At this year's SLG track, every once in a while there will be a new topic worth talking about.

On September 13, the five-year-old "Three Kingdoms · Strategy Edition" (hereinafter referred to as "Three World Wars") released a wave of bombshells, detailing a series of new content related to the "three-dimensional war" version of the game's fifth anniversary.

This update, which will be different from the previous anniversary versions, proposes the concept of "three-dimensional warfare", adding new designs such as the height difference of three-dimensional warfare on the map, military skills, etc., which greatly rewrites the combat rules of the SLG battlefield.

Just a few days before the online press conference, Gyro Jun also went to the "Three Wars" R&D Center to try out some of the new gameplay in advance. To be honest, the content of this update is really powerful, especially after trying out some military skills, as an SLG player, I have begun to have some new imagination of battlefield strategy.

In addition, the auto-chess gameplay experience that will be launched in the future of "Three Wars" is also quite good, and it is easy to immerse people. According to reports, part of the reason for its birth is to solve the pain points of SLG long grass, and it is worth looking forward to how it will respond in the end.

Regarding several key updates this time, we also had an exchange with Lao Ma, the producer of "Three World Wars", and Brother Zhu, the distribution producer, to understand the relevant production process and the thinking behind it.

On the left is Ma Shuming, the producer of "Three Wars", and on the right is Zeng Lingpeng, the producer of "Three Wars".

01

The new answer sheet of the fifth anniversary of the "three-dimensional war" has the courage to break the logic of the underlying battle

Q: How long did the 5th Anniversary "Three-Dimensional War" version take? What's the thinking behind the iteration?

Lao Ma: It takes about two or three months from conception to landing. "Three Wars" has always wanted to do a super long operation, and we believe that the fifth anniversary is a very important node to connect the past and the next, and the market and players have continued to evolve in the past five years, and today there will inevitably be some big and new needs and optimization needs; Entering a new phase, World War III requires more breakthrough and innovative experiences to continue our long-term business goals.

The origin of "three-dimensional warfare" is due to our reflection on the experience of SLG sand table, in the past, the sand table design was more focused on two-dimensional point-to-point combat, including "Three Wars", although it has been developed in the direction of the real terrain, but it has always dug deep enough, we hope to continue to strengthen the interaction between the sand table and the troops, which is the starting point of three-dimensional warfare.

Brother Zhu: We have an internal saying called the five-year covenant, for "Three Wars", the first two years of operation focus more on cultivating the social process and social ecology, and the next three years are to test the fun after the ecology is gradually improved.

At the current node, our original set of core logic, players have already touched the same, so we need to add new things, and we can't only do seasonal gameplay innovation like the previous anniversary, it needs a change in the underlying mechanism.

Q: Generally, SLG in the mature stage does not dare to move the core design, it stands to reason that you can choose a more stable path to continue to make profits.

Lao Ma: There will definitely be pressure, but competition is the general phenomenon. Internally, we tend to see competition as one of the endogenous driving forces, and after re-examining the past, we have become more aware of the importance of self-transformation. At the same time, as a game practitioner, our team still has a dream of trying to break through the core gameplay and verify some new ideas.

Looking back at "Three Wars", which has been in operation for 5 years, it is undeniable that the repeated experience of each season will make players fatigue continue to superimpose, and it is already a very fixed trilogy, and it is also a consistent pain point faced by this type of product.

Therefore, we wanted to add some new variables in different stages of the game experience in combination with the game experience.

Q: What are these new variables?

Lao Ma: For example, the addition of the new system in the fifth anniversary version, the Military Advisor Technique, will greatly affect the battle strategy, and it will also increase the influence of people; There is also a "three-dimensional war height difference" on the map, and their combination can make the sand table more vivid. We are also looking to see if this attempt is feasible and whether we can build on it in the future to expand into new dimensions.

As well as the game during the long grass period, add fun and strategic auto-chess individual gameplay, etc.

