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阐述“本地”移动游戏的创想及其可行性

发布时间:2013-01-06 15:15:45 Tags:,,,

作者:Tadhg Kelly

在游戏情境中讨论“社交”一词时,我们通常有两层意思。第一个是通过社交网站发布的游戏,让玩家互动并长期提供由服务器托管的乐趣。我认为这类游戏实际上应该称为“平行线”,因为它们本质上还是单人角色扮演游戏,它们有时候并非出于必要原因而与其他玩家互动。

另一种社交是指当你在实体游戏场所时与他人欢聚一堂,享受彼此相伴和玩游戏本身的乐趣。在这一点上,体育运动、桌游、纸牌游戏和桌面角色扮演游戏都属于社交游戏。人们用控制器一起玩《光晕》、Wii游戏或局域网(LAN)游戏时也能获得类似的体验。为了把这类游戏与Zynga式的社交游戏区别开来,我将这种活动称为“本地”游戏。

与社交游戏不同的是,本地游戏通常都是多人模式。例如你在本地的桥牌俱乐部、足球队或龙与地下城群体相聚,这些游戏具有高度的交互性。除了社交益处(例如,获得与他人会面的机会),本地游戏的乐趣还在于协调、团队心理,以及现场的游戏动态。这类活动可以产生一些最令人愉悦或富有情感的游戏体验。

本地多人模式与网络多人模式的游戏也有不同之处。例如,在《光晕》的本地游戏中,玩家会大声呼救,进入最恐惧的区域时会惊声尖叫并相互迷惑对方。而在网络游戏中,你会听到他人对你五花八门的称呼,也许有人会侮辱你的种族、性别等特征。你还可能遇到一些很无耻的作弊手段,以及更刺激的事情。在这种无人注视,无人进行社交协调的情况下,人们很容易做出一些幼稚无礼的行为。这也正是为何有许多玩家更情愿玩LAN游戏或与好友通过手持控制器玩游戏的原因。

但本地游戏的发展却并没有赶上移动计算机领域的步伐。一般来说,这是因为它们通常受限于设备和地理因素。如果要玩LAN游戏,你就需要准备多部PC、一个路由器等设备。这虽然并非无法实现的条件,但比起智能手机游戏,它们确实更有障碍。所以本地游戏通常被视为更为专门化的游戏形式,其适用范围也只是小众铁杆玩家。

我们曾一度认为地理定位游戏(例如Foursquare)或许能够解决这个问题,但这个念想并没有实现。地理定位在此是一个截然不同的问题,从游戏角度来看,这个理念已经落空了(或许增强现实技术更成熟时,基于地理定位的游戏才能找到立足点)。

与之类似,回合制游戏看似更进了一步,但你在酒吧用iPad和好友一起玩回合制游戏《Carcasonne》时,就不那么顺手了,还不如直接去玩真正的桌游。这就好像玩《Scrabble》桌游版本永远比玩数字版本更有趣味。这些桌游的卡片或棋子的有形质感是数字版游戏所难匹敌的优势。

电子游戏与生俱来的体验比多数桌游更具流动性,比体育运动更为活跃和动态。本地移动游戏应该致力于提供这种活跃的参与度(游戏邦注:就好像在酒吧或咖啡馆与他人玩《Mario Kart》,而非坐在沙发上独自游戏),并且几乎不会让玩家付出玩游戏的成本。随着智能手机和平板电脑技术的成熟,相信这些设备在大众用户中的普及率必将进一步提升,我曾在18个月前就推断我们终会看到真正的本地游戏的出现。

上周我就遇到了我自认为符合这一定义的首款游戏《Spaceteam》。

《Spaceteam》是一款兼容2-4名玩家的iOS游戏。每名玩家都是一个宇宙飞船的成员,拥有一些飞船控制权。游戏目标是在一系列的指命错误而产生的困境中幸存下来,在限定时间结束之前使飞船控制系统走上正轨。

spaceteam game playing(from penny-arcade.com)

spaceteam game playing(from penny-arcade.com)

