Recently, the contradiction between the second game industry and players has risen to another level, and it seems that every second game can't escape the fate of being scolded, and the content I am writing now is estimated to be scolded. But in such an environment, with the last bit of love for the second tour, the author's intention in writing this content is to hope to jump out of the quagmire and think about "how we will deal with ourselves in the future" (the views and understandings in the article vary from person to person, and rational discussion is welcome).
01
At the beginning of this month, the riot of ML players caused by the linkage of "Azure File (BA)" was the fuse for the escalation of this conflict.
To put it simply, BA planned a linkage with "Sparrow Soul" on April Fool's Day, but because "Sparrow Soul" has the function of "concluding a contract", which is generally positioned as "getting married and changing new skins" by second-game players, BA, a staunch ML (Master Love, now refers to all female protagonists like male protagonists/players) game, has a crack of being cuckolded by the mahjong player next door.
Stimulated by the words of the owner of the Sparrow Soul Bar, waves of rhythm developed into a scolding battle (for details, recommend the review of the "Second Tour Bloody Case" of the You Research Club), in a short period of time, the number of dynamic comments on BA's official B station exceeded 100,000 (now 225,000), which is quite the popularity scale of the "Genshin Impact" Zhongli Ancient Battlefield and "Tomorrow's Ark" Shui Chen - strictly speaking, BA's audience is not wide, but it was rushed to the forefront in this way.
In fact, there are quite a lot of similar incidents in the second game circle.,For example, the linkage between "NIKKE" and "Life in a Different World from Zero (Re0)" was complained about before.,NIKKE's ML attribute is stronger.,A lot of Nikki also went to home plate with the male owner.,But Re0's linkage is not only of poor quality.,In terms of content, the male owner of Re0 also got involved.,The plot is constantly noisy.。 This is very confusing, I live happily with Niki, why did you come here to steal the show?
The linkage between a certain game and "Idol Master" is even more supportive, an idol originator IP that needs to pay more attention to self-cleanliness, and the protagonist of other people's families is engaged in "unity" (a substitute word made in order to avoid the setting of marriage), and the producers cry and faint in the toilet. For players who truly respect idol masters, this seems to be an aggressive circle violation, rather than a linkage under the banner of chasing stars with public funds.
Don't dwell on these historical issues, look at the events of BA alone, and objectively talk about things without making such a fuss. After all, it's just a character linkage, and BA's wedding skin in Sparrow Soul is not Live2D where he doesn't wear anything or pajamas can be drawn, but in the current environment, this is the last straw that crushes the camel.
BA is too special, when all domestic secondary games are engaged in full sexuality, trendy and wasteland themes, and even overseas are vigorously rubbing the edge and rolling money, only BA uses retro techniques to delicately outline the pure taste of the Japanese ML world. The characters in the game, especially the teachers (players) and students, are treasures that are connected by the life and death of the two worlds, and are worth protecting with the teacher's life.
Some players described: When you regard people as treasures, when you use a provocative tone to "conclude a contract" with a finch that appears out of nowhere, it seems that the previous effort is not worth it, and everything is belittled so cheaply by simple linkage
In today's circle full of greed, money, backstabbing and abuse, the circle of BA and BA is like the last pure land, however, this pure land has also been bulldozed by this linkage and scolding war, and it is no longer the past.
02
This scolding war around ML players is just a microcosm of the domestic secondary game circle.
The concept of ML has evolved from derivative memes, to conflicts in small circles of enthusiasts, to sexism and collective siding, to the almost uncontrollable circle scolding wars, all events are not isolated and short-term brewing.
In the author's opinion, the popularity of ship C in China laid the basic cognition that "all ship girls (female characters) like captains (players)" for the main force of the second game at that time, and the older generation of the current second game, and then the idol master's Plove concept (referring to idols who like producers, not limited to all idols) was introduced by FGO players, and ML (Master) was formed in the context of FGO Love,Like the female heroic spirit of the master,Not limited to all female characters,FGO compatible with ML and CP),And then under the iteration of a variety of products and the use of players,It is now this highly exclusive and mandatory ML (all female protagonists must like male protagonists) concept,That is, it returns to the game environment and corresponding context of the original ship C。
The most ironic thing is that the biggest catalyst for this iterative process is the failure or backstab of the domestic second tour, as well as the success and comparison of the overseas second tour.
The original ship Clike game basically replicated the setting of absolute ML, allowing players to become and get used to becoming the harem king of the stars and moons again and again. However, countless failed products led to the closure of this road, and then more manufacturers chose to expand their audience to include non-ML players, mass players, and even female players.
The rise of the second game began with the old ACG users (the vast majority of old ACG users actually do not reject Japanese ML, and even welcome Japanese ML), but the business value created by this group of users is obviously not as much as the pan-ACG market, so it is gradually marginalized.
But marginalization is not the same as abandonment, to continue the orthodoxy of the bloodline of the second game, for a long time, the content that the old two-dimensional users like is still the benchmark and banner of the new generation of the second country. So whether it's a well-known voice actor, a famous painter, or even a famous screenwriter, as well as the design of those famous stalks, they still have to be used, but in the name of the core to the second game, they are just doing the business of pan-second game, so this formed the second wave of tactical backstabbing.