Q: The difference between the height of military skills + three-dimensional warfare, will it make the battlefield experience more liverless? After all, it increases the room for human strategic thinking and manipulation.

Lao Ma: I think it can be solved by designing to control the frequency, assuming that I only need you to do this one or two times a day, then the burden on the player may be fine. In addition, we have to combine the tonality of product users, the users of "Three Wars" are relatively more hardcore, and what we need to do more is to grasp the balance to avoid it stealing the original GVG core fun.

At the same time, one of our original intentions of doing military skills is also to hope that more players can amplify their personal value and contribute more to the team in the process of participating in the battlefield.

Brother Zhu: During the operation of "Three Wars", we actually spent 1 to 2 years cultivating users, including a series of content such as alliance academies and KOC ecology, just to help users study our game in depth, because "Three Wars" itself has some barriers to getting started.

Military skills belong to the iteration of the underlying combat logic level, which strengthens the interaction between troops, between troops and sand tables, and has more personalized strategic thinking, so its core fun will be more significant, and there will be corresponding learning costs.

At present, "Three Wars" is mainly divided into several types of users: one is the core creators and researchers, who like to study rules, matchmaking and sand table strategies, and such users account for about 10%; One is the alliance manager, who is responsible for the implementation of strategy and tactics, which accounts for about 10%; And then the remaining 80% or so may mean that they want to learn, learn how others play, and then slowly have fun themselves.

Therefore, in addition to solving the problem of accessibility and liver through design, we will hope to make the first 20% of users have fun and understand first, and then drive the experience of the 80% of players, I think it is also a way to solve the threshold, and we have always encouraged the old to bring the new.

Q: What are the difficulties encountered in such a long development cycle for a version?

Lao Ma: In fact, the difficulties are divided into two aspects, one is the uncertainty at the design level, and the other is how to plan under the limited production resources. Here we will mainly talk about the first point, which is also the hardest part.

As an old product, the cognition and experience habits of our players have been relatively fixed, and it is difficult for you to make completely subversive changes. So what kind of scheme can not only convey the effect of "three-dimensional warfare", but also be recognized by players? How to weigh the 'degree' of this innovation is crucial.

For example, the value of the "Strategist Technique" needs to be carefully considered, not only to consider the degree of impact on the entire battle situation after it is added, but also to ensure that the player has a refreshing feeling.

Over the past year, we've done a lot of revisions, overturned and restarted, just to find a more appropriate one.

Q: What is your standard for measuring this 'degree'?

Lao Ma: There aren't many so-called standards for making games. We have always hoped that the internal team, including students in R&D and operation, should become the strongest and most senior players. In this way, we can substitute the player's perspective and feel the experience of the game's commercial design and overall combat, so that it is easier to grasp the "appropriate" degree in the continuous iterative design.

Q: How many types of military skills have been designed so far? What are the key considerations during the design process?

Lao Ma: At present, 39 kinds of military skills have been designed, and 8 free military skills will be released for players to experience every season.

Regarding the military skills, we will follow the positioning of historical characters and related events, and combine the highlight moments of the characters to determine the names and effects of their skills. One of the team's original design intentions was to allow players to roughly guess which character he was by just looking at his skills without looking at his name.

In order to meet the needs of different players, we have also made some hierarchical designs for these skills, for example, some military skills are passive skills, which do not require player operation and will have some fixed income; There are also some active combat skills that can strengthen the strategic nature of the battlefield. The goal is to make it possible for users at different levels to get a better experience from this new system.

Brother Zhu: For this military skill, from an operational point of view, we also briefly divide it into three categories, one is the effect class, and the special effects of the skills presented are particularly spectacular and beautiful, such as Zhuge Liang's military skill "Stone Soldier Eight Arrays", which will appear on the battlefield when it is released; There is also Yu Ji's "praying for wind and rain", its battlefield effect is similar to the practice of Maoshan Taoist, which is very suitable for players' imagination of the battlefield of the Three Kingdoms.

The second is the buff support class, which serves the military skills of the team, such as providing marching acceleration and damage increase, which will give players who are keen on matching more room for strategic thinking.

