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Josh Bycer探讨游戏设计价值与用户购买行为

发布时间:2014-12-01 14:42:39 Tags:,,,,

作者:Josh Bycer

在与Jon Shafer的对话中,我想要讨论尝试着赋予游戏设计价值的话题。这不仅是独立设计师和主流设计师所面对的主要问题,同时它也改变了我们看待电子游戏购买的主要方式。

游戏价格

就像我们一次又一次谈到的那样,尽管游戏开发成本不断上升,电子游戏的价格却不断下降。独立社区不断推出大量游戏,并且因为他们过多地专注于销量而改变了消费者的购买心理。以前我曾花50多美元区购买一款游戏,但是现在我可以用不到10美元便轻松购得游戏。

如此开发者们必须制定有效的市场营销策略去明确游戏的最佳价格。这便是问题的来源,即所有人都开始降低游戏的价格。基于游戏质量,消费者希望游戏价格能够下降,这也呈现出了创建一个价格结构的问题。

GTA5(from-gamasutra)

GTA5(from-gamasutra)

与其它市场不同的是,电子游戏并不存在真正的价格范围,即游戏设计并不等价于它们的真正价值。这与实体市场具有很大的区别;因为在那里你知道自己投入了什么,产品的声望以及稀有性等等都能够帮你评定其价值。

但电子游戏却是一种数字媒体,只拥有开发者所投入的工作,甚至大多数人都不知道游戏的开发过程。数字副本并不具有稀有性,其声望在今天的市场也不具有多大意义。而唯独两个元素是可被考虑在内的,那便是游戏玩法和价格。

也因为如此,在消费者眼中每一款电子游戏都是一样的:是一个产品,并且是硬核玩家会花许多钱去购买的产品。这便是同时作为消费者,并且也是产业中的人我所矛盾的地方。

作为一名消费者,我完全承认如今游戏价格的低廉。

在用了30多年的时间全价购买游戏后,在今天花费15美元购买一款游戏对我来说意味着很多。即使我对某款游戏感兴趣,我也仍然会等看看有没有促销。

但作为了解游戏开发背后故事以及一款游戏的成功对于开发者的重要性的人来说,我希望它们能够成功。

短期利益vs长期利益:

消费者和开发者之间的争论主要是关于长期利益vs短期利益。如果所有人都全价购买游戏(或者以较小的折扣),那么开发者便能够更快速地赚取利润。然而,如果是基于促销价和较大的折扣,开发者虽然也能够够赚钱,但却需要花费更长时间才能赚取利润。

更让人担心的是,因为消费者都习惯于等待较低价格的出现,并且缺少特有的定价指南,开发者总是不顾游戏质量而趟上促销等风险。Jon便列举了自己如何为《At The Gates》设定30美元的定价并听到许多玩家抱怨游戏价格太高。

Telltale Game of Thrones (from computer and video games.com)

Telltale Game of Thrones (from computer and video games.com)

但再一次地,我们将回到一个简单的问题:一款电子游戏最适当的定价到底是多少?图像质量是否会影响价格?游戏玩法是否会影响价格?FPS是否该自动加上10美元?

我们唯一确定的一件事是,最终总是由消费者确定游戏真正的价值,而这也是开发者所面对的一种非常危险的心态。

就像我们之前所谈到的,如果所有人都认为所有的电子游戏应该为99美分或更低,这便会摧毁那些以创造游戏为生的开发者们所依靠的市场。

Jon提到,比起其它类型的游戏,策略游戏凭借着其稀有性仍在今天的市场上拥有较高的价值。不管是Paradox Software还是Strategy First都仍基于全价或高于现今游戏零售价的价格推出游戏。因为他们的游戏的出现频率并不是很高,并且拥有强大的重玩价值,这些都是值得消费者花钱的元素。

但像平台游戏等游戏却不是如此,因为这是任何人可以轻松所设计出的内容。当然了,创造出能够与《超级食肉男孩》或《马里奥》等游戏相媲美的游戏仍需要一定的基础,但即使如此消费者也不会因为这样的质量而轻易花钱。

寻找价值:

游戏促销伴随着Steam集卡等其它推广方式持续发展着,各家商店和发行商也在努力寻找更多方式去说服消费者们花钱。但随着免费游戏越来越受欢迎,我们不知道情况到底会如何发展。游戏价值是否会继续下降还是会达到一个稳定值?

