It is undeniable that in the eyes of the young generation of domestic players, games are almost equal to emerging categories such as MOBA, FPS, and quadratic elements.
After all, since the domestic mobile game market has moved towards the transformation of high-quality products, diversified development has become the main theme of the industry. For example, TapTap's 2021 annual report shows that among the popular products loved by the post-90s and post-00s, there are popular categories such as MOBA, audio games, and tactical shooting, and there is no shortage of upstarts in the game circle - the figure of the second dimension.
In contrast, while more and more emerging categories are catching up, they have gradually silenced a number of classic categories that are hot in the end game era.
It should be known that as early as ten years ago, the Western Fantasy MMO was the hottest track in China, but at present, it has evolved into a vertical category with narrower and narrower users. However, judging from the fact that products such as "World of Warcraft" are still hot, such games are not uncompetitive, but players have put forward higher requirements for product quality.
Under such a premise, today (April 26) the "Black Desert" mobile game was officially launched, and the first time it was first placed on the App Store list, and topped the TapTap hot list, the good tour fast explosion soaring list, and related topics also rushed to the hot search of many social platforms such as Tiger Punch and Weibo.
Around the turn of the millennium, the western fantasy MMO with unlimited scenery
As we all know, in the early days of domestic online games, there was almost only one category of MMORPG. For many post-80s players, when talking about the MMO that occupied half of the country, some people may think of "Fantasy Journey to the West", which integrates the advantages of turn-based, and some people will talk about the "Journey" that carries forward the "National War", or the "Demon Domain" that is refreshing to fight monsters...
But in any case, the Western Fantasy MMO represented by "Legend" and "Miracle MU" must be an unavoidable topic. Explained in the words of the player: "At that time, half of the people in the Internet café were playing Legends, and the other half were playing Miracle MU. ”
First pull your mind back to 2001, when the Internet was still not really popular, when shanda network took the lead in bringing "Legend" into China, and since then "no brothers are not legendary" has become the memory of a generation.
Thanks to the game's low entry threshold and the unique mechanism of death drop equipment, it promoted the desire of a large number of players at that time to PK, attracting countless people to repeatedly "brush brush". It also became the only game that did not undergo internal testing at that time, and it became popular all over the country, reaching the result of 5 million players online at the same time in just a few months.
"Miracle MU", which is also licensed by Korean manufacturers, is another darling in the eyes of players in the same period, and can be called one of the enlightenment games of many Chinese.
It is precisely by relying on the "glittering big wings" that have been borrowed by countless purchase advertisements later, and the setting of higher levels and more gorgeous wings, the game instantly captured the hearts of many players at that time. Coupled with cool skill effects, Miracle MU became the peak of the 2.5D game at that time, and set off a big boom among players. Since it began operating in China in 2002, it has won the most classic online game and the most popular online game award in multiple authoritative game competitions for two consecutive years.
However, with the domestic entry into the era of mobile games, the general improvement of mobile devices and industry research and development technology, giving birth to more different types of games, the domestic market is almost occupied by MOBA, FPS and other popular categories, once popular Western Fantasy MMO has experienced nearly a decade of silence.
However, in GameLook's view, this does not mean that domestic players have completely lost interest in the West Fantasy MMO, but as the user's aesthetic level is continuously improved, a truly high-quality product is needed to detonate the entire category. Now, the "Black Desert" mobile game, which has been online overseas for four years and swept the global market, is making a comeback with the glory of Western Fantasy MMO.
Stunning next-era picture quality, meticulous hair-level pinch face
Of course, first of all, it is necessary to conduct a simple science popularization for young players. It is no exaggeration to say that "Black Desert" is definitely the best of the Western Fantasy MMO.
In 2013, Pearl Abyss's "Black Desert" end game was first launched in South Korea, which is regarded as the culmination of Hallyu MMO in the past decade. As the popularity of the game soared, it has successively landed in Japan, North America and other places, and gradually grown into one of the most popular Korean MMO IPs.
And the "Black Desert" mobile game, which appeared a little later, is not to be outdone. During the same period, most MMO mobile games on the market still followed the aesthetic standards of the page game era, relying on the sub-era quality of shoulder-to-shoulder end games, and the former quickly stood out. Since its launch in 2015, it has been harvesting overseas markets such as South Korea and Europe, and it has won the first place in the iOS free list and the fourth best-seller list in Japan, which is called the MMO desert. Until last year, the total number of mobile game users reached 22 million, contributing one-third of THE IP's revenue.
In GameLook's view, this eye-catching result is not difficult to understand, after all, the "Black Desert" mobile game highly restores the entire experience of the end game: the next era of the end game, the meticulous face pinching gameplay, and the excellent sense of blow. Even for the MMO users active such as "going to work" of the common disease, mobile games also provide a wealth of casual gameplay, liver does not move can also hang up directly, greatly meet the needs of different types of players.
It is no exaggeration to say that until 2022, the "Black Desert" mobile game can still compete with the first-class MMO on the market.
Intuitively, mobile games have indeed achieved a sub-era quality picture comparable to that of end games. Whether it is the wet effect of raindrops on the ground when it rains, the reflection of buildings in the sun, and the dust raised when running, etc., they are clearly visible. Coupled with the dazzling skill animation, it really makes many players feel amazing.
What's more, as the camera zooms in and out, not only do different landscapes such as mountains, forests, and deserts in the distance present a realistic light and shadow effect, but also you can see the brick walls, bark, and even fine textures such as character faces and armor nearby. Despite the limitations of mobile device performance, mobile games have to use atomization filters to compensate for some of the external defects. But strictly speaking, the hyper-realistic picture quality of the game is still far beyond the same type of product today, four years later.
