海量网游玩家资料分析,和男女玩家的开心程度

今年美国2009游戏开发者大会,有个课程请到索尼Everquest (无尽的任务, EQ) 系列的制作人分享他们对玩家数据的分析.  EQ在欧美是个传奇网游,1998年时热度相当于现在的<魔兽世界>, 红到有人昵称为 Evercrack (无尽的迷幻药), <电子鸦片>这个词和EQ同时诞生.  

这些年来,EQ累积了海量的玩家资料,大到真正要分析要找超级电脑,资料清理,统计专家.  索尼和美国一批经济学家联手,花了两年的时间,他们找到很多经济学和玩家互动的结果.

有一个统计结果是女性网游玩家大多和男的一起组队,很少会加入个纯女性的团队.  同时女性玩家和男的组队后,开心程度会上升;相反的男的和女的组队后开心程度会下降.  

这个经济学家有点奇怪,再回头测了几次,结果还是一样.  有一天他拿这个数据给个社会学家看,社会学家哈哈一笑, 说到”老弟啊,真要分析有点啰嗦,不过你只要记得, 女人高兴的是能够和男人讲话, 男人高兴的是能够有女人在身边. 网游里讲话不难,真的要在身边可能到头来比较麻烦.”  

评估游戏时讲究<目标人群>,常常碰到的问题是以男性为主流的开发运营团队,不太会为女性玩家设计游戏. 同时这方面的资料还是比较少,拿下女性玩家的游戏常常有点运气,不是真的什么深思熟虑.  随着海量玩家资料分析,慢慢我们比较多了些可靠的资料.

比如纯女性组队很少,如果你的游戏<目标人群>是以女性组队对抗的话,可能要好好考虑了.

The surest formula to IPO: Another China game company listed on NASDAQ

You’d think it’s hard to go IPO at this trying time for a game company. Unless, of course, if you have a successful MMORPG in China. On April 2nd , Changyou (CYOU:NASDAQ), a Chinese game studio IPO’ed on NASDAQ. $120 million USD was raised and the investors pushed stock price from $19 to $25 in a week.  

Why? Once you develop a hit MMORPG in China, you’re in for a lot of money. In the case of Changyou, it’s $200 million in revenue and over $100 million in net profit for 2008. And it’s almost completely through one single hit game, TLBB. So to IPO, it seems mere licensing doesn’t cut it anymore. Publishers with only licensed titles have not appeared on US markets since 2004. Changyou’s IPO took this point one step further. They’re breaking away from the parent company and publisher, Sohu, on an operational level. As Changyou says in the prospectus, the break out with Sohu would give them focus and access to external funding for further growth, even though Sohu would maintain a majority voting power. By spinning off Changyou, Sohu acknowledged the importance of keeping their internal game studio motivated and independent.  

In short, an in house studio capable of making a killer MMORPG for China market seems to the surest formula for IPO.  

And investors might not be as crazy as one would think. We know China MMORPG’s are amazingly evergreen.. Games such as TLBB have passed the magic 500,000 Peak Concurrent Users mark and would most likely maintain a healthy growth. (TLBB is at 800,000 PCU now.) The industry has quickly built up know-how over the past few years. Most of the strangest and blatant mistakes in operating an MMO are known and solved. Plus the market is big and diverse enough to sustain popular games over time despite new technology and competition. The company would do fine barring some major changes in the industry.  

The upside is in another hit before the climate shifts. This is where one needs to ask if the stock price is worth it.