作者：Ben Sipe

其实我已经好几年不玩《魔兽世界》（以下简称WOW）了，而最近我才抽出时间写下这个故事。

玩游戏上瘾的人总是说“我没有沉迷”或者“我想退出时就会退出”，真是讽刺啊。所以，按这个逻辑，我应该说，我没有沉迷《WOW》，然而，有那么一阵子，我几乎天天晚上都泡在这款游戏里。可笑的是，我只有一个等级封底的角色，而我就游戏中操控了他30-40天。对于非魔兽玩家的人说，这应该是很长的一段时间了，但我告诉你，这实在算不上什么。

我的MMO历史

进入《WOW》以前，我玩过《最终幻想XI》，再以前是《无尽的任务》，所以《WOW》并不是我第一次玩的MMO。我总是很难对游戏保持长久的兴趣，所以你可以想象我对MMORPG和它们庞大的世界的痴迷程度。我开始玩原版《WOW》（玩家称它为Vanilla）是和我的几个朋友一起，但与此同时，我也玩《Shadowbane》和《激战》等游戏。当我登录《Shadowbane》时，一分钟内就死亡了，我就没有再玩下去了。这让我非常愤怒，安装游戏的当天我就退出游戏了。我不记得为什么《激战》也让我玩不下去了……不是好兆头啊。

爱恨交加的关系

我对游戏总是没什么耐心。一开始，因为朋友也在玩，所以我觉得《WOW》非常有趣。玩了几个月后，我对这款游戏的传说、历史和世界都非常着迷。与此同时，刷任务越来越单调乏味。我总是被“虐”（被其他更高级的玩家杀死），我的几个朋友离开游戏了，还有一些朋友等级封底了（当时的最高级是60）。

正是在这个时候，我对游戏的热情开始消退。我开始不再天天上线，甚至退出公会好几次。我喜欢《WOW》，但觉得无法再享受它了，因为太费时间了。似乎一切都是为了升级，并且我真的很讨厌被其他玩家杀死。我受够了！

我大概脱离了《WOW》一年，直到我必须独自出差一个月。没有朋友在身边的我，决定再次登录《WOW》。这次，我选择PVE服务器，而不是PVP服务器，这样我就不会被“虐”了。突然间，一切都变了。我又喜欢《WOW》了，因为我真的可以享受它了。我甚至玩到了Vanilla WOW和Burning Crusade（第一次拓展），我平均每星期有5个晚上会上线。

那时我从没有听说过Bartle Test（游戏邦注：这是根据玩家的游戏喜好划分玩家类型），但我知道自己没有根据自己的游戏心理选择合适的体验。我是一个彻头彻尾的社交探索者，只有在我想要时才会喜欢PVP。

385px-Character_theory_chart_svg（from blogspot）

改变

在每周上线5天的2-3年里，我的生活发生了许多变化。我遇见了一个漂亮的女孩子，买房了，跟女朋友（就是那个女孩）结婚了（我知道，我也很震惊她居然还跟我在一起）。随着这些变化，我玩《WOW》的时间也在减少。在我妻子怀孕以前，我每星期会玩上几个晚上。之后我的自由时间被大大缩短了，我甚至没有办法腾出几个小时跟小伙伴们一起去打怪。

我决定退出……完全戒除《WOW》。在我的宝宝出生前，我卸载了游戏，不再买点卡。

手机游戏……开什么玩笑？

我的儿子出生了，差不多同一时期我购买了第一部Android设备（Samsung Epic 4G）。我开始下载游戏，但我讨厌“休闲”游戏。我不想玩建设城市、经营农场或管理动物园。我想要冒险、战斗和打副本！我不喜欢“休闲”手机游戏，但那时我只是根据游戏的内容来判断一款游戏是不是“休闲”游戏，而不是根据玩这款游戏所花的时间。

