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如何在游戏设计中发挥活动的威力

发布时间:2014-04-05 08:32:25 Tags:,,,,

作者:Xing Wang

如今,许多不同类型的游戏都在使用活动:纸牌战斗游戏(《Marvel War of Heroes》,《Rage of Bahamut》),4X游戏(《Kingdom of Camelot》,《罪恶都市》),甚至是《智龙迷城》。我们同样也在我所负责的游戏《Ayakashi》(一款以日本动漫为主题的纸牌战斗游戏,并最终成为了Zynga的一款热门游戏)中使用了活动。经过证明,活动能够带来收益(通常是不具有活动时的收益的好几倍),能够提升用户回报率,回头率以及整体的用户粘性。本文的目标便是告诉游戏设计师如何最有效地在自己的游戏中使用这一机制。(下图是来自不同游戏的一些活动例子。)

examples(from gamasutra)

examples(from gamasutra)

活动综述:

关于活动的定义是指在线游戏的有限事件内容/活动。它是基于现有的游戏核心机制所创建的元游戏内容。许多游戏中最常见的核心机制便是探索任务和战斗。

探索任务通常都是主要的PVE机制或者故事模式,在此你将完成一个阶段并转向下一个阶段。在大多数免费游戏中,探索任务总是要求能量(除了技能,运气等等之外)作为一种资源。在不同的游戏中,能量可以表现为不同的形式:有些是“生命”,有些是“生命值”,有些是你的“军队”。能量将随着你的任务探索而消耗,并需要你花时间去恢复它们。

大多数游戏都具有战斗系统,你可能是与游戏中的角色(boss)或者其他玩家(PVP模式)相抗衡。通常情况下,大多数游戏要求这些类型的战斗要具有资源:有时候是指基本的能量,大多数游戏创造了单独的资源类型。不是一般性,让我们在本文中将其称为Mana。

基于这些战斗和任务探索的核心机制,主要存在三种常见的活动类型。

高塔:基于有限的PVE内容,玩家的目标便是尽可能更多地获得这些内容。

PVP:这类活动的目标便是鼓励玩家彼此战斗。这将利用到大多数变量,如收集点数,资源等等。还可以通过团队PVP战斗而添加额外的维度。

袭击:这类活动的目标是让玩家与只会在活动期间出现的boss战斗。

基于所有的这些活动类型,贯穿事件的收益来源支柱便是通过为能量或Man恢复道具。但为了推动用户花钱去恢复道具,我们必须仔细设计活动。这里有四种活动设计结构,我们必须牢记于心:

奖励

进程

紧急情况

竞争

奖励:

奖励是人们玩游戏的原因,奖励应该与你的游戏的核心循环维系在一起。例如在《Ayakashi》中,其核心目标便是收集纸牌,因此奖励应该就是纸牌。在《Ruby Blast》(游戏邦注:一款休闲三消游戏)中,我们也在进行全局竞争活动,但是它做得并不好,因为奖励是货币,但是最初在游戏中并不缺少货币。

需要注意的是,许多玩家将活动当成是获得想要的奖励的一种廉价方法,而不是费力的传统方式(如 Rare Cards)。这也是这种方法能够推动恢复道具消费的一个原因。

除了让奖励变得更具有吸引力外,我们还需要适当地设置奖励结构。

第一种方法便是基于主要玩家配置设置结构:基于不同玩家类型设置奖励:新手,对游戏上瘾的玩家,特别忠实的玩家,以及鲸鱼玩家。举个例子来说:在高塔活动中,即使玩家只是加入当天的活动中,他便能够轻松获得第一个奖励。基于这种方法,他将为自己设定下一次游戏的目标,即到达更高的阶层。另一方面,如果是针对鲸鱼玩家设计奖励的话,他们将能够为你带来许多钱。

第二种方法便是基于时间设置奖励结构。奖励应该在活动期间和活动最后进行派放。基于这种方法,玩家将在整个过程中沉浸于其中。如果你是在活动发生过程中提供奖励,玩家便能在活动发生时向别人吹嘘。这也能鼓励其他人加入游戏中。

进程

因为活动是基本的元游戏,与所有的游戏一样,每个活动都需要具有目标。此外,玩家需要拥有朝着这些目标前进的感受。对于某些事件类型,进程都很自然:高塔活动:攀登高塔的阶层:袭击事件:当你打败boss时,级别便会上升。而对于PVP活动来说,事情较为棘手。因此,大多数PVP活动都是基于点数的积累。然而,这并不足以在高水平创造进程,在低水平机制创造进程同样也很重要,我将使用以下两个研究案例进行说明:

