“殭屍生存手冊”—-Oscar Clark揭秘如何設計免費遊戲
原文出處作者：Oscar Clark （手機社交遊戲平台木瓜移動倡導者）
2011是遊戲規則大變革的一年。由於頗具傳染性的新一類游戲——免費遊戲的主宰，收費遊戲幾乎從排行榜上消聲匿跡。
本文以殭屍生存手冊作比，旨在幫助遊戲開發者理解免費遊戲，指導其遊戲工作室成功突圍。
第1課：看清形勢
好吧，當你的工作室正埋頭於開發一款很好的遊戲時，市場已經變了。
沒有必要再爭論免費和收費模式了，遊戲市場已經發話，且排行榜也已經證實。當然，仍然會有某些收費遊戲做得很好，但是在數量和收益上會越來越少。
現在是弱肉強食的時代，當開發和營銷的成本不斷增長，迴避收益的遊戲只能等待滅絕。
第2課：不要情緒化
lesson-two(from pocketgamer)
即使你不喜歡某些遊戲，也不意味著免費模式就不好。
許多遊戲設計師不喜歡免費遊戲，甚至懷疑遊戲設計利用心理學技術是不道德的。這是一種剝削手段嗎？
這樣不好嗎？
我不知道還有什麼行業將利用心理學改進產品視作惡行。被捍衛道德的媒體衛士反复鞭笞之後，我們大概都患上了斯德哥爾摩綜合症（遊戲邦注：Stockholm syndrome，又稱斯德哥爾摩症候群或者稱為人質情結、人質綜合症，是指罪犯的受害者對於罪犯產生感情，甚至反過來幫助犯罪者的一種情結，造成被害人對加害人產生好感、依賴心、甚至協助加害人）。也許這是像我這樣的狂熱鼓吹者的錯誤，用了“成癮”這個詞。
我們知道斯金納箱：在老鼠和鴿子上做心理學實驗，用於解釋有規劃的強化活動的作用方式。我們忘記了這些技術純粹是讓我們理解大腦如何解決問題，而解決問題正是遊戲的樂趣來源。
斯金納箱實驗不能直接類比人類在遊戲中的行為。要真正上癮，玩家的行為目標（如食物、藥物或金錢）必須能夠觸發內在的依賴性。在遊戲中，我們是在解決問題的過程中收穫樂趣，而不是問題這個對象本身。我們玩遊戲為的是娛樂價值。
免費遊戲設計師沒有強迫玩家成癮的魔法，並且玩家如果覺得自己被利用了自然會停止玩遊戲。所以做好自己的遊戲，讓別人說去吧！
第3課：留意細節
與收費遊戲不同，免費遊戲要掙錢就必須擁有大量不斷返回游戲的玩家。這意味著必須讓玩家快速上手游戲，並且有足夠的內容讓玩家玩上幾個月。
我們要關注小事物——簡單、可重複、易上手的機制——但有足夠的內涵支撐玩家一次又一次玩遊戲。
記住，對玩家來說，遊戲指南是最令人厭煩的東西之一，儘管收費遊戲的玩家會找到樂趣，但免費遊戲的玩家不會買帳。畢竟，他們沒有花錢，他們沒有必要看你的指南。
第4課：不可照搬照抄
眾所周知，忘記歷史間意味著重蹈覆轍。所以，為了改進免費遊戲，我們必須學會吸取經驗教訓。
然而，學習不是抄襲。不只是因為有侵權的風險，還因為你並不能以此吸引被你抄襲的遊戲的玩家。玩家往往厭煩衍生的遊戲，如果他們知道自己玩的是抄襲作品就會覺得像是上當受騙一般。
這種被欺騙的感覺會使玩家失去對你的信任，因此不再推薦或購買你的產品。
當你正在開發一款運行於新設備的新版本遊戲時，必須保證設備具有不同的“使用模式”，以體現其外形上的實用性。
例如，手機的外形小，方便用戶外出攜帶，甚至一隻手拿著，邊走邊用。雖然小尺寸意味著圖像顯示區域受限，但大大增加了即興遊戲的機會。
第5課：檢查出口
lesson-five(from pocketgamer)
你必須明白玩家為什麼繼續玩你的遊戲，又為什麼離開你的遊戲。
這意味著我們不能單純地看數據，而要具體問題具體分析，找出導致成功的有意義的因素。
遊戲成功的關鍵是，產品都有生命週期，這是由各個玩家累積的遊戲生命週期組成的。我們必須關注是，在不同的階段，是什麼原因讓玩家離開遊戲。
玩家是在學習階段離開遊戲的嗎？還是經歷第一次消費之歷後？因為他們太快消耗完遊戲？
第6課：“被咬會傳染 ”
開發者要考慮如何利用社交遊戲固有的病毒式傳播力。除非你的玩家可以看到其他玩家——最好是玩家關注的人喜歡這款遊戲，否則他們不會認為自己應該親自玩玩你的遊戲。
除非玩家可以向其他玩家炫耀自己的成功或進度，否則他們憑什麼在你的遊戲上花時間？除非他們可以炫耀自己的個人活動或技能，否則他們為什麼要在你的遊戲中花錢？
社交化的意義重大，如果我們忽略了這一點，後果嚴重。我們需要有意義的社交互動——不是強迫性或像徵性的行為，使玩家對遊戲產生更深層次的情感聯繫。
社交遊戲向玩家發送非要求性的情感數據包，它具有針對玩家的關係本質的意義。它是有傳染性的，因為它並不要求雙方玩家在相同的遊戲時間上同步，允許你自由選擇下次登錄時間。
