Text/Wang Dan

For GaaS games, "time" can be an unsettling word.

After all, the quality of the server is only temporary, and the later operation is long and full of uncertainty: after playing the same content for a long time, players will always want to see other new games, which is instinctive; Over time, more of its kind will join the fray...... The replacement of the old and the new is a common ecology in the industry.

But there are exceptions. For example, in the context of the emergence of new MMOs in recent years, the veteran product "Final Fantasy 14" (hereinafter referred to as FF14), which has been in operation for more than 10 years, has a reverse growth posture - after the international server updated to version 7.0 in June this year, the number of simultaneous online users of FF14 has hit a new high since 2013 (version 2.0), and the average daily login time of active game users has reached 7 hours; Yesterday and Friday, after the national server (represented by Shengqu) updated to version 7.0, many players entered the state of "being at the workplace, the heart is in FF14".

In the past, when talking about these MMOs who have successfully overcome long-term crises, we tend to study their improvement ideas in improving retention and consumer experience design. But FF14 can't do that.

Without saying too much, let's just mention one of them: FF14 does not have an in-game store, nor does it make a consumption activity prompt in the game, and players must open the official store webpage outside the game if they want to buy something. Anyone who makes games knows that every additional step in a player's operation is equivalent to more churn, so most games now shorten the consumption process. As a result, after so many years, FF14 still has not changed in terms of commercialization to stimulate consumption.

Then the question arises: how did FF14 become the world's top MMO? How is it that after more than 10 years of operation, the number of people online at the same time can reach a new high? Since commercial design is not its strong point, where does it use its strength?

MMO Populations, an overseas research agency, recommends 6 must-play MMOs based on data, and FF14 is impressively listed.

After combining the 7.0 version update with the past FF14 content, I think FF14 may be a little too honest. It takes the most quaint and simple path: it puts a lot of effort into making content, but it doesn't bother to think about how to make quick money.

01

"It doesn't feel like it's the same game as before"

Take the 7.0 version update as an example, if there are any adjustments and changes in FF14 this time, there are and still only are: content.

Compared with the past, in fact, the form of the 7.0 update has not changed much, and it still introduces new main lines, new races, new classes, new dungeons, etc. But behind the unchanged form, the changes in the content experience of 7.0 are actually quite large, and it can even be said that FF14 has never had before.

New race introduced in 7.0: Lion (female)

First of all, from the most intuitive visual level, its art quality has finally been greatly improved.

FF14 started out as a PS3 game, and it didn't have any significant graphical upgrades before. However, in this new version, FF14 has been significantly optimized in terms of color, light effect, resolution, material, texture, etc., washing away a lot of the "sense of age at a glance".

Swipe left and right to view. Source YouTube@Digital Foundry

Yoshida said in a group interview with the media at the fan festival not long ago that this is done to ensure the quality of all aspects of the game and keep up with the times. Yoshida also said that now and in the future, they will try the latest technology as much as possible in order to pursue the most advanced comprehensive quality.

Some players commented, "7.0 feels like it's not the same game as 6.0"

Secondly, the tonality of the plot in version 7.0 is very different from the past.

As we mentioned in a previous article, FF14 in version 6.0 has ended the climactic plot, and the game's previous foreshadowing has been recycled, which is equivalent to the official end of the grudge between players and Shadowless (the villain in the game) for more than 10 years. Everyone knows that FF14 will open a new chapter and tell a new story.

It's just that after the 7.0 trailer expansion came out, many people may be confused - the previous FF14 versions, the story theme basically has one thing in common, that is, the tone of "save the world". Saving the world is a very serious, oppressive background, specifically the content, if you look back at the FF14 version 5.0, 6.0 version of the expansion, you will find that the Warrior of Light (the character played by the player) is almost not smiling, and the background music is also rendering the atmosphere of tension, fierce fighting, and decisive battle.