基于设计目标的研究案例:添加一个奇怪的boss机制到高塔活动中以添加乐趣,多样性和更多奖励。

设计1:当你通过高塔前进时,你预见boss的几率是随机的。如果你打败了奇怪的boxx,你便有10%的机会去获得一张纸牌。

设计2:遭遇boss是随机的。如果你打败一个奇怪的boss,你就需要拿出100个代币去获取一张纸牌。如果你未拥有足够的代币,那么通过打败boss这一行为你将能获得10个代币。

尽管我们有可能在两种设计中获得奖励,但因为进程,设计2更加突出。在设计1中,如果用户试了好几次都不能战胜boss,他便会怀疑这一可能性,并因此停止游戏。在设计2中,当用户获得10个代币,他们便会积极寻找boss,希望以此继续前进。

基于设计目标的案例研究:关于游戏活动的排行榜,在这里每个游戏环节都是关于与一大群敌人相抗衡。

设计1:排行是基于你在活动期间的最佳环节杀死敌人的数量。

设计2:排行是基于你在活动期间的所有回合中总共杀死敌人的数量。

设计3:排行是基于你所收集的代币。当你杀死敌人时,代币将随机掉落下来,但掉落率将随着你在单一环节中杀死更多敌人而增加。

在设计1中,如果玩家在一个环节中获得较高的分数,他便没有任何动机继续游戏。因此他将不会花钱去恢复道具。对于带有有限技能的玩家来说,他永远不可能比其他玩家获得更高的分数,他会因此受到打击而不再参与游戏。在设计2或设计3中,即使玩家拥有较低的级别或技能,他也会感受到刷任务(也许他们经常会花很多钱去恢复道具)以及在排行榜上的发展。在设计3中,你可以更仔细地进行平衡,如此你便可以因为技能和刷任务而提供给玩家奖励。

紧急情况

实际上,关于奖励和内容存在着一种自然的紧急情况。然而紧急情况却是不够的。这是新设计师对于活动的假设所犯的最大错误。更重要的紧急情况是发生在不同环节间。必须存在一个原因或需求让玩家能够在一个环节后立刻重新开始游戏,否则玩家将不会为了恢复能量或mana的道具而花钱。

紧急情况的例子:

在大多数高塔活动中,你必须在能量恢复时便立刻开始游戏。如果你错过了时机,你便需要花钱去恢复能量。

在某些活动中,奖励数对于所有全球用户来说是有限的。这是一种先到先得的服务。

在某些袭击活动中,如果你遭遇一个boss,你有X时间去击败它。否则这个boss便会逃走,你将不得不从更低级的boss开始挑战。如果不花钱,活动限制通常都不足以让你恢复Mana。

在PVP或袭击活动中,如果你击败了某些人,如果你选择在X分钟内再次打斗,你便会获得Y%的攻击增加。但X分钟并不足以让你的Mana得到恢复。

在所有的这些例子中,紧急情况将能让用户继续游戏,即恢复Mana或能量而继续前进。

竞争

几乎所有的活动都带有排行榜,并基于排名去分配奖励。竞争能够推动来自鲸鱼用户的收益。然而,有些特性却会让某些玩家的排名突显于其他玩家:

玩家不能安全地待在自己的领先位置上。即使是在最后一分钟,排名情况都有可能出现改变。

玩家需要不断回到游戏中去检查他们的位置。玩家会觉得只要自己多游戏就还有希望。案例研究:尝试着为一个高塔活动设计一个排行榜功能。

设计1:第一名将到达塔的最高处。这是一场到达顶端的竞赛。

设计2:基于收集代币进行排名。代币是在你攀登高塔并打败boss时随机掉落下来的。

在设计1中,只要鲸鱼用户到达最高处,游戏中便不存在动机去推动玩家继续游戏。此外,对于普通用户来说,一旦他们看到鲸鱼用户已经攀升到最高处,他们便会受挫并不愿继续游戏。在设计2中,当普通用户在刷任务的时候,他们便会觉得自己是有机会的。这将推动着鲸鱼用户继续检查并维持着排名,直至最后一刻。

追加销售机会:

一旦创造了主要的活动机制,便有机会去创造虚拟道具帮助玩家去超越别人。最理想的情况是,设计虚拟道具去帮助你超越目标而不是放走目标。以下是一些相关例子:

在袭击活动中,道具将提高你攻击boss的能力。

高塔活动期间出现的大把能量。

道具将提升遇到boss的机会。

活动的市场/推广

因为在特定时期内的活动遭遇,我们必须推广活动去增加漏斗。这里存在许多可考虑的工具和问题:

发现率和进入点:一旦开始后,用户能够多轻松地找到活动?