Also thanks to its own high-quality visual effects, the mobile game almost perfectly inherits the face pinching system of "Black Desert", that is, allowing players to freely fine-tune the character's rich facial details such as the corners of the eyes, nose bones, and makeup.
What is even more surprising is that the player can not only DIY facial details such as eyes, nose, buttons, eyebrows, lips, etc., but even refine it to sub-options such as a single eye, and can also make meticulous adjustments to the shape and color of the pupils, eyeshadow, eye shape, etc. It can be called "hair-level pinch face", and it is still the best in the same type of game, which greatly meets the needs of players who pay attention to the appearance of the character.
Hardcore and casual, to suit the preferences of different players
In addition to the graphics, the "Black Desert" mobile game is also eye-catching and enhances the sense of combat in the game.
In general cognition, the player's impression of Korean-style MMO mostly stays in: standing on the pile to pick up monsters, poor sense of blow, resulting in the final reduction to a simple numerical confrontation. But obviously, the "Black Desert" mobile game is one of the few "alternatives", and the excellent feel of inheriting the end game has become another major impression it brings to players.
But before that, the game still has to face a big challenge - since each class in Black Desert has two branches and 30 skills to choose from, the skill level will be different, and often one hundred and eighteen thousand different combos can be connected. Therefore, after inheriting the complex and diverse professional skills of the terminal game, how should the mobile game adapt to the operation habits of the mobile game players? There is no doubt a whole new challenge to the setup of the virtual button layout.
Finally, in order to solve the pain points of the mobile terminal operation threshold, the mobile game adopts a four-button roulette wheel design that can be rotated, which is convenient for players to quickly switch skill groups and smoothly play the entire output cycle. The ingenuity of this design is to change the embarrassment of the ARPG mobile game screen full of virtual buttons in the past, and to a certain extent, reduce the threshold for early learning. And while ensuring the fault tolerance rate, it can also strengthen the smooth sense of blow brought by the combo.
At the same time, the mobile game boldly cancels the traditional Korean MMO 2.5D top-down view locking, and designs pre-locking and attack direction tracking for mobile terminals. Coupled with the hit feedback of the character's skills, such as the "stuck meat" of the monster in the sword, the hit feedback of the monster after being hit, etc., with the screen vibration and sound effects, it significantly improves the feel of the game and caters to the preferences of many core action players.
Of course, hardcore combat gameplay isn't all there is to the game. For many casual players, the "Black Desert" mobile game is also not lacking in idyllic and idyllic free experience.
In the terminal game, the simulated management gameplay is strongly related to the game economic system, so it occupies a considerable proportion, and the gameplay framework is also reproduced into the mobile game. In other words, players can experience a variety of home play in the territory system, enjoy different experiences such as logging, mining, fishing, gathering, etc., or freely explore this Western fantasy world...
In other words, the "Black Desert" mobile game is to provide a rich and diverse gameplay, to the greatest extent to cater to the preferences of most players, in order to gain countless fans around the world, but also directly broke the ceiling of the domestic Western Fantasy MMO, really let pan users re-notice this classic category.
Also for the same reason, for domestic players, the "Black Desert" mobile game national costume has added a new class with oriental characteristics - the "walker" using sticks and gourd bottles.
Not only that, with the official launch of the game, the official launch of the Black Sand Public Beta Carnival with nine major activities, and provide players with generous benefits such as peripherals, JD cards, PS4, tablets and so on. Among them, there is no shortage of black sand creation incentive plans for the 10,000 yuan award, as well as a large number of welfare "pinch face" sharing activities, prompting more and more players to spontaneously participate in the second creation and further create an active game atmosphere.
On the day of the public beta, the game also invited two popular anchors PDD and Dasima to jointly participate in the "Adventure Fantasy Night" live broadcast activity, and sent a large number of game benefits to the audience online, attracting many players to participate.
Offline, Tencent Interactive Entertainment cooperated with the Macao Government Tourism Office, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Economic and Trade Promotion Association, combined with the aesthetic elements in the game, and used virtual reality technology to create a wonderful "Black Sand Adventure Aesthetic Show" at famous local landmarks such as macau Tower and Macau Ruins of St. Paul's, further increasing the exposure of the game.
Whether it is from the national service starting profession, the black sand adventure aesthetic show, or a series of welfare activities on the first day and after, it is not difficult to see the sincerity of the localized operation of the mobile game, but also let the player have more confidence in the long-term operation after that.
epilogue
In the past year, Amazon's "New World" and "Lost Ark" have become popular around the world, making many domestic players realize the huge potential of Western Fantasy MMO. However, compared with the booming overseas tracks, the domestic game market, especially the mainstream mobile game field, has still not been able to emerge new products that satisfy players.
This is not difficult to understand, at present, the younger generation of players are gradually moving closer to the emerging track, the serious internal volume of the category has led to a sharp decline in new works, and the cold domestic MMORPG has become an indisputable fact, not to mention the Western Fantasy MMO that has been silent for nearly a decade. In this case, the market urgently needs a powerful new work to ignite the enthusiasm of players.
It is conceivable that with the launch of the "Black Desert" mobile game, the ceiling of the domestic Western MMO will rise significantly, and it is bound to further activate the entire Western MMO track in the future. Whether it is for the old players in the end game era or young users who like new things, there is no doubt that they are more looking forward to what kind of surprises the game and even the entire category will bring in the future.
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GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material