It s 2024 soon, will MMOs still have a chance to return to the top?

Why can he achieve reverse growth for five consecutive years?

Can you still play like this?

But when it comes to the impression of "Under Heaven", I still have a lot of feelings.

When I was a student, it was the most popular era of MMO terminal games. In addition to the extremely dominant World of Warcraft, I was more willing to play fantasy, martial arts and other products that made me feel familiar.

Whether it is the look and feel of the picture, the gameplay setting or the overall texture, NetEase's self-developed "World II" at that time was very attractive to me. Shangri-La Studio has built a "Great Wilderness World" that is not inferior to Azeroth in terms of world view scale, but is more in line with the theme of oriental fantasy.

At that time, in "The World II", the sword Zhengyang set with national rhyme characteristics was the white moonlight in the hearts of countless people.

In the process of my repeated AFK and return to the pit, "Tianxia II" was upgraded to "Tianxia 3", which not only went through a full 15 years, but also achieved reverse growth in revenue and users in the past five years, and also achieved the small goal of "exceeding 200 million historical users" this year. Looking at the new New Year's Eve digital server "2008" that will be opened at 19:00 on the 29th, people can't help but sigh that the times are sometimes really a cycle.

Always regarded as a mobile MMO that has been abandoned by the times, driven by these classic games, it has obviously rejuvenated in recent years. After experiencing the migration of the old IP collective to the mobile terminal, everyone seems to find that it is still necessary to do an experience reconstruction on the PC side.

Not only to give back to old users and consolidate the IP foundation, but also because the MMO of the terminal game still has unique features in terms of experience, a good MMO IP of the terminal game can still allow countless players to continue to return, and new blood will continue to join in.

But continuing that success into the future is not easy for many MMOs. Maybe IP has been a bit exhausted in terms of operationMaybe the system is too big to do a complete technical overhaul?Maybe the brand influence is not as good as it used to be?Without a little deep skill and long-term spirit, it is really impossible to make such a huge plan.

In the face of the common problems of these categories, why can "Tianxia 3", which is also a player in the end-game era, be more and more nourishing, and younger and younger?Looking back carefully at this old friend's experience, it is not difficult to see some clues.

Mature MMOs will change their ways to entertain players

Players who have experienced the MMO** era of terminal games should understand that the games at that time were actually very "heavy values".

At that time, the gameplay and operation were far less user-friendly than they are today, so if you revisit those classics of the 00s at this point in 2023, you will find that the main experience is basically based on repetitive work and value-led PVP. This is also the angle from which many people question the value of MMO play - this is a category that requires long-term cultivation and deep social interaction to feel fun.

Looking back on the history of "Tianxia 3", you will find that after a period of confusion, Shangri-La Studio quickly adjusted the general direction of product operation. It has not only built a business operation model based on the dual system of "numerical + appearance", but also vigorously developed the "special clothing ecology" in the past two years, which more intuitively demonstrates the official's determination to abandon the inherent shackles of the category.

For example, in the 21-year "Re-fight for the Present Dynasty" in the "Year of Concerted Efforts", the card-level characteristic service system with streamlining and cultivation as the core has gradually taken shape, completely reconstructing the cultivation experience of users of "Tianxia 3".

This year, it was even more groundbreaking to put forward the "Dou Zhuan Xing Shift" plan, and launched the first reincarnation server "Ding Qiankun" in November, boldly trying the old server appearance value inheritable, direct ascension, faction PVP and other settings, so that old players can enjoy the core fun of the game more freely and conveniently.

To put it simply, "Tianxia 3" discovered the part of the MMO category that "can't keep up with the times" earlier, and tried to find an experience rhythm that adapts to the current users.

The "World II" region, which was launched this year in a nostalgic clothing ecology, highlights the success of this model. According to the official data, the number of reservations for the "World II" region has exceeded 600,000 before the opening, and as of November this year, the number of regional corners that have been open for more than 150 days has exceeded 2 million.

If you look closely at the success of the "World II" region, you will find that the reason is not only "feelings", but also the official willingness to fully explore the new fun that the game brings to players on the basis of feelings.

For example, try to add an "open world" map to the game, the Bronze Gate.

The development team keenly grasped the core needs of nostalgic players in "The World II", that is, to restore the great wilderness where demons were raging and wars were raging. The development team made drastic reforms on the basis of the original map of "The World II", such as breaking through the limitations of the old engine and reconstructing it in the form of an open map, increasing the map viewing distance from the original 1km to 10,000 meters, completely opening up a new experience perspective for players.

Players can ignite the Altar of Flint in the vast map of the "Ancient Bronze Gate", increase the exploration of each independent area, and discover various interactions and rewards in the scene, so as to experience the grand narrative contained in the Ancient Bronze Gate in the most immersive form. You can even experience the "full-server boss battle" of 5000+ players on the same screen on the open world map, which is a passion that belongs exclusively to players all over the world.

Obviously, "Tianxia 3" has really revolutionized the experience framework of traditional MMO, so that players can feel what a more immersive large-scale MMO of this generation should look like.

Therefore, I think it is very important that the more successful the old IP, the more timely the direction of operation should be adjusted. The key to its success is the ability of Tianxia 3 to adjust the heavy numerical operation framework of the old era in a timely manner, to improve the game rhythm according to the needs of current players, and to introduce new gameplay content on the basis of the original game.

