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《无尽的任务》设计师总结游戏20年来的用户留存经验

发布时间:2019-05-05 09:08:51 Tags:,

《无尽的任务》设计师总结游戏20年来的用户留存经验

原作者:Luke Sigmund 译者:Vivian Xue

今年,《无尽的任务》(EverQuest)迎来了发行20周年的重大日子。如今我们的玩家群体中有1999年的老粉丝并且仍在发展壮大。作为游戏的设计师之一,我一直在研究和分析《无尽的任务》如何实现20年的用户留存。

如果你熟悉游戏设计中的玩家动机原则,比如Richard Bartle、Quantic Foundry、Nir Eyer的“上瘾”模型(Hooked Model)以及无数其他人提出的原则,你可以看到这些理论被应用到了《无尽的任务》设计中,并在过去20年里对它产生了显著影响。

经验一.:时机是关键

在研究《无尽的任务》时,最重要的事之一是记住它的诞生时间。1999年可不像今天,我可以立刻用口袋里的手机上网和下载无数应用程序,和朋友一起打游戏或者在Reddit上分享我创作的《指环王》小说。

EverQuest(from gamasutra.com)

EverQuest(from gamasutra.com)

1999年,我拥有一台插着Voodoo 3显卡的巨大笨重的CRT显示器。我用着测试版的AOL上网(你们这些年轻人估计没听说过),我妈妈一打电话就断网。我的桌上有一堆棉签,用来清理鼠标滚球上的灰尘。当我凌晨1点连上宽带时,拨号的声音会吵醒我爸爸,他会冲进我的房间对我大喊大叫,让我上床睡觉(然后找份工作)。即便存在这些麻烦,我仍然是当时全世界少数能够接触互联网的幸运儿之一。

[互联网用户数占全球人口比例,1999年(4.1%)-2018年(55.1%)]

《无尽的任务》是一款伟大的神作,但它也抓住了绝佳时机,并且我指的不仅是市场时机。没错,它打败了市场上的《阿瑟龙的召唤》(Asheron’s Call)和《卡米洛黑暗时代》(Dark Age of Camelot),但这些游戏和《无尽的任务》一样都受益于互联网时代。互联网的出现缩小了世界,人们可以随时随地通讯。这种社交方式的根本性变革是《无尽的任务》成功的催化剂。作为游戏创作者我们感受到了这一点。

对于那一代的玩家来说,《无尽的任务》解决了他们的社交需求。MMO游戏的风靡是有周期的,随着新一代玩家接触互联网和MMO游戏,这种现象会再次出现。《魔兽世界》和《江湖》分别是它们那个时代的《无尽的任务》。这是《无尽的任务》20年用户留存的第一条经验:时机和目标是关键。去发现玩家们的需求缺口,建立你自己的新目标。

经验2:密切关注玩家的动机

《无尽的任务》的设计刚好填补了当年我对团体和归属感的需求。我曾经是个怪人(好吧,现在也是),一个典型的呆子。我沉迷幻想小说、电子游戏,在GeoCities上制作闪瞎人眼的网页。我高三辍学,家里蹲,没什么朋友,也没有明确的生活方向(或工作,对不起爸爸)。我压根不知道什么叫活出真实的自我,因为和当时大多数18岁的孩子一样,我对它毫无概念,Oprah也从没给我解释过(她自己也尚未参透)。

一个夜晚改变了我的未来,我去了一个朋友的公寓(他有工作),当时他正在玩《无尽的任务》,他给我介绍了这个游戏。刚开始我完全不相信游戏里的一个个角色是真人。于是他在聊天框里输入了经典的 “a/s/l”(年龄/性别/来自何处),接着他的公会成员纷纷用绿色的字体回复,我整个人都傻眼了!

