Text/cheese
A few days ago, the topic of #Squat Orbi Island Mobile Game Test was on Weibo hot search, and many netizens sent Weibo to say that the childhood game online mobile game was very exciting. It is understood that on February 23, Thunder Games officially announced the "Orbi Island: Dream Country" developed by BIOC Family Interactive. The author thought of "Moore Manor", which was also issued by Thunder Agent, which was popular on the whole network under the blessing of multiple buffs such as IP + feelings last year, how is it now?
Why is Moore Manor popular?
According to official data, the "Moore Manor" mobile game is also released by Thunder Games, with more than 6 million new users and more than 1 million online users in 8 hours on June 1, 2021. In just two days, it won 10 hot searches on Weibo. Among them# Why hurt kids playing Moore Manor got 420 million reads and 67,000 discussions; #Moore Manor Mobile Game got 210 million reads and 102,000 discussions. As of June 6, 2021, Moore Manor has been at number one on the App Store free list for 7 consecutive days.
The same is a social leisure game, want to know whether the thunder game can replicate the success of Moore Manor again, Obie Island mobile game can "out of the circle", we need to first analyze the "Moore Manor" popular road.
Sentiment + IP
As we all know, big IP and feelings are a big weapon to attract users, and "Moore Manor" is just stacked with feelings + IP two big buffs.
In an era when emotional games are flying all over the world, why can Moore Manor make so many players so excited?
Moore Manor was originally a community cultivation web game released by Shanghai Taomi Network Technology Co., Ltd. in April 2008. Later, the sequel "Moore Manor 2", "Moore Warriors" was released. Moore Manor provides a virtual interactive community designed for children, incorporating features such as image dress-up, interactive games, pet rearing, and virtual huts.
In 2008, the domestic Internet is developing rapidly, home computers are gradually popular, and many children have begun to contact computers. In April of the same year, the "Moore Manor" web game was sought after by the majority of players as soon as it was launched. In 2009, it won the Best Online Game Award in the Baidu Wind List, becoming the first children's game to win the award. In most of the post-90s memories, the most anticipated thing to go to school may be the computer class, you can discuss with your classmates how to arrange the hut, grow vegetables and collect vegetables and so on.
It is understood that in 2009, the number of Internet users in China just climbed to 300 million, and the number of gamers in Moore Manor has reached 30 million, of which there are 10 million active users. [1] When page games are popular on the Internet, there may be more minors playing Moore Manor than playing QQ, and it is better to raise electronic penguins in QQ than to go to the manor to plant flowers and vegetables.
The user has the element of emotional sustenance, and the "Moore Manor" mobile game also deliberately moves closer to the direction of feelings in terms of development. The facilities of the "Moore Manor" mobile game try to restore the page game version of "Moore Manor", the castle, Taotaole Street, Happy Farm, Sunshine Ranch, Berry Jungle, Mooraya and some shops, game venues, etc. are presented according to the previous Moore Manor.
In terms of IP, "Moore Manor" is also a well-known IP.
On January 18, 2019, "Moore Manor" officially announced the full restart of the IP of "Moore Manor" in 2019! After that, many netizens expressed their expectations. In fact, after the launch of the "Moore Manor" mobile game, there was indeed a large influx of fan groups.
The big IP was actually originally a concept launched by the Youzu Network (which has products such as the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms of the Youth, the Alliance of Goddesses, and the Tomb Robber Notes), which is more about the competition for IP of the product.
In 2014, Lynch, the former chairman and CEO of Youzu Network, believed at the first China International Game Conference that the development of page games to 2015 and 2016 has begun to move towards a relatively slow stage of development, which is the general trend of the industry. Whether it is terminal games, page games or mobile games, "IP" has become the hottest topic in the industry. For the brand development of page games and the use of IP, Lynch believes that IP strategy can bring advantages in the number of users, but game quality is fundamental, and how to use IP to make a good product is the key. [2]
"Moore Manor" was actually released as early as 2011, 2012 and 2015 respectively, "Moore Manor: Ice Age", "Moore Manor II:: Kraken Treasure", "Moore Manor Movie 3: Magic Train Adventure" movies.
Nowadays, big IP refers more to the intellectual property rights of shooting and producing movies and TV series. As soon as you hear the big IP, the first time you will think of the big production, the quality is excellent.
"Moore Manor" has a large popularity, and when it is announced to launch a mobile game, game lovers will generally expect it and try it. Coupled with its own invisible large number of fan groups, it is not difficult to explain that the mobile game has such a large user group as soon as it is launched.
