In the past ten years of rapid development of the mobile game industry, most of the early games have been left behind, but there are still some high-quality products that have passed through the cycle and are still active in the mainstream vision.
Among them, the mobile version of "Three Kingdoms Killing", which was launched in 2011, is an "evergreen" masterpiece, which has not only been stable at the top of the iOS best-selling list in the past 12 years, but also ranked among the top 10 best-selling lists at major nodes such as anniversaries, and once rushed to the 6th place on the best-selling list during the anniversary celebration in July this year.
Data**: Qimai data.
In Gameres' view, the excellent performance of the game is not groundless, and it is not difficult to find from observing its actions in the past two years that the game is in the general direction by controlling the strength of the generals, slowing down the rhythm of environmental changes;The second is to promote the renewal of content through the introduction of innovative mechanisms such as the "Ten Standing Attendants".The third is to pursue higher quality and warmer long-term operations by issuing epic generals and providing more benefits to players, such as providing full reduction coupons.
On December 16th, the game launched a year-end welfare season event with the theme of "Joy Love, Joy and Carnival", aiming to create a carnival of players covering both online and offline scenarios, and join hands with players to celebrate the good times at the end of the year, and the game has once again rushed to the TOP7 of the iOS best-selling list.
Thanks to the active participation of players, the popularity of the event has continued to rise after its launch, and many players have expressed their unfulfilled expectations for this year's welfare season and their ardent expectations for the event in the coming year on social media such as Douyin and Weibo.
It is not difficult to see that the game has established an important brand node contract with players with a successful operation activity, and pioneered the creation of an original festival with the theme of "giving back to players".
In fact, the year-end welfare season is not the first attempt at "festival-making" of the work, and in terms of its diversified layout in recent years, it is not an exaggeration to label it a "festival-making maniac".
On the road of "making festivals", Gameres found that the work always has the same starting point, that is, to take the preferences and demands of contemporary young people as the anchor, and strengthen the core of the original festival by outputting the trendy content that Generation Z users like to see, which is also an important driving factor for its product tonality and user structure to become more and more "younger" in recent years.
Just like young players often like to use "thriving" when ridiculing games, in the matter of "making festivals", it chooses to take the lead in playing stalks and "steaming", and continues to narrow the emotional distance with young people with various sincere "steaming (true) measures".
There are ** killed by the Three Kingdoms, and there is a dense "thriving", and there is no doubt that the circle is famousInsight into the needs and thoughts of young people, fancy "festival-making" resonates
According to Gameres' observation, in recent years, "Three Kingdoms Mobile Version" has created three original festivals: the year-end welfare season, the old friends season, and the anniversary celebration, exploring the diversified integration ideas of "trendy culture" and "traditional culture" at different nodes, and constantly strengthening the "younger" tone of the brand with young people's content preferences as the starting point.
Year-end benefits season: "steaming" benefits.
Focusing on the year-end welfare season that is still in full swing, on the one hand, the game ** firmly grasps the love of young people for national culture, and uses its own cultural background of the Three Kingdoms as the fulcrum to create the theme song "Luozi Jiangshan" for "Shen Xun Yu", and invited the popular singer Jing Hao to sing.
Among them, whether it is the strong national style tonality of the song, or the lyrics that reproduce Xun Yu's life and even restore his historical image, they have won many praises for the theme song, reflecting the game's vision of continuing to explore the diversified communication paths of "traditional culture".
On the other hand, perhaps inspired by this year's Halloween young people's COS carnival on the streets of Shanghai, the work captures the strong personalized expression needs of Generation Z.
During the event, players from all over the country flocked to the scene, including players cos game generals, players cos game stalks "thriving", and even players directly incarnated as game props "ingots tree" ......Under the wanton "whole work" of young people, the scene can be described as lively and witty and interesting.
Through this phenomenon, we can actually see that the original intention of the game really wants to stand and play with players, and while exploring the innovative integration of "pop culture" and "traditional culture", it also hopes to give young people the opportunity to express their love for the game and the culture of the Three Kingdoms in their favorite way.
Of course, throughout this online and offline carnival, which is also the main theme of the festival, is a large number of "steaming (real)" benefits.
During the period, the official not only opened activities such as collecting words to send epic**, ingot tree welfare upgrades, etc., but also released Shen Xunyu dynamics**, Cai Zhenji and Cai Wenji winter solstice limited** and other appearances;In addition to the game, the official live broadcast on December 16 gave players all kinds of game gift packages and limited peripherals, and the COS competition also provided 10,000 yuan in cash as a reward for giving back to players for various "creative memes COS".
It is worth mentioning that during the welfare season, the official also grandly launched a series of **CD, integrating the theme songs created for generals and festivals in recent years, interpreting its long-term pursuit of trying to surprise young people by creating "steaming"**.
If we push the timeline further, we can also observe that the game has completed two successful "festivals" before the welfare season, and both also reflect its determination to take the lead in "steaming" in different dimensions.
Old Friends Season: "Steaming" Social.
