On December 16th, the "Fantasy Journey to the West" mobile game Wu shen tan peak league S3 season playoffs & finals were officially opened at Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium. After 4 days of fierce competition, the "Forbidden Peak" team finally won the S3 finals championship on the 19th, and the innovation and upgrading of the entire schedule format and viewing experience during the period once again refreshed the inherent impression of the outside world on the turn-based e-sports event.
Today, the increasingly hot e-sports competition has gradually become an important part of contemporary life. According to the "2021 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee, the actual sales revenue of China's e-sports game market in 2021 will be 140.181 billion yuan, and the scale of China's e-sports game users will reach 489 million.
Behind the eye-catching data, it is a turn-based e-sports competition in one of the mainstream categories that is relatively slow.
After all, the focus on strategy, real-time competition elements are less, resulting in a high threshold for watching the game, and the overall viewing is relatively single. Unexpectedly, since last year, NetEase's "Fantasy Journey to the West" mobile game has successfully created a new professional turn-based event through the Martial Arts Summit League.
Now the S3 season playoffs have been upgraded again, bringing a professional esports competition that is both professional and entertaining. During the competition, GameLook had the honor to conduct an exclusive interview with Guo Yuxiang, senior operation director of NetEase Games, and the planning period and pen and ink of the "Fantasy Journey to the West" mobile game, unveiling its unique ingenuity in creating a top turn-based event.
Iterates once every six months to ensure competitiveness and ornamentation
For competitive games, balance is always a new topic. Especially for turn-based MMO that attaches importance to numerical growth, if there is no stable version iteration, the tactical routine will soon fall into solidification, and the viewing of the event will gradually decline. Therefore, the "Fantasy Journey to the West" mobile game is also constantly updating the version of the diversity of the event content, aiming to bring more exciting content to the event.
Mobile game planners also revealed to GameLook that the version of the game is often more inclined to expand the tactical malleability and improve the viewing of the event. "We are an MMO game, and tactical arrangement and skill coordination operation will have a more important impact on the battle situation. For example, in the game, we strengthen their target selection ability for continuous auxiliary skills such as the Nine Heavens of Agility, the Vajra Protector, and the Six Reincarnations, so that the corresponding skills can be cast on the units most needed, thereby improving the efficiency of the assistance. Of course, there will also be some changes in the attributes, skills, formations, equipment, etc. to continue the balance and the birth of new playing styles and systems. However, the planner specifically mentioned that the adjusted content basically does not affect ordinary players.
With the continuous development of the e-sports market, players with increasing aesthetic level have actually put forward higher requirements for traditional turn-based events. It is also understandable that compared with the previous tournaments, the S3 version of the Martial Arts Summit League is significantly more innovative, and even took the initiative to modify some of the larger underlying mechanisms.
"For example, appropriately enhance the resistance of the Tang Dynasty official palace while strengthening neglect, integrating the blue fighting mechanism, so that the point killing ability of the Datang official palace in battle is further improved, and the point killing income is further improved; the complexity of the Moon Palace Gate Sect skill Osmanthus drunkenness has been simplified to a certain extent, and the characteristics of the moon palace probability of hitting multiple targets have been further strengthened, and certain panel damage has been increased at the same time." The planner explained to GameLook that the purpose of this design is to strengthen the balance of the genre and improve the viewing of the entire event.
It is also for the same reason that in addition to continuing the intense double-elimination mechanism, the S3 playoffs also introduced the BP rule for the first time. That is, players can choose three combinations of sects as a disabled choice, and cannot play at the same time, which emphasizes the rational use of tactics and strategies between teams.
Referring to the opportunity to introduce the BP mechanism, the planner said that on the one hand, it is to bring the participants a new competitive experience, on the other hand, it is to enhance the diversity of the combination of sects and add more strategic game points to the event. "We want the game to have a variety of squads to ensure that the whole event has a high degree of viewing. Therefore, for the first time in the playoffs, the door school ban mechanism was adopted, which ensured the appearance rate of the door school characters and balanced the appearance rate of the traditional strong lineup of four guarantees. As far as the current game is concerned, the goal has almost been achieved. ”
With the innovation of science and technology to watch the experience, pan-entertainment strategy to expand the boundaries of the event
It is not difficult to find that as early as the S1 season, the Martial God Peak League has continuously created first-class event content with the help of the professional event production strength of the top team.