Internet Marketing
At the level of publicity and marketing, Thunder Games did not rely on a large number of effect ads to attract public traffic, but chose to render nostalgia through community operation and emotional topics, and finally achieved audience reach and stimulated the active return of IP core fans. According to the analysis of Tianfeng Securities, the publicity process of the "Moore Manor" mobile game can be divided into four stages: IP preparation, activity warm-up, high-speed growth period before going online and long-term operation. As early as August 2020, the topic of the IP return of "Moore Manor" began to warm up on Weibo, as of July 22, 2021, the number of Weibo hot search terms related to "Moore Manor" has exceeded 40, and the number of posts about "Moore Manor" has reached 353,000, and the number of reads has reached 1.99 billion. [3]
After the launch of "Moore Manor", the circle of friends frantically brushed the screen, and the spontaneous promotion of netizens released game-related paragraphs, which invisibly expanded the popularity of the "Moore Manor" mobile game. Under the overwhelming brush screen, some people may download because they are curious, and some people may download because they think it is fun. And these people may also become a second-generation group, once again expanding the popularity of "Moore Manor".
The popularity of Moore Manor at that time also expanded to stars, and rapper Zhang Siyuan once posted his manor career on Weibo.
But after that, Zhang Siyuan's Moore Manor also became the Internet celebrity punch point in the game.
The star effect can naturally also attract fan groups. Even if it is not a fan group, it may be because of curiosity.
In addition, "Moore Manor" itself has advantages. For example, the game screen has evolved from 2D to 3D, the content is diverse, the collection of a variety of mini-games, etc., but the game also has many shortcomings.
It has not yet made a profit, but its reputation has plummeted
Bugs keep coming
During the explosion of "Moore Manor", many fans complained that there were many bugs in the game, and the bugs were different every day.
In addition to the details are not completely restored in place, the problems such as game flashback, poor operation fluency, and frame drop fever are also the points that many netizens complain about.
In addition, the modeling of Moore Manor is not very perfect, the game page is also slightly rough, and there are often cases of mold piercing.
There are also many players who react that although 2D and 3D perspectives can be switched in the game, no matter which perspective, in many mobile games, it is only considered to be a decent level, and cannot be counted as superior.
In addition, early page game fans may not agree with the ip adaptation of the game after trying to play the mobile game, and the game side is also easy to lose this type of user group.
The gameplay lacks novelty
In addition to these small bugs, if the game side does not have outstanding highlights to distinguish it from other games of the same type, in order to attract users is the fatal blow.
The gameplay and mode of community leisure games are easy to copy, imitate, and replace, in addition to "Moore Manor", similar games are "Animal Forest", "The Sims" and so on. But these explosive games to date have their own unique highlights. "Animal Forest" has highlights such as the timeline corresponding to reality, the fast update frequency, and the daily mission limitation; "The Sims" has highlights such as free construction, realistic facilities, and diverse versions.
Shortly before the launch of "Moore Manor", the mobile game "Komori Life", which also focuses on life simulation management, was launched. After the launch of "Komori Life", although there are not many competitors in the mobile game market operated by similar communities, and its pleasing painting style occupies an advantage, a large number of users have poured in. However, the lack of novelty in gameplay, game UI, scene switching loading, pathfinding system and other basic functions have also caused the reputation of the game to decline and users to lose.
Again, this is something that Moore Manor needs to address. Compared with "Komori Life", which was earlier online, "Moore Manor" does not have outstanding highlights. Although community casual games already have a fixed fan base, "Moore Manor" itself lacks sufficient rich content to undertake previous successful brand marketing, and it is difficult to retain users.
Deviate from the tone of the game
In real life, most people's lives are fast-paced and socially stressful, so most people will choose heavy games with short feedback time and strong coolness, such as king glory, CSGO and other games.
In this case, players who choose community-run games are nothing more than looking at its "simple and fun, suitable for busy and idle time to play". However, many players have said that the game has too many tasks and needs to waste a lot of time.
Spending too much time on game missions will also make some players lose the motivation to continue playing.
It is not profitable
Moore Manor exploded in the days when computers were just popping up in every household, and wanted to launch a series of film works, but the production team of "Moore Manor" announced its dissolution at the end of 2014.
Regarding the reasons for the suspension of the Moore Manor page game, Zheng Zhuli, the producer of the "Moore Manor" mobile game, summed up in an interview: First, the game lacks core gameplay and is difficult to operate continuously, and the other is that the game is difficult to find a stable profit point. [4]
In terms of profit model, the current mobile game "Moore Manor" mainly obtains user favor through the light krypton payment model such as monthly card, season card, annual card, and exquisite fashion. Zheng Zhuli also said that the principle of taomi is to increase the daily work volume and take the road of small profits and high sales.