In March this year, with the launch of the original festival "Old Friends Season", "Three Kingdoms Kill Mobile Version" has launched limited-time activities such as team play "Like-mindedness", "Working Together" in the game of "Gathering Words", and "Old Friends Fighting Landlords" in social competition.
Although they are presented in different forms, the starting point is to enrich the game experience, help players open up more social channels, and strengthen the social connection between players in a way that young people will like.
At the same time, there are two cross-border cooperation anchored by "brotherhood".
The MV of the song revolves around the "college campus" scene that carries the memories of young people's youth, and by restoring the brothers playing "Three Kingdoms" in the dormitory, sweating on the basketball court and other close-to-life clips, it awakens young people's understanding of friendship in a natural and sincere way, and also provides them with valuable nostalgic emotional value.
After the release of the song, the topic of Nanquan's mother's new song Memory Kill also quickly appeared on the Douyin real-time hot list, with more than 39 million topics.
Second, the game cooperated with Wanhe Tianyi, which had produced popular dramas such as "Never Expected", through the launch of a series of short dramas, presenting the friendship between old friends in the form of witty and vivid content.
In Gameres' view, the idea of "making festivals" in Friends Season is very clear, which is to create an important node that can not only highlight the "steaming (real)" social characteristics of the game, but also strengthen the emotional bond with players. What's more, whether it is the production ideas of linkage ** or short dramas, they are faintly coupled with the interests of young users, which also enables Old Friends Season to further empower the "youthfulness" of the product tonality.
Anniversary: "steaming" popularity.
Compared with the above two new festivals, the anniversary celebration of "Three Kingdoms Mobile" has been held every year since 2021, and it has already become the most anticipated carnival of the year. Looking back on the anniversary celebrations in the past three years, it can be found that the work will gather popularity through various creative forms in addition to content renewal and welfare relaxation, and bring young players to "hi" together.
On the 2021 anniversary, the game joined hands with veteran singer Tengger and rapper Sha Yiting, who sang the theme song "Standing Out from the Crowd" and starred in an original funny short drama. Thanks to the well-made songs, as well as the witty memes such as Tengger Long Hair in the short play, this anniversary has formed a strong circle-breaking effect, and the game has also attracted the attention and love of more young people.
In 2022, in addition to joining hands with Dai Quan, a national style **, and Lan Tian, a national first-class actor of the Shanghai Peking Opera Company, to launch the anniversary theme song "Xindingjun Mountain", the work also held a "virtual party" in the game, which accurately hit the trend culture needs of Generation Z users who are keen on "Yun Bundi", and created an unprecedented popularity carnival.
This year, the game chose to join forces with national first-class actor Meng Qingyang, and she performed a sable dance drama "Closed Moon", and also cooperated with up masters such as Xin Xiaomeng, Jiuling, and Macho Dance Troupe at Station B, focusing on the core content of the dance drama, deepening the brand symbol, and reaching more pan-entertainment users.
After the popularity of dance dramas continued to ferment, the work opened a big screen in 10 cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing, breaking through online and offline communication barriers, and sincerely inviting players across the country to celebrate their birthdays.
It is not difficult to see that there have always been two clear main lines in the anniversary celebrations over the years: one is to insist on creating theme songs, short plays and other content through linkage with well-known artists, and convey the beauty of "traditional culture" in a novel form, which resonates with young people's growing love for national culture;The second is to anchor the popular culture such as Bundy and City Walk that Gen Z loves, customize various creative activities, and work with online celebrations to build momentum for the game, and finally make the anniversary celebration an important original festival that can be summarized by the popularity of "steaming (real)".
Conclusion
In Gameres' view, if any product wants to succeed in the long run, it needs to innovate and change with the times, and change cannot just stay on the surface, but needs to be based on the long-term perspective to plan and plan.
In recent years, there are two very clear new trends, one is the establishment of the industry stock trend, and the market involution has intensified;The second is that young users, led by Generation Z, have become the mainstay of the industry.
In such an environment, this work has an early insight into these changes, and chooses to take advantage of the trend, take the initiative to change, by adhering to the core concept of "younger", starting from the needs of young people, through "making festivals" such an exploration attempt, and constantly seek resonance with Generation Z users. In the same process, it has also refreshed the perception of the IP brand in the minds of old players again and again, and with the continuous spread of this freshness of "always playing and always new", its user ecology has become more stable and reliable over time.
It is precisely in such a positive resonance of "maintaining stability and promoting vitality" and "attracting new users to retain" that the work has been able to operate for 12 years for a long time, and it has endured for a long time in the mobile game industry with serious "involution".
Today, the "Three Kingdoms Kill Mobile Version", which takes the lead in "steaming", has launched corresponding original festivals at important nodes at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and the end of the year, and continues to provide players with a full sense of ritual by outputting a variety of sustainable and expected content, which also makes the game and players establish an increasingly solid brand contract.
Looking forward to the future, I believe that the long-term adherence to the concept of "youth" will continue to rejuvenate in the company of players, and the future is still promising.