How to start investing in online games, and how to become an agent for foreign or domestic online game products

If you have millions of dollars in your hands, how do you get a share of the online game market? Hope this article can give you some tips.

A few years ago, Shanda's "Legend of Blood" suddenly put the cake of the online game market in front of people. The huge market potential attracted a large amount of funds to pour into this emerging industry. At that time, the online game market was booming and prosperous. To this day, this phenomenon is still continuing and is getting stronger and stronger. So, there are some who make huge profits, some who end up miserable, and some who are struggling. How can you effectively withdraw your funds and gain a place in this national war?

Online games are a cultural platform. From a traditional perspective, they are a product. As a product, there are relationships such as producers, sellers, and consumers. But when it comes to the Internet, The gaming industry consists of developers, operators, and players. This article will analyze how a new amount of funds enters the market from different perspectives.

One of the more popular models now, or one that has been popular since online games entered China, is to use agents as a stepping stone to cultivate your own team and lay the foundation for future development. What we are going to talk about today is this model. What is the most important thing in the 21st century? Everyone knows that it is talent, so what exactly is the concept of talent? As an online game company, especially a company that uses agents as a stepping stone to enter the industry, talent is your team. In fact, the reason is very simple. Everyone knows that Korean games have good graphics. So, whose credit is it for the beautiful graphics? It’s not the sketch, the coloring, or the artist. Everyone has a share. The most important thing is It's this team. The biggest shortcoming of domestic companies is that they are judged based on their position and salary. A marketing director or a chief planner often takes all the credit. Such a humanistic environment is very detrimental to the overall growth of the team, and it is also the case in the online game industry. A major cause of confusion. Therefore, the most important thing for companies that enter the industry as agents is to clearly understand their mission: to develop a team. This is about the importance of team building. Everyone has their own understanding of team building. I won’t comment on the details. Everyone knows more about many team building principles than I do. Let’s talk about your funds below. Something closely related: product selection.

When it comes to product selection, I first put forward three key points: product content, market demand, and developer quality. Let’s start with the product content. Product content is a very intuitive thing. In terms of graphics, systems, operations, etc., the graphics must first look good. This is the common knowledge of players now. Gorgeous graphics can first attract players. Eyeballs, in the current situation where dozens of new games are launched every month, we cannot ask players to ignore your rough graphics and experience your so-called connotation. Then let’s talk about the system and operation. Japanese games tend to have obscure systems and unique graphics, but are highly playable. However, due to national sentiments, most Japanese games are not popular in China. This is something we have no choice but to do. Face the reality. The last point I want to emphasize is the moral factors in the game content. The moral factors may sound like a bit of a slap in the face, but some recent things have sounded the alarm for us. Everyone should know what I am talking about. What, yes, is The Burning Crusade. Ninetowns has been scolded by many players, and has been slapped with countless shit basins. The content of the game has been changed again and again. So what if your developer is the world-famous Blizzard? If you don't change the thief into a stalker, you won't be allowed to join. If you don't put the bones on the frame, you won't be allowed to join. In contrast, some Korean online games in the past were relatively smart, such as "A3" and "Cry of Gods". The monsters that were originally naked abroad were covered with a layer of strange clothes. This is a sign of the Chineseization of the game, and it is also our An issue that must be considered when choosing a product is that although "adult online games" can be repeatedly advertised in advertisements, when the game enters the country, everyone still needs to make it more in line with the national conditions.

Next, let’s talk about market demand. Whether it is well received or not, seems to have become a sign that many European and American masterpieces have encountered Waterloo in China. To give two examples, "Everquest" and "Dungeons and Dragons", everyone knows that they are fun, they are really fun, but no one plays them. This is a problem of market demand.

