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A16z: The age of the game creator economy has arrived

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We're seeing the creator economy creeping into the games industry.

原文标题：《 The Creator Economy Comes for Gaming 》

原文来源： Joost van Dreunen，a16z

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a16z：游戏创作者经济未来已来

Sometimes,The gameThe difference between manufacturers and gamers is a thin line, but the latter can beat a game much faster than the former can create it. As a result, in a high-stakes, high-reward industry like games, creativity is important, but creativity is in short supply at the moment. Talent is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the industry, which is why, for game studio heads, user-generated content can be a fertile breeding ground for a creator economy. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Twitch -- where people can create and consume -- are now the center of a growing creator economy. Now, the creator economy has entered the game industry.

Of course, for decades, game studios have tapped into the potential of their fans to provide them with a source of innovation. Doom is probably the most famous first-person shooter of all time, and it achieved success in the 1990s thanks to its ability to open up its underlying source code to anyone willing to build extra levels and add-ons -- it was the granddad of original games that drove the "modify" phenomenon. With the release of first-person shooter Half-Life, Valve has grown from a publisher to a full-fledged digital platform (including Steam, the world's largest digital marketplace for PC games). To this day, Valve has one of the most successful games of all time, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, as a result of its own spin-off.

While user-generated content in games has a long and rich history, this kind of user contribution to games has traditionally been viewed as a form of self-expression or a niche activity: participants create content because they love the game and have a sense of community, not necessarily for financial gain. Now that's changing: game studios are increasingly realizing that the value creators bring to their games is worth a real cash reward.Roblox, for example, is a hugely popular multiplayer online creation game that went public last yeardevelopersSpending has nearly tripled; And like & have spentThe Sandbox And Mythical Games, where players can build and own their own blockchain-based experience.

We're seeing the creator economy creeping into the games industry, where players are finding ways to contributecurrencyWhether it's through building original game worlds, creating and selling in-game goods on the blockchain, or interacting with fans through new game streaming tools. At the same time, studios and game developers have realized that giving players the opportunity to contribute -- and share in the profits -- is actually a competitive advantage. This is critical to revitalizing the underlying economy of game design and distribution.

The economics behind the UGC boom

The rise of user-generated content (UGC) is no accident: it is largely inevitable. The cost of making games continues to rise. A pre-covid-19 analysis by game design legend Raph Koster found that, in terms of megabytes, the effective cost of creating a $5 million indie mobile game is the same as a $100 million cross-platform mega-game. This explains why big publishers tend to be risk-averse -- or at least weigh their bets very carefullyinvestment.

But even the investment of a large publisher can't be a driver of constant innovation. A game studio's competitive advantage stems from its ability to develop cool new experiences, and if there are "too many similarities, a little different", it will be hard to survive in a click-driven market. By opening their creations to both players and outside developers, publishers effectively outsource the innovation process and reduce the risk to their business. By shifting development responsibilities from a small team of professional designers to a large group of fans and passionate players, the entire design process can be greatly expanded. Opening up the game's building blocks and encouraging players to access and develop in-game items and experiences for others can lead to more novel content, a process that has been going on in the early days of Beta testing.

Over The past five years, Electronic Arts game developer Maxis has created about 5,000 personal costumes for The Sims game, according to Electronic Arts Senior vice President Samantha Ryan. As she pointed out during a recent panel discussion:

"But if you look at one of our largest user-generated content sites, they've created 39,000 works over the same period. As a career development company, we can't keep up with our players."

likeSamantha Ryan Such game executives are now revealing that fact. Traditional publishers are notoriously slow to adopt new revenue models and technologies (VR is a prime example). They prefer to "wait and see" until they have to, and pay a high price to get into something, usually through acquisition. Case in point: When Activision Blizzard finally entered the mobile game space in 2016, it bought King Digital for $5.9 billion. In this new era -- massive fan engagement coupled with game monetization -- it's clear that games' creativity and virality are driven not by conservative traditional companies, but by external (and often social) forces.

There's another benefit for game developers: most of the publicly traded and privately owned industries now generate revenue through services, so there's a glut of content. Digitisation and the ensuing freemium revenue model have made games accessible to everyone. With the vast number of games available, it becomes more expensive to connect consumers with content. User-generated content, on the other hand, offsets marketing costs because it makes it easier for companies to retain players and reduce churn. Being part of an active community and providing a constant stream of new content for your favorite games can encourage players to stick around for longer. It also has a positive impact on the average game life cycle and reduces the threat from opponents.

Make social games, not just play them

We're passive when it comes to most traditional forms of entertainment: Netflix's "squid game" binge; Or going to a concert. Games, on the other hand, are changing all that because they allow the audience to participate and even entertain. Playing games like Roblox, The Sandbox, and Rec Room shows that The focus of these games is on making games. User-generated content isn't just a new way to play -- it's an increasingly viable way to monetize, a form of identity, and a social bond.

Character creation has long been at the heart of role-playing games. Through user-generated content, characters in games become richer and more expressive. At the same time, these avatars are tailor-made to not only provide a unique adventure experience in the game, but also help users bond emotionally. (Through companies like Itsme and Genies, these characters are becoming increasingly personal.) It's worth noting that we explore the world not through anonymous avatars or in-game tokens, but through the unique skills and personalities of the characters. In one round, I might be a sniper and dive into battle. Or he could be an unbeatable punk, doing his own thing. Gameplay gradually changes from a form of entertainment to a form of expression.

Of course, the deeper part of games is still social -- users have an emotional need not just to connect, but to create and contribute. By developing novel game objects or experiences, we can share them with others instead of just playing them. Unlike today's social media, where much of the interaction is limited to swiping screens, game worlds allow players to interact in real time with virtual identities -- some users can even get married in customizable game worlds like the Rec Room. Of course, the original artwork has been around for a long time, but it hasn't become a revenue model because it's now included in the game.

conclusion

Over the past three decades, as games have become more experienced, players have become more deeply involved in increasingly important decisions, leading to higher levels of customization, which means we're waving goodbye to a single objective experience. Maybe we're all playing the same game, but we're starting to play it our own way. Now, through the growth of user-generated content, we are also able to share and sell these tailored experiences with others.

As in the media, education and crypto worlds before it, the creator economy is now in the broader games industry. Previously, modifying original content and user-generated content was seen as a value-added revenue stream reserved for fans of games, but now making games, engaging in battles, trading and selling in-game artifacts will become an integral part of the player experience -- and the future of the game creator economy is surely here.