在活动发生前的特定期间提前公开活动。通过A/B测试去寻找最佳期间。

通知:如果你的游戏是基于手机上,你便可以考虑使用推送通知。

为下一个活动提供免费道具。

结论:

活动是许多中核游戏所使用的一种强大工具,以此去推动用户粘性和收益的增加。活动终究也是一个元游戏,它并不会取代核心循环或补偿游戏的弱核心机制。尽管它很强大,但是只有在活动出现前有效设置设计要素,你才能取得最后的成功。在你设计活动时,你需要不断思考为什么用户要花钱。另一方面,你还需要确保所有的用户都能够参与其中并获得奖励,不管他们是花钱者还是新手。

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

Unleash the Power of Events to Drive Revenue in Games.

by Xing Wang

Many different genre of games are now using Events: card battlers (Marvel War of Heroes, Rage of Bahamut), 4X games (Kingdom of Camelot,  Crime city), and even Puzzles and Dragons. We also use events in a game that I was in charge of, Ayakashi, an Anime themed Card Battler, which became a sleeper hit at Zynga.  Events are proven to drive revenue (often multiple times the revenue of non-event period), increases Concurrent User Return Rate, Reactivation Rate, and overall Engagement. The goal of this article is to give game designers some insight on how to best effectively leverage this mechanism in their games. (Pictures below are some example events from different games.)

Event Overview:

Definition of Event is a limited time content/activity for online games. Events are meta-games build on top the existing core mechanisms of the game. The most common core mechanisms in many games are Questing and Battle.

Questing is usually the main PVE mechanic or story mode that you complete one stage and move on to the next. In most F2P games, questing requires energy (in addition to skills, lucky, etc) as a resource.  The energy can take many different forms in different games: some are “lives;” some are “health;” and some are your “troops”. The energy is consumed as you questing and usually takes time to regenerate.

Most games also have a battle system that you either battle against an in game character (Boss) or against another player (PVP). Generally, most games require resources for these type of battle as well: sometimes it is basically energy, most of the games create a separate resource type. Without loss of generality, let’s call it Mana for the purposes of this article.

On the foundation of these few core mechanism of Battle and Questing (often masked by different fictions by different games), there are three common types of Events.

Tower:  A set of time limited PVE content, where player’s goal is to reach as far as you can in this content.

PVP:  The goal is to encourage players to battle against each other. This can take most variations, such as Gathering Points, Resources, or King of Hill. An additional dimension can be added through Guild PVP battles.

Raid: The goal is to battle a Boss that only appears during the time period of the Event.

With all types of Events, the backbone of revenue source through Events is through recovery items for Energy or Mana.  But to drive users to spend on recovery items, we must design the events carefully. There are four pillars of event design that one must keep in mind:

Rewards

Progression

Urgency

Competition

Rewards:

Rewards are the reason people play the game, the rewards should be tied to the core loop of your game. For example, in Ayakashi, the core goal is collecting cards, therefore the rewards should be cards. In Ruby Blast (a causal match 3 game), we did global competition events as well, it didn’t do as well, because the rewards are Coins, (free currency), and there is no pinch for it in that game initially.

As a side note, many player see Events as a cheaper way of obtaining desirable rewards than conventional means (such as Rare Cards) by putting in some elbow grease. This is one of the reasons that this drives recovery item spend.

Besides making rewards compelling, we also need to structure the rewards properly.

First approach is structure based on key players profile: have rewards for each of your players types: Beginners, Engaged Players, Extremely loyal players/regular players, and Whales. For example: In tower event, even if a player just joined on the day of the event, as he participate in the event, he should be easily reach the first good reward.  This way, he’ll set goals for next time to reach even higher floor. On the other hand, have rewards designed for your whales also, they bring in the most money.

Second approach is structure rewards based on timing. Rewards should be giving out during the event and at end of the Event. This way, the player is engaged during the entire duration. If you give out event during the Event, it is an opportunity for the player to brag while event is happening. It encourage others to participate.

Progression

Since Events are basically meta-games, and, like all games, each Event needs to have goals. In addition, players need to feel progression towards those goals.  For some event types, the progression is quite natural: Tower Event: Climbing the tower floors;  Raid Event: Raid Boss increases in level as you beat him. For PVP events, it gets trickier. Therefore, most PVP events are based on accumulation of points. However, it isn’t enough to create progression on the high level, it is important to create progression at lower level mechanisms also, which I’ll illustrate using two case studies:

Case Study with Design Goal: Adding a wondering boss mechanism to a Tower Event to add interest, variety and more rewards.

