In recent years, it is rare to see a national small game in China.
In particular, the increasing homogenization leads to the lack of vitality of content, and the constraints of policies and costs make it difficult for advertising to monetize operations, so many small game platforms of a certain age are veterans carrying the banner, such as WeChat small games are still "Animal Restaurant", "Jump a Jump", "Happy Landlord", etc. are firmly in the head, manufacturers are more willing to use mature systems to support the high-quality development of small games, but it is inevitable that they will face limitations.
However, recently, there is a WeChat mini-game called "Sheep and Sheep" that reproduces the grand scene of the whole people enjoying themselves. Since the past few days, the keyword #sheep-goat-sheep has frequently appeared on the hot search.
What kind of game is this that makes people so fascinated? Who is "manipulating" its popularity? What are the marketing ideas behind it? Below, the operation Jun will take you to find out.
01
How popular is "Sheep a Sheep"?
Although some people will call positive patients "sheep" during the epidemic, this hot search has nothing to do with the epidemic, but is talking about an elimination game. In terms of gameplay, the game uses various props and hints to remove obstacles and traps in each level.
Players need to click on the cards above, and the selected card will be moved down to the bottom box, where up to 7 cards can be stored, and when 3 identical cards are placed in the same box, they can be eliminated.
A look at the rules of the game, I thought it was very simple, but as a result of playing, I knew that the first closed eye passed, and the second level was not passed, which can be called a "new type of drug", and the game industry is "Pinduoduoduo". Of course, there are also some 0.01% of the chosen children who have cleared the level. Some netizens did not believe in evil, had to try, and the result was also in the game.
There are more people who have not passed, and the discussion trend of netizens has also changed. Everyone's mood is probably to go through the process of disdain - pride - unwillingness - upfront - anger - spitting, which shows that this game makes people love and hate.
Such a high difficulty made netizens stimulate a competitive spirit, and the whole people discussed how to pass the second level, and reached a peak at noon on September 14. Some netizens have intimately sent a "clearance strategy".
Just when most netizens are still immersed in the game, the official side is caught in the plagiarism storm.
Some netizens questioned that the sheep was suspected of copying another matching game, "3 tiles", thinking that they played exactly the same.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Beijing Jianyou Technology Co., Ltd. responded: "Sheep a Sheep" game uses the most basic game play, if the "connected into three" gameplay is even plagiarized, then there are too many such games. And said that the company will not pay attention to this, users naturally have their own judgment.
02
Plagiarize? New bottles of old wine?
But it won the game this time
Rather than plagiarism, the operator believes that the sheep is more like "old wine in a new bottle".
● The games are: Sheep a Sheep, 3 Tiles, 4399
Despite the fire and being criticized, the undeniable fact is that this little game has won in just a few days...
First, the company has made a lot of money through advertising monetization, second, from the perspective of communication, the game has exploded all over the network and made a name for itself, and third, users have also been entertained and played.
▌ The game world is more than many, the ultimate fission
The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday "Sheep a Sheep" was officially launched, and the number of game users reached 1 million in just a few days. This relies not only on the game mechanics, but also on the "social fission" routine of "Pinduoduoduo".
First of all, the second level of the game is too difficult to design, and it basically needs auxiliary props to break through, and only by sharing links to WeChat groups can you get the clearance props, which triggers the "viral" forwarding fission.
▌ Regional and collective sense of honor to create a new atmosphere
Open the Mini Program, the first thing that catches your eye is the regional ranking, which will be ranked according to the progress of the game in various regions of the country; The "topic PK" game is that players can choose to join different teams and add points to their own teams by working hard to pass the level.
Although there is no material reward for this series of motivations, it has a strong stimulation of the player's competitiveness, sense of self-achievement, and sense of regional identity.
Players open the game and may try to clear the level by discovering that the number one ranked area is not their hometown; It is also possible to join a team and play tirelessly in order to beat another team...
Under such psychological action, players are happy to pull partners in the same city to fight for the "Guangzhou flock", "Shandong flock" and "Jiangsu flock". Playing the game alone, pulling a group of people to fight, the user growth rate can not be unfast.
