Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 460 The 3A masterpiece "Ark: Battlefield"

Fang Jie's psychological method of engaging in game live broadcasts and using empathy to drive players from all over the world into the pit is only a preliminary use of a small test.

The most successful game that used this psychological method in the previous life was the open world online game "Yuanshin" produced by MiHoYo, which became a global hit.

The core gameplay of this game is not to follow the main quest to advance in a single line, nor is it to kill monsters and level up to be invincible in the world, but to explore the plot and combine multi-role elements.

The combination of multi-role elements is a kind of empathy routine. There are not only Mond in western fantasy style, but also Liyue and Daozuma in oriental style. In the future kingdom, there will also be cyberpunk style Solstice, Kanria, and Steampunk-style Fontaine, etc., can attract players from different countries.

For example, Huaguo players probably like Liyue’s plot the most. Although Liyue’s plot is not excellent in terms of the quality of the script, Huaguo players feel a sense of pride and identity when they see the national style elements in the game. Spontaneously.

Japanese players, however, like Inazuma the most. The portrayal of the game character Inazuma in "Yuanshin", the design of related game scenes, background music, and plot tasks are all deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Japanese players only need to touch When it comes to these, the sense of substitution suddenly goes up.

If the cultural background here is explained in detail, three days and three nights can’t finish it. In short, if we only look at the essence, it is actually a kind of empathy psychological routine. Because it has elements of Huaguo, when the film was released in China in 08, it could be said to be empty.

However, Fang Jie does not plan to carry games and routines like "Original God" for the time being. The reason is that the environment of the times is different. "Water" games that collect plots and card characters are not in line with the game pursuits of current players. If it is played now, it will definitely be unacceptable.

Fighting, competition, leveling and other competitive core games are still the mainstream and popular at present, so after Fang Jie tried his hand at "Journey", he immediately shifted his attention to the game "Ark". above.

After 2 years of development, all the land maps in the Ark game world have completed 3D conversion, so the new version of "Ark: Age of Empires" should also be put on the agenda.

In the previous 3A version of "Ark: Nautical Age", players and forces from various countries fought inextricably through naval battles in the game, but after 2 years in reality, that is, 120 years of full-scale ocean wars in the game, some important ports around the world The waterways, rivers, and seaways have basically been divided up by various forces, forming a weak check and balance situation.

That is to say, some important ocean trade channels have their own power divisions. Under normal circumstances, it is difficult to seize them through a naval battle, unless a large amount of money and resources are spent to launch a campaign-level war to directly wipe out the forces behind them. Otherwise, the two sides can only maintain a relatively peaceful situation.

From the perspective of cost performance and investment risk, it is obviously not cost-effective to snatch these important coastal strongholds, even if the war is finally won and the territory is snatched over.

So today, apart from some sporadic small-scale naval battles along the coast, large-scale battles rarely take place in Arkworld.

It is not a rare occurrence, but the war environment has gradually shifted from the ocean to the land, and as the land 3D map is gradually opened up, the scale of the war is getting bigger and bigger.

After all, land is the foundation. The reason why ocean wars started is to control ocean transportation and trade routes, and in the end it is actually logistical preparations for the hegemony of the mainland.

In essence, economy determines politics, and war is the continuation of politics. Wars are to expand one's own political territory, and expanding political territory is to obtain more social wealth.

From the perspective of Fang Jie and the many core partnership capitals of Ark International, if there is no battle in the game, no one will die, so how can Fangzhou International make money?

Therefore, we must fight each other, we must continue to provoke wars in the game, and even consciously let the player forces controlled by them in the game sing double reeds to each other, and deliberately find various reasons to start wars. It can evoke the same hatred between players who don't know the truth and passers-by.

The biggest routine among them is the empathy routine mentioned earlier.

For example, the German player forces have gone to France or Great Britain to set up a lot of resource bases. Do you think the French and British players can agree?
Not to mention the players, those passers-by don't agree, you, a defeated country in World War II, ran wild in our victorious country and plundered our country's resources, even in the game world, you can't bear it!

Another example is that the United Kingdom is also full of contradictions. The actual relationship between Northern Ireland and England is very complicated, and it is also reflected in the game. England players think that Northern Ireland is part of their own territory, while players in Northern Ireland and Ireland may not. Think, then naturally you have to speak with your fists.

The above is just a small example.

There are contradictions and disputes between countries in the world. Under the national consciousness, this contradiction will also be reflected on the players in the game. There are also regional blacks in different regions within countries, such as Citigroup. Someone took a little excuse to fight the fire, and the players who are not afraid of death will naturally fight each other desperately.

Fang Jie didn't even need Fang Jie's hands for such things as firefighting. Other international capitals can slip away. In reality, they are already good at this, especially in the game. If you add a little bit of oil and vinegar, you won't be afraid that passers-by will not fall into the pit.