进入《口袋传奇》

当某一天我在看游戏网站时突然发现《口袋传奇》的预告片。《口袋传奇》是一款类似《WOW》的MMORPG，但游戏回合短，与玩《WOW》动辄好几小时不同。似乎是上帝显灵，让Spacetime工作室知道我的人生发生了重大变化，所以创造了这款手机游戏：“不要担心，我们已经为你量身打造了一款游戏。”这完全改变了我对休闲游戏的看法。

如果你还没玩过《口袋传奇》，那么下载《rcane Legends》（iOS或Android）玩一玩吧。这两款游戏的开发者是同一批人（Spacetime工作室），后者只是前者的改进版。

现在，我每天晚上一手抱孩子一手做《口袋传奇》的任务。事实上，如果我的儿子睡着了，我也很可能继续玩《口袋传奇》（不要骂我）。

这也是第一款让我玩钱的免费游戏。我总是受到促销和新装备的诱惑，我想我购买了三次虚拟游戏币。

休闲MMO

我从来没有想过竟会存在休闲版的《WOW》，但随着年纪增加，我越来越觉得创造一种用更少的时间就能享受的有意义的体验是多么重要。但愿“休闲”两字不会吓跑作为硬核玩家的你。如果有可能，我也喜欢更长的游戏回合。只是因为你可以在几分钟内就享受到有意义的体验，并不意味着你不能玩上几个小时。事实上，我玩《口袋传奇》的时间经常比我预计的来得长。

不是告别，而是新开始

阅读本文的人可能会想，“可怜的家伙……他正在脱离游戏/MMO而不自知。”错！我们都目睹了技术的飞跃进步。游戏和玩家只是正在适应新技术。我们正在进入一个不应受参数约束的时代。想一想服务器……游戏要求游戏公司必须有自己的带宽或限制空间。现在一切都可以云端化了。服务器并没有消失。它们只是适应了。同样的道理，如果我只有15-20分钟的时间，为什么要求我为游戏腾出一小时？为什么我要死守着电视屏幕？为什么我不能在我所选择的平台（因为独占性）上玩游戏？游戏应该适应玩家，而不是玩家适应游戏。

在此，我不是说游戏机已死，AAA游戏已亡，发行商已绝或者硬核玩家不再。我只是认为，如果我们给玩家提供更符合各种平台要求或技术的游戏设计，游戏会更加成功。在开发者们做下一款游戏时，请记住这一点，这也许他们会感到惊讶。

（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）

World of Warcraft to Casual Gaming

by Ben Sipe

I actually quit WoW years ago, but I’m just getting around to writing the story.

It’s ironic how addicts always start out saying “I wouldn’t say I’m addicted” or “I can quit whenever I want” so I guess the logical way to start would be… I wouldn’t say I was addicted to World of Warcraft. However, at one point in time in my life I practically played every night. Jokes aside, I only had one max level character with 30-40 days spent in game. To you non-WoW players that sounds like an extremely long time, but I assure you, that isn’t that bad.

MMO History

Prior to WoW I played Final Fantasy XI, and prior to that it was EverQuest so WoW wasn’t my first. I’ve always had troubles staying interested in games so you can imagine how ADD I get with MMORPG games and their huge worlds. I started playing the original WoW (WoW gamers call it Vanilla) with some friends of mine, but also tried Shadowbane and Guild Wars among others during the same time. I couldn’t even play Shadowbane because I’d be dead within a minute of logging into the game. This seriously pissed me off and I quit the same day as installing. I can’t remember why I didn’t stick with Guild Wars… which isn’t a good sign.

WoW… A Love/Hate Relationship

I tend to bounce around with games. WoW was so appealing initially because of my friends. After playing for months I became immersed with the lore, history and world. At this same time grinding became tedious, I was constantly getting ganked (killed by other higher level players), some friends dropped out of the game and my other friends reached level 60 (which was the max level at the time).

This is where I started having a hard time staying interested. I started taking breaks from the game and even cancelled my membership a couple of times. I loved the game but felt like I couldn’t ever enjoy it because it took too much time to play. Gaining a level seemed to take forever, and I was really getting sick of other players killing me. I had enough!

