遊戲設計對於鉅量多人線上遊戲中遊戲生態的影響

Abstract

鉅量多人線上遊戲(Massively Multiplayer Online Game, 簡稱為MMOG)的遊戲生態，和玩家息息相關。友善的遊戲生態有助於玩家在遊戲初期建立起成就感，進而長期的進行遊戲;過度嚴苛的遊戲生態則可能使玩家遭受到嚴重的挫折，進而使得他們離開遊戲。而遊戲生態主要受到遊戲設計與玩家兩方面的影響。玩家並不只是單純的消費者，透過發展出各式的遊戲文化以及社交網路，玩家積極地創造及管理遊戲世界。遊戲公司的立場則是透過遊戲設計本身來試圖讓遊戲生態變的均衡，盡可能的吸引更多的玩家加入遊戲世界，或者藉由修改遊戲設計以拉長玩家的遊戲生命，進而創造更多的營收。

本研究以知名鉅量多人線上遊戲-魔獸世界改版前後為例，透過玩家設計介面 (User Interface) 開發出一套插件程式，長期、大量且自動化的由遊戲內部收集玩家資料(In-game Data)，以量化方式，透過觀察玩家角色選擇、玩家大型團體任務參與情形以及公會生態變化等變項，探討當遊戲公司改變遊戲設計時，對於玩家的遊戲行為及原有的遊戲生態產生何種影響，以及這些影響所帶來的後續效應。經由實驗結果我們發現，遊戲設計上的變化的確有對整體遊戲生態以及玩家的遊戲經驗造成大幅度改變的能力，遊戲公司在修改遊戲設計以達成其增加營收目的的同時，也應該考慮原有的遊戲生態，及玩家的可能反應，以創造玩家和遊戲公司雙贏的局面。

Keywords: 鉅量多人線上遊戲、遊戲設計、遊戲生態、玩家行為、魔獸世界

The game environments have a lot to do with the game players themselves, and are mainly affected by the players and the game designs. The players are not simply consumers; through developing various kinds of game culture and social networks, the players aggressively create and manage the game world. Through the game designs themself, the game companies try to balance the game environments to attract as many players as possible, to prolong the playing time of the players, and to make more revenues. We take a famous MMOG — World of Warcraft as an example: by observing the users’ character choices, the Raid-attending status, and the changes of guild dynamics, we explore how the changes of the original game designs affect the players’ behaviors and the existing guild dynamics in the game world. Based on our observation, we find that the changes of the game designs do affect hugely on the players’ gaming experience and the whole game environments. When the game companies are going to modify the game design to make more revenues, it should also take the original game environments and the players into account to produce win-win results.

Keywords: Game Design, World of Warcraft, Game Environment, Player Behavior, MMOG