03
Earn 25 million in 14 days
A marketing experiment that tests human nature
"Sheep a Sheep" is a real-time game based on the WeChat Mini Program development, no waiting time, the difficulty of getting started is very low, and it does not need to go to the app store to download, there are no complicated rules, just need to click on WeChat, anytime and anywhere you can play through WeChat.
A direct and simple path is enough to open the door to marketing.
Under the magic music and name, with the help of WeChat's absolute social power, the game has a very strong communication, facing the audience is extremely wide, and even we are difficult to judge who the main group is, there are too many suitable groups. And, when most people have tried countless times and found that they can't pass the level, the sinister side of the game appears.
On the one hand, it will constantly induce users to forward WeChat to get props.
On the other hand, the use of WeChat and user data authorization, specially made a regional ranking, to determine the user ranking by province, belongs to the user to impose a sense of honor, which is no different from patriotic marketing.
At the same time, because of the high difficulty and randomness of the game, only a very small number of people can "chance" to pass, then the game will take the initiative to remind you to show off in WeChat.
You think you've got through with strength and cleverness, and you'll happily share it with your friends as a wave of free water troops. But in reality, all mechanisms are designed for non-fracture and propagation.
All business actions have a purpose, and so do games, either to make users happy, to order value-added services, or to directly make users recharge. But "Sheep and Sheep" is not a game, because it does not even have a version number and no recharge entrance. You think you're playing the game, but it's actually the game playing you, and that's not even a game.
In fact, have you thought carefully about why the name of this game is called "Sheep a Sheep"?
There is a famous theory in psychology called the "herd effect".
There was a man running down the street during the day, and everyone ran along with him, except for the first person, everyone didn't know the reason for running. People have a herd mentality, and the resulting blind obedience phenomenon is the "herd effect".
Although everyone scolded that this game was too boring and too time-consuming, they still couldn't stop playing in their hands, because everyone was playing.
The leader of the game "Sheep a Sheep" is the opinion leader of social media under the control of funds, and the players who join later continue to follow the trend and join the "flock" happily. But few people pay attention to the shepherd's happy laughter.
In addition, mechanisms such as friends sharing to obtain rights and interests are also the usual new routines of e-commerce platforms, which is not surprising. In fact, at this stage of marketing, if you want to harvest more users, you must rub more hot spots to achieve the purpose of further out of the circle. Cxk, Crazy Thursday and other traffic IP lying guns, paragraphs emerge in an endless stream.
According to the information that broke on the Internet, the advertising revenue of "Sheep and Sheep" has reached 25 million, and the development cost is almost negligible, which is really a very scary number, and it is also a particularly good profitable business.
Combined with the game marketing cases of this "Sheep and a Sheep" and major brands, how should brands build "game marketing thinking"?
Choosing the popular play that users are familiar with can greatly reduce the user's resistance. At the same time, through the challenge from easy to difficult, the user's sense of achievement and challenge are coordinated to balance the experience.
Rewards are one of the most important and most concerned elements in the gamification system, and a good game-like system needs to have rewards that are spontaneously generated internally and rewards provided externally, such as status, treatment, rights, honors, and materials.
The game itself is to make boring things easy and interesting, and the gamified operation strategy will also promote the product and content to have more lasting vitality, based on the "stage", "goal" and "category", design different operational gameplay to enhance fun and experience landing.
Participation is more important than winning, games are not just about winning, and the main purpose of gamification is not just to make users "winners". When communicating with people becomes the main source of entertainment, blindly pursuing victory can be disappointing.
No conflict and no communication, cleverly mobilize public emotions, create all kinds of controllable "small conflicts", add topic potential energy to communication, and drive content out of the circle.
epilogue
According to the relevant person in charge, the independent APP of "Sheep a Sheep" is in the review stage of the Apple Store, the specific launch date is not clear, and there will be a large wave of content updates in the next step of game content, including the content around the game will be added one after another.
The body of "Sheep a Sheep" is half a victory of the attention economy, and half is a storm such as plagiarism, which really makes people sigh. This kind of explosive WeChat mini program games have also appeared before, such as "Synthetic Big Watermelon", "Bullet a Bullet", etc., but in the end they were short-lived.
It can be seen that the key to whether such WeChat Mini Program games are profitable for a long time depends on the subsequent operation and real ability.