Analysis and summary of the design ideas of the social part of the mobile game "Fantasy Westward Journey"

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Preface

Social interaction has always been a part that all mobile games want to do but have always lacked breakthroughs. Before the emergence of Fantasy Westward Journey, the relatively successful social optimization of mobile games was mainly to reduce the communication costs of players in the game (such as providing voice chat functions, providing one-click team formation functions, etc.). Some heavy games such as Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 3D, due to more expandable content and deeper game depth, players have more demand for player organizations such as gangs and sects, so they have also achieved certain results in social interaction. However, the stimulation points for social interaction in Fantasy Westward Journey are laid from beginning to end, and the effect is also remarkable. The following is a specific analysis of the design ideas of this game in the social part.

Key points

The original driving force that guides players to socialize must be the core gameplay and core resources;

The design of social-related gameplay should be as close to the user's growth line as possible and meet their needs;

The reason we need to set group restrictions is to help the weak and reward the strong for providing help;

In the process of building sociality, players’ enemies are not each other but us, which encourages positive interactions;

Experienced players are the most valuable, they are the bonds created by social interaction;

The key to retaining civilian players is that each class in the game has its own role;

The inherent advantages of social design in turn-based games

This point should be put in the front because the turn-based combat method can be said to be a foundation for players to fully socialize. Turn-based combat only requires players to set their own moves at the beginning of each combat round. Therefore, in the team state, players can have sufficient time to chat and organize tactics during the battle. The longer the team time, the greater the opportunity for players to communicate and the more opportunities to form strong connections. The emphasis on tactics and weakening of operations during the battle gives players enough time to organize tactics and communicate feelings. This is an inherent advantage of turn-based games.

Social Driven Map of Fantasy Westward Journey

1. Original power

Obtaining game resources (i.e. actual rewards) in the gameplay to improve one's own strength is the main goal of players after entering the game, and it is also the most direct driving force. As can be seen from the figure below, the content produced by the gameplay involving social interaction in the game corresponds to the needs of players at each stage, and is closely related to the player's growth line. Without cooperation, players cannot participate in the rich content of the game, and social interaction is a passive behavior.

2. Interactive gameplay

As shown in Figure 1, the gameplay that requires player cooperation includes main quests, daily activities, scheduled activities, random monster spawning, and gang gameplay, that is, most of the gameplay content requires player cooperation. In almost all of these gameplays, players are required to cooperate, and competition is mostly completed in the form of teams or gangs. This encourages players to form a mutually beneficial relationship, and positive emotions are more conducive to increasing stickiness between players.

3. Set obstacles to encourage team building

Based on the above gameplay, the game restricts and guides players to form teams through direct or indirect conditions. The main methods are shown in the figure below:

There are several forms of income discrimination:

Number discrimination → Teams with a maximum number of people can participate, and the team will receive extra benefits when it is fully loaded.

Purpose: To encourage full teams to avoid disadvantaged users being unable to form teams and participate in activities

Sect discrimination → If the number of team members from the same sect exceeds a certain number, no additional benefits can be obtained, or the task can only obtain additional benefits if several sects participate.

Purpose: It is mainly to correct the problem that some sects cannot form a team during the weak stage, to help players smoothly pass through the improvement transition stage, and to reduce the losses and dissatisfaction of players caused by the sect settings.

Level discrimination → Monster difficulty is determined based on the average level and strength of the entire team. Bringing a trumpet can reduce the difficulty of the battle and improve the efficiency of monster hunting.

Purpose: To encourage advanced users to guide new users, which is conducive to maintaining vitality within the server.

It can be seen that most of the restrictions are efficiency-oriented and profit-oriented. In order to obtain maximum benefits within a limited time, players will try their best to team up with suitable people according to the guidance of the system.

4. Corresponding psychological satisfaction of users at all levels

The users accumulated during the PC game period are the biggest source of gold for the success of the mobile version of "Fantasy Westward Journey".

Due to the existence of this group of users, the mobile game already had a group of free novice guides in the game on the first day of its launch.

Only the top three layers of users in the above picture can really participate in the game. Experienced users at the social level are the most valuable type of users. They have a deep understanding of the game, know the most cost-effective way to achieve their goals, and even know how to make money through the game. Their experience has a great impact on both powerful users and ordinary online users. They are the most important force driving the vitality of the server and play the role of a real person guide. Most effective social relationships are formed with them as the bond.

Powerful users - sense of authority, that is, they feel that they have a certain prestige and voice in the game, such as: guild leader, or opinion leader in a small group, etc. They need more emotional content to strengthen their sense of authority. Common methods include titles, special props, and Westward Journey will set up statues of players who have won the team that has opened up the map at the entrance of the map. The sworn brotherhood system and the friendly system (fighting together to increase a certain degree of friendship) also have a good effect on increasing their activity and stickiness.

Experienced users - There may be overlap between experienced users and powerful users. Experienced users can also gain a certain voice through their own experience. Therefore, some systems designed for powerful users are also effective for them.

Another group of civilian experience users mainly share their experiences with others to help the team and the collective achieve their goals, so as to gain a sense of integration and honor and satisfy themselves. This type of users needs to be given enough space to play in gang gameplay and other collective gameplay.

Since civilian experience users are slightly weaker in terms of strength, they need to be given enough space to play in the guild gameplay. For example: in addition to the strongest team in gang wars, other teams must have enough influence on the battle situation by grabbing flags or occupying strongholds, and experience players are encouraged to organize other players to participate; it can be set that gang wealth or other key resources can be obtained by running business or other specific learnable operations, encouraging civilian players to become professional businessmen, etc.

When there is the possibility for everyone to perform their own duties in an organization, the organization will be more stable.

Online users - As the name implies, the only thing these users need to ensure is enough game time to establish connections with others. Their behavior is basically guided by the first two types of users. As the game time increases, their investment in the game (time, energy, and emotion) increases, and they also have the opportunity to convert into the first two types of users.

Summarize

Compared with many assembly-line products on the market, the confidence of PC-ported games comes from the richness and completeness of the world view and gameplay system. With the support of rich game content, the social design of "Fantasy Westward Journey" runs through the entire game, so many industry veterans are more accustomed to calling this game a social game rather than an orthodox MMORPG. In comparison, many products with a rating below A only prepared gameplay content for about a month at the beginning of their launch, and the gameplay design that promotes social interaction in the game is mostly completed by robots. There is indeed not much comparison with the timeless product "Fantasy Westward Journey".