尽管寻求便宜的商品并不是件坏事,但如果我们完全不在乎事情的发展,最终便可能失去那些值得我们购买的东西。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转功,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Can Game Design be Appraised?

by Josh Bycer

Building off of a conversation with Jon Shafer I had, I want to discuss the topic of trying to put a value on game design. As not only is this a major issue among both indie and major developers, but it has certainly changed the way we think about buying video games.

The Price to Play?

As we’ve talked about time and time again, video games have gone down in value despite the rising cost of game development. The number of games being put out by the indie community and the increase focus on sales has altered the buying mentality when it comes to games. Where I was once spending $50+ for a single game, today I can buy games at $10 or less without much work.

Where the work is going however is on the developer’s side where they have to wear their marketing hat to figure out the best price for their games. And that is where the problem comes from as everyone is lowering the price of their game. Consumers are demanding lower prices due to the sheer quantity of titles being made and this presents an issue with trying to establish a pricing structure.

Unlike other markets, video games have no true pricing scale in the sense that a game’s design doesn’t equate to how much its worth. This is a huge difference from physical markets where you have an object; you know what was put into it, the name associated with it and the rarity, allowing you to assign a value to it.

But video games as a digital medium only have the work that was put into making it and even then, the process of game development is still a mystery to most people. There is no rarity with digital copies and name really doesn’t mean much in today’s market. The only two things that are factored in are the gameplay and the price.

And because of that, every video game is treated the same in the eyes of the consumer: A product that all but the hardcore fans are waiting for rock bottom prices to buy. And this is where as someone who is both a consumer and invested in the industry that I’m conflicted on.

As a consumer, I completely admit to being on the frugal side when it comes to game buying these days.

After spending almost three decades buying titles at full price, today it takes a lot for me to spend $15 or more on a single game, despite where it’s coming from. And even if it’s something that I’m interested in buying, I still find myself waiting for any kind of sale.

But as someone who knows the work that goes into game development and how for many people, a single game’s success could make or break them, I want them to succeed.

Short vs. Long Term Profits:

The debate that is going on between consumers and developers has to do with short term vs. long term profits. If everybody just bought games at full price (or slightly discounted,) developers could make a profit very quickly. However, with sales and massive discounts, a developer will earn money, but it will take a longer time before they can see a profit in most cases.

The bigger concern is that by being conditioned to wait for lower prices and without having a dedicated pricing guide, developers are risking pricing themselves out of a sale or the general market despite the quality of the game. Jon talked about this on the cast with how he’s going to price At The Gates for $30 and has already received complaints from people saying that’s too high.

But again this goes back to that simple question: What’s the right price for a video game? Should graphic quality affect the price? What about gameplay? Should being a FPS automatically add $10 to the price?

The only thing we know for sure is that at the end of the day, the consumer will always dictate the actual value and that is a very dangerous mindset facing developers.

As we talked about on the cast, if everyone decides that all video games must be 99 cents or less to sell, that’s going to destroy the market as only a subset of developers will be able to make a living off of that.

One point that Jon made during the cast was that strategy games due to their rarity these days still hold value compared to other genres. Both Paradox Software and Strategy First continue to put out titles either at full price or higher than normal retail price. Due to their games coming out rarely and have the replayability to backup spending the money.

But the same can’t be said of other genres such as platformers, where anyone can design one without much effort. Sure it takes a lot of knowledge to create one with the same level of design of Super Meat Boy or Mario, but it’s hard to argue buying a game for a few bucks despite its actual quality.

Finding Value:

The use of game sales is continuing to grow and with Steam cards and other promotions, stores and publishers are finding more ways to convince you to spend money. But as free to play continues to be a popular buzz word, we don’t know how this will all play out. Will game value continue to decline or will things reach a point of stabilization?

While being a bargain hunter is not a bad thing, if we’re not careful we may end up getting rid of anything that’s worth hunting for.(source:gamasutra)

 


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