So at the end of 2010, the number of monthly active players of "Ark" exceeded 5000 million, which is already awesome, and it is several million more than the 4000 million when "World of Warcraft" was the hottest, but by the end of 2011 , In just one year, the number of monthly active players directly doubled to over 1 million!
This also broke a Guinness World Record - the online game with the largest number of players!

If we say that the number of players doubled from less than 2008 million to more than 2010 million in the two years from 3000 to 5000, mainly due to employee players and mercenary players from heavy industries and labor-intensive enterprises, then from 2010 to 2011, this suddenly The extra 5000 million players are passer-by players brought by Gonghuo.

These passer-by players, they don’t really care whether the game is good or not, and they don’t expect to make money from Ark speculation. They also scoff at the so-called Ark centimeters and partners. They are purely influenced by ideology. Enter the game to give your country a sigh of relief.

This so-called "fighting for breath" is not only for defending the soil, but also for strategies.

For example, players from island countries feel that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They abandoned the land where earthquakes and tsunamis are frequent and resources are scarce, and directly logged in to occupy the vast regions and seas of Oceania, deciding to take root there.

The process is naturally a fight to the death. The players from the island country changed their lying posture and displayed the charging spirit that they were not afraid of death during World War II. From the very beginning, they beat the Australian players to the ground.

Then under the fire of the capital, the Australian passersby joined the army of players resisting aggression in order to defend the soil, and drove the players from the island country to the sea, but then the island country also started to fight, and the people from the island country also joined in. , So a protracted battle to seize the island that was recorded in the annals of "Ark" was staged like this.

You must know that in reality, the population of Australia is only about 2000 million, and all of them are overseas immigrants. The national consciousness is not strong, while the population of the island country is more than 1.2 million, which is six times that of Australia, and the national centripetal force is very strong, so after the army of passers-by joined In this game, the battle island side has always occupied a huge advantage, making the Australian mainland in the game gradually eroded by it.

As for the territory of Huaguo in the game, except for 2 or 3 important ports that are harassed by foreigners from time to time, most of the areas are relatively calm.

Although there are very few Chinese players in "Ark" at present, making this seemingly vast land unclaimed, foreigners are not stupid at all. They know the awesomeness of Chinese players. , Not to mention those high-tech players, even passers-by players can use crowd tactics to destroy any invading enemy.

What's more, who doesn't know that the promoter of "Ark" is from Huaguo, and if he dares to engage in Huaguo's affairs, it will definitely not be worth the loss. Foreign players, including all kinds of capital forces, have tacitly ignored this territory.

Players from island countries are very smart, knowing that they can’t handle the affairs of the Chinese Empire, and even gave up on South Asia in order to avoid potential risks, and only picked a soft persimmon that is surrounded by seas.

As for the adjacent South Korean players, they don’t pursue much, they are satisfied with just occupying the entire peninsula territory, while North Korea may be relatively closed, and they don’t care about these things that happen in the game, not to mention that there are not many players who have the conditions to go online, so this No response.

It is precisely because no one dares to invade the territory of the Chinese country in the game, and the Chinese themselves have no desire to continue to expand the territory, so that the Chinese players in the game go abroad to work as mercenaries to earn money. The millions of Chinese players are essentially In fact, it is not a player, but a worker or mercenary who goes abroad to work through the game.

All in all, with the gradual cessation of naval battles, the full opening of land 3D maps, and the various operations of international capital, the number of active players in "Ark" has exploded, and the income from death and resurrection has also increased.

In order to cooperate with the development process of the Ark game world, on January 2012, 1, version 1 "Ark: Age of Empires" was officially launched.

In fact, the full opening of the land 3D map means that the version of "Ark: Age of Empires" has been launched, and it also means that the game world will enter the era of imperial hegemony, including not only naval battles, but also large-scale land battles.

The reason for the official announcement is not only to create a gimmick, but also because when this version is launched, it also comes with a corresponding 3A-level FPS war shooting game.

The game is called: "Ark: Battlefield".

As the name suggests, this game evolved from "Ark", and "Battlefield" means that the theme of the game's battle plot is derived from the classic battles in the world of "Ark", rather than the theme of World War I or World War II.

The gameplay mechanism of this game is similar to the "Battlefield" series, and it also adopts some settings from the previous "Hell on Earth". After entering the game, players can choose different types of arms and vehicles, and join the camp of the blue army or the red army to build strongholds scramble.

But the difference is that the game maps are all adapted from the classic battle maps in the world of "Ark". The weapons, equipment, vehicles, and various props in the game are not provided by the game system for free, but need to be exchanged with materials or Purchase with Ark Workpoints.

In other words, this game is an item charging model, and has a strong linkage with "Ark".

