"It's over! Behind the success of "I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Girls", is the finished game environment?

Text/Qiuqiu

"It's over! After I was surrounded by beautiful women" (hereinafter referred to as "Finished") exploded, many practitioners were dumbfounded.

Including Grape King, too many people have launched rounds of heated discussions around the game in the past few days. From the packaging of games to stimulate the senses, to the live broadcast with great program effect; From the counterattack of the real love category, to the universality of the royal road and cool literature... Everyone tried their best to find a reason for the game to top the Steam national best-selling list and detonate the industry.

It has been evaluated by 10,000 people, and 94% of it is positive

Following these lines of thought, there are also colleagues who solemnly analyze whether the sexually turned "End" can tear apart the corner of the female direction. But thinking of the scene of being embarrassed by a certain celebrity's love game a few years ago, everyone was silent...

It can be seen that this grape gentleman really wants to solve this problem...

Even the format after the success of "Finished" is so similar to "Sheep a Sheep" in the same period last year: everyone beats their chests and can't figure out why the industry can always run out of dark horses that violate common sense? Why isn't this dark horse himself?

Many explanations are given for the content of "Finished": some think that emotional needs are at work, some feel that it is the big victory of ML theme and real love, some think that it is a miracle of marketing and packaging manufacturing, and some judge that it takes care of the missing emotions of the male group.

I think the triggers for each stage of the game's explosion are different, and the value of "Finished" lies in the combination of progressive requirements - so what is the real success of this game? Can this dumbfounded dark horse be replicated? In this regard, I will discuss the above issues in stages starting from user contact, cognition, play, feedback and other experience scenarios.

01

The first one: group carnival under the mentality of curiosity

Why did everyone come into contact with "Finished" in the first place?

I think there are probably the following situations:

Xiao A is a medium-to-heavy Steam user, and after "Finished" was launched, he appeared in his "Guess You Like", he looked at the yellow and white font on the game's homepage, and the introduction of the game full of hormonal flavor, and placed an order without much thought;

Xiao B likes to socialize and love live broadcasts, and he sees that many anchors are experiencing "Finished" passionately recently, and he can also encounter its slice tidbits by brushing a short video, and even the people around him have entered the pit one after another, which makes him can't help but want to get started.

Little C is also a Steam user, and after the release of "Finished", he suddenly appeared at the top of the best-selling list, crushing other blockbusters, he was curious about what was good about this game, and as a result, he also fell;

Although it is difficult to summarize the initial spread of "Finished", the above three cases believe that they have represented the main paths for many people to get into the game: the packaging and promotion of the product itself, the viral spread of relying on social media, and the secondary spread under cognitive contrast (why it can succeed).

And behind these three paths, there is a more core driving force: curiosity. There is nothing pejorative about curiosity here, it simply refers to the user's curiosity about new things.

Under the logic of curiosity, the early situation of the inexplicable explosion of "The End" has become traceable:

First, the first impression content of "Finished" is curious enough. This includes hints of the logo of the website starting with the P word in the game video, the highlight performances of various real beauties, the impactful dynamic pictures, the rather provocative game introduction, etc., which can bring strong sensory stimulation, retain users and even attract payers, and directly complete the conversion of the first communication path.

The second is that the game has content that further satisfies the curiosity mentality. If the edge packaging in the first point is considered "visual fraud", then the consistent plot, character design and performance in the game have become the real "impact". After all, this not only confirms the authenticity of the content of the first communication path, but also provides a content basis for the second communication path - game content with memes and materials can better trigger discussions, social communication and secondary creation outside the game.

These contents mainly include the cool plot of the down-and-out male protagonist unconditionally surrounded by beautiful women;

When you are so poor that you can't pay the rent, you can still get the support of all the girls present

The unruly princess, the intimate sister, the schoolgirl next door, the midnight elf and other eye-catching labeled characters;

Holding hands, sticking to the face, and coquettishness at every turn to satisfy the user's emotions, a very tense first-person performance, and so on.

The third and most important point is the cycle of transmission chain under the curiosity mentality. To put it simply, in addition to the cognitive cycle of "wanting to know why their grades are good, leading to better grades", the second case is actually a content dissemination cycle of "constantly digging deeper to break the news and attracting more experiences".

The most representative of this situation is the explosion of the image and character of the game "Hao Hao Ma". Under the user's curiosity mentality, the value of this special character has been released layer by layer, and it has gradually become more and more liked.

In the game comment area, many players said that "Hao Hao Ma (this hero) doesn't cut how to play" and "She has attracted at least half of the users".

This continuous cycle of communication has also caused the actor to gain hundreds of thousands of fans in a few days, and even he himself has to publicly explain the game setting, I hope you will not bring in and affect reality.

In addition, the live broadcast, which is the main communication form of "Finished", can also be regarded as a cycle driven by curiosity: the content with material drives the live broadcast, and the feedback from the anchor or barrage brings new material, driving the dissemination of the second creative content.

