The awkwardness of a nervous cat's fleeting social game

Don't say you haven't played "surround the nerve cat"! What about "don't step on the white piece"? "Crazy fingers"? Thanks to the micro-letter and the great domination of the circle of friends, every once in a while, hundreds of millions of users can always be described in the small game brush screen, simple as the "neuro-cat", intermediate and senior like "Face Meng." These games hang on to social attributes without exception, but fleeting bursts of red have proved the embarrassment of Chinese social games.

Industry like entrepreneurial myth, "face Meng" some, "2048" can also have, now turn to "surround the nerve cat", this is a mobile end of the web game, the development of a day and a half, art 1 people, program 1 people, on line 3 days access more than 100 million, the same time segment of the number of independent users more than 5 million.

In fact, "surround the nerve cat" is an old game. The earliest known model was the "Black Cat" (Chatnoir) produced by TaroIto2007, a Japanese game designer. But the micro-letter let the small game to get new, starting from July 22, the circle of friends began to brush screen.

But are you still playing? As once the fire of Friends Circle game, "neuro-cat" faced with a fleeting embarrassment, although micro-trust strong data support, open interface and even the "neuro-cat" team ability can still be interesting, but as a game, "neuro-cat" insinuate The embarrassment of Chinese social games.

Because of the existence of various social platforms, social games are the darling of the Chinese gaming industry, but the direction shifted from the pages of the year to the mobile end. But in an event held in Israel last year, Richard A.bartle, father of modern MMO (Massively multiplayer Online), said: Social games may decline, and it is becoming less social.

History is always delicate, node appeared in last September, social game "every day Lianmong" on the line, the relative should be everyone net low-key announced the closure of Happy Farm server. "Stealing vegetables", "Rob Parking" is Renren, happy net, QQ space rage social games. A small partner on a social platform can also be called the protagonist of the game, deeply involved in the game progress and upgrade system.

But "the Nerve cat", "every day Lianmong" Obviously is not, if hard to share the circle of friends, score PK or "demand, gift vitality" as social, such social attributes are not convincing. Zhang Shule, a well-known gaming industry critic, said: "Social games are becoming less social." "The reality is strikingly similar to Richard A.bartle's predictions:" You can't win a social game and you won't lose the game ... Your friends are just resources you use rather than playmates. ”

Zhang Shule with the main friend Circle acquaintance social system "every day love eliminate" as an example, think that its real model and stealing food game is similar to the value of friends through the competition to stimulate the game activity, the difference is that one needs friends to give more game opportunities, and the other is to steal vegetables to friends to get higher points. "All of this, in fact, does not have much of a real social component, or a social network like a friend of emotional communication or other content interaction, only the utilitarian game needs." ”

"This level of social networking is not as much as 1% of client-side online gaming," says a gamer. "Zhang Shule even doubted:" Social games do not really exist, it does not matter life and death. ”

But he also believes that Chinese Internet companies are aware of the problem and are actively looking for ways to crack it. For example, Alibaba () 's first social game, "Crazy" on the claim that it is different from Tencent's micro-letter playing aircraft and other games, the game broke the "bow social", belong to the group game, suitable for the player party or group activities. And the Mo go farther some, "who is undercover" claiming to go is the group route, not simple circle of friends.

Beijing business newspaper reporter Zhang Yiwang