During the recent S3 regular season, the official adopted a fully automatic studio system and pioneered the online competition method demonstration, which upgraded the original virtual stage. Combining XR technology with classic elements and scenes of the game, it has created a futuristic "Fantasy Journey to the West Mobile Game" multi-dimensional space stage, which has surprised many players.
For this rather novel online viewing experience, the planner explained to GameLook that the integration of technology and culture is indeed the direction that the "Fantasy Journey to the West" mobile game wants to try, good cultural content should not exclude technology, and higher scientific and technological expression can also better display cultural content.
But at the end of the day, the level of iterative event production is constantly updated over the course of a year, essentially to help players achieve a higher level of immersion. With the help of rich visualization forms, the threshold for understanding PVP matches is lowered, so that all players can try to understand the game and the entire core event content. "Such as the AR formation special effects, in the most direct way to improve the viewing of the event match, player feedback is really good."
"Not to mention that the times are progressing, and the exploration should be continuous, so we try different innovative styles and hope to have a more diversified experience." In the future, we will continue to try other forms of presentation and keep the spirit of exploration. The planner said.
Indeed, the S3 playoffs have explored and broken through more dimensions in offline event production, and continue to create first-class event content. For example, the opening ceremony uses more complex XR technology to restore various fantasy heroes 1:1. At the same time, the offline stage takes the "floating island in the air" as the creative inspiration, which brings a very visual impact stage effect.
At the same time, in order to cover all players as much as possible, barrier-free viewing rooms were also introduced during the playoffs. Use AI technology to create real-time subtitle function, help the hearing impaired to enjoy the infinite fun of the game. At the same time, the official also invited Han Qingquan, a sign language interpreter at the China Disabled Persons' Federation Management Center, to shoot a special edition of "How Much Dream Knows" sign language, introducing the game terminology in the most understandable way and helping more audiences quickly integrate into the rhythm of the event.
What is more interesting is that in order to allow online audiences to get an immersive viewing experience, this playoff game also introduces AR technology, so that online audiences can incarnate game characters and live audiences in the same time and space, to achieve immersive "cloud viewing", creating a fiery atmosphere exclusive to the "Fantasy Journey to the West" mobile game players.
Guo Yuxiang revealed to GameLook: "The core of the extended content and interactive gameplay we continue to create is to provide more paths for the links between events and players, and also bring more rich content experiences, which is very meaningful for players. We have always believed that event viewing is an important part of attracting users, while derivative content and interactive content are good content that enhances the player experience and breaks the circle. ”
Because of this, the Peak League has been focusing on the concept of pan-entertainment since the S2 season, and has launched a series of programs such as "Pinnacle Treasure Hall", "Eat a Melon", "Shenshi Daily", "How Much Dream Knows" and so on outside the arena. Then the S2 season pioneered the launch of the "MHG Heartbeat Training Camp", which closely combines the selection of variety women's group and the event assistance and other activities, etc., to continue to create diversified event derivative content and create an immersive viewing experience in an all-round way.
In GameLook's view, behind the repeated official mentions of the pan-entertainment strategy, it is actually to carry out in-depth entertainment packaging for the Martial God Peak League. While enhancing the fun of the event, it can also achieve the ultimate goal of draining and pulling new streams and promoting the realization of brand influence breaking the circle. Further conversations with the planners then continued to strengthen GameLook's judgment.
He believes that competition is not only a sport, but also a content consumer product for users. "We hope to be able to extend more good service content to players based on the game itself or the event IP, and pan-entertainment is a good form." The planner further stated that even against a fierce match, a single repetition can easily make the player feel bored. However, after adding diversified entertainment elements, or cross-border linkage with traditional culture, players can get more freshness and satisfaction while watching the game, and it is easier to achieve the purpose of relaxation.