In my opinion, the current dilemma of content games is not only about production anxiety, but also about the changing interests of users.
If production capacity determines the life and death of a single product, then the entertainment downgrade and interest changes of players in the past two years may affect the development of the entire industry - the current explosion of the mini game track, the recovery of idle numerical games, and even the blowout of sand sculpture animation, short dramas, and cool texts...... It seems to tell us that the value of content games is being taken away by shorter and faster forms of entertainment.
Grape Jun has a lot of friends around him, and whenever a popular content game is launched, he is willing to download and try, but within a few days, he complained in the group that he couldn't play, and finally he could only say, "I probably have electronic impotence" - the flood of short and fast content has made the user's excitement threshold continue to rise, making it boring to look at the quality and differentiated content games.
While seeking solutions, miHoYo's Honkai: Star Dome Railway (hereinafter referred to as Honkai) does not seem to have similar anxieties. Now that it coincides with the first anniversary, the game still maintains a high content popularity, and it has been on nearly 100 Weibo hot searches in the past 4 months this year alone, and the related topic #Honkai Star Dome Railway has reached 25.5 billion views.
There are many reasons for the popularity of this content, products, resources, brands...... There may have been a consensus on this. So at the operational level, how does miHoYo guide users' interests, and what strategies can be reused?
01 If you can't beat it, join in
First of all, in my opinion, even miHoYo can't confront entertainment downgrade head-on and forcibly guide users' interest. While many people will joke that "miHoYo has changed players' habits", it may have only allowed them to keep a minimum level of focus on the game, such as playing daily and drawing new card pools.
At the same time, the operation strategy of Hontie is not reckless in the direction of "forcible guidance". Not only is the game itself a turn-based system with a low threshold, but the official has also reduced the burden on the content volume, dungeon resources, daily tasks, etc., many times, which makes it feel like players want to take fewer electronic classes.
Version 2.1 partially reduces the burden and optimizes the content
This strategy, which doesn't seem to have much operational pressure, also makes Hontie more "self-free" at the content level, with interesting characters, plots, performances, and lines...... It seems to be in line with the user's pursuit of short, flat and fast content.
In the above version 2.1 announcement, the official has to play with the stalks
In other words, Crash Iron has made its game ecology similar to that of cool texts, short dramas, and sand sculpture animations - if you can't beat it, join in and occupy the secondary demand market of users as soon as possible.
Some group members will hang the Broken Iron PV in the background as a song list
Following this line of thought, in my opinion, Honkai Iron has mainly made two attempts:
One is to maintain the quality of content and industrial production capacity while pursuing the topicality and coolness of the content.
Many players may be well aware of this aspect. Since the exposure of Hontie, its space opera world view and drama-style performances have attracted many players to enter the pit. And when we enter the pit, when faced with countless easter eggs and memes, it seems that the game is "more fragrant".
Joke content from the anniversary event "Interstellar Travel".
There are quite a lot of similar easter eggs and whole lives in the game, including the character lines and famous scenes that are out of the circle, the easter eggs of pinching his various ACG works, and countless Internet popular memes...... At station B, there have been many players who have set up a meme encyclopedia specifically for Broken Iron to record the official "crazy" moment.
Outside of the game, these easter eggs and small details will also be sorted out and condensed by players, made into famous quotes, memes, and spread in group chats and social platforms......
The protagonist's "rule ......" line is widely circulated
There are also players urging the official Crash Iron to have fun
The second is to focus on the above topics and co-create with users on social platforms.
After all, whether you read high literature or brainless cool literature, it is difficult to break away from mainstream social platforms. Therefore, instead of worrying about what users like, it is better to lay out on mainstream social platforms as soon as possible and push game-related content in front of users.
Just like after the public beta, Hontie guided users to create and launched the activity "Endless March 7", according to statistics, there were more than 10 million memes produced by users at that time, and related topics also rushed to the hot search on multiple platforms, which can be said to have pulled the cost performance of UGC to the extreme.
In the follow-up operation of the game, there are not a few cases where the game official and players are alive and detonate public opinion. Take Weibo as an example, most of Hontie's blog posts have "topic hooks" such as easter eggs and memes, or welfare rewards to guide players' attention and discussion;
Official blog revitalization: game characters invade the server to give benefits to players
Most official blog posts will have remarks that match the persona's design, as well as lucky draws
At the same time, Bontie also launched multiple rounds of creative incentive plans with different themes on Weibo, trying to make each hot search out of the circle is a different type of content.
Incentives for the creation of microblogs on different themes
Seeing this, we can find that under the official guidance, the creative ecology of Hontie has gradually possessed the characteristics of "cool texts" such as short, flat and fast - according to this trend, even if the interest of Hontie players gradually changes to short dramas and cool texts, then they are most likely to read the cool articles of Hontie IP, and they are still pan-users of the Hontie ecosystem.
The second creation content of Crash Iron is becoming an entertainment meal replacement for more people.
Image source watermark
02 It's not all about throwing resources
So, how does Hontie lay out on different social platforms to guide users to discuss and co-create? Let's take a look at them one by one.
In the exposure and increment stage, the focus of Crash Iron is to find the right users and build a creative ecology that conforms to the tonality of the product.
