Author: Ari Editor: DR

This article is reprinted with permission from New Weekly (ID: new-weekly).

Title Picture | "Twenty Don't Confuse 2"

When we want to decompress and are stressed by a super difficult game, maybe it's time to think: Is my attention worth more than advertising?

"No one can pass the second level of this game."

In a word, let netizens jump into the same pit, even if they planted a heel on "Sheep a Sheep" more than a year ago.

As a master of controlling time, there are many "new pits" that can confuse people, perhaps the high-imitation "Brick a Brick", or the cute painting style "Fat Goose Gym", or the "Opening Nursery" that helps children get into college by means of entertainment, or "Catch the Big Goose" that has recently become popular.

Similar to Sheep, players often need to scrape together the same items to eliminate, and the simple first level, the second level of Hell difficulty, and the taunts of the system after defeat can always ignite a person's desire to win.

Similarities alone are not enough, though. The "pit" of "Catch the Big Goose" is 3D stereoscopic, with many bells and whistles piled up in a pot, and players must be careful not to touch their hands when picking things from them. What if I don't have enough items in a group of 3 on the interface? Then "flip the pot" – shake your phone vigorously until something you need appears in the pot.

Different scenes in "Catching the Big Goose". (Photo/Screenshot of "Catching the Big Goose" game)

This "pot" is really capable of manipulating people:

On social media, someone carefully sorted out the game strategy of "Catch the Big Goose", which soon received thousands of likes; Some people play until they can see the goose when they close their eyes, and they are dreaming of "catching the goose"; Someone posted his medical record, saying that he "caught a goose and caught conjunctivitis" and "turned the pot upside down with tenosynovitis".

Along the path of "Sheep", new popular mini-games emerge one after another. What's even more amazing is that you think that the popularity of "Sheep is a Sheep" has passed, but in fact, according to the weekly report statistics of the game teahouse, it is still at the top of the popularity list of casual games.

Perhaps, the mini game itself is not a very new outlet, but as the "Sheep of Sheep" has successively found the wealth code that provokes players' desire to win, this track is also ushering in more eager developers at a speed visible to the naked eye.

If you want to say that the mini program game is low, this can't be said too absolutely-after all, the audience of "Sheep" and "Catch the Big Goose" itself is not completely sinking, and many white-collar workers and college students who are addicted to it definitely don't feel low.

What's the low? It's not just a triple-A masterpiece that is called a game.

Especially when your "cultural physical strength" is in an emergency, it is like just drowning, and the small games that are short, fast, no need to download, and can be played anytime and anywhere are often like a breath of fresh air at the right time, leisure, relaxed and decompressive, and even provide a little long-lost desire to win for the workers who have been emo by work.

That's right, "Catch the Big Goose" has subtly added some challenges that can make people want to stop on the basis of the simple gameplay.

For example, after completing the first level of "Symbolic", the game will enter the second level of "Hell Difficulty", which is limited to 10 minutes. When they can't find an object that can be matched, players need to sacrifice the "Flip the Pot" Dafa or seek help from other items. In the words of netizens' guides, it is to "pose the phone as a selfie and swing the phone back and forth", and quickly click on the desired object while turning it upside down.

Still not enough time at the end? It's okay, you just need to watch an ad to get more game time and you can "take the goose".

Flip the pot and catch the goose with essential skills. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

Players think they have a big goose, but it's the game's developers who really handle the players. Obviously, they are well versed in human nature and know the routine of "slapping a sweet date" - when you can't find three identical items, flick your phone, maybe you will find it, and then the pleasure of elimination will go further.

However, catching a goose seems simple, but it is actually full of traps. Easy to touch by mistake, players upgrade their equipment and use a tablet and capacitive pen to click accurately. Seeing that there was not much left in the pot, more came out of the pot, making people wonder "how deep is the bottom of this pot". When he fails, the goose will also taunt in a fancy way, knowing that it is a radical method, and many people will still play another game.

"Catch the Big Goose" is better than "Sheep", and what is also the collection gameplay that limits the number of games. When the player completes the second level, the system will send a goose with a beautiful design, but instead of encouraging them to chase after the victory, it will show that there will be no more games on the day. The joy of victory comes to an abrupt end, and the player is inevitably disappointed, always thinking about coming back the next day.

The "bullying" of the big goose is suffocating. (Photo/Screenshot of "Catching the Big Goose" game)

What's even more impressive is that the geese that players can catch every day are even designed with different "daily limits". There are also many variations of the form of "pot", such as vegetables and fruits and iron pots, desserts and plates, goods and supermarket shopping carts, and even barbecue and cultural toys, and geese will hide in various disguises. Some players sighed: "I originally abandoned the game, but I was deceived back by the limited vitality goose in a few days, and people just can't refuse the limit." ”

Back then, "Sheep is a Sheep" bluffed everyone with super difficulty, and in the end it was found that it might be a dead end from the beginning, and word of mouth was counterattacked. And "Catch the Big Goose" has learned a lesson smartly, and many players have reported that as long as they pass the level once, they can basically pass the level every day after that.