The third is the military skills that can change the battlefield environment, as a variable in the battlefield arrangement, for example, Zhao Yun's "seven in and seven out", he can cross the obstacle terrain of the sand table, and then return to the initial position, then he can go through the ninety-eight to fight the opposite side, that is, some battlefield layout collocations on the opposite side will be invalid.

I think different users should be able to get different kinds of fun from different types of military skills.

Q: To sum up, what are the core advantages of this "three-dimensional war"?

Lao Ma: At present, most of the battlefields with more SLGs on the market are still on the 2D plane, and we push the "height difference" battlefield, mainly in the hope of expanding the Y axis, and making a 20%~30% numerical delivery in this part, so that players can obviously perceive a different experience from the past. We also hope that with the release of the new version, the warring sides can no longer be limited to the more mechanical and monotonous experience of defending 98 and attacking 98.

On the basis of the "height difference" battlefield, we can invest in more strategic elements, such as "military skills", such as expanding some interactive commands between future battlefields. In essence, it is hoped to break the original rules, introduce new strategic element space, and make the war sand table really come alive.

02

Activating, retaining, and returning old players, the thinking and attempt of "Three Wars".

Q: Why did you suddenly make a new game of "auto-chess"? And not other types of mini-games?

Lao Ma: Looking back now, we hope to make a game that we are willing to play and that players can enjoy playing. Our R&D philosophy has always been: only by impressing ourselves can we impress players.

As for the choice of auto-chess, the main reason is that its strategic tonality matches our product positioning, auto-chess can carry the core gameplay characteristics of "Three Wars", such as generals, tactics, based on the content of the game itself, we can make an auto-chess belonging to the "Three Kingdoms · Strategic Edition".

Brother Zhu: To be honest, we don't want to make a short-term wave of new gameplay, but we still want it to have depth and scalability, so that players can love to play and play, and we will continue to make updates.

The internal team has also done this thing for a long time, from selection, pre-research, repeated testing... It's been about 1 or 2 years now. We weren't just looking for a mini-game to help you pass the time, but more importantly, it fit. The core fun of "Three Wars" is PVP plus generals, and auto-chess is similar, the two are interconnected, and after fusion, it can bring more fun effects of 1+1 greater than 2.

We also have a little bit of an expectation that it will bring some new users to the game in the future, in addition to promoting activity, but it may be too early to say.

Q: Is the general data of auto chess gameplay independently cultivated?

Lao Ma: Independent.

Q: Are there any considerations for commercialization in the future?

Lao Ma: At this stage, there is almost no expectation for commercialization. The expectation for it is more to try something that no one has done before, and fun is the first priority.

Q: Will it be a resident quest? Does it make the game more heavy?

Lao Ma: In the future, it may be launched as a fixed-point event, such as opening it several times a week at a fixed time, so I don't think it will add too much burden to players.

Q: The trailer also mentions the concept of "strategic competition era", in your opinion, is strategic competition expansion one of the solutions for the long-term development of SLG?

Brother Pig: We didn't think so far ahead at first. For example, when we did the Dragon Tiger Race, the idea was relatively simple, based on the season, shortening its duration, reducing the waiting time required for development, and allowing players to experience the fun of GVG faster. From the point of view of the node, the first Dragon Tiger Tournament was launched two years after the game, which was just the right time, because participating in the event required players to establish a certain cognitive and social foundation.

Initially, we were looking for the top teams to try out, and it wasn't until the fourth year that it was made a regular season.

Now that World War III is in its fifth year, we will find a new problem, that is, there are some differences in understanding and execution between new and old players, so we have joined the Rising Star track this year, so that first-time participating groups can accumulate more experience in the Rising Star Tournament before entering the peak veteran player event.

Q: What are the main benefits that Dragon Tiger has brought to your game? Activism? Retention or new acquisition?

