The first time I heard about 4399 was about a decade ago, in my hometown of eighteen lines. The first contact was probably in some smoky Internet café, or it could be a school computer room, but I forgot.
4399 has some similarities with my hometown. Twenty years of time change, never let the hometown head of the "eighteen-line small county" label was taken off, just like the nickname of the small game has never been replaced by a noun other than 4399, although in fact, the hometown is no longer the hometown in the memory, and 4399 is no longer the 4399 in the impression.
In recent years in China, 4399 has not been a big move, and the reason why it will be mentioned today is because they played their SLG new game "Civilization and Conquest" a few days ago. The fierce competition in the SLG market is obvious to all, the share is firmly occupied by several head products, and it is not too late to enter the market now.
However, the game's performance at the beginning of the launch was not bad, and after the appointment download was opened, it quickly rushed to the top of the iOS free list.
The ranking on the best-seller list has also remained stable and ranked in the top 5, which can be regarded as the first victory.
Of course, this is inseparable from the mature buying pattern of 4399. However, relying only on the amount of purchase, I am afraid that it is difficult to compete with those head products, not to mention that I personally have a great prejudice against the medium and heavy mobile games of 4399, so I am always not very optimistic.
But to my surprise, after actually getting started, these views and prejudices were overturned step by step, and I even began to have very big expectations for it. Perhaps, its goal is not to fight with the head SLG game, perhaps, it can inject some new vitality into the SLG market.
First, SLG needs to "break the circle"
If you want to experience the charm of SLG, I might recommend some very hardcore games. But if you're dealing with a new SLG player, I would highly recommend Civilization & Conquest. Because the quality of this game is the most intimate.
Where does this intimacy come from? I think it stems from a smooth gaming experience. Unlike other game films that rush into the urban construction link after the broadcast, the beginner tutorial of this game has carefully woven a bridge section to escape the sky.
Just after entering the game, several comics with a sense of age and war will tell the player who you are now: you are a king, but now the country is destroyed; you have many fierce generals under your command, but they have defected; you have escaped death, planning to find a neutral city-state to make a comeback, but now you are being chased and blocked, and you are about to go nowhere.
In this critical situation, the protagonist (i.e. the player) as the Fallen King needs to carefully bypass the sentry points and levels, and cautiously look for the opportunity to break through.
The protagonist is pleased to find a three-masted galleon moored on the dock, but a paper burning "Black Crow Order" quickly buries his desire to escape from the waterway.
The helpless protagonist then has to go around the jungle, encountering a small group of enemy troops, but fortunately bringing back a group of old troops that have been lost due to the rout. After the team grew, they broke through the blockade in one fell swoop and escaped.
The plot flow is not long, but the design is clever, highly relevant, and fits the original meaning of the four words of "novice guidance". Not only did it explain the ins and outs of the whole incident for me, but what was even more valuable was the combination of the combat gameplay and the plot design.
For example, in the process of groping in the jungle, it is natural to send scouts to explore the way forward, which reasonably explains the fog mechanism of war. Another example is the major general on the breakthrough road, when encountering the enemy, the player will take the initiative to think, to use the restraint mechanism of the class to retain the living force.
One-on-one instruction manual beginner guidance is often information-intensive and unfocused, I have encountered similar problems in more than one SLG, the whole process of novice guidance is "point and point", after the end of the novice guide, I do not know where to "point and point".
The game content with reasonable explanation can obviously greatly improve this situation, on the one hand, it can enhance the sense of substitution, on the other hand, it can allow players to master the basic battle mode effortlessly, and at the same time, it can be carried forward from top to bottom, reducing the difficulty of learning complex mechanics later.
Similarly, in the following experience, I found that Civilization and Conquest seemed to have an inexplicable obsession with "rationality", and they seemed to really want players to understand what kind of world it was.