于是我购买了这个游戏,选择了野蛮人萨满巫师,练到了22级,得到了一个叫“狼之魂”的增加移动速度的法术,并在游戏里兜售它以赚钱供养我真正的角色,一个大部分时间脸朝下的木精灵游侠。我也加入了一个公会,虽然老是挂,但那时的我是最真实、最快乐的。

如果你上YouTube看《无尽的任务》15周年和20周年纪念视频或者Everquest Show,你会发现像我一样对这个游戏、还有它的社区有情感依赖的人不少。《无尽的任务》能满足马斯洛需求层次理论中人最重要的三个需求:社交需求、尊重需求和自我实现需求。更重要的是,它为成千上万不想时时刻刻战斗的玩家提供了一个舒适的场所。他们很享受在这个幻想世界中“生活”和进化,与人/虚拟角色进行交流。

我们之所以玩《无尽的任务》,是因为每当我们需要与人交流、分享消息、或者需要获得他人的认可时,游戏和其中的玩家总能满足这些需求。

在《无尽的任务》里,我们获得了社交联系和成就感。我们发现了自己的竞争力和擅长的东西。

并且这些仍然是如今游戏设计主要考虑的玩家动机。20年来,《无尽的任务》不断发展,我们加入了无数的系统、机制、功能和海量的内容。我们失误过吗?当然。但我们从来没有增加或去掉过任何从根本上改变玩家动机的内容,也从没颠覆过玩家学习了多年的机制。这是第二条经验:忠于核心体验和玩家动机。为那些活跃的玩家保护并强化游戏的本质。通过观察他们的行为来评估你的决策。

经验三:根据当前活跃玩家的需求调整游戏

二十年来游戏发生了重大的变化,一个例子是曾经被玩家们称为“corpse run”(跑尸)的特色。如果你问那些15年前玩过《无尽的任务》的玩家他们对游戏还有什么印象,肯定会有人提到这个挂掉后跑回去捡尸体上的装备的经历,脸上露出怀念的微笑。玩家们会本能地说:“跑尸必须永远保留,不能动的!”但是回忆是个复杂的东西,人们的回忆往往与当前玩家的实际体验相差甚远。

因此我们发布了Planes of Power扩展包,它降低了跑尸的惩罚性,玩家死亡后尸体会被转移到一个墓地里,玩家不会丢失物品只会丢经验值,并且可以通过跑尸恢复。团队把丢失物品从死亡惩罚中去掉有几个原因,一些“充满爱心”的设计师认为跑尸太残酷是其中之一,但不是主要原因。

部分原因是随着我们加入多种多样的道具,比如传送道具,玩家可携带的物品数量上升了,因此一些重大的技术问题出现了。比如,当你从尸体上拾取成堆的物品时,会出现严重的客户端延迟,这使得这一本来就很艰难的过程由于掉帧问题丧失了更多乐趣。此外,传送功能导致道具丢失的个别现象。并且在极端情况下,甚至整个尸体都消失了。(额外的教训:稳定性对游戏来说是最重要的,bug是留存率和其它重要指标下降的最大元凶。)

同样重要的是,死亡后丧失物品这一机制不再符合玩家的动机了。游戏发展到这个时期,地图面积更大,玩家携带的物品数量也更多了,获得这些物品所投入时间成本非常高,这使得风险回报率不断下降,甚至没有回报。随着《无尽的任务》的发展,游戏已经不需要通过丧失物品这一额外的风险性使玩家获得掌控感和成就感。损失时间已经足以让玩家感到恐惧并集中精力,并且它比失去花了好几个月得到的物品更容易让人接受。丧失物品使许多玩家弃玩游戏,而失去的经验值和时间一样是可以度量的。几年后,某些怀旧的玩家提出恢复跑尸功能——尽管他们不一定天天打游戏,玩家们和开发者一致投票反对。这是下一条经验:根据当前的活跃玩家的想法分析和调整你的决策。

经验四:成功的游戏是爱的产物

理解并尊重玩家的动机和期望的前提是你拥有一个了解玩家的团队。我加入并领导过多个开发团队。有些团队在用户留存上做得更为成功,其中最成功的就是《无尽的任务》团队。

《无尽的任务》开发过程中每个人都充满了爱,无论是制作总监还是程序员。每个团队成员都有各自关于《无尽的任务》作为游戏如何影响了他们的生活的经历。许多成员开发《无尽的任务》10年甚至更长时间,绝大多数美术团队成员是初代游戏开发的老员工。

