作者：Neil Harris

游戏设计的挑战（在微交易世界中）

最近我听到很多游戏设计师在谈论微交易世界中游戏设计的挑战，如《The Hidden Evil of the Microtransaction》和《A Social Game Design Reboot》。在过去设计游戏很简单——即当游戏还是基于统一价格进行零售时，设计师只需要创造出足够有趣的游戏内容，让玩家觉得对得起游戏价格便可。

Resized Design and Business Models(from heroengine)

但是在在线游戏中却不是这样。

早在20世纪90年代（游戏邦注：即Genie和AOL时代），在线游戏的业务模式是基于计时费用。当时的计价是每小时3美元，即每分钟5美分。最成功的游戏便是通过让玩家每个月增加游戏时间而获益。虽然零售游戏意味着长达40至60个小时游戏时间，但是最受欢迎的在线游戏的活跃玩家每个月会投入更多时间于游戏中——我就看过有些玩家一个月花400个小时（也就是1200美元）在玩游戏。那时候80%的游戏收益是来自前20%的活跃玩家。所以那时候的游戏设计具有很大的针对性。

以每分钟计算的模式也是一种赚钱的设计“功能”，如让玩家耐心等待，并包扎伤口以恢复体力，或遨游太空。之后基于统一费用的MMO游戏必须丢弃这些可疑的设计，即当它们不再有趣，不再有价值，且不再是业务模式的组成部份时。

MMO RPG的统一每月订阅价格

随着在线MMO RPG的到来，统一的每月订阅价格模式也随之出现。基于统一订阅费用，设计师必须努力扩大用户规模。是否有人还记得《魔兽世界》的哪个级别花费了玩家最多时间，以及哪个游戏机制最有挑战性？暴雪的设计师通过线性化游戏玩法，并扩大玩家规模而获得更多利益。虽然硬核玩家对此感到抱怨，但是游戏中也有不少休闲玩家。

在微交易模式下扩大用户规模变得更加重要。如果只有2%的玩家愿意为游戏花钱，你当然需要吸引更多玩家的注意。就像拥有1000万玩家的《魔兽世界》便不得不屈服于拥有1亿月活跃玩家的《FarmVille》。随着游戏玩法越趋简单，设计师们必须努力创造游戏的用户粘性——这在硬核玩家基础中较为简单，但是如果面对的是大众用户就相对困难了。参数系统和灵活应变的能力对于最终获得成功尤为重要。

业务模式将继续发展着

所有的一切都意味着业务模式将继续发展着，所以游戏设计师必须想办法跟上这一发展脚步。在线游戏具有巨大的潜能，并且将会出现一些全新的业务策略和方法去推动着游戏设计与业务模式更好地整合在一起。

（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）

Game Design & Business Models

by Neil Harris

Challenges of Game Design (in a World of Microtransactions)

Lately I’ve seen much talk from game designers about the challenges of game design in a world of microtransactions, like The Hidden Evil of the Microtransaction and A Social Game Design Reboot.  It used to be so easy – when games were sold at retail for a flat price, the designer only had to worry about providing enough hours of fun game play to make the price worthwhile.

That has never been true in online games, and it’s only recently that enough game designers have been working in the space to make this clear.

Way back in the 1990s, in the age of Genie and AOL, the business model for online games centered around hourly fees.  In their prime the going rate was $3 per hour, which came out to 5 cents per minute.  The most successful games were designed around maximizing play time per month.  Retail games bragged about success with 40-60 hours of game play, while top online games averaged more hours than that per month for each active player – I saw players spend 400 hours ($1200!) in a single month of play.  80% of the money came from the top 20% of players.  Games were designed for the most hard core, most dedicated.

An artifact of the by-the-minute model were some money-making design “features” like making people sit and bandage their wounds to recover from combat, or travelling space by space over vast distances.  Later MMO games sold at flat rates had to un-learn some of these dubious designs when they were no longer part of the business model, because they weren’t fun and they certainly weren’t necessary.

MMO RPG’s Bring Flat Monthly Subscription Prices

With the advent of online MMO RPGs came flat monthly subscription prices.  Under flat rate subscriptions designers had to maximize the size of the audience.  Remember when World of Warcraft leveling took a long time and game mechanics were more challenging?  By streamlining game play the Blizzard designers improved revenue by maximizing the audience size.  Hard-core players complain but there are a lot less of them than there are more casual (less skilled?) players.

Under the microtransaction model audience maximization is even more important.  If only 2% will pay, you need a truly massive audience to wring enough money from a game to build a success.  10 million WoW subscribers gives way to 100 million Farmville monthly players.  Game play becomes even simpler and designers try to build engagement – easier in a hard-core player base but more challenging with a mass audience.  Measurement systems and ability to adapt become crucial to success.

Business Models Continue to Evolve

The moral of all this is that business models continue to evolve and that game designers are expected to keep up.  There is huge potential in online games – I don’t believe we have begun to explore the full potential yet – and there will be new business strategies and more ways where game design and business model have to play together.(source:heroengine)