230,000 people are playing at the same time, and NetEase's new game is ranked seventh in the global sales on Steam
Text: Isaac & Iguangliu
Last week, NetEase's new work "Seven Days World" was launched.
This game is not small, it is a key project of NetEase research and development for more than 5 years, and it is currently open in public beta on PC (Steam/Epic/NetEase fever game), and it is expected to open mobile in the future.
A month ago, at the Steam New Product Festival, it topped the three lists of hot new products, the hottest wishlist, and the number of new products online, and it was about to be launched, and it also entered the Steam Global Wishlist Top 5.
After the open beta, there was a lot of discussion about Seven Days World. First of all, its results have been refreshing new highs almost every day, such as the number of concurrent online users has risen from 80,000 on the first day to 230,000 now. In addition, this game also ranked seventh in Steam's global game sales list.
At the same time, the online data can be ranked 53rd in the global Steam game, which is higher than "Monster Hunter: Rise", and close to "Stardew Valley".
Maybe 230,000 online at the same time sounds vague, let's put it this way, this data can already rank 5th in this year's new PC games: "Phantom Beast Palu" 2.1 million, "Hell Diver 2" 459,000, "The First Descent" 265,000, "The Last Era" 26.5 and "Seven Days World" 232,000 (the above are all Steam data, excluding the mini-game "banana").
In an open-world survival game of its kind, 230,000 simultaneous online games are also very explosive. Not long ago, the 1.0 version of "Seven Days Kill" was tested, which also caused a large number of players to return, and the number of people online at the same time in this classic survival game was less than 100,000 (100,000 online at the same time is also the peak data of this game).
Let's talk about word of mouth, this game is especially highly regarded among overseas players, with a praise rate of 71% from overseas players.
Judging from the trends of simultaneous online and paid performance in recent days, although many players still think that the game still has some problems to solve, it does not prevent more players from entering the game to play, and many players are buying for this game. That's where it gets interesting.
01
Strictly speaking, the art foundation of "Seven Days World" is very solid and innovative, which should be its façade to attract many players.
In the worldview of many survival games in the past, the most common themes were zombies, wasteland, etc., or like "The Ark", the player was left in a world full of species crises. There are not many games like "Seven Days World" that use supernatural themes and grotesque and weird styles to build a world view, and this weirdness also allows art to incorporate more whimsical ideas and stronger differentiated expressions.
In the actual experience, the strange design can be said to be a very big highlight to promote curiosity in the early stage, and it can be seen that the game art style is close to the grotesque aesthetic styles such as "Stranger Things" and "Annihilation", giving people the feeling of "look at it, it's so strange, I'll take another look......".
And the more detailed point is that the monsters not only rely on the surface art effects to shape, but also introduce some interesting interactive mechanics or small exploration puzzle mechanics to make the settings of these monsters more realistic. For example, zombies whose heads have been turned into searchlights or purses, after killing, you can pick up their heads and use them as weapons. Another example is that there will be treasure chests hidden in the compartment of the long-legged bus monster.
In survival games, the purpose of exploration is nothing more than to obtain resources, but the exploration process integrates weird monsters and corresponding interactions, and this exploration process will become more layered: while collecting resources and items, by the way, you will have an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of various monsters. The layering, the amount of information, and the expression process of art are all more solid details in addition to the pure picture perception.
02
Players have more to say about the gameplay of Seven Days than the art.
From the perspective of the richness of the gameplay branches and the diversification of the preset content, "Seven Days World" does have a lot of commendable points. It not only has the basic cycle of "gathering-building-developing-challenge" of traditional open-world survival games (SOC games), but also absorbs many classic survival game settings, such as san, weapon level, modifiers, and so on.
The game even adds a pet-hunting game – containment.
There are three different types of containment creatures in Seven Days World, which are distributed in map scenes, and different types of gameplay, which can be used to help in battle, provide buffs for characters, and work in the base. The details are also well done, and the contained creatures have special work actions, such as the little green dragon who can breathe fire and cook, the beaver who cuts down trees, the elemental kid who mines, and so on.
Of course, incorporating too many elements can also make people worry about the problem of being mixed and not sophisticated, and many players have been talking about "Seven Days World" from this. It can be seen that "Seven Days World" is indeed trying to expand the audience, using a large number of classic survival gameplay and settings to provide players with more suitable choices for themselves, so as to retain more players.
For example, after this game integrates a variety of gameplay, although it improves the richness and realism of the experience, it will inevitably make players feel that the liver is high, so the game will weaken the parts that need liver.
In terms of personal experience, many of the gameplay methods of "Seven Days World" have a strong PC flavor, the game guide is open-ended, and many actions, choices, and puzzles require players to actively try, such as the characters have to search for survival materials around after waking up, and the password on the gate must also find files to obtain. These details are left to the player to study and crack on themselves, and the sense of realism is very strong.
For those very repetitive operations, this game is positioned on the light side. For example, the conditions required for survival in the game are to maintain the stability of the state such as drinking water and health, and there is even an item of San value, but in the actual experience, the pressure brought by these settings during the survival period is not great, and the player does not need to pay attention to these values for a long time, so it will be a lot easier to play.
There are many similar places, such as weapons can be drawn from the card pool, but the card draw token cannot be kryptonite, only liver; The game setting is supernatural and weird monsters, plus the setting of the San value, theoretically the pressure is enough, but most of the environments in the large map are bright and full of sunshine, so in fact, the pressure is diluted, and only when the player takes the initiative to take risks and challenge the boss will there be a sense of pressure.
The combination of a variety of survival game features in "Seven Days World" is actually expanding the range of choices for players.