不要把社交遊戲與多人遊戲混為一談。即時多人遊戲需要玩家在時間和空間上具有嚴格的同步性。
第7課：雙發快射
如果你想要長期生存，那就不要毫無目的地開槍亂射。你得看看武器庫裡的武器。消耗品，就像經典的一次性“能量水晶”，可以讓我們減少初次消費的成本，也讓我們有理由一次又一次地購買。
但這種易消耗的東西存在問題，它們能減少玩家的短期風險，但也正是它們最終阻礙了玩家沉浸於遊戲。
耐用品運應而生。這種道具不會消耗，因此讓玩家覺得自己在遊戲中的投資最大化了。例如，我們有一種“能量水晶之泉”每天都會提供20個能量水晶，怎麼樣？
為了最大化從虛擬商品中得到的價值，玩家必須天天登錄遊戲，天天使用這些水晶。
也許他們還會再花10塊錢買能量水晶，為了多得20個水晶。
第8課：節約使用彈藥
每一次消費都伴隨著一陣懊悔的情緒，因為我們意識到商品（虛擬或真實的）永遠不能達到我們之前的期望。
所以，我們必須保證玩家有個良好的初次消費體驗，讓他們有重複消費的理由。
初次消費必須簡單、吸引人、物有所值。
第9課：持續性
they-keep-coming(from pocketgamer)
遊戲的強制性循環必須能讓玩家的興趣持續數月。
好遊戲可以讓玩家不斷地玩上好幾個月。但成功並非易事。
你必須保證玩家有足夠的事情可做，足夠的物品可買。你必須保證有能力擴大玩家規模，雖然在雲計算時代，這已經容易多了，但仍然需要強大的的技術設計。
你必須把遊戲當成一種定期服務來管理，比如每週一次升級。你越關注遊戲玩家群體，玩家就會越支持你的遊戲，為你的遊戲提供建議。
第10課：切忌自我滿足
即使你的遊戲現在運作良好，自滿自足也等於自殺。玩家渴望新內容，你必須不斷地滿足他們的胃口，才能讓玩家繼續玩你的遊戲。
你可以利用遊戲機制：製造約會、允許玩家在不在線的情況下發生有意義的社交互動，等等。但我們還必須確保自己有不間斷的內容傳遞途徑和產品拓展。
如果你的新內容可以定期地滿意足玩家的期待，你就可以讓原本可能流失的玩家停留在遊戲世界中。
第11課：計算子彈
如果你想要生存，你必須理解數據的意義。
當玩家玩我們的遊戲時，我們有更多的即時信息，即來自現實世界的活樣本的數據。
然而，我們必須明白數據的局限性和意義。在訓練數據分析師的過程中，我們要結合良好的設計直覺和成熟的設計師創造力。
第12課：一切都會過去
沒有什麼能天長地久，你的玩家基礎也不例外。我們必須接受這個現實，並且努力維持。
有42%在“XX城市”這類游戲中消費的玩家，也為其他遊戲花過錢。7%的玩家會在超過5款的遊戲中花錢。我們必須理解這些玩家所處的階段並做出相應的反應。
如果我們能夠讓玩家與新內容共同進退，我們便可以強化他們對我們的品牌和下一款遊戲的喜愛。
第13課：8-12天后的轉變
我們在免費模式中見到的最有趣的一類玩家是，鯨魚型死忠玩家——即每月在遊戲中消費滿100美元的玩家。
在木瓜移動的平台上，我們看到這些玩家需要8-12天才開始在遊戲中消費。這時候，他們也開始經常性地為能夠炫耀（無論是升級的還是裝扮）的商品花錢。
然而，大多數玩家是在“加速進程”的內容上花錢。這類虛擬商品可以讓玩家享受到遊戲中的大部分他們喜歡的東西，也就是最佔他們遊戲時間的東西。
總結：適者生存
summary(from pocketgamer)
社交免費模式並不僅限於特定遊戲類型。
免費模式具有強大的破壞力，我們必須學會理解並運用這種力量。
免費模式可以提高遊戲體驗的品質，增加玩家數量。然而，免費模式也永遠地改變了我們看待遊戲設計的方式和“遊戲即服務”的觀點。
只有接受這一點的開發者才能夠在這個市場競爭中倖存下來。（本文為遊戲邦/gamerboom.com編譯，拒絕任何不保留版權的轉載，如需轉載請聯繫：遊戲邦）
PapayaMobile's Oscar Clark provides a developer's guide to the Zombie (freemium) Apocalypse
First of a two-part special on freemium, and the undead
by Oscar Clark
Oscar Clark is an evangelist for PapayaMobile, one of the leading mobile games social networks.
