From "Snake" to "Honor of Kings" and "Game for Peace", mobile games have undergone earth-shaking changes in production technology, image quality and gameplay, and have successfully completed commercialization and become entertainment products that players can download on their own. Production determines consumption, and nimotv recharge is born for mobile game consumption. "Krypton Gold" is a new game term that has emerged, which means the recharge behavior in online games, that is, consumption for games.
According to the 2020 Global Game Market Report, the game industry maintains a gratifying growth trend. By the end of the year, there will be 2.7 billion players worldwide, and the growth of mobile game users will exceed that of PCs and consoles. In this era of popularization of smartphones, mobile games have become the entertainment choice of many people.
As a commodity, mobile games are designed to make a profit. "Honor of Kings" offers a wide variety of hero skins, while "Game for Peace" also has a variety of fancy character costumes and gun appearances for players to choose from.
Skins in "Honor of Kings" and gun appearances in "Peace Elite"
In addition to the visual effects, many game equipments are clearly marked with prices, which can make the player's gaming experience rise to a higher level. When players are tired of endless running around and boring and low-return dungeons, they can directly spend money to get what they want. This "one-step" pleasure is irresistible. In the game, players are just using real "currency" to create their ideal world or role in order to maximize their happiness. All of this is virtual, but the pleasure is extremely real.
Compared with MOBA mobile games that are difficult to control, otome games that have emerged in China in recent years are more popular among young female groups.
Official promotional image of Love and Producer
For example, Love and Producer, which was launched in 2017, gained good reputation and achievements in just one month. Its main immersive experience fascinated many female players. The wonderful interactive design allows players to create infinite possibilities with the game protagonist under the sense of security given by the dimensional wall. Similarly, whether it is the love for the game characters or the appreciation for the plot arrangement, everything is virtual, but the emotions poured into it by the players are real.
Under the emotional thinking, players choose to pay for "emotions" by spending money. Most of the money-generating content in otome games is mainly props for extracting cards, and the chance of getting the desired card face is greatly increased after spending money.
"Love and Producer" card drawing interface
We interviewed some players of Love and Producer about this. Among them, @一木 said: "When playing Love and Producer, you can only draw the cards you like by spending money."
@山枳 also thinks: "Paying gold allows me to collect more and better bonds. New bonds can unlock corresponding plots. Compared with the main storyline, I am more interested in this kind of thing."
If you pay for something, then in essence, virtual goods in the game world are not much different from physical goods in reality. Buying goods in the game will also bring a lot of satisfaction to players.
@小赖同学 said: "I bought this skin to enhance my gaming experience, just like you bought this piece of clothing to make yourself look better, it seems that they are just different forms of self-satisfaction."
Game activities launched by "Honor of Kings"
Sometimes, krypton gold card drawing contains the gambler's mentality: winning will stimulate the gambler to continue; losing will also stimulate the gambler to continue. This is even more obvious in card drawing games. Regardless of whether they draw the cards they like, the player's emotions will be strengthened, stimulating them to draw the next card. The satisfaction of drawing the cards is indescribable.
In this light, it is quite reasonable for players to spend money on mobile games to gain satisfaction. Of course, this is based on normal consumption.
As more and more players are exposed to mobile games and their purchasing power is online, according to Tower Store Intelligence data, the estimated total revenue of global mobile games on the App Store and Play in 2019 reached US$61.7 billion, an increase of 14.8% over 2018.
Among them, the estimated global revenue of "Honor of Kings" and its overseas versions exceeded 1.48 billion US dollars, and it has won the global mobile game revenue championship for two consecutive years. In 2019, the actual revenue of domestic mobile games reached 158.11 billion yuan. Under the influence of the epidemic in 2020, mobile games have become one of the best ways for the public to spend the closed period, and mobile game revenue has also reached a new high.
However, non-paying players have a lot to say about this. They often complain that paying players ruin the gaming experience of non-paying players and break the game balance. Shi Yuzhu, the founder of Giant Interactive, also believes that "free players are the companions of paying players. Free players pay for admiration and attention, while paying players reap admiration and attention."
Those who don’t play games, like many of the previous generation, don’t even have a prejudice against games themselves, let alone spending money on them. From the year 2000, when the article “Electronic heroin poisons teenagers, students should stay away from computer games” was published, to today, 20 years later, we still find it difficult to explain to our mothers that we can’t pause the game when they ask us to do something.
The exciting game screen in "Peace Elite"
The operation of mobile games provides people with a broad consumption environment. Whether it is skins, equipment, card draw props or game currency, players can choose to buy them independently. The behavior of krypton gold destroys the experience and affects the balance. The fault lies in the imperfect balance mechanism of the game itself, not the behavior of krypton gold players.
Similarly, we cannot ignore the difference in concepts between the two generations. However, today’s games are like the martial arts novels that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Most teachers and parents do not support young people to have too much exposure to them. However, Jin Yong and his works have been recorded in the history of literature. Why can’t games be accepted by the public?
Whether to spend money on games is ultimately a question of values and consumption. Gamers’ consumption rights should be respected. People should also turn their attention to the gaming experience itself.
Although krypton gold does not allow access to physical goods, it can obtain data that will not disappear and will be permanently retained in the game account. Goods in the game world can even be preserved longer than real goods. When asked, "What if I don't want to play the game anymore after spending so much money?", Xiao Zhang replied, "World of Warcraft accounts can be inherited, maybe my account can be left to my son!"
The continuous development of games has led to their industrialization, with their own brands and IP. In 2003, e-sports was approved by the State Sports General Administration as the 99th official sports competition. In 2018, the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta included e-sports as a demonstration event, and the Chinese team won the championship. In 2022, e-sports will become an official competition event in the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Games are called the "ninth art". Mobile games, as a major branch of the game industry, have produced countless classics. When spending money on mobile games becomes as common as spending money on a bag of snacks, it may also mark the progress of social thinking.
There are also many cases online such as "a middle school student recharged 60,000 yuan for a mobile game, causing a tragedy" and "a teenager recharged 4,000 yuan for a mobile game, but the customer service replied that it was a voluntary recharge and no refund could be made". The necessity of preventing minors from becoming addicted to games is self-evident.
Fortunately, major game companies have been gradually improving their protection mechanisms for minors. For example, Tencent has tightened restrictions on the gaming time and recharge amount of minors. In this way, as long as parents and the entire society can correctly guide the consumption concept of minors, "healthy krypton gold" may not be impossible to achieve.
The health system of "Honor of Kings"
For adult college students, spending on krypton gold should be kept within their spending capacity, and a mature consumption concept is also the fundamental guarantee.
"Krypton gold" is not "Krypton life". Krypton gold supported by advance consumption and overdraft consumption can only bring temporary happiness. The subsequent "eating dirt" will inevitably seriously affect normal life and study. If you are burdened with "Huabei" or even "campus loans", the consequences are even more unimaginable. At this time, the game will not bring you happiness, but a mask of pain.
Notre Dame in Assassin's Creed
Su Yijun's restoration of the Forbidden City in Minecraft
You can spend money to buy a piece of clothing that will be covered with dust after being worn once, or you can spend money to buy a piece of equipment that will be put away after being used once. Normalizing all kinds of consumption is a reflection of today's consumption diversity. Opposition or criticism has already revealed the sluggishness and closed-mindedness of thinking. On the contrary, facing up to and respecting game consumption can produce a new cultural symbol – just like the French company Ubisoft restored Notre Dame de Paris in "Assassin's Creed", or like Su Yijun used blocks to restore the Forbidden City in Beijing in "Minecraft".
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