但你在自己面前的屏幕所看到的指令通常是另一名玩家需要操作的内容(这也正是该游戏设计的精妙之处),所以你不得不持续与他人沟通,告诉对方如何操作。

该游戏还用幽默的词语来描述一些操作名称,让玩家将这些信息传递给彼此。另外还使用了移动设备的陀螺仪功能,让玩家躲避行星来袭或虫洞,所以玩家还必须默契地一起前后摇晃和翻转以便实现共同目标。整个游戏体验妙趣横生。

《Sapceteam》就是我所谓的“创新作品”的一个典型。这类游戏定义了游戏行业的新领域,证明这一行业始终存在尚待挖掘的游戏玩法空间。当然,这款游戏很有极客色彩,可能只会吸引特定的玩家群体。它的内容也有点单薄,与《Draw Something》或《Wii Sports》一样,它能够提供短暂的游戏乐趣,但这个劲头过了,其快感也将随之而去。

早期基于浏览器的RPG游戏也同样如此,它们继续构建着社交游戏变革的基础,好比原版《宝石迷阵》对休闲游戏变革所发挥的影响。下一代创新事物的萌芽通常滋长于那些甚少为人关注的游戏中,它通常会闪现一个独特的理念,而后由其他开发者对其发扬光大并修复其中问题。我认为《Spaceteam》也许就会成为这类游戏中的一员,但本地移动游戏的前方可能还是漫漫长路。

其中一个最大的问题依然是协调游戏参与者。作为一个资深龙与地下城游戏玩家,我深知让人们聚在一起玩游戏的难度——他们越是年长,就越难以相聚玩游戏。体育和大型游戏俱乐部(游戏邦注:例如桥牌或扑克俱乐部)通常可借助专门场所解决这个问题,而电子游戏玩家却总会希望按照自己的时间玩游戏。如果我的好友在自己的设备上安装了《Spaceteam》,这款游戏玩起来的感觉真的很棒,但你想玩游戏之前得先和他们打声招呼。这就会产生用户对游戏接受度的问题。

如果苹果等平台所有者能够参与其中,这个问题也许会得到极大改观。iOS 6设备都预装了Game Center以及Find My Friends功能,相信到iOS 7问世时,本地游戏的春天也就不远了。也许会出现一个“Find A Game”功能,查看你所在区域,并找到与你同样喜欢某款游戏的玩家。推出一个根据所在区域及分数匹配玩家的服务,也许就是实现这一创想的方法。毕竟,让《Spaceteam》这种游戏中的玩家自发参与游戏的难度好比组织一场快闪暴走活动。

spaceteams(from platformnation.com)

spaceteams(from platformnation.com)

也许我的描述并不准确,但帮助玩家找到他人一起玩游戏这一理念的实现并不会太遥远。例如,相亲应用的游戏版本,让人们在社交环境中相聚并玩数字游戏……这也能够成为一种真正的变革。(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

What Games Are: Here Come “Local” Mobile Games

Tadhg Kelly

When we talk about “social” in the context of gaming, we mean one of two ideas. The first is using social networks to distribute games, connect players and provide server-hosted fun over the long term. These kinds of game are often better described as “parallel,” as they are essentially single-player roleplaying games that sometimes connect to other players out of necessity.

The other kind of social is when you gather with people in a physical play area, enjoying each others’ company as much as the play of the game itself. Sports, board games, card games and tabletop roleplaying games are social games in this sense. A similar experience can be had by playing a console game like Halo with four joypads, Wii party games, or local-area-network (LAN) games. To distinguish that experience from the Zynga-esque social game, I label these kinds of activity “local” games.

Unlike social games, local games are usually multiplayer. Your local Bridge club, pub quiz, football team or Dungeons and Dragons group gathers together to play together, and their games have a high degree of interplay. In addition to social benefits (i.e. having a reason to meet people), the fun of local games is all about coordination, team psychology, and the dynamic that plays out there. This can lead to some of the most delightful or emotional game experiences that are possible to have.

Local multiplayer is also different to online multiplayer gaming. In a local game of Halo, for example, players yell for help, shout out the most-feared player’s location and haze each other. However in the online game you’ll get called all manner of names, insulted for your perceived race, gender, or sexuality. You’ll also encounter zero sense of spirit, shameless cheating, and more goading. Absent the stares of others and the social moderation that that brings about, people can be amazingly childish. This is why many gamers prefer to play on a LAN or with friends on a couple of consoles rather than online.

