The infiltration of interactive ideas in the design of mobile social games

Extend the life cycle of the player and the game

I know the most from the game design, in addition to the game itself, the mechanism of the game concept of the value of other products and its derivative properties of the impact. In essence, the game is to provide virtual services, and this layer of services from the user to get the experience of the beginning of the entry into force, not only for a beautiful data retention, but also in the time to replace the principle of the pan-entertainment can play the purpose of pleasing users. And pay is always an accessory, a player who recognizes the value of the game will eventually be able to develop naturally as a paid player, and they are willing to help the game explore and develop at the same time, and extend the life cycle of both the player and the game, which may mean the success of a game in user marketing.

This is almost always true at any product level, and social gaming is a constant stream of service updates that users envision for market capture and usability, usability feedback, and reliance on their perceptions of the user. For temporary partial stand-alone or interactive mobile games, it is believed that the user's choice is still a guarantee that the developers will not be completely lost in the purely creative thinking of the guidelines. Despite the fact that Zynga, a company with super User data analysis capabilities and real reliance on data analysis to judge user preferences and keep revising, is not too much, but it is important that the level of the player in the game process is not the same, developers take advantage of the player's time difference, with a small number of leaders as the experience object , and then revise and serve most of the players based on their feedback.

Turn the game into a service

On the other hand, the attempted feedback correction of mobile games is not as flexible as social games, there may even be a lack of effective audience feedback, only more choices based on the developer's judgment of the market, but as mentioned above, if the game becomes a service, then its development perspective is completely changed, The user will no longer be an updated passive recipient but a considered requirement, experiencing a respected customer.

Mobile game in the case of increased user selectivity, repeatedly suffered only briefly activated without being retained, the problem is that for users of this type of app is too high, relatively respected requirements will be from the user experience to activate their selectivity preferences.

From this level, the concept of gaming mainly lies in the user's involvement in the product itself depth and adhesion properties. Earlier we tried to study the game motivation and type attributes of the player, but then came to realize that the player was just putting in the equivalent time and looking forward to the game to replace the entertainment, and paid behavior is only the result of the player in the game entertainment.

Let the game become the user's spirit carrier

In our view, the game is a kind of process when carved spiritual pleasure (of course there are also not process when the care), or from a cultural level, the game is another form of reading experience carrier. We know that different cultural carriers are transmitting ideas, and the script category of the game is replicating similar layers. For gamers, the creation and struggle of the virtual world is similar to what they encounter in real life, and can match the transmission of images and text carriers. Or, games and books and images are people in the satisfaction of survival, open up idle time some of the spiritual choice.

In understanding this level, you will be able to understand more clearly why the same as the cultural carrier, books and periodicals in the user (at least now this) selectivity is far less than the game, the reason may be that the game deepened the player in the experience of the depth and interactive properties. So whatever the intention, we seem to be able to explain the possibility that users will be more willing to be a player, especially at the social gaming level, where the awareness of the player's service has never been deepened, and it is not a link to production and supply after they have purchased the product. The disconnect is obvious for traditional mobile gaming, but it opens up new user perceptions after more social gaming companies are involved in mobile game development or more companies are turning to mobile gaming.

As in the previous article, the game was restored to a virtualized form of service (the fact that this attribute of the service made the developer more concerned about the player's state in the game) for users, the use of the product performance and durable service is the first choice for purchase, and in the game process, the player in the life of the quality will slowly reflected in the game, It can even induce some behavior that is hidden deep in reality. Therefore, in the study of the player's habits and psychology, but also need to pay attention to some of the problem of not dominant. This is not to dig the dark side of human nature, but to release the players in real life repressed some of the emotions, like watching a moving movie can make people cry, the same game can be a combination of players emotional game also allows the player to get emotional soothing. Therefore, short-term attempts can not fully detect the effectiveness of the game and the loyalty of the players, all the crux of the need to return to the player is willing to invest in the game process, whether it is the game from the heart or after the care of the relevant cohesion. At this point, all the links clearly point to the likelihood that the player will retain the game.