In the process of being backstabbed again and again, the core players are also constantly fighting back, and the counterattack has also affected the pan-users, cultivating a set of unique domestic death gaze packages: your male protagonist is a ball, your captain is splitting, your wife is playing a rabbit girl abroad, your plot has Raymond, your ...... Anyway, a thousand words are combined into one sentence, and you are looking for scolding.
At the same time, the cases of failed second tours that have been washed away again and again have in turn made more decision-makers more determined to abandon the second nuclear power plant and choose to copy the success of their predecessors, so the two continue to go against each other.
In this public opinion environment, many of the criteria for judging "excellent works" have become irrational, the content and plot should be comparable to the level of Japan and South Korea, the 3D modeling should be super meters, the card pool payment should not learn meters, and the gameplay experience should be greatly innovative...... The more manufacturers can't do it, the more ruthless the players will scold, the expectations are high before the launch, and the ratings are low after the launch - the two are more polarized to the two extremes.
03
Players and second players who are drifting away, their cognition has also become misaligned in the extreme environment.
As a result, not only ML players, but also the joys and sorrows of second-hand players are not in touch with today's game practitioners. Last weekend, a player-practitioner conversation perfectly illustrated this dislocation, and the specific details can be searched on NGA for "ask players to prove their worth", here are a few representative player questions.
For example, "Practitioners, have you ever wondered what a two-dimensional game is, and what is a two-dimensional game?" As a player, I have a clear answer to the question of whether the service industry or the cultural entrepreneurship is a player, I don't know if you understand it yourself?"
Objectively speaking, the second game has been developed for so many years, countless manufacturers have done too much research, and even from the feedback of some of the version number review of the second game, even some auditors have become two-dimensional experts (can clearly point out that you can't play this stalk in this world view, and can better distinguish whether the intention behind you is rubbing the edge or ironically stepping on the red line), so that a pig can be enlightened in the second game industry for ten years (exaggeration), how can senior second game practitioners not understand.
Take the definition of ACG as an example, 6 or 7 years ago, the author learned about a relatively advanced definition of the industry: "what the user thinks is ACG, then it is ACG". Because ACG is more like a huge and complex cultural circle, where different people are exposed to different works, the understanding and preference of ACG will change, so whether in a broad or narrow sense, the current user's preferences determine the definition and form of the current ACG.
However, the fact is that the necessity of confidentiality of industry information and the divergence of players in the social environment have led to the fact that second-game users have always maintained a large enough cognitive dislocation with second-game manufacturers.
Therefore, players are more and more inclined to think: practitioners don't understand the second dimension at all, don't like the second dimension, and even don't respect the second dimension, and will only put on a face of all evil capital that I understand you, but in fact, I am here to squeeze profits. Manufacturers and practitioners also know because of the research that the players who speak and the players who pay cannot be generalized, not to mention that the importance of the actual payment to the product cannot be measured on a scale, so we must choose to serve the paying people.
Over time, it becomes that one side only wants to get rid of the relationship and do its own business, while the other side only wants to blow up the other party's dung pit.
04
So today, doing a second tour is almost destined to be scolded, anyway, the environment is here, you can't do it well. This is no longer a simple collapse of trust, but a mortal feud.
In this way, you can not be scolded, that is the pride of the sky, the darling of the times, as for the other two games can only walk on thin ice, but if you open the mouth of being scolded, you will face a whole circle of anger and spit, this kind of anger and spit can easily destroy a second tour with insufficient foundation. But scolding and scolding, life must pass, and business must be done.
After entering the big dye vat of the second tour, although it is inevitable to be in a commotion, I still have to find a way to get rid of the saumy. As for how to get there, let's start with the small ones, such as the IP linkage as the fuse.
From a business point of view, IP linkage is nothing more than the basic operation of two IP swapping user groups to grow and harvest each other. But the premise of this operation is that players on both sides buy it, and in the era of rampant pan-IP, when the public users do not refuse, they can be linked as they want.
But between the two main ML games, not to mention linkage, crossing the line is taboo, after all, men on men, it's not a death battle between you and me, that's the link of "macho man?". The more attention is paid to the game of cultivating the emotions of the characters,The more you have to avoid linkage with some big dye vats、Big brick kiln,Even if it is linked with a linkage like Re0 that is not refused,,You must also grasp the original narrative perspective of the game,At least the initiative has to be handed over to your own male protagonist (player)。
To put it a little bigger, if you want the second game player not to scold you, the key is to recognize yourself and make trade-offs. How prolific the land is, how bold the people are, don't believe us to look at the classic counterexamples: some of the second game copywriting can't be read, but they have to do the business of famous books; some of the second game was originally male-oriented, and they are doing it and becoming female-oriented; some of the second game does not have 100 million US dollars in their hands, but they are just playing the Genshin Impact card pool and doing Genshin Impact's big dream; some of the second game takes the niche setting niche gameplay, and always wants to break through the circle and break the dimensional wall, thinking about the pockets of pan-two users and even mass players. Who do you say players should scold?
The second game is scolded to become the norm, and the contradiction between players and games has escalated, which is just a manifestation of the madness of this circle, after the market is divided by giants, the cake is so big, it is impossible for everyone to eat and become fat.
Whether to continue to eat in the bowl and watch the pot, and be scolded to death by the player after the big package, or to make a trade-off and serve a good group of people, and go down for a long time, this choice is not counted by the author. At least in the overseas market, there are not many teams that survive in the latter way, and the domestic user base alone is much larger than them.