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手机游戏是否变成了全新的硬核游戏?

发布时间:2015-01-26 11:19:10 Tags:,,,,

作者:Tadhg Kelly

让我们谈谈视角的问题。人们对于游戏产业的理解通常都小于实际状况。他们倾向于将游戏平台当成一切的核心,然后再向外进行探索。而那些总是会聚集在一起的人便组成了我们所谓的亚文化群。

playing game(from techcrunch)

playing game(from techcrunch)

并非所有的亚文化群都是相同的。就像许多游戏记者或YouTuber便处于不同的分支中,即认为主机和PC游戏是“硬核”游戏。而其它游戏(游戏邦注:如Facebook,网页和手机游戏)则是休闲游戏。还有一些游戏(如博彩,体育等游戏)则接近危险的边缘。

这种有关产业的心理模式长时间萦绕于媒体和开发者们之间。只要打开任何主要的游戏网站页面,你便能够看到它。就像GameSpot便是根据“PS4”,“Wii U”等去分割博客内容。通常情况下这些网站都支持着E3,即作为传播游戏消息的大型新闻组织。

“硬核”心理模式成为了游戏如何发展的传统。从早前的主机和计算机游戏开始,每一款游戏都曾试图与其它游戏争夺玩家的注意力。围绕着这些游戏也诞生了那些能够自我识别的玩家以及丰富的亚文化群体。之后电子游戏占领了这个世界。游戏变得比电影更巨大。几乎所有人都成为了游戏玩家。也许是这样的,如果他们真的变成了游戏玩家,那么这种占领便并非受到那些成为过去10年不断扩展的1.5亿“硬核”玩家的影响。他们喜欢被当成媒体世界的主人,但事实上却不是如此。

索尼的PS4正在征服其它时代的主机。游戏媒体非常乐意看到这一新闻。基于各种方式,游戏记者将能够很长一段时间以索尼做新闻,并且始终等待着该公司与PS3时代挥手道别,即预示着那股热潮已经结束。在游戏世界中,这一数值始终起起伏伏。King Sony回到了Gondor。(但King Sony也因此而赔了钱。)

然而就像我在Twitter上指出的,在你想到苹果1周内卖出1000万台iPhone手机并且每个季度都能卖出1200万至1400万台iPad前,1350万仍是一个很厉害的数字。然后你再想想三星所卖出的设备数,甚至连微软都卖出了将近10亿美元的Surface。这等于300多万台设备或者直至今日卖出的Xbox Ones数量的一半。

现在我知道许多硬核粉丝之所以会有这样的反应只是因为很多人购买了手机和平板电脑但却并未成为玩家。也许每年市场上出售的设备有成千百万,但是游戏文化的核心却仍然是关于硬核的。这看上去就像小说一般。

根据Newzoo,基于2015年的收益,手机将会超越主机产业。的确,从收益上来看,免费或付费的小小应用游戏将会吞灭强大的主机游戏。甚至在2017年的时候这种差距将被拉的更大,并且手机游戏有可能进一步吞噬PC游戏。

当考虑到其中所涉及的金钱时,这便是一个非常让人惊讶的新闻,但更让人惊讶的还是范围。主机游戏和PC游戏通常是40美元至60美元,并且将获得较高的ARPU。比较而言手机游戏小得多,通常如果是5美元就已经算很贵了,较常见的价格是2美元。所以手机游戏全面吞灭付费产品意味着手机平台上的游戏玩家数量是早前平台的玩家数量的20至30倍。

现在我们是否仍然能够说主机和PC游戏是“硬核”游戏而手机游戏是休闲游戏?或者我们是否应该换个说法?手机产业并未放慢脚步。这并不是泡沫式的发展。它已经见证了让人激动,停滞不前,恢复活力以及进一步开发等不同时期。但现在人们仍会疯狂地下载各种应用。他们的欲望是永久性的。所以我敢说现在的手机游戏已经变成了“硬核”游戏。

或者我们可以将其与电影和电视进行比较。也许硬核是用于形容高预算的游戏体验,而这在手机和电视平台上可能是无效的。关于电影和电视模式,用户总是会根据心情做出选择。但在游戏中却不能这样,因为平台选择就等于平台购买。这种区别更像是喜欢音乐与喜欢高端音乐硬件的人的区别。这是一种更加复杂的选择。

因此早前的“硬核”变成了新的“专家”。在早前结构不断巩固着自己在日益缩小的领域中的位置的同时,游戏变成了主流。现在对于手机游戏开发和发行来说,剩下的便是为手机文化创造并提供HBO。

这种转变及其未来的潜能将带给开发者许多有趣的问题。其中一个问题便是手机是否能够快速创造一群新玩家。另外一个问题则是我们将开始看到围绕着手机游戏的特有的媒体发展。这就像是在问今天的我们在哪里这样奇怪的问题,但再一次的,这也是关于视角的问题。我们之所以觉得它奇怪是因为我们还未看到它的本质。

还有第三个问题是手机是否能够成为拓展游戏的桥梁。如果我是个女人,我便会问自己是否想要基于早前的游戏平台进行创造(不过说实话作为一个男人我也仍然会问同样的问题)。我是否想要为所有早前的平台及其保守的视角而费心,或者只是想要瞄准一个全新的出发点?比较Steam平台上的用户的想法以及iPhone或Android用户的想法是否真的重要?

