作者：Mike Goslin

当《FarmVille》首次在Facebook上获得巨大的成功后，许多公司都开始赶制简单的社交游戏，希望能够借着这股热潮谋取巨大利益。在一段时间内，这种做法确实发挥着一定的功效。而今天，社交游戏市场中涌进了许多所谓的“中核”玩家，他们既会玩社交游戏也会玩电子游戏。随着中核玩家的流入，玩家的期望也发生了改变，如此便导致开发者不得不重新思考如何面向Facebook这类型平台创造游戏。

结果便是，许多工作室开始提高自己的制作价值，但仍有些工作室坚持着相同的标准，即尽可能快速地创造游戏——要么重新改造现有的游戏，要么复制其它公司旗下大受欢迎的游戏。

在创造第一款社交游戏《地城历险记》时，我们并不希望为了数量而放弃质量。那时候我们便发现了越来越多中核玩家的出现，所以便决定创造能够吸引他们注意的游戏体验。我们不仅花心思去提高游戏的制作价值，并创造出更深层次的游戏玩法，我们还整合了实时多人游戏元素去增加游戏的乐趣，并提高重玩价值。如此我们便创造出既容易上手，又具有一定挑战的游戏。

Dungeon-Rampage（from glochi.tuttogratis）

今天的中核社交游戏玩家

在2009年9月，世界上最受欢迎的游戏便是《FarmVille》。根据Develop Online（游戏邦注：以游戏开发和设计为主的行业新闻资讯杂志网站），《FarmVille》“创造了游戏产业中史无前例的发展，”在短短2个月时间里便汇聚了3千万的玩家。从那时起，社交游戏持续快速发展着。今天，尽管40岁左右的女性玩家仍旧主导着社交游戏领域，但是从总体来看男性玩家已占据了社交游戏玩家的46%，并且其中有67%的玩家仍在玩主机游戏，而这些玩家便很有可能变成中核游戏玩家。

在最近公开的Facebook前25款游戏名单中我们便可以看到一些熟悉的名字，如《FarmVille 2》和《Draw Something》，但同时还出现了一些更倾向于街机和主机类型的游戏，包括《部落战争》，《复仇者联盟》以及《Legend Online》。中核社交游戏玩家并不想玩那些单纯点击的游戏，即缺少他们能在主机游戏中所进行的行动或感受到的刺激；反而更希望能够迷失在游戏世界和故事中。而唯一的方法便是呈献给这些玩家较为刺激的游戏体验。

当Rebel Entertainment于2010年末正式成立时，我们便将这一目标深深牢记于心。在组建了一只顶尖的设计团队（即包含了来自Disney Online以及Zynga等大公司的设计师）后，我们投入了1年多的时间去创造第一款社交游戏。最终，在经历漫长的封闭测试和公开测试，并整合了各种建设性反馈意见后，这款游戏于2012年9月正式发行。正因为之前的努力，我们的游戏最终吸引了超过500万的注册用户（仍继续增加着）以及超过200万的月活跃用户——意味着40%以上的玩家会定期玩《地城历险记》。我们通过不断更新游戏内容（如创造上百万间独特的地城），让玩家能够与其他玩家共同游戏，并提供深层次且具有挑战性的RPG关卡去挽留玩家。对于所有玩家来说，《地城历险记》只是他们所面向的数千个选择中的1个，但是如果这款游戏能够满足今天中核玩家的需求，我们便能够长期吸引他们的注意，并因此挤进2012年Facebook前20款游戏的名单中。

突显游戏

一般情况下，每个月只有不到10款AAA级主机游戏问世，而同个时间段内出现的社交游戏数量却是它们的3倍。面对竞争如此激烈的社交平台，开发者总是难以有效地突显自己的游戏。这也是为何他们会利用各种可行的工具去确保自己能够为中核游戏玩家创造出最佳游戏体验的主要原因。

开发者们可以通过创造具有深度故事的游戏（如MTV所创造的《The Hunt》）以及基于脚本的Facebook社交体验而模拟中核玩家们所熟悉的游戏体验。在《The Hunt》中，玩家必须在与电视剧《少狼》类似的故事中解决一个谋杀之谜。根据Mashable（游戏邦注：一个互联网新闻博客），用户每周平均花费9分钟于游戏中，并且81%的注册用户每周都会玩这款游戏。

使用主机游戏中常见的机制也能够将这种社交游戏区别于“点击建造/种植/提取”体验的游戏。Zynga的《Empires and Allies》提供了基于回合制的冲突，故事情节，boss战斗，而《复仇者联盟》则是一款让玩家通过相互打斗，并战胜对方而获得升级的角色扮演游戏。