6.0 Footage of the Expansion

But in the 7.0 expansion, the Warrior of Light laughs at the beginning, with a cheerful and bright background music, giving people the feeling that they are about to go on vacation to the beach. The dialogue of the expansion also clearly indicates the meaning of embarking on an unknown journey and embarking on a royal adventure: "Blue sky, vast sea, and unknown adventures...... It should be there soon" "That's the new stage for our adventure"......

Correspondingly, the new map in 7.0 also has a completely different style from other regions. For example, the lush and tropical Tulaiula combines the story of the main story of finding the legendary Golden Country to create a mysterious sense of "treasure hunting in a rainforest full of diverse creatures";

See watermark for the source B station

As the main story progresses, players will then arrive at a new main city called Plan Nine, and the scenery here is very different from Tulaiula—high, illuminated buildings, shuttle through the air, connecting the buildings, and highlight the neon light of technology...... This is FF14's first cyber city.

From this point of view, what 7.0 wants to inspire may no longer be the heroism of players to save the world, but the curiosity and desire to explore the unknown continent.

7.0 Footage of the Expansion

Finally, FF14 also has a reverse operation in version 7.0 - increasing the difficulty of the dungeon mechanic to put pressure on players.

The reason why I say the reverse is because in a previous interview with Japanese media Famitsu, Yoshida mentioned that they have been lowering the threshold for FF14 in the past, and when designing the dungeon mechanism, they will also try to make it as stress-free as possible for players to play. But looking back on the past 10 years, Yoshida feels that he and his team may have overdone this - the game is stress-free, and it is not fun to play.

For Yoshida's words, it is estimated that many FF14 players can empathize. Because every time the main line of FF14 is pushed, the next copy that the player wants to play, back and forth. After fighting too much, many people already have muscle memory, the boss knows where he is going next before he moves, and the player has already stood in a safe area before the boss hand is raised...... There will also be sailors who joke with me, saying that playing FF14 copies is "so sleepy that I am about to fall asleep".

But at 7.0, FF14 reversed course and started to make it difficult for players. There are many dungeons in the new version, which can not tolerate players to get stuck again. Because it is difficult to predict where the safe location is; The margin for error left for players is also more limited.

For example, in a boss battle in the 7.0 4-player side quest (1), players need to keep an eye on the rotating teacup with a stealth ghost sitting inside in order to dodge the attack in time, and wait for the yellow attack range to light up before dodging, most likely it will be too late;

Image source B station @ Ziyan sister

For another example, in the new level 100 annihilation battle released in 7.0, there is a mechanism that requires the player to aim at the gap in the wall by himself, otherwise he will be directly knocked into the air and killed......

Image source B station @ Gu Ran Run. There are 4 players killed directly in the flight (see the health bar on the top left).

Seeing this, you may have noticed that something is wrong: in addition to the fact that the volume art is relatively easy to understand, in fact, many other new attempts made by FF14 in version 7.0 are somewhat non-mainstream.

First, the plots of FF14 5.0 and 6.0 have received high praise, and as a result, they have gained a large number of new players. At that time, the game even surpassed the bigwig-level product "World of Warcraft" on the same track and became the hottest MMO in the world.

In May 2021, MMO Populations showed that FF14 ranked first in terms of the number of active users.

It stands to reason that in the event of such a hot situation, the conventional idea should be to let the stories of 5.0 and 6.0 be told for a little longer, and use the residual heat to maintain the heat. However, Yoshida and his team were "afraid that the story would be told for too long, the pace would be too slow, and the players would not be able to accept it", so they directly ended the story in 6.0, and boldly engaged in a royal adventure plot that had never been tried before in 7.0. Aren't you really afraid that players won't be able to accept it?

Second, MMOs increase the overall difficulty of dungeons, which is also a bit unreasonable at first glance.

I asked a MMO player earlier: Do you think MMO dungeons (except for difficult ones) should be harder? He looked at me in disbelief and said, "Why are you so hard to do?" Aren't MMOs all about socializing? It's so hard to get a big DAU, what else do you socialize? ”

But Yoshida, who has been an MMO for more than 10 years, made a counterintuitive choice with the team: MMO can't be too simple.