It's just that there is still some price to be paid for this method. Netizens took out the energy to study and summed up the ultimate strategy of "share more, watch more advertisements, and get more props", and finally "bet on the next one, maybe you will catch it".

Netizens took out the momentum of learning and delved into the strategy of "Catching the Big Goose". (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

The players who had to share made a lot of social jokes. Someone accidentally sent it to the work group by mistake, and only found out the next morning. Some people sent "Catching the Big Goose" to the official account of the postgraduate entrance examination, and the other party's operation staff replied, "Stop playing, hurry up and study". Someone swiped the post of "catching the goose and catching the conjunctivitis" and forwarded it to a friend, but the other party replied with the resurrection link of "Catch the Big Goose".

No way, sharing always has to be shared, if you share it with the same person every time, or click cancel when you share it, the system will also prompt "Please share it with more groups" and refuse to distribute props. Routines may not be able to win people's hearts, but they can make people take action.

It's not okay to cheat the system, only the players themselves will take the bait.

And in the end, is it willing to share? It can only be said that the desire to win, the sense of achievement, and the collecting habit are all magic weapons for manipulating people, making people know that it is a routine of social fission, but they are still happy to catch a big goose.

It's even a lot of fun, and even watching commercials - it seems that as long as you have fun, nothing is impossible in the world of mini-games.

However, if you don't get enough happiness, and at the same time find yourself spending a lot of time in vain, the biggest gain is to help others achieve the myth of wealth, it will be a little unpleasant. For example, last year, I heard that the developer of "Sheep is a Sheep" was suspected of earning a suite, and many netizens who couldn't pass the pass instantly broke their defenses.

However, there will always be a huge market for huge demand, and no matter whether the game is full of routines or not, as long as players are happy to put in the time, game developers will always make money.

Watching advertisements to get props is a common way to play mini games. (Photo/Screenshot of "Catching the Big Goose" game)

In April this year, at the special session of the WeChat open class IAA Mini Games (also known as hyper-casual mini games), the WeChat Mini Games team revealed that in the first quarter of 2024, the daily active users of Mini Games will increase by 20% year-on-year, and the monthly active users of IAA Mini Games will reach 500 million, and it is expected that the total commercial volume of IAA Mini Games will exceed 10 billion yuan in 2024 - this is only the data on WeChat. The size of Douyin's mini game market in 2024 is expected to reach about 60 billion yuan.

The business model of IAA Mini Games is simple, as its name suggests, In App Advertising, which does not require users to pay, but instead relies on users to watch ads for revenue. In this way, the player gets the joy of the game and the developer gets the benefit of advertising, which seems to have the best of both worlds.

Because there is no version number, most of these mini games can only rely on advertising to monetize, and the current model is relatively simple, mainly to encourage users to watch ads in order to obtain game rewards. Recently, the linkage between "Catch the Big Goose" and Yuanqi Forest in the game scene shows the commercial value of IAA Mini Games, which has been recognized by the market.

It's not often that a small game like "Catch the Big Goose" directly asks players to watch ad-supported games. (Photo/Screenshot of "Catching the Big Goose" game)

How much money can you make from a popular mini game?

At the 2022 China Game Industry Annual Conference, Zhang Jiaxu, the developer of "Sheep", said that the initial investment cost of the game is 500,000 yuan, and the income is only earned through advertising, and the revenue has exceeded 100 million yuan as of the beginning of 2023. Another popular mini-game "King of Salted Fish" relies on advertising and user recharge to monetize, with a turnover of more than 400 million yuan on the whole platform in October 2023.

With the current popularity of "Catching the Big Goose", it is also conceivable that its income will not be less.

It's just that, from a player's point of view, it's okay to just spend half a minute watching ads. But a lot of the time, they come across ads ranging from loans, pulp fiction, and even marginal messages, and the experience is really not too good.

In comparison, encountering an ad for another Mini Game in a Mini Game is already a "normal" experience. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that if you can't help but click in and play a few games, you may find the next mini-game when watching the advertisement, and you can be "nested with a doll" at any time.

Some people even saw the advertisement of a pirated version of "Catch the Big Goose" in the advertisement of "Catch the Big Goose", and the video claimed that downloading the App and clearing 100 levels of "Catching the Big Goose" could withdraw thousands of yuan. This routine is not clever, but there will always be people who try it with the mentality of "what if", and then when they play 100 levels, they will wait for the system prompt that they need to wait in line for review, and the next wave of temptation of "playing another 59 levels to withdraw money without review" - even if you have not been cheated out of money, you have paid a lot of time, and at this time you know that it is time to stop.

