Need to find an antidote to boredom At the end of 2023, unlike the home field of the mini-game boom and party game wars, the second wave of the war chess category seems to have avoided the frontal battlefield.
From the beginning of the year, "Three Kingdoms: War Chess Edition" fired the first shot of the 2023 war chess track, whether it was breaking into the top3 of the best-selling list in the first week, or ranking in the top 10 for several consecutive weeks, this scene seems to be familiar with "Heaven and Earth Tribulation: The Return of the Ghost City" in early 2021.
Is war chess going to return to the mainstream players' field of vision again in 2023?"Maybe a lot of people had this idea at the time.
It may be that we underestimated the quantity and quality of the new game market this year, and after experiencing the two-dimensional smash brawl, the revival of MMORPG, and the rise of mini games, we looked back at the war chess at the beginning of the year again, and suddenly felt like a world away.
Looking back on 2023, although there is no shortage of new challengers in the war chess track, such as the new work of the purple dragon war chess "Ganglan", the heart-warming SPPG "Sword of the Lily of the Valley: For This Peaceful World", and the sequel to the previous IP "Girls' Frontline 2: Pursuit", etc. But when it comes to market performance, few of them have reached the brilliant results of the early days of the launch of "Three Kingdoms: War Chess Edition".
Is it a war chess category that is not good?Judging from the data, this is indeed the case at this stage. Of course, in the author's opinion, if we want to understand the deeper reasons behind this, we should perhaps start from the characteristics and pain points of the war chess category.
The core gameplay of war chess and the death of mobile games
When writing this manuscript, the author originally wanted to use the launch of "Shaoqian 2: Chasing Release" as a starting point.
However, considering the recent turmoil of the product, and the focus is not on the game American war chess gameplay itself, it is more of a controversy over character design, commercialization and other content. Moreover, the competition core has previously briefly analyzed the product in the articles "Scatter Explosion This New Product, Choosing a Breakthrough War Chess is a Little Different" and "Scatter Explosion Less 2 is popular again, this time it is scolded by players", so I will not repeat it here.
If we look at the development of the game of war chess, we can find that war chess products will more or less carry out a "two-pronged" trial. The first is to attract core war chess players as the "basic game" of the game audience, and the second is to explore the popularization of war chess games at the same time to increase the conversion of new players in the category.
But frankly speaking, for the war chess category, this beautiful vision is extremely difficult to realize. First of all, core war chess players need enough strategic depth to meet their needs, and they will inevitably need a higher upper limit of strategic skillsSecondly, in the era of mobile games, it is more likely to attract new players by being simple to use and straightforward. In addition, the way to develop war chess games even has an excessively high threshold that is contrary to the characteristics of its own category - it requires a slow-paced and strategy-oriented game that is easy to learn and difficult to master, and has a fast and direct sense of coolness.
Battle Banner focuses on predicting and calculating the category characteristics of slow-paced strategies, which is difficult to directly link with the feeling of coolness. Since it is difficult to have both, it seems that "stabilizing one and fighting for the other" has become a solution that is closer to reality.
"Who to protect and who to fight" seems to have a choice, but from the perspective of commercial mobile games, it is actually difficult to have other choices - in order to prevent slipping into a niche hardcore and win more users, simplifying the gameplay of war chess and lowering the threshold for playing seem to have become the general solution of war chess mobile games.
For example, "Shao Qian 2: Chase and Play" is based on "XCOM" cover shooting + war chess, removing the content of hit probability that can be affected by the environment, and reducing the complexity of the game by reducing the strategic dimension;At the same time, the content of strategy mechanisms such as vigilance will be replaced with attribute restraint content that can be easily accepted by more players, so that more players can adapt to the combat experience of American wargames more quickly.
"Ganglan" is designed around "part destruction" + "differentiated component effects" to create an experience similar to "easy to learn and difficult to master".
In XCOM, players need to take advantage of the terrain to increase the hit rate of their attacks.
When warchess is a long-term product, another contradiction inevitably erupts.
Looking back at these war chess games, I don't know if you have found a problem, that is, the sense of strategy that the early experience of war chess mobile games focuses on, and it often gradually cools down as the experience continues to be cool.
Of course, this is not for the war chess category, but rather that compared to other card RPG categories, this experience feels more downward. The specific reason, the author believes, is that there is an obvious conflict between the slow-paced characteristics of the core gameplay of war chess and the long-term operation.
