Opening: One day I was brushing monsters in the game and a good friend ran up to me and called me "Fishing?" As a mature, thoughtful and not too young man, who can resist the temptation to fish? So I quickly put away my weapon, not even wanting to take a second look at the boss who still had half a blood left, and came to the island of Bayerfin with my good friend and leisurely threw up our fishing rods.
We were fishing, chatting and reminiscing about the copies we had teamed up for over the years, and before we knew it, more than an hour had passed, and strange fish had been harvested in our backpacks.
(Photo: Yes, this is a fish)
As you must have seen, we didn't really go fishing in the real world, but played the casual gameplay "fishing" that Diablo Immortal only launched on February 22.
You may be curious, what is so unusual about an ordinary fishing side game? You didn't know that this is a big deal for dark mobile gamers.
You may think fishing is nothing, but it's not the same for dark mobile gamers
For dark mobile games, every gamer is a hard-working and conscientious "model worker", who only does two things online every day, either in upgrading and challenging, or on the way to study how to upgrade and challenge. Open Douyin, the videos of other games are talking about gossip and jokes, and the bloggers of dark mobile games are working hard to shoot strategies and do reviews, Douyin search input "dark immortal", all related searches for various professions, such a group of players is not a group of diligent and tireless model workers, what is it?
(Picture: Douyin is full of dark mobile game career-related content)
In the face of such a group of model players, the biggest headache every day may be the various bosses in the dark mobile game, although the difficulty of the game has opened to Hell level 8, but the bosses are being abused every day to doubt life. Faced with such a situation, the official finally intervened and prepared to save the miserable game lives of the bosses.
On February 22, the game launched the first sub-gameplay "fishing", in fact, before that, the news that the dark mobile game was going to launch a sub-gameplay had been heard, and players were also speculating what type of mini-game it would be, but no one expected that this time the official took everyone to open the health mode. So that players who are struggling at any time can go fishing under the banyan tree by the pond to enjoy the idyllic life.
(Photo: Plenty of fish waiting to be explored)
Casual & Social Players need to slow down heavy MMOs
Do "model worker" players buy into this gameplay?
The answer is obvious, after the fishing gameplay went live, several fishing spots temporarily launched in the game have become overcrowded.
( Video source: Douyin user @Fa Xingtian )
Why is this group of players, who usually only seem to love to brush levels and fight bosses, suddenly interested in fishing at a slow pace? That's what we're going to talk about today.
I don't know what the reason for the loss of people from a game is, in short, one of the big reasons for my loss is "too tired".
Every day after work, online games, there are endless daily tasks, endless little red dots, endless copies, closed the game in the dead of night lying in bed, the game is played for one night, but there is an illusion of working overtime until late at night.
(Photo: A good project for leisure and relaxation in the dark mobile game)
I believe that everyone has the same feeling when playing games, and I don't know when the gameplay built-in to the game has become more and more, and even many have time limits, rushing to do tasks, the pace of the game is getting faster and faster, but I don't know that this has become an important reason for players to leave the game.
However, if the pace really slows down, what can it bring to the product?
Combining work and rest effectively increases the duration of the game
What slow pace can bring to the game is an interesting topic.
Let's take a simple example, when I used to play the FIFA series of football games on console, I only played 1-2 hours a day, because the pace of the game was so fast, after more than an hour, it had entered the fatigue stage and needed to go offline. From an operational point of view, it's a very scary thing for a player to go offline because you don't know when he'll go live next time, or even if he will go live in the future.
After the official discovered this problem, I implanted an "SBC" mission system in the game, which simply means to get rewards by replacing cards, and after this gameplay went online, my daily game time became 3-4 hours. The reason is simple, when I enter the exhaustion period, I will go play the "SBC" mission, easily get some good cards, and come back to continue the game after resting. And the "SBC" mission is updated daily, which is a good place to pass the time for players who are used to liver games.
(Photo: SBC gameplay effectively improves the online time of the FIFA series)
The same is true for the fishing gameplay of dark mobile games. If players are brushing equipment to fight bosses all the time, they will quickly enter the fatigue cycle, and if there is a casual gameplay at this time, it can not only allow the player's brain to rest, but also get the props in the game, which will naturally be widely praised.
Fishing gameplay is not simply fishing, in addition to harvesting a variety of fish, you can also gain experience, gold, equipment, materials, that is to say, usually players need to brush items, now in fishing can also get, why not. After the break, another BOSS looked at the frightened good man.
(Photo: The prize drop is also very ceremonial)
Not only to make players good friends in the game, but also to provide good scenes for friends to chat with each other
On the other hand, what else can players do when fishing? Socializing! This is also a core demand of MMO players. We can meet a lot of people and meet a lot of new people in the game, but there aren't many scenes where you can really calm down and chat with your friends in the game.
I believe that many players who have played "World of Warcraft" remember the scene when they stood on the wall and did not play games just to chat. I will also remember that in "Fantasy Westward Journey", five people teamed up, four people chatted, and frequently thanked the captain for hard work to "drive".