为了开发《地城历险记》，我们着眼于各种可行的技术，并且我们知道可以通过提高游戏的预付款（相比当前的社交游戏）去吸引更多中核玩家的注意。《地城历险记》不仅提供了同步的多人行动（最早采取这种做法的社交游戏之一），我们还通过创造自己的多人跨平台游戏而超越了当前主机游戏能够带给玩家的体验。这款游戏跨越了Facebook，Kongregate.com以及DungeonRampage.com，玩家与玩家间可以相互组队，不管对方使用的是何种版本的游戏。我们同样也创造了一个专门化的好友系统，让玩家们能够从游戏所面对的所有网站上统一自己的好友名单。我们将这些工具与类似于街机游戏的快节奏行动结合在一起，最终创造出了更加刺激的社交游戏体验。

将游戏体验转化为收益

社交游戏中所盛行的免费业务模式的优点在于，玩家可以在掏腰包前先尝试着玩游戏，这便为游戏争取到更广泛的最初用户基础。但这也引起了玩家用户留存问题，根据Playnomics最近的研究，85%的社交游戏玩家在第一天游戏后便再也不会回到游戏中。毕竟开发商和发行商的目标都是通过游戏盈利，所以他们必须想办法提供持久且高质量的游戏体验去维持游戏的用户留存，并说服玩家投入更多时间和金钱。

比起让玩家不得不为了获得更棒的游戏体验而支付现金，或不断购买更多货币或珠宝去维持“能量水平”，社交游戏必须像其它游戏那样也能提供给玩家稳定的游戏玩法，而不只是为了盈利。在《地城历险记》中，玩家可以根据自己的喜好，并且无需付钱而玩各种关卡，如果他们想要较为奢华且便利的道具再单独掏腰包。基于这种方法，游戏吸引了许多投入大量时间于社交游戏的中核玩家的注意。尽管玩家可以无需花费半分钱而获得将近99%的道具，但是我们仍发现上千名玩家愿意每个月为游戏做出投资。更重要的是，我们的付费玩家范围很广泛，包括了年轻玩家和年长玩家，也有来自国内外的各种玩家，从而让我们再次肯定这一盈利策略是适用于所有玩家基础，而不只是某一目标群组。

自从游戏发行以来，我们已经成功提高了《地城历险记》每个月的玩家基础，因为我们使用了真正的社交元素（而不是异步点击）创造了非常强大的游戏体验，所以有将近一半玩家在首个月的游戏体验后又选择再次回到游戏中。通过不断创造出新角色并提供更多游戏内容而创造出更深层次的街机类行动，我们之后的更新内容吸引了更多中核玩家的注意，因为他们更乐意为出色的游戏玩法花钱。

结论

如今的Facebook已经有超过8亿的活跃用户，显然游戏玩家占据着绝大多数。除此之外，像Kongregate.com以及King.com等社交游戏网站也分别拥有超过1400万和3600万月活跃用户。很明显，如今的社交游戏是一个吸金能力超强的市场，许多还未进入这一领域的开发商们都对此羡慕不已。

理解中核玩家的重要性也是开发商们在社交游戏领域获取成功的关键，而为了创造出能够吸引这类型玩家的社交游戏，开发商就需要学会研究并模拟主机游戏中的各种体验。

（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 Shape of Social Games to Come: The Rise of Mid-core

by Mike Goslin

When Farmville first hit it big on Facebook, many companies jumped at the chance to churn out simple social games as fast as they could in order to make a quick buck. And for a while that worked. Now though, the social games market has diversified with a flood of so-called “mid-core” gamers looking at casual games as a way to get their videogame fix. With this influx of mid-core gamers comes a change in player expectations, forcing developers to rethink their approach to creating games for Facebook and similar platforms.

As a result, studios are increasing their production values, but many have maintained the same formula of creating a product as quickly as possible either by re-skinning their own game or making a new version of another company’s popular title.

To create our first social game, Dungeon Rampage, we didn’t rush through development in an effort to focus on quantity over quality. We saw the rising number of mid-core gamers and decided to create a gaming experience that would best attract them. Not only did we invest in high production values and deeper game-play, but we also embraced real-time multiplayer as a way to up the fun-factor and replayability. As a result, our game is easy to get into but remains challenging even for advanced players.

Today’s Mid-core Social Gamer

In September 2009, the most popular game in the world was Farmville. Develop Online reported that Farmville “[had] seen a level of growth unprecedented for any game,” amassing more than 30 million players in two months. The social gaming scene has continued to evolve quickly since that point. And today, while women in their 40s continue to dominate the social gaming scene, 46 percent of today’s social gamers are male, and 67 percent of those who play social games also play console games, meaning they likely fall in the mid-core category.