2011 was a year that changed all the rules. Premium games have been all but extinguished from the All Time Grossing charts and instead we have seen the, perhaps inevitable, domination of an infectious new breed of game: freemium.
This first part of a two part article is intended to help developers to avoid the Zombie Apocalypse and to help you prevent your game studio from becoming the Living Dead.
Lesson 1: Cardio
Okay, your studio may be making a great game, but the market has already changed.
There's no longer any debate about freemium or premium. The market has spoken, and it takes no more than a look at the top grossing charts to prove that. There will, of course, still be those games that will still do better as premium, but they will be fewer in number and generally less profitable.
This is a Darwinian time, and by turning away revenue when the costs of creating and marketing quality games continue to rise, you are risking extinction.
Lesson 2: Don't be sentimental
Even if you don't like some games, it doesn't mean Freemium is evil.
A lot of game designers don't like the current batch of freemium games, and some even challenge the ethics of using psychological techniques in game design. Is this exploitation?
Is this evil?
I don't know of any other industry that looks at the use of psychology to improve products as an act of devilry. Perhaps we have a form of Stockholm syndrome after being repeatedly (and wrongly) beaten up by the morality media police. Perhaps it's the fault of evangelists, like me, using the language of addiction.
We talk about Skinner boxes: psychological tests on rats and pigeons to show how schedules of reinforcement work. We forget that these techniques simply allow us to understand how the brain solves puzzles, and solving puzzles is what makes games fun.
They are not a direct analogy for human behaviour in games. To become truly addictive, the object of your actions (ie the food/drug/money) needs to trigger an inherent dependency. In games, we derive pleasure from the action of solving puzzles , not the object of the puzzle itself. We play for entertainment value.
Freemium game designers don't have magic powers and players stop playing when they feel exploited. Get over it and let's just make better games!
Lesson 3: Enjoy the small things
Unlike premium, freemium games rely on large numbers of players coming back time after time in order to make money. This means players need to understand how to play immediately, and have enough content to keep them playing for months.
We need to focus on the small things – simple, repeatable mechanics that are easy to pick up and play – but have the scope to be played time and time again.
Bear in mind that tutorials are one of the biggest turn-offs for players, and although a premium player will push through to get to the fun, freemium players will churn. After all, they haven't parted with money and they have no need to get past your tutorial.
Lesson 4: Check the back seats
As we all know; to ignore the past is to be condemned to repeat it. So, for freemium games to advance, we have to learn from what's gone before.
However, it's important to not just copy. Not just because of the risk of copyright infringement, but also because you won't attract the same audience as the game you copy from. Players will often be bored by derivative titles, and can feel cheated if they think they're playing a rip-off game.
This sense of being ripped-off will diminish the trust those players have in you, and therefore their willingness to recommend your game or purchase virtual content.
It is also important when you are creating new versions of games on new devices (eg moving from online to mobile) that each device will have a different 'mode of use' which drives the usefulness of its form factor.
For example, a phone's small size makes it easy to use when out and about, even when the user is walking or holding it in one hand. This means that the area available for graphics is restricted, but there are plenty of opportunities for short, absorbing bursts of play.
Compare this with your PC, tablet, or console and you will quickly see how form factors have a profound effect on the way we play with each device.
Lesson 5: Check the Exits
You have to understand churn and why people leave your game.
You have to understand churn and why players leave your game just as well as you understand why they stay.
This means that we have to look beyond the simple snapshot view of data, and instead segment the information we get and figure out the meaningful success factors.
Key to this is the realisation that every product has a life cycle and this is made up of the accumulated life cycles of each player. We need to look at what happens to make players drop out of the game at different stages.
