Text / Mobile game that little thing Ayumu Nishizawa
On the eve of the war, it landed steadily.
A few days ago, "Peace Elite" officially announced that it would launch the "subway escape" mode born from the survival and gold game in the summer, and then launched a tens of millions of cash and flow support plans in an effort to revive the subway majesty. After the "Shooting Brother" made a strong push into the game, the competition around the survival gold category seemed to have become tense again.
The creator of the concept of survival games is Escape from Tarkov, which has undergone the 0.12 update. It's worth noting that this product didn't skyrocket at the beginning of its launch, nor did it simply replicate the popular PUBG at the time, but went through a long process of modular improvement. In the iterative addition and subtraction method, developer Battlestate modified the prototype game based on the current situation and inspiration, and the process of trial and error avoided shortcuts, but also created a methodology that worked.
Today, it's easy to discern the unique charm of the components of Escape from Tarkov: hardcore tactical simulations, asymmetric resource games, and social economy inside and outside the game...... Under the framework of this FPS gameplay based on survival and gold grabbing, you can even produce a variety of elements including MMORPG, multiplayer competition, and even open-world exploration.
It is precisely because of its many elements that after the explosion of "Escape from Tarkov", there was a situation in which hundreds of schools of thought in the industry deconstructed its success. What elements are mandatory? Which ones can be replaced? Is there room for improvement? Problems such as these perspectives all give the "-like" part of the "Tarkov like" track more variable and imaginative space.
On the road of exploring more possibilities of "Tarkov like", Tencent and NetEase's two old rivals have already started a new round of tug-of-war. In addition to the "subway escape" mentioned above, it is worth noting that the landing timeline is even higher, as well as the news that NetEase's "Firefly Assault" announced today (May 10) that the public test will be released on June 6.
[Firefly Assault] - Public Measurement June 6th!
"Firefly Assault" can be said to be a reserve product of NetEase, which has been launched on the international server for more than a year and has experienced a long market testing period. After obtaining the version number at the beginning of this year, the first large-scale test was launched only more than 20 days apart. Now, "Firefly Assault" has tens of millions of pre-orders, coupled with the public beta time set before the summer file, NetEase seems to intend to preempt a wave of friends by making violent efforts.
In the face of the complex subdivision of survival and gold, NetEase has shown a stronger enterprising spirit than before. This time, "Firefly Assault" not only set the open beta date, but also called for a number of long-term optimizations, with the goal of solving various pain points in FPS games. Although NetEase has always shown a confident style of shouting before acting, tracing the development process of "Firefly Assault" and the in-depth exchanges with the development team before the mobile game, the rapid growth of this product is actually inseparable from solid content accumulation and stable product strength.
Looking at its subsequent optimization planning, we can also feel that in terms of seeking solutions to problems, "Firefly Assault" not only has its own set of ways to get along with players, but also has its own unique iterative concept on the basis of the modular improvement of "Escape from Tarkov". And these two ways of thinking may be the key to the establishment of differentiation and the opportunity to break out of the world in the national server.
01
Push the answer with your heart
In 2024, what should a new "Tarkov like" product do to find new growth?
As a relatively mature and stable game category, the basic gameplay framework of "Tarkovlike" has proven to be feasible and attractive. If you only start with superficial elements such as theme and appearance, the player's actual game experience may not change substantially, and it is difficult to find a flaw in breaking through.
Firefly Assault doesn't intend to challenge the basic framework of Escape from Tarkov's survival and gold game play. Their idea is simple, that is, to put themselves in the shoes of the player, to serve the players as the starting point, to actively find out what the players of the "Tarkovlike" game are dissatisfied with, and start to improve it. This investigation really found a lot of bitterness among the players.
Among them, "the withdrawal rate is too low" is the main topic that players complain about; On the other hand, "taking out the big money and successfully evacuating" is often the most satisfying moment for players to experience emotions in every game. Frequent deaths and equipment losses, although they are the punitive features of "Tarkov-like" games, tend to bring constant psychological stress to players. If coupled with an unsatisfactory withdrawal rate, players will not get positive feedback for a long time, and the motivation to play will gradually weaken, which will eventually affect the game's reputation and player stickiness.