The recently released list of Facebook’s Top 25 Games shows some of the usual suspects, such as Farmville 2 and Draw Something, but also includes titles more akin to arcade and console games, including Clash of Clans, Marvel: Avengers Alliance and Legend Online. The mid-core social gamer doesn’t want to play simple click games that lack the action and excitement they can get from consoles. Instead, what most mid-core gamers want is to get lost in the game’s world and story, and the only way to create this feeling is to give gamers the robust playing experience they are accustomed to.

When Rebel Entertainment formed in late 2010, we set out with that objective in mind. After compiling a team of top designers from companies including Disney Online and Zynga, we spent more than a year building our first social game. We launched Dungeon Rampage in September 2012 after lengthy closed- and open-beta testing to work out the kinks and incorporate valuable player feedback. By doing so we attracted an enormous player base of more than five million registered users (and growing), with more than two million monthly active users – meaning more than 40 percent of our players spend time in Dungeon Rampage on a regular basis. We retain players by keeping things fresh by generating millions of unique dungeons, millions of other real players to play with, and by providing a deep and challenging RPG level progression. Dungeon Rampage is one of thousands of options for these players, but by meeting the demands of today’s mid-core gamer, we’re able to capture their attention long-term, and even got ourselves onto Facebook’s top 20 list for 2012 along the way.

Standing Out

On average, less than 10 AAA console games launch each month, while the number of social game launches in the same time period can more than triple that. With so much competition on social platforms, it can be difficult to make a game stand out. That’s why it’s important for developers to utilize the tools available to ensure they create the best gaming experience possible for mid-core gamers.

One way social developers can mimic the experience mid-core gamers are accustomed to is by creating a game with a deep narrative, like MTV did with The Hunt, a scripted Facebook social experience. In The Hunt, players had to solve a murder mystery in a storyline that ran parallel to the show “Teen Wolf.” Mashable reported that users spent an average of nine minutes per week in-game, and 81 percent of the registered users played on a weekly basis.

Using mechanics commonly found in console games also sets social games apart from the average “click here to build/grow/take” experience. Zynga’s Empires and Allies offers turn-based conflict, a story line and boss fights, while Marvel: Avenger’s Alliance is a role-playing game complete with characters that gain experience and level up with each fight they win.

To develop Dungeon Rampage, we looked at the technology available and knew we could create something a mid-core gamer would want to play by upping the ante of what was currently available in social games. Not only does Dungeon Rampage offer synchronous multiplayer action – one of the first social games to do so – we went above and beyond most current console offerings by making our multiplayer cross-platform. The game is offered across Facebook, Kongregate.com and DungeonRampage.com, and players can team up with each other no matter which version their friends are playing. We also created a proprietary friend system that allows gamers to unify their created friends list across all of the sites where our game is offered. We then combined these tools with fast-paced action akin to arcade-style games to create a more intense kind of social game.

Translating the Experience to Revenue

The great thing about the freemium business model that’s so prevalent in social gaming is that it allows players to try out a game before committing any money to it, which opens up the game to a wider initial player base. This does lead to the issue of player retention, as a recent Playnomics study showed 85 percent of social gamers do not return to a game after their first day. Because the ultimate goal for a developer or publisher is usually to monetize a game, it’s extremely important to provide an ongoing high-quality experience that maintains user retention and convinces them to invest both time and money.

Rather than making players feel like they have to fork over their cash in order to have a good game experience, constantly buying coins or jewels to maintain “energy levels,” social games need to act like any other game in that they provide solid gameplay apart from the monetization. With Dungeon Rampage, players can play as many levels as they want without paying, but only pay when they want luxury or convenience items. By taking this approach, we’ve attracted a considerable following among the mid-core audience, which spends a vast amount of time in social games. Despite the fact that players can earn nearly 99 percent of the items without paying a dime, we still see thousands of players spending real money on a monthly basis in our game. Significantly, our purchasing players represent a broad audience of young and old, domestic and international, so we feel like our monetization strategy is working with our entire player-base, not just a select group.

We’ve successfully increased Dungeon Rampage’s player-base each month since the game’s launch, with roughly half of our players returning after their first month, which we attribute to creating a robust gaming experience with true social aspects instead of an asynchronous clickfest. By continually enhancing the experience with new characters and in-game offerings that made for deeper arcade-style action, we saw a post-launch increase of the mid-core gamer demographic because these types of gamers are willing to spend money for top-notch gameplay.

Conclusion

Facebook currently has more than 800 million active users, and obviously gamers make up a huge chunk of the audience. Additionally, social gaming sites Kongregate.com and King.com have more than 14 million and 36 million monthly active users, respectively. Clearly social games are a huge market and many developers are eyeing the space hungrily, if they haven’t already jumped in.

Understanding the importance of the mid-core gamer is as key to being successful in the social games industry, and in order to make the social games that appeal to this audience, developers should study and emulate playing experiences found in console titles. It worked for us.(source:gamasutra)