Author|Zhou Yao

There is no surprise that "Black Myth: Wukong" received four nominations from the "Oscars of the gaming industry" TGA.

Recently, the 2024 Game of the Year (TGA, The Game Awards) announced the list of nominees for various awards through the official Weibo. China's first triple-A game, Black Myth: Wukong, was nominated for four categories: Game of the Year, Best Game Director, Best Action Game and Best Art Direction.

In the official Weibo comment area of "Black Myth: Wukong", netizens angrily praised "well deserved".

While "Black Myth: Wukong" won four awards from the TGA, the number of readings of #Black Myth Wukong# topic words on Weibo reached 4.36 billion. In other words, since its launch on August 20, "Black Myth: Wukong" has been popular for a long time.

In fact, not only triple-A productions such as "Black Myth: Wukong", but also a series of game products in a series of subdivisions such as "Love of Light and Night", "Love and Deep Space", "Like a Kite" and "Beyond the World" this year have also shown strong vitality.

One thing in common behind the fact that these products can go online and go out of the circle and become evergreen is the importance of "social media platforms".

"Black Myth: Wukong" was launched four years ago, and with the official announcement of the project, the game ID, the manufacturer's game science and the producer have opened the official WeChat to grow so far. The same is true for products such as "Love of Light and Night", "Love and Deep Space", "Like a Kite" and "Beyond the World", which have entered social media for the first time.

To a certain extent, when they enter social media, does it mean that the competition of games has shifted from the channel battlefield to the social media battlefield?

01

The logic behind the popularity of many games

Back in August this year, on the day of the official release of "Black Myth: Wukong", as the first triple-A masterpiece in China, this game was #黑神话悟空#的相关话题就占据了微博大半个热搜榜单 once it was launched.

According to a data from Weibo, the number of Jincheng V blogs related to the game of "Black Myth Wukong" reached 35,000 within 24 hours of its launch, with more than 4.5 billion readings on related topics, more than 8.6 million interactions, and more than 200 million video views.

"Black Myth: Wukong" is based on the explosive spread of social media and has reaped the results of breaking the circle. Similarly, "Love of Light and Night", which was launched three years ago, continues to be popular based on the long-term operation of social media, and the topic of #Light and Night Love# on Weibo has more than 19 billion views so far.

From the end of July to the beginning of September this year, in less than two months, there were five entries on the hot search list: "Charlie Sue of Love of Light and Night", "Love of Light and Night", "Lu Shen Sleep Marks", "Xiao Yishuai's Good Excessiveness", "Qi Sili, the General's Triumphant Return" five entries appeared on the hot search list.

Through long-term operation on social media, "Love of Light and Night" has reached more users and filled its presence, thus establishing a huge player base in the early stage. In the follow-up operation, through linkage and cooperation with other well-known IPs, a number of co-branded products have been launched, and the influence of the game has been continuously expanded.

The underlying logic behind the popularity of "Love of Light and Night" and "Black Myth: Wukong" both rely on the tool of social media. But unlike "Black Myth: Wukong", which exploded when it appeared, the continued popularity of "Love of Light and Night" has actually experienced long-term operation and investment.

Operations point to users in social media. Different from content platforms, social media is user-centric, relying on the connection between users to socialize, share and disseminate online.

The official team of "Love of Light and Night" has been actively interacting with players on Weibo, Bilibili, Douyin and other platforms, sharing game information, event information, etc., which has attracted the attention of a large number of fans.

In addition, a number of well-known game bloggers and illustrators have also joined the second creation army, interpreting their understanding and perception of the game in their own way, and the mutual interaction of various groups of people has also improved their activity and realized the secondary dissemination of the game.

Papergames, PaperStack's "Love and Deep Space", NetEase's "Out of the World", and Ali Lingxi Entertainment's "Like Kites" now also regard social media as a key front for communication. Through social media, a "two-way rush" across dimensions between players and domestic B games kicked off.

Here, compared with the unheated list data, game manufacturers continue to dig out the fresh and sincere emotions hidden behind the data, and players have shared their game experiences, character preferences and plot discussions, and the power of mutual communication and resonance has promoted the fermentation and heating up of these games on social media.

As a result, players gain a sense of belonging, the game enhances its reputation and influence, and it also gains long-term value.

02

Take advantage of the social field, domestic games and other winds

Many industry insiders believe that social platforms such as Weibo and Douyin have become the main battlefield for game manufacturers' marketing.

With the increasing maturity of the game industry, the game market has entered the stage of stock competition. The market share is monopolized by the leading enterprises, and new entrants face great challenges. At the same time, the life cycle of game products is getting shorter and shorter, and users have higher and higher requirements for game quality and experience.

At present, "players" have become the core resources of game manufacturers.

However, the saturation of the game market has brought about a surge in traffic costs, and "buying volume", as a form of advertising, presents similar advertising content, and once users are aesthetically fatigued, they will choose to flee. It can be said that the hope that the explosion through buying volume has become a thing of the past, and this necessary path to success has been broken.