团队成员对《无尽的任务》各方面的深度了解对游戏开发来说是一个无价之宝。当一些新人抛出想法时,团队成员可以站在当前的玩家的角度,快速评判想法的好坏。这不仅能够节省时间,也帮助我们一直走在正轨上。新的技能可以通过学习获得,但对游戏的热爱和理解是极其难得的。这也是最后一条经验:聘用真正热爱游戏的开发者。

最后,很简单。尊重你的游戏,尊重你的玩家。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

This year, EverQuest reached the nearly unprecedented milestone of 20 years of active development. We have players who started in 1999 and are still going strong today. As a game designer, I’ve been able to study and analyze how EverQuest has achieved 20 years of retention.

If you’re familiar with the proposed principles of player motivation within game design, like those presented by Richard Bartle, Quantic Foundry, Nir Eyal’s “Hooked” model, and countless others, you can see the theories working within the design of EverQuest and we can observe their impact over two decades.

Lesson Learned #1: Timing is Everything

One of the most important things to keep in mind when looking into EverQuest is the time it was created. 1999 wasn’t like today when the phone in my pocket gives me immediate access to the internet and innumerable apps that let me play games with friends or jump on Reddit to share my Lord of the Rings fan fiction.

In 1999, I had a gigantic and very heavy CRT monitor plugged into a Voodoo 3 video card. I was on a trial version of AOL (America Online, to all you youngsters) to access the Internet. It got cut off every time my mom picked up the phone to make a call. On my desk was a stack of Q-tips to clean the dust off the rollerball contacts inside my mouse. When I’d log on to the Internet at 1 a.m., the dial-up sound would wake up my dad and he’d bust into my room and yell at me to go to bed (and get a job). Even with those struggles, I was lucky to be part of the 4.1% of people worldwide who even had Internet access.

EverQuest was an ambitious and genius game, but it also had superb timing, and I don’t just mean market timing. Yes, EverQuest beat Asheron’s Call and Dark Age of Camelot to market, but all those games benefited from the same timing that EverQuest did. The dawn of the Internet brought the shrinking of the world so that communication from anywhere was instant and always available. This fundamental change in the way people socialize is the catalyst that paved the way for EverQuest’s success. And its creators felt it.

For a generation of gamers, EverQuest became, and is, a solution for many people’s social needs. Large scale MMO adoption is cyclical, as new generations come online and take to MMOs for the first time, this moment is recreated. Look at World of Warcraft and Runescape. Each is the EverQuest for that generation. And that is the first lesson of EverQuest’s 20-year retention: Timing and purpose are everything. Find your novel vision that delights players by filling a need that isn’t be met.

Lesson Learned #2: Stay Focused on Player Motivations

This sense of community and belonging was exactly what I needed at the time and EverQuest’s game design provided it. I was (ok, still am) weird. Defined as a dork. I loved fantasy novels, video games, and making GeoCities webpages with obnoxious flashing text. I was a year out of high school, living at home, and didn’t have many friends or a solid life direction (or a job, sorry Dad). I was far from living as my authentic self, because like most 18-year old kids at the time I had no idea who that was, and Oprah had yet to explain it to me (she had not reached enlightenment yet).

One fateful night, I went over to a friend’s apartment (he had a job) where he was playing EverQuest and he explained the game to me. I did not believe for a second that all those characters were real people. So, he started a conversation with the classic “a/s/l” opening. His entire guild replied in bright green text and I was dumbfounded! Baffled!

I then did the next logical thing. I bought the game and started a Barbarian Shaman, got to level 22 to get my upgraded “Spirit of the Wolf” run-buff spell and started peddling it throughout the game for Platinum to fund my actual main, a Wood Elf Ranger who spent most of his time face down. I also joined a guild and even though I died all the time (Rangers, lol), I was the truest, happiest version of myself.

If you saw EverQuest’s 15th and 20th Anniversary videos or watched the EverQuest Show on YouTube, you will see my story of emotional connection to not just EverQuest, but its community, isn’t uncommon. EverQuest is a place where people can satisfy the top three needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy: Social Belonging, Self-Esteem, and Self-Actualization[2]. More than that, it’s a comfortable home for thousands of people who don’t NEED to be in combat every moment. They relish the human/avatar connections as they “live” and evolve in the structure of EverQuest’s fantasy world.