02

A Buddhist MMO that doesn't make quick money but has been popular for 10 years

In fact, if you look back at the game's previous content, you will find that FF14 itself is a very counter-intuitive game: it seems that it has never been positive in its attitude towards making money, and it is not willing to adjust itself to mainstream preferences - in today's industry environment where "the game is fast-paced, you can be cool after playing for a while, and Krypton is immediately more cool" as the design norm, FF14 seems to be very traditional and slow-paced.

A game that seems to mismatch the fast-paced life, but it has retained many players and has been in the industry for more than ten years. Why? Its design, which is far away from the fast-paced life, may also be its differentiating selling point:

First, FF14 doesn't teach players how to play the game, but lets them play how they like.

It's an MMO, but it doesn't have social as the core motivator to get players online. This can be seen in every aspect of the game's design, with FF14 giving the player the choice of what to play.

Here, there are quite a few lone wolf players. For these people who are keen to do tasks and watch the plot, FF14 can be played as a stand-alone JRPG. This can be achieved not only because players can choose to team up with NPCs, but also because the content of FF14 is large enough and its story is deep enough.

Taking 7.0 as an example, in terms of plot, players can experience not only the new main line and side plots, but also two new classes: Painter Mage and Viper Swordsman - FF14's profession not only represents a new set of gameplay, but also means a complete and independent career plot. Therefore, in terms of volume, every major version update of FF14 is equivalent to providing lone wolf players with a large amount of playable stand-alone JRPG content.

Painter Mage

Viper Swordsman

Of course, the amount is not the point, the most important thing is that the plot story and character creation of FF14 are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Specifically, they are not like prop people who "let players take on tasks", but more like flesh-and-blood people who live in this world and are remembered by players and other NPCs.

For example, in the 3.0 story, after the NPC Olsh Fang died after blocking the fatal wound for the player, it did not completely disappear from the game, and you can still detect the traces left by Olsh Fang in the world - in the place of the divine will of Kurzas, there is his tombstone, and when the player comes here, he will meet the NPC who is mourning.

Image source B station @ The keeper of the little koala. On the eve of the launch of version 4.0, players gathered in front of the tomb of Orsh Fang to accompany this best friend who met but died in 3.0 to enter 4.0 together.

In addition to quests and dungeons, there are many casual gameplay that players can also experience alone.

Traditionally, you may subconsciously think that combat and fighting are the main content of MMO, and casual gameplay is additional content for adjustment, and it will not be too deep. But here in FF14, the playability and content volume of casual gameplay is also quite large. Even if you don't play the book, players can play for a long time.

Taking the gathering profession of fisherman as an example, players level up fishing and have their own professional plots; Each fish has its own illustrated description; Different fishing grounds should use different baits; Special fish require specific weather, time, and pre-requirements to catch; With the version update, the fishing gameplay is still iterating, and the 6.0 version adds a new sea fishing gameplay, which can be understood as a 24-person large copy of the fishing guy, but everyone goes in not to cut monsters, but to catch big fish crazily.

At NGA, you can even see FF14 anglers sharing fishing philosophies

The widely circulated meme among FF14 players, "Listening, feeling, thinking, fishing, playing cards, and racing birds", also illustrates the diversity of FF14 players, who are not necessarily here for MMO and socialization, but may simply play for one of them.

Of course, just because social isn't mandatory doesn't mean the game isn't social. After all, FF14 is still essentially an MMO game, so there will be no shortage of casual gameplay that requires multiplayer play, such as PVP, PVE, and mahjong.

If players want to challenge difficult dungeons, they generally need to form a fixed team with players who have cooperated for a long time and formed a tacit understanding to study the dungeon mechanics together to have a chance to clear the customs.

There are also some social players who are not interested in the above content, and like to go to the RP store (roleplay, where the player takes on the role of the boss or employee of the store to receive other players) or watch other players work in the square......

The RP shop dragon man burst into flames. Source: Station B, see watermark

Haidu Grand Crystal Square Dance. Source: Station B, see watermark

In addition, due to FF14's mentor certification system (veteran players who guide new players to familiarize themselves with the game and provide help to new players, known as mentors), many new players can make patient and friendly friends at the beginning of the game.