Not every masterpiece can become "World of Warcraft". I have to praise Ninetowns for making "World of Warcraft" so good. In addition to the quality of the game and Blizzard's reputation, Ninetowns' efforts are also Inseparable, good servers and excellent customer service are the reasons for the success of "World of Warcraft" in China. Okay, that's a bit far off topic. If I continue talking about it, it might be considered as a shot at Ninetowns. Let's go on to talk about market demand. The previous example was based on foreign online games. Let’s use local online games as an example. This year there is a game that is equally well-received but not popular. Everyone should also know it, NetEase’s “Tianxia II”. So what is the quality of "Tianxia II"? To be fair, if there were no "World of Warcraft", it would definitely be ranked in the domestic online game market, and it could even go global. However, how can it be famous if it is born in Chongqing? If a game loses its selling point, no matter how excellent its quality is, it can only become a victim. Because a "World of Warcraft" has become the standard, we will develop or represent a game whose quality is infinitely close to or even surpasses that of "World of Warcraft". Games, if they are not fundamentally different, will still not be able to capture their own user base. Therefore, when selecting products, we would rather choose some kimchi with beautiful graphics but lack of deep connotation, rather than having too much love for a masterpiece that is well-received but not well-received. Although this is cruel to gamers who love games, we do We have to bow to the market. After all, we are here to invest, and it is not advisable to follow the crowd. Of course, if you are rich, you can just buy a few well-received but not-so-popular masterpieces and pretend that I didn’t tell you.

The last thing we talk about is the quality of developers. In the past two years, due to the boom in the online game market, some such companies have appeared in China, focusing purely on development. Game, invest millions, take half a year, and then sell it to investors who want to get into the industry. Whether it is circumstantial or advertising bombing, in short, you will hype your product to perfection. In the end, you will sign the contract and the money will be paid. I also paid for it, but when the product was launched, I found that almost no one was playing it. Of course, there are only a very small number of such developers, but we cannot ignore their existence, otherwise you may be the next victim. In fact, regarding the quality of developers, what I want to say here is that there is a big difference between foreign online games, Korean online games and European and American online games. Korean online games often start to put a lot of advertising in the early stages of game development to attract them with exquisite pictures. Eyeballs, improve their own value, such as "World of Miracles" and "Tower of Aion". It is true that most Korean games have exquisite graphics and are in line with the taste of players, but let's take a closer look and see how many Korean games with exquisite graphics are on the market. Life? Although this has little to do with the quality of the developer, since it is mentioned, I still want to remind everyone that if you choose a Korean online game with beautiful graphics that is "launched as a semi-finished product", it is basically destined to be just a springboard, and you still have to put your true perspective. Far away. And as mentioned just now, most Korean online games are put on the market in a semi-finished state to raise funds for the development of subsequent content and new projects. Then, we may encounter various problems in the future. Whether the content of subsequent games Continue to meet market demand, whether it can pass the requirements of various departments, whether there will be new disputes over new versions of agency issues, and so on. Even if the developer declares bankruptcy, it is not impossible to transfer funds to the operation of the new company. At that time, you will really cry without tears. Therefore, when choosing products, we must also choose developers. Having a partner with good reputation and quality can save you a lot of frustrations on the road to entering online games.

After talking about team building and product selection, the remaining question is how to operate it. There is now a "pyramid principle" circulating in the online game market, also known as the "4321" theory. In addition to the "gameplay" factor that accounts for 40%, the remaining is 30% "market communication", 20% "operational capabilities" and 10% % of "Technical Support". It can be said that this theory is inseparable from a game. Everyone knows that I am going to talk about "Zhengtu", yes, I am going to talk about "Zhengtu". Shi Yuzhu made us realize that "the operation of online games is actually not much different from sanitary napkin advertisements." Gamers in the past were too idealistic and sanctified their dreams. In fact, online games are not just products. As a cultural platform, are they any different from movies, TV, books and periodicals? The actual answer is, there is no difference.

Therefore, we don’t have to worry about how to open up the market. Looking at the almost shameless "Tathagata Palm" on 17173 and the "War OL" condoms distributed to college students, we understand: it turns out that online game promotion can also be played like this! I remember Zhang Chaoyang said a word that touched me deeply. I don’t know if it was his original creation, but I did learn from him for the first time that this word is "eyeball economy". First of all, you must have eyeballs, then you can be in the world. Your economy exists on the Internet, otherwise the market would not know about you. Where would you find demand? The word "market operation" is really a sensitive word for the current domestic online game market, and is almost equated with hype. I really can't say too much about this link with infinite possibilities, so let the benevolent see the wisdom of the wise.

This article is about to come to an end. I wonder if you have any thoughts if you insist on reading it?