Brother Pig: Our expectation for it is indeed to improve retention and activity. Judging from the data, it has indeed helped the activity and retention of "Three Wars" in the past two years. That's the core reason why we've expanded it into everyday play.

Q: In the 5th Anniversary Update, there is also a "Legacy of the Torch" plan, why do you want to push such a plan, and are you worried about its impact on the long-term ecology?

Brother Zhu: The logic behind the inheritance of the torch is not difficult to understand, our proportion of old players is indeed quite high, and the life cycle of players in "Three Wars" is generally long, we hope that users feel that their historical investment is valuable, which is the first point. The second is that the authorities always remember their input and contributions. If we were in our first year of operation, this plan would certainly not be appropriate, but at this point in time, it is a good thing.

For a long time, we have paid great attention to users and users, and as mentioned earlier, the game ecology of "World War III" is hierarchical, and 20% of players are well versed in gameplay strategies, leading the rest of the players to learn and get a better experience. Then in the new server, when there are some returning senior players, then they can bring new players to play together, which also promotes the ecology of the new server.

I've always said that our game is not a numerical game, but a team game, an ecological game.

Q: So the goal of the launch of "Legacy of the Torch" this time is more to promote the return of old players?

Brother Zhu: Yes, the main target is to return users.

Q: The fifth anniversary seems to be full of benefits, and the aforementioned alliance competition, the first place league general will be awarded a bottle of Moutai. What are the reasons behind the increase, and why Moutai?

Brother Zhu: When we design a lot of rewards, we want users to feel the meaning and value in them.

For example, in last year's Dragon and Tiger Competition, we specially invited Zhang Laixi, the national intangible cultural heritage ambassador, to create a handmade imitation Han style Dragon and Tiger Champion Ding, and engraved the name of the legion on the championship trophy. It is unique in the world, and I believe that its retention value significance is definitely different for players compared to the prize money.

As for Moutai, I think people who drink alcohol may know that for those who are not good at drinking, Moutai is difficult to eat at first, and only slow tasting will slowly discover its mellow aftertaste. To a certain extent, "Three Wars" is very similar to it, "Three Wars" also has a certain threshold when you get started, and when you play it slowly, players will gradually taste its wonder and its goodness. "Three Wars" has been in operation for five years and has gone through the test of a certain amount of time, and this node is also very suitable.

Q: I have seen you hold a college dragon and tiger competition before, is it one of your strategies to develop the young market by targeting the college market, and what other strategies are specifically designed to attract young people?

Brother Zhu: It is indeed a new attempt for us to open up the young market. However, it is still in the pilot and has not been fully rolled out. Returning to the release of "Three Wars", for us, the young market is very important, but to leverage more young users, we tend to express it in a younger way, and the core communication content is still the fun of "Three Wars" itself.

What is the rejuvenation method? The confrontation of the college dragon and tiger competition is one, and there are forms such as live broadcasts. We don't do anything that deviates from the tone of the product in order to attract young users.

Q: Listen, the current focus of "Three Wars" is still on the activity of old players and their game experience, isn't it so anxious to attract new players?

Brother Zhu: First of all, let's be clear about one thing, we must attach great importance to attracting new customers.

From the perspective of user portraits, young people are also divided into many different types, and the acquisition of "Three Wars" has always focused on one core: like-mindedness. Ambition is the pursuit of progress, like challenges, Tao is to recognize the value of the team and the collective, there are still a lot of such young people, and we have never stopped looking for like-minded young people. Here I can share a statistic, the proportion of users over 25-30 years old was higher in the OB of "Three World Wars", but today, half of the users in the game are between the ages of 18 and 25. In recent years, many young people have joined the game.

Q: Do you have any new goals for future user growth?

Brother Zhu: We rarely set a specific quantity KPI. More will pay attention to what breakthroughs we have in the distribution? What new things have been done? And what I've done is full of users who are not satisfied? KPIs are greatly affected by the market environment, and the effect is very different in different environments, so we rarely set KPIs, but there will be some approximate data expectations.

In essence, we don't want to distort our issuance actions because of KPIs, and finally affect our long-term operations.

