩家感到压力也就意味着销量的流失。最著名的研究便是杂货店研究中的果酱销售。

在Cliff的注释版本中,当超市以品尝测试的形式陈列出24种不同类型的果酱时,60%的消费者会停下来进行品尝,但是其中只有3%的消费者会购买这些果酱。而如果只陈列出6种果酱,那么将有40%的用户驻足,并且他们中将由30%的人会购买果酱。

所以手机游戏开发者将如何在自己的内容中使用这种理念?一开始开发者应该只呈现出少量的虚拟道具(游戏邦注:大约为6种),并暗示玩家当他们经过新关卡时将能看到更多新内容。

为什么是6种?我们可以参考在线零售商(特别是亚马逊)是如何陈列搜索结果。他们只在屏幕(基于分辨率)上罗列出4至7个搜索结果,从而避免玩家去滚动滑块。如果开发者能将这种理念带进游戏中,便能避免带给玩家过多的压力,并能够帮助他们更好地理解游戏中的各种道具。

以下是《幸福街》的截图:

Happy Street(from gamasutra)

Happy Street(from gamasutra)

阴影是给予玩家最好的暗示。

2.创造出一目了然的商店

这一点非常直白,但是如果你的游戏拥有上百种或者上千种道具,它便会变得非常复杂且让人困惑。

Gameloft便在菜单和用户体验上下足了功夫。让我们以其最新的游戏《Heroes of Order & Chaos》为例。游戏的一大显著的设计元素便是使用卷轴菜单去缓解杂乱的设置。

Heroes of Order & Chaos(from gamasutra)

Heroes of Order & Chaos(from gamasutra)

接下来让我们着眼于同一类型中的另一款游戏。老实说,一开始我并不知道该点击哪里,我也不知道屏幕中的百分比是指代什么。

virtual economies(from gamasutra)

virtual economies(from gamasutra)

当玩家选择“装备”时,游戏将呈现出一个滑动菜单,其中每个装备槽带有两种道具。这么做不仅能够有效地完善用户体验,同时每个槽位还能够呈现出更多道具。

virtual economies(from gamasutra)

virtual economies(from gamasutra)

3.拥有大量的虚拟道具

为了创造出真正成功的免费游戏,开发者必须设置上百种或上千种的虚拟道具。但也存在例外,如《神庙逃亡》;不过如果游戏拥有更多吸引玩家的道具,其收益也就能够随之提升——只要开发者能够遵循上述提到的要点。

开发者必须面对不同类型的玩家提供各种价格范围的道具。就像有些玩家更看重道具的外观,有些玩家更重视竞争优势,也有些玩家则希望提升前进速度。

开发者必须提供大量的道具而确保玩家不会有钱没处花。

4.引导玩家进入虚拟商店

去过迪士尼的人都知道,在体验了各种游戏设备后他们都会来到一间纪念品商店。这并不是凑巧,并且这种巧妙的设计也大大提升了该游乐场的收益。

如果你的游戏设有各种回合,战斗或关卡,请果断地引导玩家前往虚拟商店消费他们挣得的虚拟货币。

同时你也需要记住,为了不强行要求玩家进行消费,你应该让他们能够轻松地离开商店并回到行动中。这便是增销与强买强卖之间存在的界线。

5.赋予首次购买选项一定的价值

这是一种较新的理念。让玩家在免费游戏中花钱应该是开发者在免费盈利过程中所面临的最大挑战。

一旦玩家在游戏中消费了,他们再次回到游戏中的几率便会大大提升。一个典型的例子便是《火箭飞人》中的“counterfeit machine”,它能够双倍增加玩家所挣得的货币。

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

5 tips for boosting your virtual economy

By Ben Sipe

The following was originally posted by mobile game producer Ben Sipe at the W3i Blog. It is reproduced here with permission.

Over the past year I have been helping freemium game developers increase retention & monetization, so I decided to compile a list of tips to help you boost revenues from your mobile games.

Here are 5 tips to help you optimize your virtual economy.

1. Don’t overwhelm the player

Numerous studies about “overwhelming consumers” indicate that doing so results in lost sales. The most famous study is probably the classic jam in a grocery store study.

In the Cliff’s Notes version, when 24 types of jam were displayed for a taste test at a supermarket, 60 percent of customers stopped to taste the jam and 3 percent of them purchased. When 6 jams were displayed, 40 percent of customers stopped and 30 percent of them purchased.

So how should mobile game developers apply this concept to display content? Initially you should display a small amount of virtual items (around 6) and give hints that more content can be “unlocked” after players achieve new levels.

Why 6? Take notes from online retailers, specifically Amazon, and how they display search results. There’s a reason they only show 4-7 search results on a screen (depending on resolution) without requiring you to scroll. Applying this concept to your game will prevent players from becoming overwhelmed and they will have a better understanding of the items available.

Take this screenshot from Happy Street for example:

A silhouette works as a great hint for players.

2. Make the store easy to understand, navigate and use

This point seems obvious but if your game has hundreds or thousands of items, it can get complex and confusing very quickly.

A developer that does a great job with their menus and UX is Gameloft. Take their latest, Heroes of Order & Chaos, for example. One notable design element is their use of scrolling menus to reduce the clutter.

Now take a look at another game in a similar genre. At first I didn’t even know where to click, and honestly, I still have no idea what the percentages in the middle of the screen are for.

When you select “Equip” they give a single sliding menu with two items per equipment slot. Needless to say, the UX could be improved greatly and they could offer more items per slot – which is a great segue into my next point.

3. Have massive amounts of virtual items

Stereotypically speaking, your game should have hundreds or thousands of virtual items in order to create a freemium success. There are outliers to this rule like Temple Run, but typically having more sinks in your game will increase revenue — so long as you follow the points mentioned earlier.

It’s important to offer items in all price ranges for different types of players. One group of players might be interested in vanity or aesthetically altering items, another group may want a competitive advantage, and another might want to speed up their rate of progress.

It’s important to offer plenty of goods so players don’t run out of ways to spend their currency.

4. Lead the player to your virtual store

Have you ever been to Disneyland? If so, you might have noticed that after riding a major attraction you somehow ended up inside of a gift shop. This wasn’t an accident, exiting guests into stores after rides greatly increases revenues for amusement parks.

If you have a game with rounds, battles, or levels, don’t be afraid to lead players to your virtual store so they can spend some of their hard earned virtual currency.

Keep in mind, you don’t want to push players into making a purchase so make it easy for them to get out of the store and back into the action. There’s a fine line between upselling and pestering.

5. Make the first purchase option something with incredible value

This is a relatively new concept and one that’s been blogged about already, but we’ll mention it one more time for good measure. Getting someone to convert and pay in freemium is possibly the most challenging task you will face in the freemium monetization process.

Once someone makes a purchase, the odds of them becoming a repeat customer increase significantly. A popular example is the counterfeit machine in Jetpack Joyride that permanently doubles coins earned.(source:gamasutra)


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