The related videos with the highest number of views on station B are basically live screen recordings of anchors

In the same end, "Finished" was able to win a good popularity in the first wave, which in my opinion is a group carnival under the mentality of curiosity. This communication path is not complicated, it is a bit like an enhanced version of the differentiation strategy, utilitarian but effective - we have also learned about the communication chain of cognition and socialization in the period of "Sheep is a Sheep".

02

The second level: the "rough" love experience

Many people may not have noticed that after satisfying the curiosity hunting, they have inadvertently gone up and moved their true feelings.

For example, in the comment area of "Finished", more and more comments expressing love for the game characters were pushed up;

Those long-form comments have also evolved from a rational analysis of the pros and cons of the game to a spiritual exchange with emotion;

On a wider range of social platforms, "Finished" players also mostly have a sense of belonging, communicating which character is more popular and has more appetite for themselves - they not only communicate the game setting and plot, but also mix subjective emotions, realistic situations and spiritual sustenance;

There are even players who are too deep in the play, and they have prepared "crazy literature" and "clown literature" for the game early:

And in my opinion, the love and discussion of "Finished" reflects the fact that the game is gradually turning people who pay for curiosity into people who "recognize the content of the game and find it worthwhile to pay for it". So, how does "Finished" provide users with emotional value and gain their trust?

The answer may be simple: the content of the game is a little more expressive.

After in-depth experience of the game, we can find that its plot routines, character settings and motivations, performance literacy and other important parts that affect the perception and perception all highlight the first essence of user-centricity, and even some "cool for the sake of coolness", which is quite sci-fi.

For example, the male protagonist is a down-and-out character who owes a lot of debt, but there is Li Yunsi, a soul mate who has been silently supporting his hobbies, Shen Comet, the eldest lady who always likes you under the arrogance, and Xiao Lu, an innocent school girl who doesn't think you are poor and is willing to fight with you... can make six beauties with good conditions and different personalities unconditionally upside down, isn't this science fiction?

In addition to the story and characters, the game's performances are also full of stamina, whether it is the cinematography skills, costumes or the professionalism of the actors, it has won praise from many players.

The actor's natural crying scene

For example, "Finished" is good at using conflict to highlight the highlights of the characters. Just like Lin Yueqing, who quarreled with her ex-husband and grabbed the male protagonist as her boyfriend when she first appeared on the stage, I believe that many players were deeply impressed by this interesting conflict link, so they fell in love with "Hao Hao Ma" at first sight.

Another example is "Finished", which is also good at using "golden lines" to strengthen the image of the characters and restrain the characters' feelings for the male protagonist. Take the character Xiao Lu as an example, a period of self-soothing slip when she first appeared quickly shaped her playful and lovely character;

The sentence "I always like two people to cook and eat together" has become a golden sentence that makes some Xiao Lu party carnival.

In fact, from the perspective of "Finished", it is not uncommon to design a love story routine around the protagonist and enhance the player's coolness.

For example, in GalGame, except for specific subdivided themes, most of the works are designed around the protagonist, with the aim of allowing users to have mutual love and emotional resonance with the female characters.

But it's a pity that the GalGame track is niche, and the content description is delicate, and the volume far exceeds that of live-action film and television works like "Finished", and it is not easy for ordinary users to experience pure love quickly and without thresholds.

Another example is the love shuangwen that is closer to the story template of "Finished", and most of them are the opposite sex around the protagonist (user), and jointly stage a series of magical plots such as the landlord and tenant, the president, the rich woman, and the princess.

The above two types of works have proved that this strategy of pleasing users to the greatest extent has traces to follow before "Finished", and the market space is not small - seemingly magical and embarrassing routines are actually easier to arouse players' emotions and meet players' psychological expectations.

In other words, the reason why "Finished" can guide users to experience deeply and become users' emotional sustenance is because its content is straightforward and effective enough, and can provide users with the strongest emotional feedback on love - in other words, "Finished" uses the most brutal means to "force" users to truly spread purely for emotions and love.

On the other hand, the second game, which should pay more attention to emotional experience and even pay for love, has gradually deviated from the logic of "content is the first priority" as we have analyzed-to take the simplest example, at present, the second game, is the character content the first or the character card pool first?

Of course, this deviation is not deliberate by the product, but more like a two-way choice between manufacturers and players:

For manufacturers, while operating products, they also have to bear a series of complex indicators such as gameplay, values, mechanisms, income, probability, retention, etc., they may be willing to focus on content polishing, but it is difficult to focus on providing users with a complete love experience for hours like "Finished".

For players, the social relationships, long-term goals, and value needs inside and outside the second game will continue to prompt them to pay more attention to the obvious refreshing improvement, including sensory stimulation, numerical improvement, power upgrade and benefit distribution - this is why the second game players gradually pay more attention to the value of the role and the cost performance of the gacha.