Do they leave during the learning stage? Do they leave after their first purchase? Do they exhaust the game too quickly?
Lesson 6: Bites are infectious
Every developer needs to consider how they can use the inherent virality of social games. Unless your players can see that other players care about this game – preferably players that they care about – why should they play it themselves?
Unless they can flaunt their success or progress to other players, why should they spend their time in your game? Unless they can show off their individual creativity or skill, why should they spend money on your game?
Socialisation is vital and we ignore it at our peril. We need meaningful social interactions – not forced or token actions – to build deeper emotional connection with the game.
Social games send a non-demanding packet of emotional data which has meaning specific to the nature of the relationship to the players. It's infectious because it doesn't assume both players have the same level of intensity for this game at the same time and this leaves a footprint in the sand for you each to discover the next time you log in.
Don't confuse social games with multiplayer games. Real-time multiplayer requires an intense commitment to play together right here, right now.
Lesson 7: Double tap
If you want to survive in the long term, it's no good shooting off virtual goods randomly. You need to look at the weapons in your armoury. Consumable goods, like the classic one-use 'energy crystal' allow us to reduce the cost of the initial purchase and give reasons to buy time and again.
But there's a problem with consumables. The very things that make them work to reduce the short term risk for a player are the reasons they eventually become barriers to engagement.
Players have to continue to buy them to get through the game, and there is never anything to show for those purchases except in-game progress.
This is where durable goods come in. These are items that don't run out and help players feel they are maximising their investment in the game. For example, what if we have a 'Well of Energy Crystals' that gives you 20 energy crystals each day?
To maximise the value a player gets from this virtual good they have to come back into the game every day and use all those crystals in the game.
And perhaps they'll spend another 10c on an energy crystal to do just one more thing.
Lesson 8: Use ammo sparingly
Every purchase we make is followed by a sense of remorse, where we realise the reality of the good (virtual or otherwise) can never quite match the expectations we had before.
Therefore we can't afford for players to start spending before their commitment is strong enough to survive this shock. We need to make sure players to have a great first purchase experience and give them positive reasons repeat that purchase time and again.
Their first purchase has to be easy, compelling, and extremely rewarding.
Lesson 9: They keep coming
Your compulsion loop must maintain players interest over many months.
If you get the game right, your players will keep coming back and want to be able to continue to play over many months. Success is not a trivial problem.
You need to ensure that players have enough to do and enough content to purchase. You need the ability to ensure that you can scale, and while that's a lot easier to do now in the age of cloud computing, it still requires competent technical design.
You have to manage the game as a service with regular – probably weekly – content updates. The more you engage the community for your game, the more they'll support and recommend your game.
Lesson 10: Complacency kills
Even if your game is doing well, complacency is suicide. Players crave new content and you need to constantly give them reasons to return to the game.
We can provide some of this through the mechanics of the game: creating appointments, allowing meaningful social interaction to happen when you are not online, etc. But we also need to make sure we have an ongoing pipeline of content and product extensions.
If you can schedule people's expectation of when new content will arrive, this can provide a call to action for players to return who might otherwise churn.
Lesson 11: Count your bullets
If you want to survive this apocalypse you will have to understand your data.
We now have so much more information about what's happening when people play our games, and it's data from live subjects in the real-world.
However, we have to understand the limits of that data and what it can mean. We need the good design instincts and creativity of experienced designers working alongside trained data analysts.
Lesson 12: All this shall pass
Nothing lasts forever, and your playerbase is no exception. We have to accept this and work with it.
42 percent of players who spend money in games like X City spend money in more than one game. 7 percent spend money in more than five games. We have to understand what stage the player is at and respond accordingly.
If we can take them with us to new content, we can reinforce their appreciation of our brand in our next game
Lesson 13: 8-12 days to turn
One of the most interesting behaviours we have seen with freemium is the spending habits of the 'Whale' or 'TrueFan' users – the players that spend more than $100 per month.
On Papaya's platform, we see these users take between 8-12 days before they start spending any money. They also start spend money often on goods which allow them to show off – either in terms of progression in the game or customisation.
However, the majority of their spending goes on 'accelerators'. These are virtual goods that allow them to get the most out of playing a game they enjoy, and in which they invest considerable time.
Why shouldn't they also spend money for that enjoyable content?
Summary: One of us in the end
There is no limit to the range of game types that can go social freemium.
The freemium model has a disruptive power which we have to learn to understand and respond to.
It will be an amazing force for quality of experience and increased accessibility to game play experiences. However, it will also change forever the way we look at game design and the way we look as games as services.
Those people who survive will be the ones who embrace this. You'll be one of us in the end.(source:pocketgamer
part 1 ,
part 2 )