The "hard bone" of technology is to be enjoyed early

Compared with operational-level planning, technology to keep up with the times is another uphill battle.

Many elderly MMO products in the market will face the choice of whether to "remake" and to what extent. This naturally requires a lot of cost, but it is almost a hurdle that must be crossed. After all, no matter how good the content and operation are, it is possible to gain more recognition from players if the audio-visual, operational, and easy-to-use experience can be improved with the times.

The IP engine iteration plan codenamed "Open Heaven Project" has already been established within the production team, and the development team even resolutely decided to gradually replace the underlying engine of "Under Heaven" with NetEase's self-developed full 3D cross-platform engine-Messiah Engine.

The experience optimization brought about by engine iteration is very intuitive. For example, with the help of the new engine's advantages in the underlying logic and new technologies, the performance occupation of the machine can be greatly reduced in the scene. The surface effect, which used to require 3,600 treatments, can now be achieved in only 360 times, reducing the performance burden on the machine to 1 10.

Immersion is also important for a genre like MMO, which is about "living in". Based on the effect brought by the iteration of the engine, the official combined the PCG (Procedural Generation) pipeline with the engine for the first time in the production process of the large map, so that the real terrain can be restored in the game and give players an immersive feeling.

In my opinion, with the precipitation of "Tianxia 3" in content and users for many years, it will definitely not be a problem to serve the existing players well. But daring to increase investment and lead IP to the next stage is a plan that requires great courage to advance.

The effect of the replacement of the pre-research engine of the product.

It can be expected that when the team completely completes all stages of engine iteration, will an orthodox sequel like "Tianxia 4" not be far away?This kind of thinking that dares to reconstruct from the underlying logic,In fact, it can not only improve the existing experience of players, but more importantly, it can make players have more long-term confidence in IP.

The moment when players can see and play the technological iteration results that make them believe that the IP still has infinite possibilities is the moment when the old IP is reborn.

Make a brand with "play heart" and play with users

In addition to the above two points, the brand tonality of an IP is also very important.

In recent years, it is becoming easier for players to pour emotion into the brand to engage in "anthropomorphic cognition", and the official brand style can determine whether players can have a sense of belonging and intimacy to a certain extent. There is also a lot of knowledge in this, not a competent service image is the best solution, and a more down-to-earth, even a little "crazy" brand image is sometimes more to the appetite of players.

In terms of branding, "Tianxia 3" has also done a lot.

The first is to maintain communication with players and build a strong emotional connection. Since 2008, it has been an important part of the IP community to hold various exchange meetings. So far, more than 200 exchange activities have been held, covering dozens of cities and tens of thousands of players in China.

From August to October this year alone, the official went to Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi'an and other cities to hold 5 offline exchange meetings, collecting about 1,800 questions and demands from players. There are also annual activities that players look forward to every year, such as "The World: The Biography of Zhang Kaifeng" in the form of a stage play, which is widely acclaimed, and every performance is always full, and it is also listed in "People's **" as a key cultural and creative project in Guangzhou

While communicating with players, "Tianxia 3" is also very happy to "live", which is also a tradition of NetEase. As the originator of NetEase 3DMO, the big brother of "Tianxia 3", the back foot took the initiative to participate in the war, starting a 1% off carnival with a minimum of 0The direct sales appearance of 6 yuan is ruthlessly drained. The "2024 Dream Realization Plan" that was launched a while ago also claimed to give away 1,000 appearances for free, which once again detonated the heat of discussion.

The article begins by mentioning the season-limited boss that "Tianxia 3" will introduce in the game, which is also a bold move that directly pokes at the Internet fun people. Such a highly discussed topic is naturally fully fermented on social platforms such as Douyin, and a variety of interesting secondary activities can be seen under related topics**, allowing players to follow the official and boldly ridicule together.

For many old IPs with fixed user groups, it is not easy to make such an "out-of-line" attempt in marketing communication. But "Tianxia 3" is willing to take the lead in "starting a group", so that pan-entertainment users who don't think it's a big deal to watch the excitement can join in and have fun together. This down-to-earth "borrowing" style of play can instead allow more people to get the characteristics of the IP, which makes it possible to attract new users.

Laughing to death, can the game circle still make a Douyin topic?

At the same time, it can also be seen that the "Tianxia" brand does not have such a big idol baggage, but hopes to build its own brand memory point with a more people-friendly route. I think this will be a good reference for many old IPs who have also experienced more than ten years of precipitation, and sometimes they have to travel lightly to open up a new situation.

Conclusion:

The above article took "Tianxia 3" as an example, and said a lot of my shallow views on how MMOs should be revitalized in the era of terminal games, but this does not mean that this IP has not made achievements on mobile.

The mobile game version of "Tianxia" has also been online for seven years, and as of November, the number of new users has continued to increase year-on-year. The expansion pack "Siege of the Magic Tide" released in March this year, as well as the "World II" region, which was launched simultaneously with the terminal game in July, have fully broken many stereotypes of MMO and allowed more players to feel the charm of the category.

With the more and more brisk pace of follow-up mobile games, it is obvious that the IP of "Tianxia" as a whole has gradually followed a positive cycle of operation, and there is reason to believe that "Tianxia" will go further on the road of revitalization, so that players and the industry can see that the MMO track is still a long way to go, and it is far from reaching the so-called ceiling, and everything is still worth learning and observing.