就像我在本文一开始所说的,这是关于视角的问题。虽然我们在Gamergate(游戏邦注:“玩家门”,是一场在过去几周内席卷欧美游戏圈的大讨论,甚至可以说是一场游戏玩家同游戏媒体之间的战争,讨论涉及游戏媒体腐败、游戏产业性别歧视与滥用女权主义等多个角度)尝试着寻找革新的方法,但却一无所获,这意味着早前硬核游戏老化的质量让人感到厌烦且难以忍受。随着手机游戏变成“全新的硬核游戏”,“全新游戏”是否真的还需要再忍受那些无用的内容呢?

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

Is Mobile Gaming The New Core Gaming?

Posted Nov 2, 2014 by Tadhg Kelly

Let’s talk about perspective. People’s understanding of “the games industry” is usually much smaller than it actually is. They tend to think in terms of the platforms that they play as the heart of everything and then extrapolate outward. And the groups of people who do that tend to clump together, forming subcultures.

But not all subcultures are created equal. Many a games journalist or YouTuber, for example, operates largely within a dichotomy that considers console and PC gaming as “core”. All else (Facebook, web, mobile) is considered casual. Indeed some segments (casino, sports, gasification) are considered to verge on evil.

This mental model of the industry has fed its media and developers for a long time. Go to the pages of any major gaming site and you’ll see it in action. Gamespot, to take a random example, splits the topline of its blog content along platform lines like “PS4”, “Wii U” and so on. These are also the sites that prop up E3 for the most part, acting as the big press organs to spread the gaming evangel.

The “core” mental model has just been the tradition of how games have grown up. Since the year dot it’s been consoles and computers, each vying for attention at one time or another. It’s been self-identifying gamers, and a rich sub-culture has grown up around them. Video games, the narrative tells us, are taking over the world. Games are bigger than movies. Everyone’s a gamer. Maybe so, but if they are then that takeover is not happening from the 150m or so “core” gamers that have more or less been an incrementally growing bloc for the last 10 years. They love the narrative of being the masters of the media universe but they’re not really.

Consider this report that Sony PS4 is crushing other next generation consoles. The gaming media is very excited by this news. In many ways gaming reporters have a long love affair with Sony and had been waiting for the company to come out of the madness of its PS3 days, and when it indicated that the fever had passed they rejoiced. And they continue to do so. In the gaming world this number is a vindication of the Tolkien-esque rise, fall and rise again. King Sony has returned to Gondor, and such and such. (But King Sony is losing money hand over fist to get there).

And yet, as I pointed out on Twitter, 13.5m’s all well and good until you consider that Apple sold 10m iPhones in a weekend, and it sells between 12 and 14m iPads per quarter. Then you have Samsung selling frankly hilarious numbers of its devices and even Microsoft selling nearly a billion dollars worth of Surfaces. That’s 3m or more machines, or nearly half the number of Xbox Ones that it’s sold to date.

Now I know many core fans are rushing to type that just because people are buying phones and tablets does not make them gamers. That there may be millions more such machines out there selling every year, but the heart of the gaming culture is still with the core. This increasingly looks like an outright fiction.

Mobile is set to outpace the console industry in terms of revenue in 2015 according to Newzoo. Yes, you heard right. Tiny little app games that may or may not be free to play are set to eclipse mighty console in terms of dollars and cents. And moreover to grow a full 30% beyond that into 2017, which pretty much eats PC gaming too.

When you consider the money involved this is pretty staggering news, but even more staggering is what it says about reach. Console and PC games are often $40-$60 a pop, still seeking that premium dollar and working to get high ARPU. Mobile games are diminutive by comparison, with a $5 price point considered a big deal, and the usual value being more like $2. For mobile to eclipse premium products so comprehensively means there are potentially 20-30 times as many mobile game players out there than on older platforms.

Now can we really still claim that console and PC are the “core” while mobile is casual? Isn’t it time to rethink that language? Mobile isn’t slowing down. It’s not a temporary bubble from which all will eventually recover their sanity and return to old faithful. It’s already had several periods of excitement and stagnation, rejuvenation and exploitation. But people are still downloading apps like crazy anyway. Their appetite is permanent. Mobile, I’m willing to say, is now the core.

Analogies to cinema and television abound. Perhaps core as the big budget gaming experience and mobile and the make-do TV that isn’t available when it’s around. But I don’t think that holds much water. In the cinema/TV model there is a common user that chooses between the two depending on mood. This is not the case in gaming because platform selection requires platform purchase. The difference is more like the people who like music versus the people who like high end music hardware. It’s a harder choice.

The old “core” thus becomes the new “specialist”. Gaming gains a mainstream while its old subculture reinforces its position in an ever-narrowing landscape. That’s how it works. Now what’s left is for the more artistic side of mobile gaming development and publishing to step up creatively and – as I said last week – provide the HBO side to mobile culture.

This shift and its further potential brings up many interesting questions for developers. One is whether mobile is quietly building an army of new-gamers (as it were), folks for whom the past associations with gaming are tangental. Another is whether we’ll start to see a proper media develop around mobile gaming. That’s kind of a weird question given where we are today, but again that’s largely a matter of perspective. We only think it’s strange because we don’t see it yet.

But a third issue is whether mobile will be the bridge to permit the broadening of games. If I were a woman in games I’d really be asking whether I wanted to build on the older platforms any more given the demons that apparently live there (indeed as a man in games I’m asking the same question). Would I want to bother with all the old platforms and their conservative perspectives, or just aim for a fresh start? Does it really matter what the Steam crowd thinks versus what the iPhone or Android crowd might go for?

As I said at the start, it’s about perspective. As the shambling lich of Gamergate wanders around looking for the means to regenerate and finding none it reveals a hardened quality of the old core that is both unsavory and increasingly intolerant. It’s also smaller than it appears, demanding and expensive. As mobile becomes “the new core”, do “the new games” really need to put up with any of that crap any more?(source:techcrunch)

 


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