Manufacturers urgently need to find an online space that can generate lasting communication with players, and socialization has become an important strategy for manufacturers to cope with competition.

Compared with purely transactional purchases, game manufacturers in social media can connect with players in a fragmented form and with a higher frequency of reach. For manufacturers, on the one hand, it can save marketing and promotion costs, and on the other hand, the emotional drive based on content can improve the return visit and retention rate of players, reduce the dependence on purchase channels, and promote the establishment of corporate brands.

Nowadays, the idea of using social media to promote the explosion of games has been familiar and applied by leading game manufacturers, from miHoYo, Eagle Point to Paperfold, they have all gone through a similar path.

This time, "Love and Deep Space" once again became the focus of the topic on Weibo, in addition to the popularity and sales of the game itself, through the secondary dissemination of social media and the player community, the brand has also gained huge commercial value.

In Xinmo's view, for major game manufacturers, what social media brings to all major game manufacturers is the "new traffic" hidden outside the circle.

Compared with game vertical communities and live broadcast platforms such as Douyu and Huya, social media such as Bilibili and Weibo cover a wider range of user circles, and based on the co-construction of strong social + hot ecology, it is easier to create topics that break the circle. During the Paris Olympics, the number of reads and discussions on Weibo exceeded 400 billion.

Compared with vertical communities, social media is actually a public opinion field where the public gathers, with a high degree of responsiveness to hot spots, and the integration of new production formats such as UGC and PUGC, which can achieve more value connections in creation.

Xinyan observed that almost every game manufacturer will choose to open official accounts and topics on major social media before the game is launched, and even when the project is established, and enhance the topic and discussion before the game is released, so as to build momentum for the game.

When "Like a Kite" was not launched, it spread the character image through relevant Weibo super talk, called on players to create UGC content, and the social connection between manufacturers and players made the game gain more active players.

In this way, when the game is launched, based on the user base, the topic is more likely to be detonated, which leads to a large number of downloads and improves the success rate of product release.

03

Talking about the industrial upgrading of the game and the second half

There is no shortage of ideas for gaming entertainment in the domestic market.

But this also means that China's gaming industry is constantly changing, from the early console, arcade, and PC games, to online games, and now mobile games. Over the past 30 years, China's game industry has never stopped evolving.

Macro changes have brought huge challenges to individual game products, and even excellent game works such as "Honor of Kings", "Genshin Impact", "Honkai Impact 3" and "Black Myth: Wukong" cannot avoid the proposition of "how to be evergreen".

For a long time in the past, the launch of games stood in the context of unlimited market growth, meeting the needs of groups that still have blank needs, but now the current game industry is shifting from incremental to stock market, and games with long life cycles and vitality can better cope with the changes and challenges of the industry.

The relationship between game manufacturers and players has become increasingly close, and the way games are sold has begun to change from one-time sales to long-term services, and continuous player communication has become the core appeal of most manufacturers.

The long-term operation of the product needs to be bound to one or more platforms that can communicate with players for a long time, where the game version update information and development progress can effectively reach the audience in the first time, and can also maintain the enthusiasm of players for the game through continuously updated content.

In the early days of the spread of "Black Myth: Wukong", Weibo and Bilibili played a vital role. In the process of subsequent dissemination of the game, based on the co-branding of multiple brands and the sharing of KOC players, the popularity has not weakened, but has been rising. Weibo game topic classification, #黑神话悟空#长期盘踞在热搜榜的前十.

From the perspective of the content of "Black Myth: Wukong", based on the field of social media, gameplay, plot, characters, cultural communication, co-branding, etc. have all become topics, which have been discussed and extended by professional content producers and non-professional players, and finally increased the popularity of "Black Myth: Wukong".

In this process, content producers have played the role of opinion leaders, such as game influencers and bloggers on social platforms, who are an important part of game manufacturers to promote the spread of games.

According to the latest Weibo financial report data, in the third quarter, the scale and activity of Jincheng V bloggers in the game field maintained a growth trend, the scale of bloggers doubled year-on-year, and the average daily number of bloggers increased by more than 2 times year-on-year, further enhancing the activity of Weibo game interest groups.

Nowadays, game manufacturers hope to achieve long-term game longevity through long-term operation, and for this reason, it has become an important operation direction to do a good job in social operation and use the ability of social media to connect users and expand user influence.

Based on the continuous operation of the community, Honor of Kings has become the representative of Evergreen.

In October this year, the number of fans of the official Weibo account of Honor of Kings exceeded 20 million, becoming the first game product in the game field to reach 20 million fans. This game product, which has been launched in 2015 for nearly 10 years, still maintains the achievement of DAU exceeding 100 million.

At present, from "Honor of Kings" and "Genshin Impact" to "Black Myth: Wukong", to "Love of Light and Night" and "Love and Deep Space", more and more games have made the decision to shift from traditional channel operation to social media operation.

In the future, the trend of game manufacturers embracing social media may continue to spread.

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