For example, while it has a pet catching mechanic, the design logic is not Parulike's. Parulike uses pet distribution to promote exploration and collection, but the driving force of exploration in "Seven Days World" is still "collect, grow, and develop".
There is very little pressure to obtain basic resources in the game, especially the weight of some basic materials has been reduced to make it easier for players to transport other required materials. At the same time, the various levels of resources required for player development are also very widely distributed and sufficient throughout the map.
Referring to this player-made interactive map, you can feel the distribution logic and magnitude of resources.
The basic resources are easy to collect, and the corresponding building parts have more patterns.
There are four main categories of buildings in "Seven Days World": structure, facilities, furniture, and appearance. In fact, there is a lot of room for customization, and there are even "RV" buildings such as mobile homes, which are more innovative. At the same time, players who are used to living in matchboxes can also use architectural blueprints to quickly build and easily obtain a decent base.
The same place with a high degree of freedom is the skill tree, the game's current skill tree is very large, there are different large branches such as fighting, building, cooking, etc., and it will be more liver when it is full, but it is also easier to customize to play special roles, especially in the case of multiplayer teams, each person is responsible for one direction, which can greatly complement each other and improve the comfort of the game.
Judging from the previous performances, it can be said that "Seven Days World" is more like a collection of SOC with a novel painting style, different people come in and can play different things, and the game is also trying to cater to the demands of different players as much as possible.
It is no wonder that Greg Street, a well-known game producer, former World of Warcraft chief designer, and former League of Legends chief designer, recognized the quality of the game, and even communicated with the development team during the open beta to provide suggestions for the development direction of the game.
03
In the past, many survival gamers were more accustomed to cooperating with a few friends, while a small number of high-end players liked to compete with other players.
Taking it a step further, the design of "Seven Days World" is more like a boost of freedom. The pressure of survival is reduced, and the player goes to the waves; Make a bunch of resource points and explore them with the player; The building is rich, the main one is a free to fly the brain, or simply copy the design drawings; The split server also allows players to choose their own experience tendencies...... How to play, whether to fight or not, the choice is up to the player.
By extension, the long-term mechanics and paid design of this game also basically implement the logic of "high degree of freedom, players choose by themselves".
Let's start with Season Design, and like most Season systems, Seven Days World will erase most of the player's stats from past Seasons, while new Season Scripts, themes, and content will be introduced when the new Season begins.
At the same time, the season inheritance system retains the player's past data, such as important resources (blueprints, appearances, furniture recipes, weapon accessories), etc., which will be directly retained to the new season, and regular resources can be transferred to the personal space "Eternal Island" (the total amount of transfer is capped), and can be transferred out in the new season.
And the Eternal Isle is not just a seasonal warehouse, players can also build in it, plan and design UGC according to their own ideas, and invite friends to visit and interact.
In terms of payment, the current commercial content of "Seven Days World" is very light, and there is indeed no numerical payment point, mainly using the model of selling passes and appearances, as well as some house building materials and accessory packages.
Although there are also gacha cards in the game, as mentioned above, the resource required for gacha "Star Color" does not support paid acquisition, and can only be obtained in the game, and the design of the card pool is also very shallow, so you can almost definitely draw what you want.
In addition, according to the game announcement, on August 1, "Seven Days World" will also launch the function of "multi-character sharing in commercial content accounts", so as to avoid players from paying multiple characters under the same account.
Specifically, players' paid content (cosmetics, furniture, gun skins, etc., which can be obtained through payment, as well as the currency "StarSource" obtained by topping up any character under the account) can be shared between different characters under the same account, and of course, these paid content will not be affected by the seasonal update.
One overseas review had an interesting take on the game: "Some people may not like the season system, but for me, the season system ensures that most people are playing similar content. This is different from other multiplayer or MMO games, where some people advance lightning fast, while others struggle to play the previous content, so the player base is gradually divided, which is common in survival and MMO games. I haven't played PVP, but this game is undoubtedly one of the best PVE survival games on the market, and it definitely doesn't deserve so many negative reviews."
This is very realistic, even between a few friends who have a good relationship, it will also lead to different progress of everyone playing because of work, family affairs and other reasons, maybe a person has not been online for two days, and as a result, after going online, I found that technology has climbed high, the times have changed greatly, and I can't understand it, and the motivation to play will be greatly reduced.
In the long term, a traditional survival game can be played for two or three weeks, not to mention the 45-day season cycle, I am afraid that only the most core small group of people can last until the end, and the start of a new season can reactivate a larger player base.
04
brief summary
I think that "Seven Days World" can enter the forefront of Steam's hot sales and hot play under the premise of withstanding the pressure of public opinion, on the one hand, the game's differentiated style and rich content ensure the attractiveness of the early stage and the retention of the medium term, and on the other hand, the degree of freedom that can be seen everywhere is compatible with the different gameplay of different players, making the basic game bigger.
For players who don't like SOC, they may be discouraged when they see the huge technology tree and accessory library in the game; For SOC hardcore players, this game will seem a little easier to play in the early stage, and it will require PVP or new seasons and updates in the later stage to continue to strengthen the experience; But for medium and light players in the SOC, the freedom of the game and the massive amount of content may allow them to play for 8 hours without eating or drinking, and they can't get out of it......
Now that "Seven Days World" has a good number of simultaneous online users, DAU and payment levels, the improvement of word-of-mouth depends on subsequent updates. Whether it's the paid sharing feature on August 1 or the upcoming new season, these are all key points that can be used to win player satisfaction.
In addition, with the gradual rollout of "Seven Days World" on mobile, the market space that it can explore in the future is much larger than it is now.
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