The "withdrawal rate" may seem like a simple probability setting, but it involves much more than just a number. Every player has different feelings about the withdrawal rate, but this subjective experience always reflects the balance between risk and reward, difficulty and fun of the game, and also determines the player's strategy choice and emotional experience. Because of this, "Firefly Assault", which is keenly aware of this, decided to seize this breakthrough and adopt a seemingly "simple and crude" strategy that hits the nail on the head - increasing the withdrawal rate and making it the main selling point of the early publicity.
In order to convince players of their commitment to maintaining a high withdrawal rate, Firefly Assault promised that the withdrawal rate would not decrease for ten years, and invited a national notary office to notarize it, creating a predictable and trustworthy gaming environment for players. This seemingly "brain-opening" move has indeed enhanced players' confidence with the credibility of authoritative institutions, and it is also a side portrayal of the sincerity of the service of the "Firefly Assault" team.
From the perspective of actual experience, "Firefly Assault" has changed the two disparities of "no gold-withdraw" into a gold with gold, and players bring out more gold styles and high value, and finally creates a gold-winning environment that is more friendly to players and easier to perceive positive feedback returns. Therefore, the seemingly "simple and crude" strategy of increasing the withdrawal rate of "Firefly Assault" has become one of the most competitive selling points of the product.
In addition, in the "Tarkovlike" game, the safe box function is often accompanied by a withdrawal mechanism. Players can store the most valuable items found in the game into a safe box, and even if they fail to evacuate in the end, they can take the contents out of the game intact, which is equivalent to an upper layer of insurance.
Limited by the realistic nature of the category, it is difficult to directly apply the common appearance commercialization model in FPS games. Safe boxes with additional service attributes have naturally become the main direction of commercialization of some "Tarkovlike" games.
Perhaps considering that placing paid content on the safe box could have a substantial impact on the player's gaming experience, Firefly Assault is not aggressively commercialized at this point, but rather provides players with more free options. As the duration of the game increases and the virtual wealth accumulates, players will be able to unlock a wide variety of pets. Not only do they act as safeboxes, but they also come with useful support skills such as shock, tracking, and picking up resources, which can provide an extra boost for players with different playstyles.
With the high payout rate and the mutual promotion of multi-purpose pets, players get far more positive feedback than negative feedback in Firefly Assault. Furthermore, the player's motivation to use unconventional means such as hiding in the retreat point to avoid risks and disrupt the experience is greatly weakened - the big deal is to do it, and it is not painful to lose and start again. This series of bold moves in Firefly Assault invisibly creates a more level playing field and allows players to focus more on the head-to-head battles at the technical and strategic levels, thus making up for the lack of a gaming experience.
Speaking of commercialization, "Firefly Assault" has already launched a round of changes in this regard. Previously, they announced that "all gun skins will be permanently free of charge", which is equivalent to directly benefiting more than half of the product's commercialization path. The gun skin spray cans can be collected in the game, and they can be used permanently when they are collected, providing players with another more solid shipping pleasure, and the ultimate goal is just to make players play "cool".
Not only that, in the latest official future plan, they also revealed a clear direction of commercialization development: continue to give players more concessions in terms of commercialization, with player satisfaction as the first priority.
This means that Firefly Assault will not only maintain the current strategy of free gun skins, but will also bring more perks to players in other cosmetic aspects. Skins for melee weapons, character costumes, special items, and other parts may be included in the category of free or low-cost in the future. Even more subdivided looks, such as tactical gloves, are not impossible to add to the concessions.
Adopting a strategy that puts the interests of players first is risky, but it will also further strengthen players' trust in Firefly Assault. When players feel that the game is always thinking about them and striving to provide more affordable options, they will naturally be more willing to pay for the game and support the long-term development of the game.
It can be seen that "Firefly Assault" has found a foothold to break through the category. They capture the emotional experiences that players tend to overlook the most, and they translate shared demands into action. In order to make players "cool", they are even willing to exchange official benefits for player interests. Sincerity for sincerity, the current stage of "Firefly Assault" has shown the sincerity that can make players communicate with it.
02
Take it for a while
The transfer of players' interests can be regarded as eye-catching peripheral construction, and whether the product can ultimately retain people also needs to be supported by reliable content. In this regard, how does "Firefly Assault" interpret itself?