The resources collected by players in "Ark", or the work points generated by death and resurrection, can be exchanged and purchased in the game "Battlefield", and can also be resurrected after dying in the middle of the game.

Players who have never played "Ark" can also experience "Battlefield". It is nothing more than that Ark players can experience this game "free" with "no money" resources and work points, while non-Ark players can only directly recharge to buy various items. necessities.

In fact, how can the resources and work points in the Ark game be "worthless"?

Speaking of game resource materials, Fangzhou International’s Ark Business is doing this kind of business. For this purpose, it has established an Ark Auction House website, and all players can trade resources on it, and even formed a similar On the financial platform for stock trading, there are also sell orders and buy orders, and there are even futures transactions.

The only difference is that due to the poor transportation in the game, while buying and selling resources, you have to rent armed caravans on the transportation section of the trading platform, and let these armed transport caravans help deliver the resources to the destination.

This is one of the reasons why the "Ark: Nautical Century" version of the naval battle is so fierce. Controlling the ocean trade channel can make a lot of money by relying on material circulation and transportation alone. Otherwise, relying on your own resource transportation needs, It is not enough for international capital to invest huge sums of money in operating ports and sea fleets.

One of the reasons for the launch of the game "Battlefield" is that Fang Jie and the capital of Ark International have deliberately made a show operation in order to strengthen the financial attributes of the resources in the Ark game.

The resources in the Ark game can be exchanged for the game props and resurrection times of "Battlefield", which are essentially equivalent to cash and have realistic purchasing power, so in a disguised form, financial value of practical significance is added to the game resources.

The same is true for the exchange of work points. Previously, most players did not take this kind of work points, which are actually shares of Fangzhou International, as a general game point. After all, this thing cannot be dividends for the time being. People have an astronomical number of work points in their hands, and the work points in their hands can only be regarded as a drop in the ocean, which is meaningless at all.

But now work points can be exchanged for game items and resurrection times, so players who think work points are useless can cash them out directly, which has the attribute of cash.

Furthermore, in order to save money, non-Ark players can purchase work points of Ark players on the Ark business platform at a lower discounted price, and then enter "Battlefield" to buy game props, while Ark players can sell their work points on the trading platform , so the work points of the Ark have actual value and become a kind of existence like Bitcoin.

Of course, the routines in "Battlefield" are far more than that.

In this game, after a battle, the dead players will lose all the game items they carry, and the living players can pick up these equipment, and bring them back to their game warehouse after the battle round, which can be kept as a spare or directly Sell ​​through trading platforms.

This is very similar to "Escape from Tarkov" in the previous life.

But the difference is that the game props lost in "Battlefield" are equivalent to Ark resource materials and work points, which are equivalent to cash, and the seized props will be automatically converted into work points after being sold, which is equivalent to making money directly.

Even killing a player in the game is equivalent to earning money, because a life is equal to the resurrection fee of 0.1 US dollars, and the game system will return the full amount to the killer in the form of work points, and the killer can use These points are sold on the platform.

It is precisely because this game can actually make money and even make a fortune, the launch of the game "Battlefield" will not only stimulate the majority of players to experience this 3A masterpiece, but also stimulate more speculative passers-by to enter the pit, especially those who will stimulate Technical game anchors settle in to help promote the game.

Real players have the awareness that playing games requires money. As long as the game is fun, dropping some equipment, and resurrecting a few times, it doesn’t matter. What’s more, many of them are Ark players, and the accumulated work points in the past are not much. Local flowers, just used up this time, actually means "no money spent".

Passers-by players who come to make money, even if they are not Ark players, don’t bring any equipment or props, or invest a little money to buy a dagger, and then enter the game naked to pick up leaks. The cost of each investment is nothing more than 0.1 US dollars. Once the sneak attack is successful, it will be a big profit to bring home a full body of equipment.

And technical game anchors are awesome. Every time, they must be fully installed in the game. Even if they just kill some streaking players after a game, the harvest is not small. It doesn’t matter even if they overturn occasionally. Bring more benefits.

During this process, the players didn't spend any money, and even made money, but Ark Games spent huge sums of money to produce this 3A game but didn't make any big money from it. Isn't this a scam?

This is of course impossible.

Not to mention the financial benefits contained in it, but after each battle, not all the equipment dropped by the player is picked up. In most cases, there is not enough room for so many things in the backpack, and the leftover equipment is recycled by the system , and bullets, cannonballs and other things can't be picked up after they are shot out. This item is the consumption of sky.

In other words, the resource consumption in "Battlefield" is tantamount to exacerbating the consumption of resources and work points in "Ark".

The intensification of resource consumption can further increase the price of resources in "Ark", making its financial system more stable, and the consumption of work points is equivalent to recycling the shares of Fangzhou International in the hands of players.