Although there will occasionally be a disturbance of "the mentor ran to the Kingdee Playground and caught the bean sprouts on the spot that his family did not actively push the main line" (The Golddee Playground is a place of leisure and entertainment in FF14, a good place to play cards and birds. Sprouts refers to new players), but more often than not, you'll see that over a long period of mentorship and companionship, a strong camaraderie can be built between mentors and sprouts.

See watermark for the source B station. After the death of a mentor due to illness, his sprouts launched a memorial ceremony in the game, and many passers-by and players spontaneously participated in seeing off the mentor.

Second, the commercialization of FF14 is very traditional, and from the current point of view, it can even be said that the commercial design is relatively weak.

Looking at the market, many new FTP (Free To Play) products have emerged in the MMO category in recent years, and some old classic point card games in the past will also be converted to FTP, so as to lower the threshold for playing as much as possible, attract more players, and then achieve revenue through in-app purchases.

But after all these years, FF14 still has a card. Charge by time, which in itself is a kind of screening of players. What's even more strange is that after screening out this group of players who are willing to spend money to play games, FF14 has not designed too strong consumption incentives.

As we mentioned earlier, FF14 does not have a store in the game, so players cannot shop directly. In fact, even if you enter the mall website, you will find that there are no valuable goods here: most of the fashion is 128 yuan; At present, the most expensive is the 338 yuan gift package; There are no gacha products in the mall, and if you don't play the probability, you can buy it immediately.

The most important thing is that there are many good-looking looks in FF14 that cannot be bought, and they must be obtained by typing or doing tasks.

Take, for example, the glowing weapon in FF14. I have the impression that this beautiful weapon will be exclusive to Big R, but the weapons sold in the mall will not light up. In the current version, glowing weapons either need to be crafted by the production class, or require players to complete a series of quests, or play a high difficulty book, Heavenly Palace and Underground Palace to obtain. The glowing weapon materials obtained by players can also be hung on the board, and other players can buy them with in-game currency.

Similarly, it is not possible to obtain the strongest numerical equipment by relying on Krypton. The strongest graduation outfit of each version requires players to play with high and difficult books. Moreover, other equipment such as high-level equipment that is slightly inferior to the strongest graduation outfit and whose values are not bad is not very difficult to obtain, and players can get it together by playing ordinary dungeons.

It is also worth noting that after entering the new version, the new equipment obtained by players in the main story and missions will soon catch up with the strongest graduation outfit of the old version. In other words, the numerical difference between players will never be too large, especially with a version update, which will pull all players to the same starting line.

Therefore, the situation where "Big R crushes passers-by in appearance and numerical values" is almost non-existent here in FF14.

For FF14, which does not promote social interaction and does not guide the design of kryptonite, a practitioner friend around me complained: "What does this mean? It shows that this game is not actively making money! But he also said, "On the contrary, the atmosphere of this game should be better." ”

In addition to the design highlights of the game itself, there is another point behind FF14's ability to gain the attention of players in the national region - a series of operations of Shengqu, the national server agent, have narrowed the distance between domestic players and FF14 and the game development team.

On the one hand, the team on Shengqu's side listens to persuasion. Not long ago, after version 7.0 was released on the international server, some key concepts and nouns have been translated by the people in China and are widely accepted by players. Although the official national server itself has prepared the translated content, after the player feedback "I hope some words will be changed to the version that everyone has accepted", they posted a post about localization issues, and then quickly updated the official translation and changed it to a version that is biased towards players' preferences.

The national costume producer loofah also has no shelf, often interacts with FF14 players, sometimes goes to work to fish and secretly plays FF14, and will patiently reply to passers-by in the game. Just looking at his B station space, you may not even guess that this is a producer-level character, but like an ordinary player - he will sigh when the team is wiped out, he will die many times when he fights, and he will dance after he has finally beaten.