In the third quarter of 2021 performance report released by Gigabit, it shows that Gigabit achieved operating income of about 1.098 billion yuan in the third quarter, an increase of 71.45% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the mother was about 305 million yuan, an increase of 24.54% year-on-year. Compared with the previous two quarters, Gigabit's third quarter revenue was slightly lower. In addition, Moore Manor, represented by Gigabit's Thunder Games, had not generated a financial profit as of the end of the period.
Among the major IPs, IP developed for children such as Moore Manor is called "sub-supply". Due to the relatively poor profitability of sub-supply IP, it is not suitable for game companies to do high-investment game adaptations. [5]
In the face of the threat of competitors and the shortcomings of the game itself, it remains to be seen whether the "Moore Manor", which is in a state of "internal superiority and external troubles", can survive to profitability.
Cross-border joint name, try new areas
After experiencing a surge in users once the mobile game was launched - the decline in word of mouth and the loss of users, Moore Manor also tried some measures to re-attract users to return.
Joint branding is now a favorite thing between brands, and cross-field joint names are even more so. Brand cross-border co-branding is not a new thing, but from the perspective of recent trends, the phenomenon of e-sports and beauty co-brand CP is increasing. The joint name of games and beauty can not only bring players a "sense of novelty" and cause product topics, but also revitalize the brand and monetize traffic.
In November 2021, INTO YOU and Moore Manor launched a joint lip mud lipstick, eyeshadow, and blush. In the promotion, INTO YOU also introduced the lip mud lipstick in the tone of the game's character "Princess Momo", which is the lip mud fruit produced by the seeds of the manor's strange plants, combined with the characteristics of the game to introduce the texture of the lip mud lipstick.
Game + beauty co-branding also had many brand attempts earlier: HuaXizi x Swordsman Love Affair 3's custom limited edition Acacia carved lipstick, Givenchy x Jiangnan Hundred Views of the New Year's limited joint gift box, Mao Geping x against the water cold annual limited makeup gift box, Armani x Tianya Mingyue Knife's Tanabata limited edition love perfume gift box and so on.
In addition to the joint name with beauty, "Moore Manor" also has a number of cross-border joint names in other fields.
In 2022, the jewelry brand ME+ officially announced that it has reached a cooperation with Moore Manor Mobile Games and launched the ME+& Moore Manor joint series of jewelry. "Moore Manor" itself has a large number of user traffic pools, and most of them are young people, and cross-border cooperation with ME+ can deepen the influence of IP and collide with more sparks.
In addition to cross-border co-branding, "Moore Manor" has also made other attempts. For example, launch a new outfit for the opening series in the opening season, add a new mini-game in the mobile game, and so on. "Can Moore Manor be profitable?" "Can Thunder Games successfully launch Orbi Island: Dream Nation again?" "We don't know the answers to these questions yet, and I will continue to pay attention to them."
Notes and references
1. Wang Yuchan: "This is the sentiment of the post-95s, and the post-10s will not pay the bill", June 4, 2021, March 22, https://36kr.com/p/1251059687091712,2022
2. "Youzu Lynch: Only With Good Products Can We Have a Future and Push Up IP Strategy", March 10, 2014, March 22, https://baike.baidu.com/reference/14150539/46bb6fEoR0m5_VO0fEezmMzViCVeCBwG1cICp7GmvTL3iodWM9CmDXSgE9pxktk-zqY6fWWQahjaXGh2YrN5bfMzNaRT9g,2022
3. Song Qi, Wu Kezhong. "Moore Manor" rating decline "game Mao" gigabit: can the explosion continue after "breaking the circle"? [N].China Business Daily.2021-07-26(B12)
4. Xu Yuanlei, "Behind the Brush screen: Feelings are difficult to sustain, profits need to be explored", June 3, 2021, March 22, https://k.sina.com.cn/article_1642634100_61e89b74019012qps.html,2022
5. Yu Yao, "Not Yet Generating Financial Profits for Gigabit Experts: This Type of IP Is Not Suitable for Mobile Game Adaptation", October 28, 2021, March 22, https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1714848381022382997&wfr=spider&for=pc,2022
Source: IPRdaily Chinese Network (iprdaily.cn)
Image source network
(This article is authorized to be published, only represents the author's views, and may not be reproduced without permission)
"Star", "Forward", "Watching", add chicken legs to the editor!