As mentioned in the opening chapter, Firefly Assault uses a similar modular concept to Escape from Tarkov when polishing its products. This mode of thinking can be simply understood as "take a step, stop a step, think about a step", that is, starting from the framework of the "Tarkovlike" category and its own content vision, and gradually adjust and innovate in combination with market trends. The reference market trend is not the current hot spot, but according to the tonality of the product itself and user feedback, choose the good and follow.
What is the content vision for Firefly Assault? By working backwards from the status quo, it is not difficult to find that they hope to create the most refreshing "Tarkovlike". Focusing on the two points of "Tarkov like" and "refreshing", we can sort out the logical context of all the optimizations of "Firefly Assault".
Similar to the growth process of "Escape from Tarkov", "Firefly Assault" has also taken some detours. For example, in the early stage of the game, there is only a third-person perspective, which is refreshing, but in terms of immersion and substitution, it is slightly inferior to the first-person perspective, which is contrary to the realistic nature of "Tarkovlike".
Realizing this, Firefly Assault decisively removed the third-person mode and only kept it in the shelter, while the in-game was completely first-person viewed. After that, "Firefly Assault" seems to know better how to make more "cool" content on the basis of the gold-winning gameplay experience.
For example, by introducing lightweight mechanics such as automatic fire and auxiliary aiming, Firefly Assault has made the game more difficult to get started. The scope of the large map is split so that players can devote themselves to the exciting gold medal competition experience faster; Up to two in-game reboots also make it cheaper for players to venture into battle...... These optimizations and improvements to the basic level of gameplay all show the conservative and wise side of Firefly Assault.
Secondly, in terms of social interaction, "Firefly Assault" also has a unique set of design ideas. They did something that no other competitor had done: they introduced functions such as in-game support and range teaming, leaving a "side line" for mutual cooperation outside of the competition.
Under this layer of in-game socialization, players can switch between confrontation and cooperation, alliance and betrayal, adding more unknown and interesting to the gold battlefield. The temporary social attributes, which are somewhat similar to the culture of the group, are more flexible and free, which not only enriches the tactical aspect of the game, makes it possible for strangers to connect with each other, but also does not make socialization a mandatory burden, and finally establishes a "law of the forest" that is in line with the tonality of the survival and gold category, and is based on profits.
Looking at the future of the product, the most promising development of Firefly Assault is the in-depth pursuit of diversity in tactical builds. At this stage, the game has introduced different classes of weapons and equipment, and each player can match their own genre according to their own preferences and combat style to achieve a personalized game experience.
In addition, there is a wide variety of tactical items in the game. In addition to conventional grenades, flash grenades, and shock grenades, there are also high-tech props such as drones that can detect unblocked enemies within a certain range, and detection balls that can detect signs of life through walls, covering all aspects such as attacking, transferring, rushing, detecting, and defending, greatly extending the tactical depth and playability of the game.
Not only that, but players can also install a variety of mods as their skills in advance. For example, the Hazard Warning mod can help players deal with approaching enemies; Carrying an adrenaline mod can provide more efficient mobility; The Gold Quest Tracker mod can pinpoint enemies who have taken resources. The more diverse mod design undoubtedly further enriches the game's strategic choices. Combined with the aforementioned tactical items, it may also produce a 1+1>2 effect from time to time, thus bringing players a richer battle experience.
Overall, instead of facing the situation of competing products falling into the competition between snipes and mussels, "Firefly Assault" hopes to open up a new market in the category through differentiated improvement and explore its own way. It does not advocate blindly following hot spots, but solidly optimizes the underlying experience, while retaining the authentic "tower flavor", it also brings players more refreshing, rich and strategic game content. All kinds of "cool points" built on solid content are also easier for players to perceive and absorb.
03
epilogue
"Firefly Assault", which timely grasped the peripheral of player emotional improvement and actively output content experience optimization core, has shown a similar growth trajectory and breakthrough angle in its development process as when "Escape from Tarkov" was successful. This strategy of both internal and external cultivation has not only won a good reputation for the game, but also gradually formed a healthy and positive ecological environment in the game.
"Tarkov Like" is no longer a new category, but players can still have eager expectations for the new product "Firefly Assault", which proves that there is still a huge market demand and room for development in this track. With the addition of "Firefly Assault" on June 6, the situation of a new round of "arms race" in this category in the future will surely be more exciting.