In 2017, Papergames opened the door of otome games in China with "Love and Producer". Immediately, more capital went down, the track was broadened, and the game industry opened the myth about "her".
In 2020, considered by many to be the peak moment of national B (perhaps also called the peak of women), the concept of "Big Four B" was born and widely spread among the player community. Women are in the same place on the track. It was also in this year that Papergames' love and IP sequel "Love and Deep Space" was first revealed: 3D modeling and combat gameplay seemed quite subversive at the time - especially when the "mainstream mode" that had been verified by the market was popular, and the operation of a product like "Love and Deep Space" seemed to be some... Not very necessary??
Then time goes on.
It's the tail of 2023, and women have come and gone a lot on this path. Occasionally, a few dark horses briefly broke into the mainstream of view, and then they quickly calmed down. Looking at the best-selling list of the data platform, except for several old head products such as "Love of Light and Night", the ranking of the old head products will jump up when the major version is updated, and the rest of the figures are difficult to find.
It is an unbelievable fact that several years have passed since the rise of women to the development of the track, and the top stream in the hearts of players is still the "Big Four B". Once a sign of prosperity, this concept now seems to have become a curse. Their unassailable status means that it has been too long since there has been a phenomenal female product to appear.
The growing silence of the track is clear at a glance, and even the days of the major countries at the "top of the food chain" are not as moist as in previous years. Under them, there are many products that can be maintained, and more disgraced departures: this year alone, the closed clothes of the closed clothes, the cut of the cut (even the version number can not become the gold medal of the project's death-free).
Not long ago, there was a big news out of the circle in the industry.
Next door, "I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Women!" became an instant hit, men's emotional (love) needs surfaced, and users' eagerness and voices attracted more attention. Ah, it's the wonderful smell of fresh cake.
In contrast, the situation of women on the track seems to be even more bleak.
Has the wind changed? Is the road ahead still workable? Is it worth trying? What should I do?...... Countless question marks followed.
A resilient market and a failing model
If we only deduce the conclusion that "women are in decline in the market" based on the phenomenon of "the decline of leading products and the inability of new works to follow", I am afraid it is not objective.
Taking the sales data of this year's Tmall Double 11 as an example, the proportion of game IPs in the trendy toy list is very large, and the flagship store of the top female products is famous:
Buying millet and participating in exhibitions offline is the entertainment routine of many women to users. The major "National B Only" that blooms everywhere is also an important scene for everyone to communicate with each other and expand their feelings for the game characters. Some people are even willing to spend a lot of money (the amount varies in different regions, ranging from a few hundred yuan to a thousand yuan) to entrust Mr. Coser to pretend to be their paper husband to go on a date and a trip, and some people are willing to spend a lot of money to buy a shopping mall screen to celebrate the birthday of a virtual lover.
It can be seen that female users' loyalty to the character and their willingness and ability to pay for love are still strong, but not all of this money flows to the game itself. If they don't find more novelty and joy in the game, they will actively look elsewhere for compensation.
It's just that the head products that have entered the game first and have already received a big piece of the cake have the ability to do things other than games around the IP, and the experience of some latecomers also tells us that it may not be so effective to use the same style of play again - in the final analysis, at least in the initial stage, it is necessary to return to the quality of the game.
As a result, we have also seen some rookie women successfully break through to the product because of the advantages of differentiation, which has caused a lot of noise within a certain range. For example, this year's Lingxi Interactive Entertainment launched "Code Name Kite" in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, its advantages can be summed up in a word, which is a large number of Live2D pictures and a relatively novel and bold plot, plus a slightly more complex numerical card gameplay.
"Codename Kite" CG
The top-notch art expression of "Indulgence in Silky Smooth" stimulates the senses of players and raises their expectations for almost all female-oriented products. It is conceivable that new products in the future will need to be made more advanced to make breakthroughs, and the cycle repeats, which is often referred to as "volume".
"Volume" to a certain height, the bottleneck period of the entire field comes. Everyone is almost 80-90 points, and they can only keep looking for ways to differentiate.
Where does differentiation come from? A lot of money is invested in art and other hardware, but the marginal diminishing effect is there; digging deep into the ground to find the subject matter, the bridge and the people imagine baldness, but these unquantifiable things seem to need more luck from God, and even creative talents cannot guarantee that they can produce high-quality content stably for a long time.
You might as well put it more ugly, in this field, most of the products are essentially going around in circles in the same dimension: putting on a variety of skins, similar gameplay and stories, and bringing users the same experience.
And there are signs that this mainstream model is failing. Perhaps we can call the form of the previous product the 1.0 model, then the market and the track are calling for the advent of the 2.0 model - a higher-dimensional production, a female-oriented product that can refresh or even subvert the past experience.
