"I'll go to bed after this round... Oh, how is it getting dark?" I think even players who haven't played the Civilization series have more or less known about this meme. However, the "black hole of time" is not only a civilization series, and most of the strategy games are extremely easy to make players head.)
There is no doubt that strategy games are a very popular classic category, and they are still countless fans today.
Taking SLG, the mainstream 4X strategy of the mobile game market, as an example, since the outbreak of this category in the first two years, the market and user scale have gradually expanded. According to the "2022 China Game Industry Trend and Potential Analysis Report" released by Gamma Data, the size of the head SLG market in 2021 is close to 20 billion yuan. As of press time, there are still four SLGs that have firmly established the top 20 of the domestic iOS best-seller list.
But unlike the current situation of a variety of products, another voice has gradually emerged in the circle of players: there are more strategy games, but now they are not playing happily - like a "golden age of strategy games is not coming back". Even in Zhihu, there is no shortage of "Why don't the current strategy games have the same feeling as before?" "And other similar topics have somewhat sparked some not-so-small discussions.
Of course, GameLook is not trying to make up its mind about the topic here, but tends to summarize why there are completely different voices behind the increasingly popular strategy games from the sharing of different netizens such as industry insiders and players.
The strategy game hasn't changed, it's the player
Honestly, strategy games are actually a very big concept, and there is no strict division.
Whether it is real-time strategy games such as Age of Empires, StarCraft, and Red Alert, or wargames such as the Fire Emblem series, or the COK-like and Razor-like in the current mobile game market are also within this range, and even many other types of games are more or less on the side.
However, many core players now believe that strategy games are gradually losing their original flavor and becoming more niche. In this regard, an SLG project planner of a major manufacturer in the industry once explained in a zhihu post: "Have they changed? No, it may be the person who plays the game. ”
In his view, more than a decade ago, when the Internet relied on dialing and online games were in the ascendant, RTS, which could fight over the LAN, was undoubtedly one of the most fun and exciting games. This experience deeply affected him and was an important reason for him to become a strategy game planner.
However, with the rapid development of smart phones, people are in a fast-paced, fragmented rhythm of life, rather than sitting in front of the computer for hours, "it is better to play ten minutes of mobile phones to continue to change the plan." "What's more, most of the first batch of strategy players are middle-aged, and it is difficult to return to the original state in terms of time and energy."
"The core players who were able to recite the restraint of the arms and know when to open mines and when to storm the soldiers are now all established. The position and sensitive reaction of the year are gone, and it is difficult to pick it up. The planner said.
However, he did not blindly take a pessimistic attitude, but believed that the development direction of strategy games is still broad, and there is no shortage of high-quality war strategy games on mobile.
The planner further explains: "By simplifying the operation into a numerical competition, we can also experience the thrill of attacking the city on our mobile phones. Then the geostrategic mobile game that joined the season loop and paved the way for the grid appeared. Walking the grid clearly absorbs the essence of some classic strategy games, and the season loop also gives players the motivation to keep playing. In addition, some games have added shortcut functions such as 'accelerated march' and 'one-second battle report', and the battle time has been compressed, and it is indeed much easier to play. ”
He also mentioned that in addition to the exquisite design of the above mobile terminal, strategy games also have more innovative points such as differentiated themes and strategic gameplay to be tapped, which can keep core players in love forever.
The quality has improved, but the core gameplay lacks innovation
Interestingly, if you cut through the player's point of view, you can get a lot of similar answers: once loyal strategy players are getting older, taking on work and family responsibilities, and their personal disposable time has been greatly reduced and fragmented, and it is difficult to fight for more than ten hours as carefree as before.
Some players mentioned that this phenomenon is not a dilemma unique to strategy gamers. "In fact, it's not just that strategy games don't have the feeling they used to have, but all the previous games, whether it's Empires, Interstellar, War3, or Legends, Q&A, DNF, etc., you can't find that feeling when you try again." He explained it as: We ourselves have changed.
"Once we were full of youth, passion, dreams, innocence and rambling, and now we are realistic, tired, accompanied by various pressures, the only bit of energy is estimated to be to open the mobile phone to see the video, sigh the passage of time, accompanied by psychological throbbing, open the game, find that you can't find your former comrades-in-arms, let alone find youth." 」 The netizen sighed.
In contrast, some netizens blamed this change on the continuous improvement of users' aesthetic level. Compared with more than a decade ago, the current players have accepted the impact of too many products every day, and the aesthetic level has been continuously improved, and it is difficult to meet the demands of players in games with insufficient quality.
"When I was a child, I used to order a page game late, and the production was not well-made, and now it seems useless, at that time, I was fascinated and poured my feelings into it." Some time ago, I opened the game to reminisce about the past, but I gave up in five minutes. The game hasn't changed, it's me, and I can't go back. ”
However, some people said that the impetuous game psychology did make the player less of the game spirit of the year. But more importantly, this innovative game form left a deep impression on players in those years, but today's strategy games generally lack innovation, and there will naturally be no big works born when fried cold rice. Compared with more than a decade ago, although the current game is more beautiful and richer in content, only the core gameplay has not changed.
Similarly, another netizen mentioned, "It's not that there is no feeling before, but that the group of people who make the game have changed." In his opinion, strategy games should be highly liberal. The current game emphasizes value over strategy, blindly emphasizing making money rather than bringing happiness to players, and obviously can no longer bring the same experience.
In addition, some netizens still believe that even if they make strategy games with higher quality than in the past, few people will spend a lot of time studying the gameplay like in the past. "After all, strategy games are games that require a lot of time to practice to get started, and the requirements for operation, hand speed, and consciousness are very high. In today's fast-paced era, no one wants to spend so much time studying a game. ”
No, this is the golden age of strategy
Of course, not all players agree with the above arguments. Among them, some netizens clearly put forward under the same topic: "I think it is now the golden age of strategy." ”
First, he chose to split the charm of strategy games one by one: "MoBA games that talk about real-time feedback and have a faster pace; on historical simulation management, Civilization 6 and P Society are not at all lost to the old works." As for the strategy of fighting with people, the strategy of flex-like and COK-like mobile games is endless, and even zombies and dinosaurs have themes - now the strategy game, how can not lose the past. ”
But he also inevitably admits that in the past, strategy games relied on word of mouth and player sharing, and the happiness of this information lag was obviously not returned.
"Now the player can't fight, the cha cha raider has passed, and even there are internal ghosts planning for the player in advance, and the community-style and acquaintance circle-style gameplay in the past is estimated to exist only in the circle of primary school students." He sighed: "I think this era has really passed." ”
At the same time, some netizens put forward different opinions on the argument from the concept of category.
He believes that the concept of strategy games appeared in the mobile game era and is more general, such as "Three Kingdoms, Civilization series of strategy games; Age of Empires, StarCraft, Warcraft is often called real-time strategy; Three Kingdoms Chronicles Kong Ming Biography, Hero Invincible is usually called wargames; Allied death squads are called real-time tactics; Sim City, Sims is called sim management; Magic, the game King is called card game." ”
If you can't find the feeling of the previous strategy game, you first need to clarify which kind of game it feels. After all, the needs of all kinds of players are completely different, and it is impossible to please them all.
Can't get back to the original feeling, whether the golden age of strategy games has really passed... In GameLook's view, this debate may never get an answer.
However, it must be noted that players are still enthusiastic about strategy games, as evidenced by the emergence of new games in the mobile game market SLG. It is conceivable that as game manufacturers continue to delve into the strategic nature of games and innovate gameplay, strategy games will surely be revitalized.
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