In the author's opinion, the long-term operation of war chess games will inevitably touch on two major pain points: first, after the strategy skills are exhausted, the game experience may inevitably slide into numerical competition simply by modifying the gameplay (especially the war chess products that are already in pursuit of "easy to learn and difficult to master");Second, compared with other card RPGs, players can get significantly lower returns from war chess when they spend the same amount of time and effort.
These two interact with each other to become a "chronic poison" that makes the game of war chess gradually boring.
The first of these points may be the pain point of the long-term operation of most games, but it may have a greater impact on war chess products that take strategy as the main core experience. The second point is more like the war chess category "fighting the enemy's strengths with one's own shortcomings".
In other words, it's not that the game of war chess is not fun, but that compromises and compromises put the strategy experience in front of the front, and gradually distort it under the catalysis of numerical values and long-term operations. Perhaps this can answer the question at the beginning: "Is the war chess category not good?"”。In the face of the emergence of new products in 2023 and the continuous development of old products, the war chess track is also constantly being squeezed by other tracks.
There are three major playing methods: precision, screening and mixing
To be honest, at this stage, it is difficult for war chess games to compete with mainstream track products, and they can't compare with big DAU products such as MOBA, party, and MMORPG. But why do some manufacturers still choose this direction?
The author believes that there may be two reasons.
Part of the reason for this comes from history, thanks to the long existence of the category (as early as the red and white machine period of war chess), the stock of users is considerable, not to mention that a large part of these users have considerable ability to pay;The other part is that in the mobile game market with distinctive stock characteristics, the game category is becoming more and more refined, and the higher strategic depth of the game gameplay can create absolute differentiation in the category, and use it to attract, screen, absorb and convert new players.
The popularity of "Three Kingdoms: War Chess Edition" at the beginning of the 21st year of "Heaven and Earth Tribulation: The Return of the Ghost City" also proves to some extent that there are always some vertical users and a considerable number of pan-war chess users and potential users in this category.
Since it is determined that the game has a certain audience base, it is natural to formulate the marketing ideas of the product according to the audience attributes. Specifically, the current domestic war chess can be classified into three mainstream playing styles: precision, screening, and hybrid.
The first is the precise style of play of "attracting core players from the war chess itself" - using the influence of the old war chess IP to attract those old war chess players.
This kind of product is relatively clear in direction, as long as it has a high degree of compatibility with the original IP and a strong core experience strategy, it can naturally satisfy this part of the old players. However, the same part of the players have certain requirements for the restoration degree of IP and product quality, once the product cannot meet the needs of old players, IP may also become a double-edged sword.
Judging from the market performance, at least the two IP products of the Zilong war chess "Dream Simulation Battle" and "Heaven and Earth Tribulation: The Return of the Ghost City" have achieved good results.
In addition to the old IP of war chess, there are also more direct ways to play accurately, such as the heartbeat "Sword of the Lily of the Valley: For This Peaceful World" directly puts the retro war chess label of "Benge srpg" + "pixel retro temperament" on the bright side to attract old war chess players. From the perspective of product performance, the game ranked in the top 20 of the best-selling list in the first week of release, which seems to also show the feasibility of this style of play.
When these veteran players are gradually activated and absorbed, they are not suitable for using the same play mode for a short period of time. Therefore, another screening style of "screening players through the game of chess" came into being, which attracts players through the uniqueness of the product itself (such as art style, theme setting, or non-game IP), and uses the game of war chess as a "funnel" to screen players who are interested in war chess.
Judging from the description alone, it can also be known that this style of play needs to gain the attention of a large number of players, and the current mainstream method is to use the theme of the second dimension, the Three Kingdoms and other widely used themes, and with their own "unique style expression or gameplay creativity" to increase the impression of passers-by and players, and then achieve a wider communication effect.
In addition to the purple dragon war chess masterpiece "Ganglan", this kind of product also includes "Wildfire Lumens" by Mobius and "Galaxy Border" by Etherous Games.
Taking "Gunlan" as an example, the game takes the mecha theme as the starting point, changes the common class restraint (or elemental restraint) to "part destruction", and at the same time cooperates with the differentiated accessory content, further enriching the player's tactical choices"Wildfire Lumens" has carried out in-depth exploration of the gameplay of war chess, adding the "skojiko" design formed by the physical element of "weight", and lightening the process experience, creating a delicate war chess experience similar to "Trapped Will".
In addition to the above two conventional playing styles, there is also a type of mixed play, among which the recently launched "Shaoqian 2: Chasing Release" and the "Three Kingdoms: War Chess Edition" launched at the beginning of this year are such representatives.