After being guided by a novice, the player establishes a base area, at which point they will encounter nobles who have lost their territory like you, and after some conversation, they learn that the driving force behind a series of events is the infamous "Black Crow Army" - the entire continent has been stirred up by them, the city-state has been occupied, and the ruling forces have been reshuffled.
People quickly woke up to this unprecedented opportunity, and at this moment everyone was on the same starting line. So the people seized the time to strengthen the army and conclude a covenant. On the one hand, eliminate the common enemy "Black Crow Legion" and recover the lost land. On the other hand, the curtain of war between the alliances has also quietly opened.
This is Civilization & Conquest's interpretation of the core gameplay "National War". The plot from the beginning of the rout to the dust of the escape journey is very coherent, and the experience is quite good. Crucially, by giving the player an initial impression of the overall strategic framework, it's easy to understand that the core of the game is war.
The history of mankind is a history of war, and Civilization and Conquest has chosen a very flattering historical theme. The game also has a lot of design around the historical theme, passing on the immersion created by the beginner's guidance.
For example, the game can spend the "Civilization Key" to switch between six different architectural styles, geographically, they belong to six different civilizations, and on the timeline, they evolve from the "Iron Age" to the "Age of Emperors", representing the changes in architectural craftsmanship in different historical periods.
Another example is the "hero" character in the game, designed according to historical facts, whether it is the character image or the name of the talent skill, it is suitable for the life record. In order to unify the character image, the game uses a character model with a very "exaggerated" body proportion.
In my memory, similar styles were common in the national comics of the 80s and 90s, which made people feel very intimate. At the same time, cartoon character models are also widely used in various games, in line with the mainstream aesthetics of players.
The use of themes and the design of pre-content can greatly improve product recognition. As we all know, SLG's market competition is fierce and abnormal, and it is difficult to break through in the mature environment of play, so many manufacturers have proposed the concept of "SLG+" to create differentiated content to break the game. In fact, the medieval magic theme of "King of Avalon", the apocalyptic survival theme of "State of Survival", the main casual "Top War", all use differentiation to achieve very good results.
Historical themes such as "Civilization and Conquest" have been widely used, and the above set of differentiation is too strong to be reasonable, but there are also benefits of widespread use, and the public acceptance of historical themes is very high.
In addition, on the road to differentiation, there are still many variables emerging in the SLG market. For example, the proportion of non-SLG players in "Awakening of Nations" is close to 50%, and female players are a consumer group worth fighting for. Whether SLG is a stock market or an incremental market is still unknown.
In the minds of this part of the non-SLG or pan-SLG player group, the first impression of the game is the experience and feeling, compared to the gameplay, the early content is more direct to determine whether they can win their favor.
You can compare the early content to the "golden three chapters" of online novels (referring to throwing eye-catching settings and plots in the first three chapters to attract non-fan readers), and more intimate and more immersive content can reach marginal users more widely. These designs may be optional for SLG players, but they are very attractive to non-SLG players, which is also a way to seek incrementality in the SLG "Blood Sea" market.
Civilization & Conquest's targeting of a broader user base is not my speculation, and many of the game's details can be used as evidence of the point.
In addition to giving players more sense of substitution, Civilization and Conquest also adheres to the concept of "casting a wide net and fishing for more fish", and integrates some very interesting and different circles of Easter egg content to tap potential users.
For a player like me who is obsessed with farming, the tool villain in the base area is undoubtedly the one that surprises me the most. In my spare time, I happily stared at them for an hour or two. During this period, they talked about everything from history to philosophy, from video games to Cthulhu, yin and yang strange wars and religions, mixed with many cold jokes and sneers at me.
Some of the stems I can't even get, and it may be nice to be an ignorant city lord
There are even quadratic elements, and it's hard to imagine where they extended player positioning.
"I'm not a human being anymore!" JOJO！ "What ingredients the production team has, I can't say
This content greatly brings the distance between the players and the players, which is one of the reasons why I find Civilization & Conquest very "intimate". To some extent, the sense of intimacy represents a sense of identity. At least in my eyes, this game is no longer an SLG mobile game made by a group of uncles to give to another group of uncles.