03

The "Three Wars" with 100 million users is far from breaking through the market

Q: It's been 5 years since World War III, what do you think is the key to its continued competitiveness?

Ma: I think it's a Schrödinger's cat. You can only say opinions, not conclusions, and you can't say conclusions.

We have an internal thinking that behind its success is inseparable from the Confucian education accepted by our society, most people accept the principle of giving priority to collective interests, it is a very core value, and the values of the "Three Wars" are the same, so it has the foundation of success in China.

But you said that it would be difficult to put it in the European and American markets. Because both values and game living habits are different.

Another point I think is still love and good at, the starting point of our team's content is always fun and interesting, only by making content that we agree with, it is possible to touch more people and get their recognition. So from R&D to distribution, "Three Wars" has always run through this idea. From the side, "Three Wars" also happened to be at that stage and made some right choices.

On the whole, the success still comes from the cooperation of all parties, and I think that the overall closeness of R&D and distribution of "Three World Wars" in the initial launch stage was the highest in the industry at that time, and they were not separated. Some products on the market may face such a situation: R&D needs revenue, and distribution needs profit. We didn't have that idea at all, we just wanted to do it well, and we even set very low goals.

Q: So how does our team keep looking for inspiration for R&D iterations?

Lao Ma: I mainly rely on the planning team to play more and observe more. When the planners have some ideas, they will be discussed in the weekly meeting or related meetings, and then the chief planner or producer will decide whether to carry out it or not, and consider whether the existing resources can ensure its development.

Insiders are also veteran players of World War III, and during meetings, they will also talk about what they feel bad about their experience, or what can be changed to be more interesting. Combined with the history of the scripts we have done in the past, the tonality of our content is generally done in the way of "making bold assumptions first, and then carefully verifying".

We will have an internal requirement, that is, students in R&D and distribution must maintain the experience of "Three World Wars", do not give resources, recharge and do not give discounts. We still hope that everyone can seriously feel the design they make, whether it is commercialization or gameplay.

Q: The best-selling performance of "Three Wars" in the past year is still at the top of the list, but with more SLG products coming online, do you feel more pressure to release them?

Brother Zhu: After the epidemic, the market environment and users have undergone new changes, and with more SLG products coming out, the challenge will definitely be greater for our R&D and distribution. But specifically, the impact on our market users is not very great at present. Our users have a high social bond, and this group of players recognizes not only the product, but also the group of people who play together.

Of course, it is unrealistic to say that there is no impact on the number of acquisitions, but as a publisher, we still need to work hard to find more accurate users and find users who like "Three World Wars".

Q: The number of users of World War III has exceeded 100 million, how much room do you think there is for growth in the future?

Brother Zhu: When we were first in OB, we did evaluate how big the market space was and how high the ceiling was. But the further down I go, the more I feel like there's no upper limit to this thing.

SLG is a rules game where users don't purely consume content. It's made up of rules, something that kind of resembles a real social formation. In different social environments, how many people can identify with the social structure in the game. As long as he agrees, he can become a user of such a social structure.

You said that "Three Wars" has 100 million users, has it really penetrated this market? I also don't think it's penetrated yet. From OB to now, we still poached a lot of users who have never even played mobile games. Other SLGs may have different themes and gameplay, and it will also dig out some new users who are suitable for their ecology.

Of course, potential users are not as good converting as they used to be. The key is how to identify them and communicate them well to convert. As for the upper limit of this plate, I really can't give an answer from my point of view.

Lao Ma: From the perspective of products, in fact, we also have a saying internally, no popular model is designed, or should be said to be preset. In fact, you can refer to past products, and the market will always be used to educate practitioners. So where is the ceiling? On the contrary, I rarely pay attention to this matter, and I will care more about how to do a good job and serve users well.

And more will think about how to maintain the original intention as a game designer and practitioner. I've always said that I want to make a game that I think is fun, to move myself first, and then try to break it, which is also our R&D philosophy all along.

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