Deep Sound Original · The author | Li Tingting
2021 is the year of a sharp rise in uncertainty in the gaming industry.
On the one hand, the game is unlimited scenery, Tencent and other large manufacturers are more intensive investment actions, so that the game venture capital market is extremely hot, the "meta-universe" concept shines, but also attracted Netflix, Microsoft and other giants to run into the market; at the same time, the game industry is trembling, the strictest new deal, the version number of the extension behind the domestic more stringent regulatory review of the game, game manufacturers seem to walk on the tightrope.
The two heavens of ice and fire are guided by the same consensus - the value of the game needs to be redefined.
Games are no longer a pure entertainment activity, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is aimed at an opportunity that may be compared with the "mobile Internet"; strict regulatory measures such as the juvenile ban are forcing game manufacturers to reflect on the value of content. An investor who has long observed the game industry once lamented to the "deep sound": "The boundaries of the metaverse are infinitely enlarged, or the boundaries of the game are infinitely enlarged." "
In the game world that may be borderless in the future, how to achieve large-scale content scene production? In the trend of virtual and reality convergence, how should game manufacturers grasp the value orientation? Our exploration of the game of the future is just getting started.
Through the Tang Dynasty, the fusion experiment of virtual and reality
This is the third Spring Festival under the epidemic, and people seem to have become accustomed to reducing outings, canceling gatherings, and exchanging temporary restraint in the physical world for longer reunions. At this time, looking for the "new year's taste" in the virtual world has become a new way to celebrate the New Year under the epidemic.
The "Year of Datang China" Chinese New Year version, which was launched on January 19, created a unique New Year experience for users. It is understood that the new version is given artistic guidance by historians, presenting the customs of the Tang Dynasty, with the theme of "Five Ceremonies of the Year of the Tiger, Gathering mini year", inviting users to travel through the Tang Dynasty and immerse themselves in the traditional New Year.
The practice of "Mini World", which integrates traditional culture and modern technology to create an innovative way to celebrate the New Year, is an example of the game platform exploring the fusion scene of virtual and reality and extending the value of the game.
In the "Year of Datang China" version provided by Mini World, users who cannot be reunited or cannot go out due to the epidemic can feel the lively and prosperous New Year in the supplementary scenes provided online; those Generation Z, who are strange and curious about traditional Chinese culture, are immersed in observing, feeling and exploring the prosperity of Datang through a variety of scenes.
In order to create a sense of realism and immersion, "Mini World" places many historical and traditional cultural symbols in the Datang scene. Everywhere is the magnificent, solemn and cheerful Tang Dynasty style buildings, restoring historical monuments such as Huaqing Pond, using flower lanterns, bonfires, fireworks to set off a strong and warm Spring Festival atmosphere, under the guidance of historians, "Mini World" constructs a detailed Tang Chinese Year.
On this basis, Mini World also provides a lot of gameplay that integrates the customs of the Tang Dynasty, allowing users to complete the in-depth exploration of the scene in the interaction. In interactive scenes such as "Little Tang People", "Ying Tang Nian", "War Year Beast", "Shangyuan Festival", "Ying Cai God" and so on, users can use firecrackers to beat Nian Nian beasts, find and dialogue NPCs to guess lantern riddles, set off fireworks, put kong ming lanterns, transform into NPCs to participate in dance performances in front of the temple, etc., and fully feel the traditional culture of the Year in the virtual world.
"Mini World" "Datang Chinese Year" version of the "War Year Beast" scene
"Datang China Year" is not the first time that "Mini World" has created a large-scale interactive scene in the platform, on November 29 last year, "Mini World" launched the annual music version and held a unique "Hua Xiaolou X Xu Mengyuan" virtual concert. Like the Travis Scott concert in Fortnite that Metascopy supporters rave about, it's all a game platform's exploration of musical interaction scenes.
From virtual concerts to "Datang Chinese Year", the practice of "Mini World" in multi-scene construction also reflects the tool capabilities and service capabilities supported by its self-developed engine.
Last year, in support of the idea of an in-game music festival, the Mini World development team spent about a quarter implementing an in-game music player for the first time in the industry, and is currently the only game that offers random song search, pause, and fast-forward capabilities. In addition, "Mini World" also realizes the opening of in-game audio capabilities in the "Music Festival" version, opens up all the free music libraries of QQ Music, provides interactive gameplay such as dancing and playing CALL during concerts, and supports 300,000 people online at the same time.