"SLG+" to put it bluntly is to vote for its favor, hoping to "break the circle" to expand the user disk, pull the sub-core users and margin users, rather than thinking about the combination of permutations every day, it is better to be as solid as 4399!
Second, let the player like war
If the game is only a good pre-content, relying on the game features to attract some users, but the gameplay is very cumbersome and compulsive, then I may have great doubts about these inconsistent designs.
Because in fact, not all players like to fight and kill. The game also has to face the problem of conversion rate, how to guide these players with different circles and different hobbies into the core gameplay of the game, "National War", is the goal of "SLG+".
To my surprise, the game is very friendly to non-war enthusiasts. It does not employ a resource plundering mechanism to force players to provoke war. Just tell the player that the benefits of war are many, and the meaning of war is actually to better farm. War does not consume resources, but can accelerate the acquisition of materials and improve the efficiency of farming.
Why? I think we can start with the introduction of the gameplay, the current "Civilization and Conquest" gameplay includes two aspects, one is the 4X strategy real-time march as the core of the war gameplay, and the other is the hero cultivation as the core of the resource system.
In the game, players can freely choose three heroes to form a unit. The core of the hero is mainly three items: the Net of Destiny (Bondage), skills, and levels. To a certain extent, the bondage affects the combat effectiveness of the troops, and the reasonable combination of skills can increase the upper limit of the strength of the lineup, while the level determines the number of troops to be carried. As the game progresses, players of such troops can maneuver five at the same time.
Farming, also known as urban construction, is an important way to enhance combat effectiveness. On the one hand, you can unlock the path of hero cultivation by increasing the building level of the base, and on the other hand, buildings and their military bonuses can be used to enhance the attributes of soldiers.
The improvement of the building level requires various material support, from the currently open content, in addition to competing with the player, all the material source channels have a limit on the number of times.
So the number of resource points is exhausted, how to farm? The answer is obvious, and that is war. The entire resource system revolves around the core of "feeding war with war".
Players can form or join any alliance. The Large Map on which the Alliance is located is divided into honeycomb areas, and these hexagonal plots contain five strongholds and a fast-marching command post, and all the occupied Alliances will receive ownership of the land.
Inspired by the merit system, war can generate a lot of resources. On the one hand, the battle itself can provide hero upgrade experience, on the other hand, the battle achievements and heavy convertible materials produced in the battle, the same is true for the battle for strongholds between alliances, and it is important that victory or defeat are there, highlighting a "focus on participation".
Of course, the biggest advantage in the war system is that leading troops to go out is completely attritional. Not only does it not need to consume resources, but the loss of troops in the war will also be converted into "conscription kits" to accelerate conscription.
This creates a delicate ecology. "Civilization and Conquest" has formed a resource closed loop of "urban construction - army cultivation - war - city construction", in which only "war" can be carried out endlessly, so no matter what type of player, it will not hesitate to put war first, even if it is not a war for resources.
In addition, the game's marching method is also very approachable, think of which place to drag the troops on the line, do not need to "go to jail" in the fanggri, in addition to some simple strategies of RTS, there are not too many routines, the operation requirements are not high, and it is very friendly to new players.
In short, I'm not a gamer who likes to fight and kill, but the war of Civilization and Conquest still makes me addicted. During the whole play, I was either fighting a war or on the way to a war, after all, winning or losing can be exchanged for resources, it is really a stable and profitable business, and don't use your brain, why not enjoy it. Strictly speaking, in Civilization and Conquest, there are no longer "good peace-loving citizens."
Inducing players to participate in the war brings players much less pressure than the mutual conquest mode, and similarly, the setting that there is no price to pay between winning and losing will also greatly alleviate the frustration of powerlessness caused by too large a gap. In terms of game experience, the whole system hardly has any negative feedback, and it is an SLG game that can really be played by everyone. This is also in line with the careful design of early content, which aims to retain a wider user base.