Design 1: As you progress through the tower, you have a random chance of meeting a wondering boss.  If you beat the wondering boss, you have 10% chance of obtaining it as a card.

Design 2:  The encounter of the boss is also random. If you beat the wondering boss, you have to trade 100 tokens to obtain him as a card. If you don’t have enough, by the act of beating the boss, you get 10 tokens.

Even though it is equally likely to get the reward in both designs, Design 2 is better because of progression. In Design 1, if user fails to obtain the wondering boss couple times, he’ll think the probability is rigged against him, and stop playing. In Design 2, after the user get some of the 10 tokens, the user’ll be actively seeking out to find the wondering boss, hoping to make more progress.

Case Study with Design Goal: Leaderboard for an Event in a game where each game session is fighting against hordes of enemies.

Design 1: The ranking is based on the number of kills you did in the best single best session during the event period.

Design 2: The ranking is based on accumulated number of kills in all sessions during the event period.

Design 3: The ranking is based on accumulated tokens. The tokens are dropped randomly as you kill the enemies, but drop rate increases as you kill more waves of enemies in a single session.

In Design 1, if a player achieves a high score in one session, there is no incentive for him to continue to play more. Therefore, he won’t pay for recovery items. For players with limited skill, he can never achieve higher than another player, he’ll be discouraged and not participate either. In Design 2 or Design 3, even if a player have lower level or lower skill, the he would feel that he can grind (perhaps spend more on recovery items to play more often) and progress up the leaderboard. In Design 3, you can more carefully balance it so you reward players for skills as well as grind.

Urgency:

There is a natural day to day urgency in the fact the reward and content are for a limited time of the Event period itself. However, that urgency isn’t enough. This is the biggest mistake new designers assumes about events. The more important urgency is the session to session. There must be a reason or need for players to immediate replay after a session or user will not pay for recovery items for energy or mana.

Examples of Urgency:

In most tower events, it is tuned so that you probably can barely reach the top if you always play as soon as your energy recovers, if you don’t sleep. Therefore, you must play as soon as energy recovers. If you missed it, then you’ll have to pay for energy recovery.

In some events, the number of rewards is limited for all global users. It is first come first serve.

In some raid events, if you encounter a Raid Boss, you have X amount of time to beat it. Or else the Raid Boss runs away, and you have to start from a much lower boss. The time allowed usually is not enough for your Mana to recover without paying.

In a PVP or Raid event, if you beat someone, if you chose to fight again within the next X minutes, your get Y% attacks boost. But that X minutes isn’t enough time for your Mana to recover.

In all these examples, the urgency is created for user to constantly playing when able and use recovery items for Mana or Energy to continue playing.

Competition

Almost all events have leaderboards, and give out rewards based on the leaderboard rankings. The competition is what drives revenue from whales.  However, several qualities make some leaderboard better than others:

Players aren’t safe in their leadership position. It can even change at last minute.

Players need to come back and check their position all the time.
Players feel like they have a chance by simply play more.
Case Study: Trying to design a leaderboard feature for a tower event.

Design 1: The first person to reach the top of the tower. It is a race to the top.

Design 2: The ranking based on collecting tokens. The tokens are randomly dropped as you climb the tower and beat the bosses.

In Design 1, as soon as the whale users reach the top there is no more incentive to continue play and pay. Furthermore, for regular users, once they see other whales already reach the top, they will become discouraged from continuing playing as well. In Design 2, the normal user will feel like they would have a chance if they just grind a bit more. It will force whales to constantly check and maintain their rankings to the last minute.

Up-selling Opportunities:

Once the main event mechanisms are created, there is an opportunity to create virtual items to help users exceed along the way. Ideally, the virtual items should be designed to help you reach the goal rather than give the goal away. Here are some examples:

In Raid Events, items to increase our attack power against Raid Boss.

Big bundle of Energy during tower Events.

Items that increase the chance of encounter with Raid Bosses.

Market / Promotion of Events

Since Events occur during a set time period, it is important to promote the event to increase the funnel. There are many tools or questions to consider:

Discoverability and entry point: How easy is it for Users to find the event once it started?

Pre-Announce Events for a certain time period before the Event. A/B Test to find the optimal time period.

Notifications: if your game is on mobile, you can consider Push Notifications.

Give out free items for the next Event.

Conclusion:

Event is a powerful tool used in many Mid-Core games to drive engagement and revenue. Event ultimately is a meta game, it doesn’t replace the core loop or compensate for the weak core mechanism of your game. While it is powerful, design considerations must be put in place before an Event can be successful. As you design the event, always think about the reason why users would pay. On the other hand, make sure all users can participate and getting rewards regardless if they are payers or beginners.(source:gamasutra)


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