Finally beat the loofah of the dragon poem

On the other hand, the offline activities held by the national service over the years can also reflect Shengqu's attention to players from the side.

For example, not long ago, they not only held a fan festival, but also held the first FF14 concert in China, and both events were attended by core members of the Japanese side, and Yoshida appeared every day. This not only reflects FF14's emphasis on the national server, but also shows that Shengqu is trying to enrich the form of activities and bring players closer to the Japanese R&D team.

See watermark for the source B station. At the Guangzhou Fan Festival, Yoshida and players cooperate to play live games.

For another example, from last year to now, FF14 has opened Heidlin Cafes in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and through the restored decoration and food, it has broken the dimension to bring the world of FF14 into the real life of players.

Swipe left and right to view. Guangzhou Headlin Cafe, there is a handwritten message from Yoshida in the upper right corner of the message wall.

The official national server often plays memes with players, such as the video of the loofah going to Shanghai Wild Animal Park to adopt a baboon, and many players comment and interact. He named the adopted little baboon Fourteen. The baboon family sits under the tree, looking like the Haidu Great Crystal waiting for the players in the row.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that the FF14 national server can still queue up on the server after 10 years, not because of the refreshing stimulation of numerical cultivation and 999 after krypton gold, but the role play of sinking down and sinking in. This may be the most deviant direction from the mainstream, but for some players who are pushed by the fast-paced life, slowing down and sinking into it may also be the fantasy life that everyone lacks and desires the most.

03

can't make quick money,

But that's exactly what players are willing to accept FF14

Because of this, FF14 isn't technically an MMO for all players.

Many players will praise FF14 for its well-written and detailed plot, but on the contrary, some people will think that its plot is lengthy and run errands to persuade them to quit;

In the main story of version 2.0, the base of the player's organization, the Sand House, was raided by the villains, and the player only found corpses all over the ground when he returned to the Sand House, and then he needed to carry the remains of his colleagues one by one to the carriage and transport them to the church for burial.

Some people think that its copy performance is excellent, and on the other hand, some people will think that the game combat is not interesting at all, purely watching animation;

A real-time show in the middle of the Warrior of Light Annihilation War. In the FF14 annihilation battle, this kind of interspersed performance is not uncommon.

Some people think that they can play very comfortably by spending a little card money, and there is no situation of forcing Krypton and being crushed by Krypton, and on the other hand, some big R will feel that there is no sense of superiority in playing, and there is less of the refreshing feeling of opening up the difference in values in other MMOs......

Of course, this is not to say that there must be a division between the games and the evaluation of who is more fun than whom. It's just that this phenomenon means that different players need different games.

And FF14 can only retain those players who are willing to take out their patience and play the game slowly and play their own role.

Yoshida also mentioned in a recent fan festival group interview that in more than 10 years of MMO research and development experience, he found that more and more MMOs are developing in the direction of lightweight. However, Yoshida does not plan to make any lightweight adjustments to the FF14, because what players accept and get used to is the FF14 as it is now.

After listening to Yoshida's thoughts, I also figured out: why didn't FF14 change itself according to the mainstream? Because their own path has been cleared. The team spent more of their minds on the game's role-playing content, rather than researching and adjusting the commercialization design, and thinking about how to get players to get more money in, which is the commercialization strategy they adhered to.

FF14, which relies on this method to make revenue, has indeed lost a lot of opportunities to make a lot of money in one go. But perhaps because of this, it has been able to go through more than ten years and maintain its status as the world's top MMO. The 7.0 version is quite an unusual update, which also shows that the methodology of FF14 has not changed: money can be earned slowly, not in a hurry.

For practitioners, the design idea of FF14 may also confirm that manufacturers want to make revenue, and it must mean that they have to study how to stimulate consumption, and everyone actually has other ways to go. As for what this road is, I think the evaluation of the UP master of a game area of station B is quite clear: "FF14's biggest contribution to the game industry is to tell the public that game manufacturers are not the only way to make money by cheating Krypton, and conscientious operation still works." ”

Source: Station B, see watermark

Editor Lin Zhi also contributed to this article.

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