According to the definition of the above two playing styles, "Shaoqian 2: Chasing" is obviously a screening style of "screening players through the gameplay of war chess", but with the IP of "Shaoqian" and its worldview theme and the gameplay mode of the American war chess "XCOM" has a very high compatibility, combined with its core gameplay as early as 2021, the playing style of "Shaoqian 2: Chasing and Release" has the precise gene of "attracting core players from the war chess itself".
Diametrically opposed to "Shaoqian 2: Chasing and Release", "Three Kingdoms: War Chess Edition" is backed by the "Three Kingdoms" IP of Koei Tecmo, and seems to inherit the "precision" style of play of the players of the previous "Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition", but in fact, there is a big difference in experience between the two, and the target users of the War Chess Edition are not exactly the strategic version, so "Three Kingdoms: War Chess Edition" also has some "screening" genes.
In the pioneering period of war chess mobile games, we need to "wake up" and activate the old war chess users, and use this as the basic game of the category, and it is understandable to choose the "precise" style of play at this time. When it becomes difficult for veteran players to continue to activate war chess, "recruiting new players" has become another dimension that needs to be considered in war chess mobile games.
Or because of this, the emergence of "filtered" products is also an inevitable trend in the development of the category - to attract mass players through a wider range of themes, and after the screening of war chess gameplay, a group of new war chess players are cultivated. However, there is also a certain risk of "filtering", that is, the hit rate of the target users of war chess is not high, and the loss of players is more serious.
In order to avoid such a situation, the hybrid type to increase the activity of the product in the early stage has also emerged. On the one hand, it can attract core players to participate as the "basic plate" of the product audience, and on the other hand, it can continue to convert new players through the theme elements of a wide audience. Compared with the "screening type", the "hybrid type" has better stability.
In short, combined with the above cases and the evolution path of the war chess category, the author believes that whether it is "precision", "screening" or "hybrid", the purpose is to be able to adapt to the development needs of war chess mobile games at different stages.
Is RPG the only home for wargame?
After talking about operational methods, let's take a look at the evolution of gameplay.
Looking back at the domestic war chess mobile game, it is largely inseparable from the RPG gene of the game. Even the long-term operational contradictions described above are mostly here.
But why are there still many manufacturers obsessed with war chess RPGs?The Japanese war chess in the FC era certainly has an impact on domestic players, but it is more likely that it can be directly applied to a mature commercial framework.
First of all, RPGs can be combined with a full-fledged card development framework. Secondly, in turn, the combination and combination of card characters can further enrich the strategy experience of the game, and the commercial content of character cards is relatively easy to achieve. In addition, the RPG's introductory experience, emotional experience, and growth experience are also conducive to improving user stickiness.
Further, the RPG can attract players to pay for card drawing through rich character image shaping content, and then achieve the purpose of commercialization.
Of course, in the author's opinion, the war chess RPG itself has the gene of card RPG. If we put aside the influence of "chess", from the perspective of RPG alone, the author is also inclined to say that "Japanese war chess is an extension of turn-based RPG in the spatial dimension".
Because both of them have the basic setting of turn-based in terms of gameplay rules. As for the difference, the battle chess gameplay is based on the turn-based addition of spatial elements such as map scenes, which improves the immersion of the RPG and extends the strategic dimension of the battle.
If you leave the RPG elements, is there any other solution?The author thinks it exists. Taking Unknown Worlds' new work "Moonbreaker" as an example, the game is based on PVP battle gameplay, using war chess battles in the game, and focusing more on the character's painting customization outside the game, which can be said to be completely rid of the development framework of the ** chess RPG. In terms of game experience, "Moonbreaker" introduces settings such as "skill trigger probability", which increases the differentiated experience of the game, improves the replay value of the battle, and makes it more replayable.
However, there is one thing to say. Although the short-term experience is full of fun, it remains to be verified whether this gameplay mode can support the long-term operation of the game.
To be sure, it's hard to fit everyone's gameplay needs. But the author also believes that RPGs are by no means the only destination for the war chess category. At this stage, war chess games cannot be compared with the head track, perhaps they do not deliberately pursue popularity, try their best to meet the needs of vertical users, and it is worth trying to explore in a different direction.
This direction will certainly lead to the game becoming a hardcore niche, but after experiencing the souls-based "Elden Ring" and the CRPG "Baldur's Gate 3" winning the best of the year, who would dare to say that niche hardcore will not be able to open up the pattern.
Perhaps in the near future, the war chess category will finally usher in its bravery.