In the "Year of datang China" version, it can be observed that the scene construction ability of "Mini World" has further breakthroughs. On the basis of audio, "Mini World" has realized the multimedia playback of in-game video and live broadcast, in this version, the live streaming provides users with the experience of watching "Huayu Chengxing 4" together in the pear garden scene.
Users watch "Flower Story 4" in "Mini World"
In addition, "Mini World" also realizes a comprehensive cloud service, through data archiving optimization, to achieve sustainable operation of the cloud service room, join the room without downloading maps, do not set the homeowner and privileges of the function, improve the game continuity, duration, join the room efficiency, game fairness and so on.
It can be seen that the technical iteration and content design of "Mini World" mainly play a role in the construction of more "scenes". The word "scene" seems to have become a keyword in the future of the game, one of the future strategic directions of "Mini World" is the layout of the "virtual interactive scene", Tencent Games also proposed last year that the game is becoming a "super digital scene".
Open and co-create, explore the future of the game with interactive scenes
What exactly is the so-called "scene"?
The first is, of course, the copying or supplementation of the offline scene. Under the epidemic situation, the Spring Festival "stay-at-home", users can go to the "Mini World" to freely shop and lively for the New Year; hold a virtual concert, users can relive the fun of participating in the concert online with friends... By "moving" scenes that cannot be touched offline and are inconvenient to achieve online, the virtual world assumes the significance of adding luster to real life.
But not only that, but the combination of virtual scenes is a new universe as opposed to reality. In the imaginary metaverse, there is not only a reflection of reality, but also native rules, organizations, and cultures. On the way to this vision, relying on diversified virtual scenes and accumulating a richer game culture core, we can continuously promote the value extension of the game.
And this will inevitably require a large number of scene production capabilities. Platform-led large-scale scenes such as the virtual concert launched by "Mini World" and the "Chinese Year of the Tang Dynasty" are an important component of building a virtual world, but in addition, in the future borderless game world, large-scale content production needs more creative power.
Recently, in the internal activities organized by Tencent Game Academy, Ma Xiaoyi, senior vice president of Tencent, shared his understanding of the future game industry, he mentioned that "content upgrade" is the future trend of games, and UGC content ecology is one of the solutions to large-scale content production.
This coincides with Mini World's open strategy. Compared with sandbox games, Mini World should be more prepared to position itself as a UGC sandbox creative platform, encouraging any business, individual, or team to transform their ideas into virtual scenes and gameplay.
In the platform strategy, the dominance of the game is returned to the user. According to the data disclosed by Mini World, in the past six years, while users have experienced more time in Mini World, the time for users to experience official content production has dropped from 80% to 15%, and the length of UGC content experience has increased; with the surge of creative content, more than 70 million content creators have created more than 200 million scene works in Mini World.
In this process, the main ability of the official is no longer limited to the provision of content, but the empowerment of the ecology. Mini World has always been a very good at optimization and innovation of the game, its can be updated twenty or thirty versions a year, in the process of self-developed sandbox engine, image engine, creative tools and cloud service capabilities evolved, to meet the user's creative and imaginative diversification of new needs.
For example, the original tool system of Mini World, such as the World Rule Editor, Vehicle System, Blueprint System, Miniature Block System, and Biological Bone Editing System, give users different levels of creative fun, allowing users to achieve "what they like to create".
Having the ability to recognize and explore "co-creation" is one of the reasons why the industry currently has high expectations for platform games. Platform games such as Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, Sims, Mini World, And Jelly Bean Man are not used for the development mode of traditional games, with high DAU, UGC ecology, and the opportunity to build a new game narrative through massive interactive scenes.
In these virtual scenes, the user relationships, emotional connections, and cultural assets created will be precipitated into a thicker value of the game, and it is also the power of platform games such as "Mini World" to cross the cycle.
What does the future look like? Is it the metaverse depicted in Avalanche, or the bizarre "oasis" in Ready Player One? At least for sure, the real and the virtual are already converging, and the future scene will be built by the game industry with all creative users.