In China, online social gaming is experiencing a growth that mirrors the onset of the Facebook gaming scene in America. Developers and publishers are all aiming to grab an audience and increase their market share. On the eve of China.com's Third China Web Games Summit, the site decided to take a look at the issues facing this burgeoning market. According to the site, the summit is an important step for China's web game industry with the participants, “poised to exceed attendance numbers of the past two years.”
The article says that web gamers “are slightly older than MMO players, and most of them are office staff.” In addition, 62.8% web gamers have obtained, “tertiary education, which means that this group has strong buying needs and power.” With extra time to burn and loads of disposable income, this demographic is looking for the simple, time-consuming entertainment that online social gaming can provide. Some experts even say that online social gaming is the next phase of the online gaming phenomenon, having been kick-started by massively multiplayer games.
Prior to the summit, developers and publishers in the field were interviewed about the issues they felt would affect the market in the future. The issues fell into three different categories: a lack of innovation, a short lifecycle, and excessive imitation of content and gameplay.
In such a crowded market, it becomes difficult for a developer to stand out from the group and provide new gameplay styles. Understanding the needs of the audience is key, but some web developers may not be able to accurately gauge their target demographic. “There is imitation now, but innovation is the future, and games should emphasize originality at every step of the development process. Only high quality products can last in the market, and this is also vital to companies' sustained development,” said Zhu Haiyan, CEO of Guanghuai Interactive. “The most popular games on the market have integrated players' favorite gameplay elements, and these games also boast high-quality design, graphics and control schemes.”
“A product needs to have a specific focus first and foremost, in order to be accepted by players - the target user group and the experience that the game is trying to provide. Developers need to adhere to this principle constantly and focus on developing the product that players need,” says Tang Wentao of Fantasy Game. “Targeting all kinds of players is simply infeasible - a game typically only has one core gameplay mechanic, and the rest is all built around this core."
Some web developers feel web games are like “fast-food,” endlessly copying successful ideas without sufficient polish. This dilutes the market with products of uneven quality, thus leading to the consumer mindset of web games as mini-games, instead of full-fledged gaming experiences. Numerous studios spend small budgets on titles and develop over the course of only three to five months.
Changyou Interactive Project Manager Li Ming says that, “a product of true quality requires a long development cycle. Fortunately, the increased investments (both financially and talent-wise) of many client-based online game companies have led to increased investments from small to medium-sized web game companies. Their products have become more polished and can begin to rival those developed by the larger counterparts.”
Finally, repetition and widespread imitation across the entire market could prove harmful to the industry, not unlike the North American Video Game Crash of 1983. Games of similar content are pushed into the market too quickly, leading to a sea of titles that are virtually indistinguishable. Companies that attempt this sort of imitation will eventually fail en masse, dragging legitimately creative developers down with them. Some even believe that the web games industry should be regulated.
Zhou Ning of Bihan Network says that many web games play exactly the same. “Web games can partially integrate with MMORPGs or other genres, and this will lead to games of higher quality and depth. However, this hybrid model will not be easy to implement, and is totally unproven among players,” she comments. Zhu Haiyan of Guanguai Interactive adds that, “developers should be disciplined and create products in a legitimate manner, and their mission is to provide users with fresh gaming experiences and sensations.”
The Third Web Games Summit is intended to bring these issues to light and provide concrete solutions for the future. China.com, the summit’s organizer, will also be releasing the China Web Games Development Report and choosing the first winners of the “Golden Lead Award” for web gaming.