Foresight and big gamble: it's "eating crabs" again.
Standing at this point in time, looking back at "Love and Deep Space", which was first exposed in 2020, Papergames seems to have made its own decision about women on the track, and then it was a big gamble.
When the tour was tested, Gyro-kun reported on it. And believes that although its performance was unsatisfactory at that time, the development idea of fine 3D + hard combat gameplay is very worth looking forward to - jumping out of the comfort zone of paperfolding, and also jumping out of the comfort zone of mainstream production, once completed, it is likely to become a real next-generation women-oriented product.
The ticket to the adventure is also quite high: it requires the courage to step into the unknown, a huge amount of capital investment, long-term technical exploration and accumulation, and a deep insight into the female user group.
Fortunately, "Love and Deep Space" does carry Paper's expectations for love and IP, and for the company's future development. Recently, the game announced the start of the second test, and Gyro Jun also took this opportunity to have an in-depth experience. More importantly, from the reactions of the players who participated in the second beta, I gradually realized that the gamble of Papergames is tilting towards the optimistic side.
The most obvious change in the second test is the huge improvement in perception.
This includes iterations at the technical level such as character modeling accuracy, demeanor and movement optimization, and material detail improvement (from eyelash modeling and blood vessel texture, to body and muscle proportions, scene lighting improvements, etc.), as well as plot changes, character adjustments, aesthetic improvements, and other content levels (character outfits and NPC storylines that have been criticized by players have also been changed).
So there was a very interesting phenomenon in the player group, before the content of the second test was exposed, many people were sure that they would not be interested in "3D men", but when "Love and Deep Space" released a promotional video of the 3D interactive card face, the large-scale "real fragrance scene" came.
It can be seen that a large number of female gamers do not dislike 3D men, but do not like 3D men who do not look good. When the quality of 3D has reached the level of satisfying the general aesthetic needs, the acceptance and love of 3D images by the player group seems to be a matter of course.
What's more, the technological leap in Love and Deep Space has taken the immersion and immersion that players are looking for, even a revolutionary step. For example, players can talk to characters through the microphone, and when certain words are triggered, such as "boyfriend" and "dear", they will respond with words and actions.
Source: Bilibili
While this feature may seem experimental at the moment, it's safe to imagine how much the game will improve the player experience as the game continues to expand and refine its vocabulary. Some players also pointed out that with the application of AI technology, this interactive form can have a higher imagination.
At the gameplay level, compared with the "do they need hardcore battles" and "how many female players can accept hardcore gameplay" discussed by outsiders, the development idea of "Love and Deep Space" is, in my opinion:
- How to adapt female players of different types and different levels of acceptance to combat?
- How does the combat experience fit into the overall atmosphere of the game?
For the first problem, the solution of "Love and Deep Space" is to introduce an automatic battle mode (for players who don't like to operate the battle by themselves), and provide weapons with different operation methods (such as a heavy sword can fight in close combat, and a staff can be long-ranged), etc.;
In addition to these breakthrough innovations, in terms of providing a sense of immersion and substitution, we can also see their psychological insights into the habits and hobbies of female user groups from the details of the gameplay of "Love and Deep Space".
In the game, players can take a big head post with their favorite male protagonist, and the male protagonist will also post a group photo to the circle of friends and receive likes from others:
You can also play with the male protagonist to catch the crane machine, and the level of different male protagonists catching dolls is also very personalized:
The loot you caught can also be displayed as a collection, and there are various small peripherals that female gamers like on the table:
As mentioned earlier, catching dolls and collecting game peripherals are entertainment activities that many female gamers like in reality, and "Love and Deep Space" has incorporated these ritualistic details of life into the game.
Judging from the content and quality of this second test, the reactions of players participating in the test, and the dissemination effectiveness of related topics, it is natural that Gyrojun has higher expectations and confidence in "Love and Deep Space" than before - to put it mildly, it made me see the prototype of the 2.0 model of female-oriented products, and also made me feel that there are always a group of people in the industry who are caring for the demands of female users and actively promoting the reform of this track.
When the change is underway, women are wading into the "deep waters" of the track
Gyrojun believes that emotional needs run through life and are a big proposition. Young people have their own cyber husbands and wives, and the elderly also have their own talents and smiles. Unless the attributes of human beings suddenly change one day in the future, the track rooted in this demand will never be abandoned by the times.
Therefore, whether it is for men or women, products that meet the emotional (love) demands of users are worthy of more energy research and exploration. It's just that compared with the spring breeze in the male-oriented field next door, the female-oriented development is obviously more mature and has passed the dividend period earlier.
Women are wading into deep water on the track, and if they want to get a piece of the pie, they need to be taken more seriously.