We played EverQuest because every time we needed to connect with someone or share news or needed to be acknowledged for being good at something, the game and its players satisfied those needs.

In EverQuest we found connection and achievement. We found competition and mastery.

And those are still the primary player motivators the game is fundamentally designed around today. Over the 20 years that EverQuest has thrived, the team has added countless systems, mechanics, features, and an astounding amount of content. Were there missteps? Sure. But the team doesn’t add or remove anything that fundamentally changes the motivations to play the game or upend core mechanics that players have spent years learning. And that is the next lesson to retain players for 20 years: Stay true to the player’s core experience and motivations. Protect and double-down on what your game really is to those that are actively playing it. Gauge all your actions by theirs.

Lesson Learned #3: Change with Engaged Players

This isn’t to say that the game hasn’t changed. It has and in very significant ways. A good example is affectionately called “corpse runs.” If you ask someone who stopped playing EverQuest 15 years ago what they remember, inevitably someone will mention a memory of dying to some mob, losing their body and all their loot, with a dreamy smile on their face. Instinct would say, “Corpse runs must remain forever, untouched!” But memories are a tricky thing. Nostalgia paints a picture that is far different from the reality of the players who remained engaged.

The Planes of Power expansion for EverQuest introduced graveyards which started to make corpse runs less punishing as corpses would land in the graveyard locations in a zone. Eventually the item loss component was removed and replaced with XP loss that could be recovered by going to your corpse. There are several reasons the team removed the item loss component from death, and the primary reason is not because a bunch of “care bear” designers thought corpse runs were too mean.

In part, it was because as items with different rules and behaviors were added to the game, like teleportation items, and the total number of items a player could carry increased, there started to be significant technical issues. For example, when you’d loot your corpse with tons of items there would be tremendous client lag, making what was already a harsh experience exponentially less fun with each lost frame per second. And those teleportation items started to create edge cases around which items get left on your corpse and which don’t. And, in rare cases, all the engineering around items on corpses created situations where corpses could be duped or even worse, lost all together. (Bonus lesson: Stability is king, bugs kill retention and every other important KPI faster than anything else.)

Just as importantly though, lost items from death as a mechanic was no longer serving player’s motivations. At this point in the game’s lifecycle, zones were bigger, the number of items a player carried was much larger, and the overall time investment to get those items was incredibly high, skewing the risk-reward ratio all the way towards all risk, no reward. As EverQuest grew, the game no longer needed the additional risk of losing items for players to feel a sense of mastery and achievement. Lost time creates enough fear and focus and is more palatable than losing items you may have worked months for. Losing items made many give up and quit. Lost XP is measurable as time and playing. In a player poll several years later, players agreed with developers by voting against the return of items on corpses – a question raised by those who were nostalgic and not necessarily playing daily. And that is the next lesson: Acknowledge and change with your actively engaged players. Take stock and reset your view to match the players’ who are actively playing today.

Lesson #4: A Labor of Love

Understanding and respecting players’ motivations and expectations can only happen when you have a team that understands them. I’ve been a member and lead of multiple live development teams. Some were more successful than others at retaining players. The most successful team I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of is this EverQuest team.

Development of EverQuest is a labor of love from the Executive Producer to the newest Associate Programmer. Every member of this team has their own personal story about how EverQuest, as a game, has impacted their life. Many of the team members have worked on EverQuest for 10 or more years with most of the art team on the game since launch.

This intuitive understanding of what “feels EverQuest” in every aspect of the game is priceless. When some new team member comes along and throws out random ideas (yes, I mean me), the team can quickly filter them for what is good and bad through the lens of a current EverQuest player. Not only does this save time, but it keeps us on course. New skills can be taught and mentored, but a true love and understanding of the game is invaluable. That is the final lesson: Staff your live service team with developers who love the game.

In the end its simple. Respect your game. Respect your players.(source:Gamasutra

 


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