For example, compared with other secondary games, the positioning of Hontie is more popular, so it also attaches importance to two-dimensional platforms such as Station B and Miyoushe, as well as comprehensive social platforms such as Weibo and Douyin. Among them, the game cognition and creative desire of users of the ACG platform are high, so the content layout of Crash Iron is mainly based on in-depth communication and creative incentives.
At the same time as the first exposure of Crash Iron, the creative incentive was started in Miyou Club
The early content of Hontie on Weibo and Douyin platforms is mainly based on world view, plot, and character display, and there are more of them and more detailed - before building a creative ecology, Avatie needs to let these comprehensive platforms and pan-users know the game, and then cultivate their creative interest;
The number of Weibo content exceeds 1,500, more than other platforms
In the operation and creation stage, Bontie also focuses on the creative guidance and operation strategy of different social platforms.
Hontie attaches more importance to heavy second-generation content at station B, which helps to alleviate users' anxiety in the long grass period and shape the game brand;
For example, in this anniversary, there are creators of Station B who gather two creators to celebrate the game's birthday
On platforms such as Douyin and Weibo, Hontie has made corresponding strategic changes according to the characteristics of the platform.
For example, Weibo has always been a "one-to-many" social model in my original impression, and the influence of manufacturers and brands is far greater than that of ordinary users.
However, in terms of content creation, especially in the case of Broken Iron, ordinary users are the main contributors to the game's UGC content. Not only do they have a large group size and a strong two-dimensional atmosphere (iResearch Consulting report shows that by 2022, the number of Weibo ACGN users will reach 300 million), and some creators will also produce high-intensity output (2-4 per day), publish game routines, complain about plot gameplay, sort out meme jokes, and share COS pictures...... They can bring a good amount of heat to the game with a short picture or even a sentence.
Based on this, the content posted by Crash Iron on Weibo is also quite diverse, including brand cross-border linkage, offline exhibition sharing, version highlights, character birthday materials, and the exchange of some meme content (such as April Fool's Day Super Talk renamed Mi Fuyo)...... The official will create some topics of its own when posting the blog, and by the way, bring the benefits of forwarding the lottery to stimulate the creative motivation of the players of Broken Iron.
Moreover, this kind of daily sharing by users has many types, large scale, strong continuity, and low threshold for guidance and creation (a small activity of the product may cause extensive discussion), in my opinion, it can just fill the window period of heavy second creation, and is suitable for small and medium-sized manufacturers to alleviate production capacity anxiety and maintain user activity.
Finally, there is the transformation phase. miHoYo has two strategies for this: one is the official community Miyou Club, and the other is to set up a private domain on mainstream social platforms.
The former is limited by cost and market, and is unattainable for the vast majority of manufacturers, while the latter mainly has Weibo, WeChat ecology, etc., and Hontie is also more proficient in these ecosystems, and even "secretly" uses the platform's unique mechanism.
For example, Bontie has 3.52 million users and 22.5 billion post views in the Weibo Chaohua community. Different from everyone's impression, Weibo Chaohua is a relatively private space, with independent content and growth system, users can also choose not to synchronize to Weibo's global and personal homepage when posting blogs in Chaohua.
But this private domain is not as difficult to transform as imagined. On the one hand, users who post blogs with related topics may be officially guided to Chaohua;on the other hand, some game activities and benefits can only be received in Chaohua - the cooperation of hot spots and social networking has gradually made Weibo Chaohua one of the mainstream user communities of Bangtie.
Recently, Weibo has also launched a game rating function
After analyzing the whole set of playing styles of Avalanche on social platforms, in my eyes, Avatar has changed from a "local tyrant" who smashes resources to a "human spirit" with thick and fine - the core strategy of the game is to split the cool point of short, flat and fast, and release the corresponding content according to the characteristics of the platform and audience. For example, Douyin's live-action COS cross-dressing video, Weibo's users' daily memes and complaints...... The value brought by these strategies is difficult to catch up with by throwing resources alone.
Crash Iron is still one of the few manufacturers that attaches importance to Weibo live broadcast, and the results achieved are also good
For other content-oriented games, it may be difficult to fully apply the operation strategy of Crash Iron, but as long as you figure out the logic and try to seize the potential opportunities of different platforms within the cost range, you will also have the opportunity to get twice the result with half the effort and relieve anxiety.
03 Conclusion
In general, the aforementioned ecological expansion and social platform operation are mainly to disassemble and emphasize the game content in a short and fast way, attract users to discuss and create, and give them a change of taste.
Winner of the Game Fandom Contest
Click image for full size
Although this strategy of "saving the country with a curve" is still difficult to resist the changes in entertainment, the industry does not need to be too anxious, the unique value of games as a form of content still exists, and it will iterate with the changes in the environment.
Hasn't the current downgrade of entertainment also given rise to a blowout of mini-game tracks, casual idle games, interactive video games and more creative products?
Moreover, this round of changes may also be a new round of outlets for content games: with the expansion of the ecosystem and the operation of social platforms, content-oriented products cannot be separated from the game form, and continue to influence users in the form of IP and topics.
For example, even if users don't play Honkai, they still create cos pictures, check in, and participate in topics on Weibo, brush up on Honte's animations and music at station B, or buy peripherals offline and participate in comic exhibitions...... It is still considered a Crash Iron audience, providing activity and payment for the long-term of the game.
In fact, entertainment downgrading is the general trend faced by the entire entertainment industry, and there are no pros and cons in itself.