In general, the consideration of complex factors by manufacturers and players will make both sides pay more attention to the comprehensive quality of game content, art, gameplay, etc. As for the content that can really provide emotional supply, it is gradually marginalized, and even becomes useless, and there must be failures.

In addition, it is difficult to implement the second game to pay for love, and the sensitivity of users has become higher, and it is not difficult to understand the situation that there will be a crisis of trust - the simple and direct emotional experience represented by "finished" has become a scarce commodity in the current market.

03 The third level: the emotional gap that can never be satisfied

In fact, it's not just the second game that is stepping on the pit, many games, especially commercial products, are also deviating from the emotional essence of players.

For example, their schedule-based reward mechanism will make players stick to the line for more complex goals and fill the game time according to a fixed process; Paid content with strong feedback and low value retention is also constantly reducing the satisfaction cycle brought by players' payment behavior.

Over time, players gradually feel like going to jail online, and the more they play, the more pressure they feel.

Therefore, the greater value of "Finished" lies in its role as a window for the explosion of players' emotions, reflecting the general experiential pressure of current games - the more unhappy other games are, the more precious the emotional value of "Finished" is, and the more successful the product is.

One of the most typical examples is that in today's gaming environment, it is becoming more and more difficult for users to find games that meet their needs and satisfy their emotional sustenance.

As mentioned earlier, GalGame, which can best provide this value, is too niche and requires players to fully experience and understand it in order to get emotional resonance from it;

A real-life love game of the same type as "Finished" has been combined with commercial games for more than a few years, and many players have complained that it is more realistic than reality;

The real love game "The Goddess Arrives"

Even the second game, which emphasizes paying for love the most, is also out of shape: their worldview and values are becoming more and more complex, as if the game characters have been "ended". The simplest emotional appeal of users is difficult to satisfy even a daily concern.

In "Finished", players can get the complete love experience content at a much lower cost than other games. Even if the game has almost no experience threshold and negative feedback, even if it is a Shura field-style choice problem, we can achieve "all wants" through unconditional rollback.

"Finished" has a very simple gameplay design

Therefore, even though everyone knows that "Finished" still has a lot of basic experience problems. For example, the gameplay is insufficient, the experience duration and freedom are slightly inferior, and some plot logic can't stand up to careful consideration... But this seems to be a pittance compared to the emotional value of love that the game provides.

From a higher perspective, in fact, users who are crazy about "Finished" are also under complex practical pressures such as work, life, social, and emotional:

In the comment section, they will compare the price of the game to a movie ticket;

Liken a role to an object of recognition;

Liken this magical story to an escaping reality and emptying your mind.

In other words, the underlying logic of the explosion of "Finished" is that it is the same as entertainment content such as short videos and online articles, which is lightweight and down-to-earth enough, and can be used as an entertainment supplement to users' lives, and quickly undertake the emotional gaps that users have hit walls one after another in reality and other games, have nowhere to release, and cannot be satisfied.

It's so heart-wrenching...

04 Can it be copied?

So back to the question at the beginning: can the success of "Ended" be replicated?

First of all, in terms of theory and product form, the reproduction cost of "Finished" is extremely low, and it is even possible that works with better quality and easier to bring emotional value to users may appear.

There are two reasons for this:

On the one hand, this simple and crude way to meet the needs of love has been proven, and there is still room for demand. For example, "Singularity Era", which aims at the love needs of men, not only won 30 million in the first month, but its long-term performance is also better than that of many new second-game products.

On the other hand, the cost of real love products is not high. In the case of Invisible Guardians, the R&D cost of 16 million is much lower than the hundreds of millions of dollars for conventional products today - and it requires little to no complex gameplay design experience.

But the problem is that the success of "Finished" is a miracle under the aforementioned triple value combination, which is full of too many uncertainties: in case the player's aesthetic changes, the user's appeal shifts, and the content cannot cause dissemination... In other words, there is no mature and fixed path to follow for the success of "Finished", and blind investment costs are likely to overturn.

This also leads to another problem that cannot replicate the success of "Finished": the vast majority of manufacturers are likely to be unwilling to abandon the mature long-term operation and commercialization template, and make pure content at high risk and rely on waves to stimulate players' emotions to achieve commercial success.

From this point of view, in fact, whether it is a mature commercial work or a work like "Finished" that provides pure love emotions, there is a rationality for its existence, and the value it brings is not superior - the success of deliberately copying the latter may not outweigh the losses.

After all, in the final analysis, the emotional demands of users are quite diverse, and it is very easy to be pulled and diverted, and they can never be satisfied. And the appearance of "Finished" just gave these demands a small outlet.

If you replace the emotional value of love with the excitement of competition, the simulated sense of achievement, and the social interaction of MMO, and replace the successful product with "Valorant", "All-Star Street Ball Party", "Against the Cold" mobile game... The truth will not change - the demand has always been there, it just depends on how the manufacturers guide and grasp it.