Compared to many other forms of entertainment, video games are easier to reach players around the world, but they can also lead to some unintended consequences for development teams.
Dread Hunger, a multiplayer survival game set in the Arctic, began airing in steam stores at the end of January, and its New Zealand development team hoped that Dread Hunger would be a global hit, but what they did not expect was that as a large number of Chinese players poured into the game, the language barrier would cause friction and xenophobia in the rapidly expanding player base.
"When the game was first released, players from all over the world were about the same number and evenly distributed." Romy Gellen, Dread Hunger's marketing and prity specialist, recalled, "About a week later, we found that Chinese players were in the majority. ”
Galen revealed that in the beginning, the development team was surprised by the large number of Chinese players pouring into the game.
"It's a pity that none of us understand Chinese!" At first, we relied on the Dread Hunger server with Chinese players and the great administrators there. They have always been very supportive of us and eager to help us understand the feelings of Chinese players. So for us, that channel is crucial. ”
Currently, Dread Hunger's overall rating on Steam is "mixed."
Since then, the Dread Hunger development team has recruited a number of part-timers who speak Chinese as their native language. In order to ensure that Chinese players can get a good experience when playing online, the development team has also made significant changes to the game interface.
"Throughout the Early Access phase, we really didn't pay much attention to the game interface." Galen said, "But once you find that players don't communicate well with each other, they become very important." As we improve the interface menus, the player experience becomes smoother and smoother, as it is unlikely to play with a group of other players who don't speak the same language. ”
However, these changes have led to inevitable friction between players. In Dread Hunger's Steam player review, many players expressed frustration at not being able to communicate smoothly with their teammates. For example, one player who had accumulated nearly 20 hours of playing wrote, "If you want to learn Chinese, this game is great." ”
"The development team is here again." Another player who gave Dread Hunger a bad review and played more than 70 hours said, "Due to 'racism,' they removed the option to kick away Chinese players, so you can only play this game if you are forced to learn Mandarin." ”
Of course, there are also many players who just want to play the game and have no hostility towards Chinese players. "There are really a lot of Chinese players in this game." One player who played for more than 30 hours wrote, "But you have the option of showing only the English lobby and never seeing the lobby in any other language after that." Super easy. Stop making a fuss. ”
According to Galen, the development team gained valuable experience by releasing Dread Hunger anyway, and also hoped that the game's interface changes would help players.
"It taught us to look at the game from a new perspective." He said, "It's fun that players can experience different play styles just by changing the region." In the future, we will evaluate design decisions more comprehensively and critically and discover new approaches. We were very rewarded by this experience. ”