That's really low.

Someone watched an advertisement in "Catching the Big Goose" and fell for the pirated version of "Catching the Big Goose". (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

In comparison, "Catching the Big Goose", which only "picks" the advertising time, has indeed been more understood. Even if some players complain online, they will encounter a lot of rebuttals from "goose fans": "I didn't let you recharge, what's wrong with earning some advertising fees?" Otherwise, would people develop games to generate electricity with love? ”

Business is not to generate electricity for love, the original intention of IAA mini games is to make money, in order to achieve the goal, it is natural to let users watch as many advertisements as possible.

And to a certain extent, "Catching the Big Goose" has a bit of "standing and making money" decency, after all, from ancient times to the present, from advertising advertorials, TV commercials to video bloggers "just meal", the routine of being able to make people willing to watch advertisements has always been rare in the advertising communication industry.

The most important thing is how to maintain "decency" in terms of playability and commerciality. At least for now, after "Catching the Big Goose" became popular, it has not escaped the word-of-mouth backlash of "ugly food".

Some users have reported that the game levels are getting more and more difficult, and even if you watch the advertisement, the props you get don't make much difference. "The co-authoring money has made the developers, the time has been wasted, and the anger has made us angry."

Playing games is not necessarily a good thing. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

In the end, many people play games for the sake of brain relaxation, but they invisibly return to the philosophy of "eggs and chickens": the player's purpose is to play the game, and the means is to watch ads, while for developers, the goal is to let players watch ads from beginning to end, and the means are good.

To put it bluntly, games are not suitable for too much of a cultural carrier, and if a game allows players to see this philosophical issue too clearly, it will not be far from players abandoning the game.

Of course, the track is full of legends of flowing wealth, and the developers are still figuring out how to engage players. Even if you say goodbye to "Sheep a Sheep" and "Catch the Big Goose", the next one will soon be born.

In fact, for European and American players, mini-games with similar gameplay are not unfamiliar. As early as 2013, a game called Flappy Bird became popular, which is considered to be the originator of IAA mini games due to its simple and engaging gameplay and monetization through advertising. Since then, Facebook and Google have become the main battlegrounds for "hyper-casual games" abroad.

In China, at the end of 2017, WeChat launched the mini game function for the first time, and "Jump a Jump" was all the rage. In 2019, Douyin also opened the mini program function with the mini game "Yinyue Qiuqiu". Nowadays, apps such as QQ, Alipay, and Meituan can play mini games, and even traditional game manufacturers have come out to get a piece of the pie, such as Sanqi Mutual Entertainment, Perfect World, and so on.

Do you still remember "Jump" that became popular in the circle of friends on New Year's Day in 2018? (Photo/Screenshot of "Jump" game)

In February 2024, the number of monthly active users of WeChat Mini Games, which has just been developed for a short time, surpassed that of traditional mobile apps for the first time. In addition, according to the data disclosed by Tencent and Douyin respectively, the overlap rate of paid users between Mini Games and App games is very low.

This means that Mini Games attracts many users who don't usually play games, and it is a track with full growth potential.

It is worth noting that this growth potential is not just "killing time", but also many players for the mini-game "Krypton Gold". As early as 2019, an organization studied the business chain of overseas mini games, pointing out that about 20% of people will switch to IAP games with in-app purchases after playing IAA games. In other words, the wool is still out of the sheep in the end, and some people will hand over their money sooner or later, so that the mini game ecology can achieve sustainable development.

But more and more developers are pouring into the mini game track, and the blue ocean is quickly becoming popular in a short period of time, can everyone really make money? At least according to the current ecology, it is not difficult to deduce that Mini Games can only be monetized through advertising, and often advertise with the same kind, and the income will inevitably achieve a dynamic balance, resulting in traffic and revenue concentrated in the top hits.

In the mini-game "Fat Goose Gym", players can recharge the blind box. (Photo/Screenshot of "Fat Goose Gym" game)

In order to save costs, some shoddy mini games and their advertising content are "not the right goods", and various skin-changing "plagiarism" mini games are a portrayal of the savage growth of the market.

There is no doubt that there will always be a need for entertainment and decompression, and there will always be people who are willing to watch ads in order to play a mini-game.

It's just that when we want to decompress and are stressed by a super difficult game, maybe it's time to think: Is my attention worth more than advertising?

Resources:

[1] The 60 billion market that was killed halfway through the way has made a large number of game companies squeeze their heads. That little thing about mobile games. 2024-05-10

[2] Hyper-casual games generate approximately $2.5 billion in annual revenue, with hyper-casual users viewing an average of 4.8 video ads. Qianzhan Network. 2019-03-25

[3] If you watch it 100 times in the circle of friends, you won't order it, why will you be fooled if it is replaced by "Sheep". Game Research Society. 2022-09-15

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