(Photo: Team chat is an important social scene for Dream Westward Journey)
Therefore, for any online game, social networking is one of the very core demands. But MMOs have a different setting for socializing, that is, it's not suitable for chatting when fighting, and combat takes up most of a game's time. Dark Mobile has apparently found a good scene for players to socialize, chatting while fishing.
In the real world, fishing itself is a means of socializing between friends, and now dark mobile games put fishing into the game, and when fishing chats about life, it is a pleasant thing to earn experience and equipment.
When the sub-gameplay wins by quantity, the dark mobile game is in four or two pounds
I don't know when the sub-gameplay began to slowly become popular, and then it got out of hand. Exaggerated game products can have built-in 500-800 sub-gameplay, just like a 1000-in-1 game card in the era of Little Bully.
But can this sub-gameplay of winning by quantity really bring players a better gaming experience?
I think not. Sub-gameplay is currently a good way to introduce traffic for most manufacturers, players will be attracted by creative advertisements of various sub-gameplay, but after coming to the game, the main gameplay is the core of the game, what can the sub-gameplay bring to players, it seems that most manufacturers do not care about this problem. Even in order to attract traffic, many sub-gameplay in games began to embark on the road of brushing off the edges, which is called "elegant and common reward".
Nowadays, the essence of the sub-gameplay seems to have changed a little. But fortunately, there are still many big manufacturers that stick to the bottom line, even if they launch sub-gameplay, they are based on their own game as the essence and take the player as the core to create.
For example, Lilith's overseas release of the SLG game "Warpath" has launched a very interesting sub-gameplay "tank battle". This mini-game not only fits the core content of the World War II theme of "Medal of Fire", but also implants the childhood memories of the post-80s and post-90s "tank battles".
We all know that SLG, although slow-paced, is an extremely time- and energy-intensive genre, and players feel as much tension in the game as any MMO game. So in this context, it is especially important for commanders to relax.
Although the game only has a sub-gameplay, and even a fishing that is commonplace in MMOs, it cuts to the core needs of players.
Players of dark mobile games have always had high requirements for the quality of the game, so if you randomly launch a sub-gameplay that is not related to the main line or world view, it will definitely attract a scolding. Fishing may be mediocre in all games, but as long as it can meet the needs of players, it is the best design, compared to the implantation of hundreds of mini-games at every turn, a gameplay that can really allow players to calm down and enjoy, can play a four-two effect.
Understand that players will gain Don't be blinded by momentary traffic
The origin of the sub-gameplay has long been difficult to trace, it is actually evolved little by little through various mini-games and derivative gameplay in the game. A long time ago, when I played Age of Discovery OL, there was also a fishing system in it, and it is no exaggeration to say that I could fish for a few hours a day in the game, chat with everyone, hang out by the sea, or read books that I always wanted to read but never read.
(Photo: "Age of Discovery OL" fishing system)
Although at that time, this design was not called sub-gameplay, but I think the essence should be the same, that is, in the leisure of the game, to bring players relaxation, happiness and at the same time income. Of course, from an operational point of view, this is called effectively extending the online time of the game.
Whether it's lengthening time or letting players relax, I think these are all designed around the core essence of the game. Until one day, I don't know which god found that implanting some creative mini games in the game, and then using the mini game as the material for advertising, unexpectedly reaped the magical effect of doubling the traffic and halving the cost. Driven by traffic, the development of sub-gameplay slowly went off course.
Today's sub-gameplay, most manufacturers are winning by quantity, frantically implanting various small games, and whether it is related to their own game itself, no one cares. As long as it can attract players into the game, manufacturers have the courage to continuously expand their game library, even if there are already hundreds of mini games, they still cannot meet the determination to obtain traffic.
Perhaps such an approach can obtain short-term benefits in a short period of time, but for a long-term development of the game, a game company that wants to build its own brand image, it must not be blinded by short-term interests. Just like the ceiling of the sub-gameplay in my mind, it will always be the fishing system in "Age of Sail OL", because this is a design that is truly based on the needs of players, and will be truly recognized by players.
At this point, the attitude of the dark mobile game in the current environment of not following the trend and not being impatient with the sub-gameplay is very commendable. To be fair, the launch of fishing gameplay has little to do with "traffic", and dark mobile games will not get more new traffic because of this gameplay. As mentioned above, fishing satisfies the player's social, casual, and slow-paced needs in the game, and we can see that being player-oriented is the starting point of the secondary gameplay of dark mobile games.
Years later, when players talk about the dark mobile game again, its fishing gameplay will also be an indelible memory in the hearts of players, which is the meaning of the classic forever.
I believe that in the near future, other sub-gameplay of dark mobile games will definitely follow, as long as the gameplay does not go off-track, players will support it to the end. I also hope that more game products can return to the essence in the design of sub-gameplay, take players as the center, and do not be blinded by traffic.
Finally, ask the official dark mobile game, will you consider drinking tea and raising flowers in the next sub-gameplay test? It's actually quite good to put together a three-piece set of health.
Author: Zuo Yishan