Speaking of the retention, the mobile game has been slowly from the following load base for the description of the concept of the scope to extend to the following user's activity as a criterion, this trend in free games will be obvious after the popularity, whether from the advertising or IAP angle, active users are the effective drivers. The developer provides the service content unilaterally, and expects this one-way service to match the player's needs at the moment, letting the situation evolve from one aspect to the long-term interaction between the two sides. In fact, this is the developer to play the game mechanism and value of the player to save the battle, it seems that this is not a game process, players in the overall game space has multiple choice (other games), and even do not play the choice, and only to what extent the choice, The developer's greatest persuasive power is to allow the player to reap the value of the mood at each stage, or to be able to feel virtual authenticity in the interaction with his or her gamer.

The key to success: to enhance the interactive experience between users

So far, the interaction between users in the mainstream social game design is still the core of the process, at the mobile game level, whether it is from the stand-alone version of the game's achievement system (numerical comparison) or interactive game between the interaction between the same social infiltration trend, slowly moving the concept of the game. For social games, the friend ecological chain promotes the player's game persistence, the key is that the interaction has played the value, the recessive force and the restraining force that produces to some extent the player to the game duration investment, Because the game itself may have evolved completely into a unique way of interacting with instant chat in a game language. This combination of emotional elements that drives players to collaborate to bring more viscous value dimensions is slowly penetrating the mobile gaming arena.

Emotional adhesive power may be the player in addition to the game itself is worth continuing to invest in another layer of power, if the lack of emotional factors, then the game in the player faced with multiple options may be faced with the problem of loss, and this loss will be arbitrary. No emotional factors to support the game, there is no way to allow players to achieve and play any of the small process of the degree of solidarity, disregard is a very terrible behavior, once the player and the game between the value of the relationship between the loss will be a natural.

It also needs to be clear that the success of social games is not just the success of Facebook, but its own entertainment and interactivity between users, and the appeal of social gaming itself to the user has contributed to a large number of regularly accessed players, activating the overall social atmosphere and affecting the way users interact, Derived from the information text into game behavior. So it's not difficult to migrate this property between different platforms, its infrastructure is not based on platform type but on platform's user aggregation ability, the aggregation ability platform can provide the infinite possibility for the interaction between the player, can be more image to be able to become the high load and highly active mobile phone social game, The space provided by itself for the interaction between users is exactly the same as the properties Facebook can provide.

Because of this interaction, even though the viral nature of the social game is not entirely effective in mobile gaming, we can see similar heyzap such as Facebook's recommended feature being introduced slowly between mobile apps. The same interactive demand for mobile social games allows players to spontaneously invite friends and start interacting with each other on the app's download side.

A fine carving of the square

I remember Neil Young (mobile gaming company Ngmoco, affiliated to Dena) in a speech that we have entered a movie like to do the game of the era, any one of the games need to work together to carefully carved, stand in the player's perspective as far as possible to do multi-directional thinking, And this is similar to what we have been working on in the full text, from the game download installation is the developer really started to service the argument. Because only when the player sees the game as part of life, will be happy to create a better game of life and play consumption. In fact, this sense of integration can be seen as creating a gaming environment that allows players to feel that they have a virtual environment of their own, and whether they can attract real attention to every aspect of the game, allowing the player to feel this change is related to themselves.

How to get players back to the game is a problem that all developers have to face. What factors contribute to the player's next login? Is it because the game is worth the player's time, or because the game has a new development and the friends have a new dynamic? How can developers find a better balance in a user's conscious and passive return visit? Above we mentioned the player's emotional factors, but also deep feelings need to be translated into specific operations, the players need is specific implementation concerns. Ultimately, the way players get back to the game to solve some problems is more operable, let them clearly understand what to do to solve the obstacles in the game, so that they really feel that each of their operations can affect the overall game process, and the player itself and the degree of implementation of the game is closely intertwined.

Author Zheng Jin, game state leader, game state mainly concerned about and analysis of domestic and foreign social games and mobile gaming field, and regularly do in-depth industry exposition.

Source: Programmer's website