I was maybe gone from the game for a year until I had to travel an entire month for work alone. With no friends around I decided to reinstall WoW. This time I chose a Player vs Environment (PvE) server versus a Player vs Player (PvP) server so I wouldn’t get ganked. This changed everything for me. I loved the game considering I could actually experience it. I even got to the end game content of Vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade (first expansion) and was playing probably an average of 5 nights a week.

Back then I had never heard of the Bartle Test, but I wasn’t choosing the right experience to fit my gaming psychological profile. I’m a total social explorer, and only want to PvP when I felt like it.

Life Changes

During my 2-3 years of playing 5 nights a week I had a lot of changes in my life. I met a beautiful woman, bought a house and married that same woman. (I know, I know… I’m shocked she stayed with me too.) During these changes my WoW time was on the decline. I was now only playing a couple nights a week until my wife was pregnant. My free time was about to get drastically shorter, and I couldn’t spend hours committed to raiding with a group of people that I didn’t even physically know.

I decided to quit… cold turkey. I just uninstalled WoW, and cancelled my subscription just before the baby was due.

Mobile Gaming… What a Joke, Right?

My son was born and I got my first Android device (Samsung Epic 4G) around the same time. I started downloading games but I hated “casual” games. I didn’t want to build some city with cute graphics, have a virtual farm or manage a zoo. I wanted adventures, battles and epic loot! I disliked “casual” mobile games, but at this time I was judging “casual” in the term of context, not the amount of time it took to play them.

Enter Pocket Legends

I was on a gaming site one day when I stumbled across a trailer for Pocket Legends. Pocket Legends is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) like WoW but catered to short sessions versus the hours upon hours WoW required. It was as if the guys at Spacetime knew about my changing life, the emerging mobile market and said “Don’t worry Ben… we’ve created a game just for you.” This completely changed my perception on casual.

If you haven’t played Pocket Legends, then download Arcane Legends (on either iOS or Android) and give that a go. It’s from the same developer (Spacetime Studios) and has only improved on the solid foundation that Pocket Legends built.

I was now rocking my newborn son in the middle of the night in one hand and was questing in Pocket Legend with the other. In fact, if I was trying to get my son to sleep I was most likely also playing Pocket Legends. Don’t judge me.

This was also the first F2P mobile game that got me to spend money. I was always tempted with sales and new equipment so I think I purchased virtual currency three separate times.

A Casual MMO, You Say?

I never thought a casual version of WoW could exist, but as I get older I see more and more value in creating meaningful experiences that can be digested in less time. Don’t let “casual” scare off you hardcore players who are reading this. I too enjoy longer gaming sessions when I can. Just because you can have a meaningful experience in minutes doesn’t mean this game can’t be played for hours. In fact, if I was playing PL during the day I often played for much longer than I anticipated.

This Is Not Goodbye, This Is Redesigning

Some people reading this might think, “This poor guy… he’s on his way out of gaming/MMO’s and doesn’t realize it.” Wrong! We’re all witnessing drastic changes in technology. Games and gamers are just adapting with new technology. We’re entering a time when we shouldn’t live with parameter constraints. Think about servers… companies were required to have their own with a set bandwidth or limit of space. Now everything can be hosted in the Cloud and scale with use. Servers aren’t going away, they’re just adapting. In the same sense why should I be required to set aside an hour to game if all I have is 15-20 minutes? Why do I need to be anchored in front of my TV? Why can’t I get a game on the platform of my choice (because of exclusivity)? Games (when applicable) should adapt to the player, not vice versa.

I’m not here to tell you consoles are dead, “AAA” games are doomed, publishers are going away or there aren’t as many hardcore gamers anymore. I just think games can be more successful if we provide gamers with a scaling game design for the various platforms or technologies that are available. Keep this in mind with your next game and you might be surprised.(source:freemiumdesign)