社交游戏病毒式传播5大要素编辑本段回目录
对社交游戏开发商而言，病毒式传播能够促进用户增长，降低用户获得成本。下面我们就来谈谈推动社交游戏病毒式传播的5大要素。
1. 通过用户发布游戏更新内容
所有游戏开发商都应让玩家得以在消息动态或Twitter中发布最高分数或者重大成就。这样一来，游戏就能够推广至玩家好友当中，获得新用户（游戏邦注：例如在Zynga游戏《Texas Hold’Em Poker》中，玩家能够在获得三张相同的牌（Three of a Kind）、Flush或一手好牌时分享给好友）。
2. 在游戏中融入社交互动
游戏开发商可通过促进用户直接互动，推动病毒式传播，把游戏体验变成玩家同真实好友共同消磨时间的契机。典型的例子就是Playfish的《Restaurant City》，游戏中玩家能够聘请好友充当餐厅帮手。而《Lexulous》（如下图）玩家则可以自由选择自己的好友充当对手。
Lexulous from isecur1ty.org
3. 创建游戏之外的粉丝基础
粉丝页面和论坛是社交游戏开发商提高游戏知名度的宝地，建立更加密切的玩家关系，提高玩家游戏推广意愿。游戏开发商可以通过开展游戏内推广，帮助粉丝页面或论坛获得更多流量。把粉丝页面嵌入游戏机制当中，这样页面就不那么像广告，因此能够推动更多用户成为粉丝。
4. 提供邀请好友奖励
用户愿意邀请好友，开发商应把邀请好友变成更富吸引力，更便于操作。Serious Business（游戏邦注：该公司已被Zynga收购）首席执行官Siqi Chen曾在分析报告中表示，用户每次习惯邀请16名好友，也就是Facebook好友选择工具的邀请上限。游戏开发商可以通过提供邀请奖励更充分利用这个策略。例如《Green Planet》游戏通过给予玩家更多金钱奖励，换得更大“Green Team”，鼓励玩家邀请好友。他们还向玩家推荐添加内容。
Green Planet from mosi.org
5. 设计富有趣味性的游戏体验
病毒式传播是促进用户增长不可或缺的元素，但除非游戏具有分享价值，否则传播策略就毫无用处。若游戏毫无趣味性可言，玩家就不会进行体验，自然也就不会向好友推荐。塞巴斯蒂安·德·哈留克斯（游戏邦注：他是Playfish首席运营官）曾在2009年社交游戏峰会表示，成功游戏的决定标准是趣味性。对Playfish而言，若整个公司员工都沉迷某款待发行游戏，那就是游戏推出的成熟时间。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）
Top 5 Elements for Virality of Social Games
by TrialPay
For today’s social game developer, virality is key to driving user growth and lowering customer acquisition costs. Here’s a look at five elements that boost the virality of social games:
1. Publishing updates about the game through users
Every game developer should allow users to publish their top scores or milestones on their news feeds and Twitter streams. By doing so, their games will be promoted to all of their users’ friends and likely attract new players. For example, Zynga’s Texas Hold‘Em Poker lets its players announce to all of their friends when they get Three of a Kind, a Flush or another great hand.
2. Embedding social interaction into the game
Game developers can boost virality by promoting direct user interaction—which transforms the gaming experience into a chance for players to spend time with (and recruit) their real-life friends. A few good examples include Playfish’s Restaurant City, which lets players hire their own friends to work in their restaurants, and Lexulous (pictured below), which requires players to choose their own friends as opponents.
3. Building fan bases outside of the game
Fan pages and forums are great ways for social game developers to increase awareness of their games, develop more affinity in their players and make users more willing to promote their games. Game developers can drive even more traffic to their fan pages or forums by promoting it within their games. By making it a part of the in-game mechanics, it will seem less like an advertisement and encourage more users to become fans.
4. Creating incentives for inviting friends
Users are wiling to invite their friends, and game developers should make it compelling and easy for them to do so. In a recent analysis, Siqi Chen of Serious Business showed that users tend to invite 16 friends at a time—the same number that Facebook allows on its friend selector widget. Game developers can make even better use of this tactic by offering incentives to recruit other users. For example, Green Planet encourages its users to recruit their friends by letting users earn more money by having a bigger “Green Team.” And they even recommend friends that the user should add, as pictured below.
5. Designing a game that is naturally fun to play
Virality is an essential element for user growth, but unless the game is worth sharing, viral tactics won’t do any good. If a game isn’t fun to play, users won’t play. And they certainly won’t promote it to their friends. As Sebastien de Halleux, COO of Playfish, said at the Social Gaming Summit 2009, the key metric for a successful game is fun. At Playfish, they know a game is ready to launch when the entire company can’t stop playing it.（Source：trialpay）
