The author | Qian Hongyan
The source | Jingnuo
Since the "Original God" has spread all over the world, the two-dimensional open world has become the direction of the layout of various manufacturers.
The first to come up with the results was Perfect World, and the first three weeks after the launch of "Magic Tower" were really strong. The follow-up performance is inevitably a bit weak, but it is indeed in the first echelon of Perfect World's product matrix.
The boom of the two-dimensional open world has many volumes, and netizens are like Spiegel in their hearts. No, when South Korean Reilly announced the real PV of the open world game "Seven Crimes: Origins", they created the "Genshin-like" category.
Manufacturers poured in in waves of madness, and this time standing in the center of the stage was Zulong Entertainment. Today, the two-dimensional open world game "Noah's Heart" developed by Zulong Entertainment and published by Tencent opened for testing. Following Perfect World, there is finally another big factory with stage results in this category.
Interestingly, these products have invariably chosen the MMO instead of the stand-alone model of "Original God", why do these manufacturers choose this way? Will MMO in this category have more potential than stand-alone machines?
MMO in the European and American markets?
China, Japan and South Korea are still the main forces
According to the APP Annie report, gaming spending in the MMORPG category increased by 21% in 2021, while spending on open-world RPGs increased by nearly 500%, mainly from Protosthesis.
Compared with the European and American markets, the adventure genre has a higher popularity in the Asian market, which is particularly prominent in the Korean market, NCSOFT's "Paradise" series products occupy the top ten of the best-seller list all year round, and almost half of the top ten list are MMORPG types. The "Paradise" series also performed well in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, China.
Although there has been a slight increase in MMORPG in the European and American markets, it is mainly due to a small number of new works released, and it is not a very popular category for users as a whole. Casual games, SLG and shooting are more popular with Users in Europe and the United States.
In view of this, the product attribute of "two-dimensional + MMO" undoubtedly focuses on the East Asian market dominated by China, Japan and South Korea.
Previously, when "Magic Tower" was launched, it caused a big discussion in the game circle: "Can the mode of two-dimensional + MMO be accepted by two-dimensional players?" Is MMO+ Open World viable? "These two issues will be the test that every manufacturer who chooses the two-dimensional open world will face.
Strong social and weak social,
Which one can win more secondary users
The industry has always believed that two-dimensional players are not cold to social play. In the post-epidemic era, the development of "home culture" and "home economy" has further deepened the "social fear" attribute of two-dimensional players.
Nowadays, the more successful two-dimensional games on the market, such as "Original God", "Ark of Tomorrow", "Maiden Frontline", etc. are basically weak social, and users spend most of their time in a single-player game state.
But on the contrary, two-dimensional gamers are highly active in the community outside the game, especially in the user community of B station, Tieba and NGA that is oriented to interest or specific circles. You can often see the speeches and interactions of these players.
This also makes it easy for game manufacturers to have the feeling that "two-dimensional players do not dislike social networking, but do not provide them with channels in the game". At the same time, some people believe that there are more pan-quadratic players in China, and the acceptance and demand for social systems is higher.
The author believes that this is related to the role of individuals in the public space and the private sphere. According to the German thinker Arendt, the existence of each person is manifested in two spheres of life, one is the private life and the other is the public life. In the sphere of public life, there is a common well-being that everyone desires, shared public values, and issues of common concern.
This theory also applies in the game community, where players come together in a social public space to discuss and share a common vision and common problems about the game because they identify with the common values conveyed by the game. In the process of this public communication, the players have completed the expression of self-thought, the identification of self-views, and the realization of self-worth. In other words, players have fulfilled the need for "socializing" in the community.
But once back in the private realm, players' performance returns to sophistication and privacy, at which point players express themselves more self-centered rather than group opinions. When the "free market of opinions" cannot be formed, the players' desire to express themselves further declines, especially the two-dimensional players with more extensive fantasy attributes and rationalism.
Therefore, in the process of the game, two-dimensional players are more inclined to a unique, private, and immersive game experience, and also put forward new requirements for MMO two-dimensional open-world games: how to control the social scale in MMO.
It is undeniable that among Chinese two-dimensional gamers, there is indeed a considerable proportion of players with pan-quadratic attributes. Manufacturers can not ignore the needs of this part of the player for in-game social, such as the design of weekly world bosses in open-world games, and larger-scale social activities are more likely to reduce the resistance of secondary players to social.
Some players also said: "Since the manufacturer understands that the two-dimensional element and the MMO are incompatible, why must the MMO framework be placed in the two-dimensional theme?" "I think this is more of a business consideration.
In the two-dimensional open world category,
Will MMOs be more profitable than stand-alone machines?
The manufacturers mentioned at the beginning of the article are all "old sailors" in the MMO field. Tencent and Perfect World operate a number of MMORPG games in the domestic market, while South Korea's MMORPG is a school of its own, sweeping the global market with its unique Korean style.
The accumulation of experience is one of the reasons why these manufacturers choose MMOs, on the other hand, MMOs are more likely to stimulate the "comparison" psychology of players, and it is also easy to appear more huge kryptonite players to make outstanding contributions to game revenue.
In the past, MMORPGs on the PC side often used the form of prop charges, and the principle of "Krypton gold can become stronger" has been printed in the hearts of every MMORPG player and manufacturer (except for a few point card pay games).
But when the battlefield moves to the two-dimensional open world, will the MMO definitely make more money than the single machine?
Due to the fact that there are too few products in this category today, coupled with the phenomenon-level performance of "Original God", it is not possible to directly use "Original God" to compare with "Magic Tower". Carefully studying the current game content of this category, it is always the core consumption point of selling characters, and card cultivation is still its paradigm play.
However, the open world brings a unique casual gameplay to the card cultivation - exploration, the player has completed the hard demand for cultivation in the exploration, and the player has a stronger willingness to stay in the game world, thereby enhancing user stickiness and improving the user's willingness to pay.
The repetitiveness of traditional MMO gameplay is strong, and players are prone to fatigue, which is why the player loss rate has been too fast since MMORPG entered the mobile era.
Overall, under the MMO framework, in the short term, the willingness of players to pay will be stronger, and the number of giant paying users will be more. In the short term, it is easy to achieve a large increase in game revenue, but it is also easy to lose players due to the factors of version change and comparison between players.
The two-dimensional starting world of the stand-alone mode pays more attention to long-term operation, and it is not easy to have the "PVP" problem, even if the player does not go online for a period of time, he does not need to "catch up with the progress", but whether the new gameplay and the update of the new content can be guaranteed requires the manufacturer to carry out reasonable planning and system process in team management.
Chen Yu, head of the "High-tech Hand Group", previously shared in Google's "Long Talk about the Two-Dimensional Mobile Game Track" activity: "The two-dimensional game market has a very strong Matthew effect and monopoly. ”
To put it simply, except for some games for niche groups, products that want to challenge the head position must be comparable or even surpassed in all aspects of quality, and if only some of the flash points are difficult to rank in the first echelon.
epilogue
With the blessing of the Matthew effect, it is difficult for new products to challenge the market position of "Original God" in this category, which may be the reason why manufacturers have chosen the MMO track in addition to experience and commercial benefits.
While making differentiation, how to subtract in MMO, reduce the tediousness of repetitive activities, weaken the gap between players, encourage players to return and improve the freedom of play. These are the key points of the long-term benign operation of the MMO open world.
Wait until the next MMO open world blockbuster appears, let's see if the fit of the MMO can compete with "Original God".