As early as the League of Legends rumored to be a "mobile game", I wrote an analysis article:
LOL mobile games will have a certain market, but this market is definitely not large.
The market of LOLM must be a "corner" that the glory of the king has not touched. For example, overseas Europe and the United States, such as the domestic "competitive crowd" and "end travel to the elderly".
LOL shot game, the real thing to worry about is actually the "Decisive Battle of Heian Kyo" such as the main "fair competition" of the second- and third-line MOBA mobile games.
However, the national service operation of LOL mobile games obviously did not want to "admit their fate" at the beginning.
At least from the operation strategy of photon, it can be seen that its initial positioning is not only to make up for the gap in the "competition" of the glory of the king, but to "grab" a part of the casual players from the king's side.
There are two pieces of evidence:
First, the national service warm-up period, large-scale marketing activities, and even pulling;
The second is to learn the ELO matching mechanism of the king before the 2.6A version.
First, I will not dwell on it here.
Mainly the second one, learn the ELO mechanism of the glory of kings. Of course, this is actually based on the success of the first "marketing".
It is precisely because of the large-scale marketing that LOL mobile games have gained a large number of "new players".
It is worth noting that these people are really "new", and MOBA experience is mostly limited to mobile games such as "Glory of the King" and "Decisive Battle heian Kyo".
Because of this, LOLM national service has carried out the first wave of major adjustments, that is, the 2.5 version, which is contrary to the international service operated by fist in terms of matching mechanism.
In version 2.5, the international service was changed to mmR mechanism, which is a matching mechanism consistent with the terminal game.
The advantage of the MMR mechanism, simply put, is "equal strength competition", and the teammates and opponents encountered in a game are basically "the same level";
But there is also a disadvantage, that is, once the player reaches his "upper limit", he will not improve the rank for months and years.
In addition, the MMR mechanism will also take longer to wait because the match conditions are more stringent.
This situation has become very common in the end game.
In the LOL end game, many people have played for several years and are still gold and silver; now the matching time of the end game is also due to the decline in the number of players, and each round takes 5-10 minutes.
In version 2.5, LOLM National Service, in order to take care of a large number of "cute new" players, changed the matching mechanism to the same "ELO mechanism" as the glory of the king.
The advantage of ELO is that it can match "Meng Xin" to "Big Guy", so as to lie down and score. In addition, the installation of man-machine under this mechanism is also relatively convenient and will not be particularly obvious.
The advantage of "rank improvement" is not only that it allows players to "get by on the face", but also involves "skin rewards".
After all, season skins need a "golden" rank to claim. If there is no ELO mechanism, but the MMR mechanism, many new players who enter LOLM may have to spend several seasons to get their first "season skin".
The ELO mechanism can make the purest "cute new" and can also get the "season skin" at the first time you get a LOLM. This is very helpful for leaving these players.
In fact, from the perspective of game operation, the ELO mechanism is really a very powerful and effective means.
Although this mechanism is extremely torturous for some masters, especially those who are "not too high", for most casual and kryptonian players, ELO can meet their dan position needs and "lie down" to score points.
The problem is that although the LOL mobile game version 2.5 has great popularity and has also poured in a large number of "pure new" players, this game is doomed to leave this part of the people.
There are three reasons for this:
1. Operational problems with photons. Although it is a good way to change the mechanism and retain people, it caters to the rhythm of the wave of old players "mocking" new people, which is too corrupt to LOLM's "cute new edge";
2. Problems with old gamers. The existence of the old players of the end game, on the one hand, makes LOLM inherently confident, but on the other hand, it is also hindering the entry of newcomers, a sentence of "roll back to the king", I don't know how many newcomers are dissuaded;
3. Game mechanics issues. Because it is completely born from the end game, the rhythm, gameplay and operation of LOLM are not suitable for Mengxin, especially not for players who have been "trained" by the king and other MOBA mobile games.
Simply put, lolm is a mobile MOBA game, but its gameplay and crowd background are based on computers.
For various reasons, LOLM is doomed to not be able to retain most of the new players who have poured in.
Because of this, LOLM experienced several "retreat tides" in less than three months after the launch of the service, and then was forced to start the "recall of old players" campaign in the 2.6A version.
These times "receding tide", it is roughly like this:
The first is the linkage taunt between the operation and the end gamers, resulting in a large number of new withdrawals; the second time is the ELO mechanism that causes some end gamers to withdraw; the third time is currently experiencing that some players who ate ELO benefits last season have retired this season because of the bad experience of the MMR mechanism.
But this kind of "retreat" is far from reaching the end.
In fact, this is the long-doomed ending of LOLM, from the moment the game was launched, it has circled its player base:
The old LOL players who have retired from the end are still intolerant of the glory of the king.
LOLM's audience is actually very limited.
It's just that because of the huge popularity of this IP, it attracted a large number of players to enter the market during the first time it was launched, but in the end, there will not be many that can stay.
Probably, only by waiting until the second half of this S4 season, when players who can still stay in the LOL mobile game, will they be really LOLM users.
"Only when the tide has completely faded can you see who is swimming naked."
LOLM's "downhill road" is not finished yet, but don't worry, "skinny camels are bigger than birds", LOLM's downhill road will come to an end, and then stabilize in its market position.
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