Although the work points in the hands of a player are nothing, if each of the hundreds of millions of players only needs to contribute 1 work point, it will be 1 million work points. Not Fang Jie and those international capitals.

Therefore, the recovery of work points is also to stabilize the core position of the capital in Fangzhou International. Not only "Battlefield" will do this, but other games launched by Ark Games in the future will also carry out such operations of cutting leeks.

Not to mention the various deep-seated routines behind this, but only the game itself, once launched, it became popular all over the world.

After all, it is a 3A masterpiece produced by Ark Games. Not to mention that it is strongly linked with the parent game of "Ark". You can know the quality of Ark Games' game works just by watching "Ark: Voyage Century". Now Ark Games is popular among international players. Its status is well-known.

Now that "Ark: Battlefield" is on the line, it's like a Hollywood blockbuster released. Not to mention long-term entry, even passers-by who have heard the news, at least go in and take a look to join in the fun.

Because this game borrows many features of the "Battlefield" series of games, many loyal fans of "Battlefield" entered the game experience for the first time, and soon found that this game is more interesting than "Battlefield". into the pit.

Its biggest feature is that it can pick up equipment and sell it for money, and PK can also make money. This is more enjoyable and more realistic than killing the Quartet in the game or collecting some combat data. is the most real.

Moreover, players found that due to the addition of money, the game is more playable, more exciting and exciting. After all, it is too painful to drop full-body equipment after dying once, and killing and capturing a set of equipment from other players is equivalent to Make a fortune, so players feel that they are not playing a game, but fighting a real battle for money.

People do anything, as long as the element of "money" is added, the motivation will become very strong, and "Battlefield" is like this.

Players with good skills can earn hundreds of dollars a day, while players with poor skills have gradually learned to be smart after suffering countless losses, and began to use "old six" and "running knife" tactics to steal chickens.

The so-called "Old Six" tactics are actually Voldemort and LYB tactics. They hide in the corner and specialize in shady people. If you kill one to save money, kill two to make money.

And the "running knife" tactic is to enter the combat map with only a military dagger, and fight in the game at close quarters at a very low game cost. Not much.

Therefore, one month after the game "Battlefield" was launched, 80% of the players in the game are all old six and runners. This is in line with the [-]th law, that is, it is always only a small group of people who make a lot of money, and most people just play with them. background plate.

However, the background board also has the fun of the background board. The fun and sense of accomplishment that killing a player is far greater than the investment, not to mention that they don’t have much investment. Work in Age of Empires, earn some resources or work points, and then enter "Ark: Battlefield" to buy daggers and steal chickens.

Therefore, the game "Ark: Battlefield" may not have brought any direct benefits to the Ark game, but it has further expanded the influence of "Ark", accelerated the consumption of game resources, stabilized the internal finance of the game, and increased the number of active players. So it has grown a lot.

Of course, "Ark: Battlefield" itself will not allow knife-running players to prostitute there for nothing, destroying the game environment.

For example, some large-scale battle maps are limited, and you must wear corresponding weapons and equipment according to your selected arms to enter.

You must know that the gameplay setting of this large-scale battle map is basically based on "Hell on Earth".

That is to say, there is a complete set of combat command system, and it is difficult to win the battle by fighting alone like stragglers. Players must have certain tactical qualities. Players must act as battlefield commanders and squad leaders, and lead combat units of different arms. , in accordance with the commander's order to carry out coordinated operations to win a battle.

After each victory, the system will help the players to automatically clean up the battlefield, and the winning side will get at least tens of thousands of dollars worth of work points, which will be distributed to commanders, squad leaders, and ordinary soldiers in different proportions.

This is the high-end gameplay of "Battlefield", and it is also the real core gameplay of this game, and this gameplay is a test of the commander's and team leader's command combat experience, or tactical literacy.

It is generally difficult for ordinary players to adapt to this kind of gameplay, and they also deliver food when they enter. However, international capitals attach great importance to this section. They not only send their own military commanders in "Ark" to enter the game for exercise, but also often sponsor and hold events under various names. International competitions, looking for relevant military command talents.

As a result, the game "Battlefield" has gradually evolved into a competitive online game, which has a strong viewing value, and has become one of the ace channels of the Ark video game sector, attracting a large number of international players and water friends to watch for a long time.

Of course, no matter how popular "Battlefield" is, it is not as popular as the upgraded version of "Zhengtu", which has already begun to spread virally, let alone the parent game "Ark: Age of Empires".

The upgrade of "Ark" to the "Age of Empires" version this time is equivalent to fully launching the land war in the Ark world. Under the fire of capital, and under the money-making effect of "Battlefield", it is constantly pouring into the game.

And Fang Jie, who led all of this, naturally spent a lot of time and energy on this. At least he basically came up with the plan for the game "Battlefield". It's time for the next layout.

(End of this chapter)