Although the subsequent content has not yet been unblocked, the player ecology has not yet been fully established. But what is certain is that Civilization & Conquest does have two brushes when it comes to converting different types of players to SLG players.
Third, 4399 features of buying volume and content marketing
"Civilization and Conquest" was bought very large before and after its launch, with more than 12,000 groups in a single day on the 29th, which shows the great promotion efforts.
We can roughly divide the material into two types. One is for the general public, that is, it includes non-SLG players. Highlighting the theme of the game, the keywords are six major civilizations, thirty-one kinds of heroes, multiplayer United Kingdom, thousands of people fighting on the same screen, and so on.
The second is aimed at SLG players. Emphasis is placed on the content that can directly hit the pain points such as no consumption of conscription, restraint of the class, heavy strategy, no lattice, and no sale of VIPs.
What surprised me the most was the content marketing of Civilization and Conquest. You know, content marketing is difficult to measure with data, compared to the purchase of less down-to-earth security, and for 4399, an established buying company, this step obviously requires a lot of courage.
What can be seen is that since the second half of this year, they have been looking for the possibility of reaching more circles around the game's features.
As early as July this year, "Civilization and Conquest" firmly grasped the historical theme and linked with "City of Warriors", an anime film with the theme of terracotta warriors. At the same time, it also cooperated with the Datang West City Museum to design several "collections" based on real cultural relics.
In-game access is available, but the channel is not yet open
Professional design can add a sense of history to the game, making the content more authentic and reliable. The significance of this marketing method is more to highlight the historical theme characteristics of the game, and when it comes to communication, the content creation carried out with several up masters of the knowledge area of the B station is more significant.
The game was promoted with the theme of "Assuming the Course of History" and was played more than 80W
Recently, before and after the launch of "Civilization and Conquest", Yuan Yawei was invited to sing the theme song of the game "From Here" to further expand her influence.
Also invited Yu Hewei as a brand spokesperson, historical drama lovers are certainly not strangers, Yu Hewei's many screen images are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Teacher Yu Hewei has played Liu Bei and Cao Cao successively, and the world is divided into two!
In addition, the live promotion is also uninterrupted, the volume is full, and various gift benefits are continuous.
Pure top stream, I can't help but call out to the rich and powerful!
However, from the perspective of buying volume and content marketing, "Civilization and Conquest" does not seem to have a particularly strong pertinence, the goal is only "sound volume" and "circle layer", and the means are what is used, which is also in line with the characteristics of 4399.
In fact, there are problems with the amount of input and player quality in advertising investment, and many operation teams will complain that the quality of imported players is not good, but most games can only think of ways in terms of material content. But for Civilization and Conquest, perhaps "indiscriminate strikes" are the best way to promote it, because some of the problems of transformation are carried by the game content.
Looking back, "Civilization and Conquest" is using loud marketing methods to attract more circle users, retaining them with more "cordial" pre-content, playing coherently, complementing each other, and being effective.
epilogue
From my experience, the biggest feature of this game is the design of the pre-content. The difficulty of getting started is about zero, which can make almost any player play easily; the plot is well arranged, and the ultimate goal of "kingship" is set for players, so that they understand the core gameplay of "war"; the theme is used appropriately, the sense of historical immersion is strong; the details are in place, and the preferences are good enough to be "kind".
Civilization & Conquest is a very popular SLG game. But instead of defining it this way, it makes the assumption that if players around the world have never been exposed to SLG, how can they like SLG? Now it seems that Civilization and Conquest has found their answer.
What height Civilization & Conquest will reach is unpredictable, because in addition to the previous content, the long-term operation of SLG is also crucial, but these have not yet been revealed. The only thing we can see is that 4399 has put a lot of thought into it this time, and Civilization and Conquest has become the advance force for their march into the middle and heavy mobile games.
4399 may not be the 4399 anymore, they began to do content marketing, began to develop their own medium and heavy mobile games, began to transform, began to try something that had never been tried before.