However local games have been slow to adapt to a more mobile computing landscape. Traditionally this is because they have often been constrained by equipment as well as geography. In order to play a LAN game you need a bunch of PCs, a router, and so on. These are not impossible to attain, but are more of an impediment than a game that you might play with a smartphone. So local games have often been seen as a more dedicated form of gaming than others, more of a niche for the passionate.

For a while some of us thought that location games (i.e. Foursquare) might solve that problem, but that hasn’t worked out. Location turned out to be a different kind of problem, one which so far has proved a damp squib from a gaming perspective (they will probably find their place once augmented reality matures a little further).

Similarly, turn-based games seemed to be the way forward, but while you can play a turn-based game of Carcasonne on your iPad with a friend in the pub, it’s a bit forced. It’s better to play the actual board game version, much like playing a board game version of Scrabble is always going to be a better experience than a digital one. There’s something about the tangible quality of cards and pieces that adds to those games in a way that digital versions never match.

The native experience that video games provide is more fluid than most board games, more active like sports, more dynamic. The gap for local mobile games is about providing that active engagement, much like playing Mario Kart but in the pub or cafe rather than on your couch, and at a cost of almost nothing to players. With smartphone and tablet technology getting better all the time, delivering powerful computing to users’ pockets for less, I reasoned 18 months ago that we would eventually see real local games start to emerge.

Last week I encountered the first game that I think really fits that bill: Spaceteam.

Spaceteam is an iOS game for 2-4 players. The setup is that each player is a member of a spaceship crew and – in cod-Star-Trek fashion – has a bunch of ship controls in front of them. The objective is to survive a continuous series of increasingly difficult rounds by responding to instructions issued by the game to set controls correctly before time runs out. But (and this is the clever bit) the instructions you see on your screen are generally for the other player to action. So you have to rapidly communicate with one another, much like a Trek crew yelling orders during a tense space combat.

The game elaborates on that theme further by making the names of the actions intentionally humorous (“Enable Holobib! Set Moontwig to 4!”), which players have to say to one another. It also uses the gyroscopic features of the devices for asteroid attacks or wormholes, so players have to shake them back and forth or flip them in unison. The overall experience is frantic and hilarious (and also free).

Spaceteam is an example of what I call a “founderwork.” Founderworks define new territory in the games industry, proving that there is a new avenue to explore or a new way of looking at play. Sure, the game is geeky, and likely only appeals to a certain subset of players. It is also a little thin. Like Draw Something or Wii Sports, Spaceteam is very delightful for a short period of time, but then you’re kind of done with it.

However the same was true of early browser RPGs, and they went on to form the basis of the social game revolution. Ditto the original Bejeweled and the casual game revolution. The seeds of the next big thing are often located in the barely-noticed game that turns a few heads with a neat idea, and then other developers expand upon it and fix its problems. I think Spaceteam may turn out to be one of those games, but local-mobile is not quite there yet.

The biggest problem that remains is coordinating people. As an old-school Dungeons and Dragons game-master, I know how hard it is to get people together to play a game – especially as they grow older. Where sports and big game clubs (as in for Bridge or Poker) solve this probem with dedicated venues, digital gamers often want their games to be available on their schedule. Spaceteam works great if you get your friends to install it on their devices, but you have to actually tell them about it first. This makes adoption a problem.

What would be game-changing is if a platform holder like Apple got involved. iOS 6 devices all have Game Center and Find My Friends functionality built in, so how hard would it be to close the loop for local games in iOS 7? Perhaps a “Find A Game” function that scans your local area and finds players of the local games you like. A service that matches players of the same game together by location as well as scores, maybe even offering a way to meet up. The ability for players of a game like Spaceteam to self-organise in the gaming equivalent of flash mobs.

Maybe not exactly as I’ve described, but there’s something to an entire field of players discovering other players and finding it easy to meet and play which feels not too far away. Like a gaming version of dating apps, helping people come together in social settings to play digitally… That could be a real revolution.(source:techcrunch


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