As I continue my way through more mobile games during my breaks, I have had a chance to take a closer look at gacha-based systems. While gacha and lootboxes are similar in design and reward, a gacha progression is much more focused in terms of rewards and monetization.
正如 我继续我的方式，通过在我休息更多的手机游戏，我有机会拿在基于嘎查系统一探究竟。 尽管gacha和战利品的设计和奖励相似，但gacha的进展更加注重奖励和货币化。
加沙与战利品盒 (Gacha vs. lootboxes)
To start with, let us try to properly define the two systems. A lootbox, for the purposes of our discussion today, is any microtransaction where the player is spending money on an unknown item. That item could be a consumable, it could be some legendary weapon or just some bonus resources. The player is expected to keep purchasing lootboxes as the content continues to scale up and demand more.
首先，让我们尝试正确定义两个系统。 就我们今天的讨论而言，战利品箱是玩家花钱购买未知物品的任何微交易。 该物品可能是消耗品，可能是一些传奇武器或只是一些额外资源。 随着内容的不断扩大和需求的增加，玩家有望继续购买战利品。
Gachas are designed to reward the player with something permanent — namely a new character that, once acquired, can be used in the game. Unlike lootboxes, gachas will sometimes have an inherent limit on how much you need to spend based on what character you want, depending on the power system (which we will be talking about in a minute).
Gachas旨在奖励玩家一些永久性的东西，即一种新角色，一旦获得，便可以在游戏中使用。 与战利品箱不同，gacha有时会根据所需的角色(取决于电源系统)而对要花费的金额有一个固有的限制(我们将在稍后讨论)。
Games that make use of lootboxes are designed around an everlasting need to open them, with very low drop chances on the best items. Lootboxes typically drop multiple items and are preprogrammed in terms of drop rates.
利用战利品箱的游戏是根据长期打开它们的需求而设计的，对最佳物品的掉落几率很小。 战利品通常会丢掉多个物品，并且会根据丢包率进行预编程。
With a gacha, developers will never just have one gacha purchase and be done with it. Instead, gachas (or sometimes referred to as “banners”) will go up for any number of reasons: a special promotion, limited-time rewards, something for new players, etc.
使用gacha，开发人员将永远不会只购买一个gacha并完成它。 取而代之的是，gacha(或有时称为“横幅”)会由于多种原因而上升：特殊促销，限时奖励，为新玩家提供的东西等。
Each gacha is programmed to pull certain characters or rewards. To sweeten the pot, many titles will guarantee certain rewards based on the number of pulls the player does. I recently tried the mobile game Arknights, where the very first gacha guaranteed a six-star (the highest rarity in this particular game) character by simply doing it 10 times.
每个gacha均经过编程以提取某些角色或奖励。 为了使底池变甜，许多冠军将根据玩家的拉动次数保证一定的奖励。 我最近尝试了手机游戏《 Arknights》 ，在该游戏中，第一个gacha只需做10次就可以保证六星级(在该特定游戏中稀有度最高)。
The difference between a gacha and a lootbox comes down to the implementation. A lootbox, once set, becomes a “fire and forget” monetization by the developer. Drop rates are not changed and the possible reward pool will only be altered when new content is added to the game. For games that make use of lootboxes, they will either only have one lootbox or lootboxes that guarantee certain rarities or specific item category drops.
gacha和lootbox之间的区别在于实现。 战利品箱一旦设置，便成为开发人员的“即付即用”货币。 掉落率不会改变，可能的奖励池只会在向游戏中添加新内容时才会改变。 对于使用战利品箱的游戏，它们要么只有一个战利品箱，要么是保证某些稀有性或特定物品类别掉落的战利品箱。
Gachas are often designed to be influenced by the banner itself, and sometimes outside elements; such as the number of pulls the player has done, the number of purchases at one time, etc... The whole attraction of gacha banners is that they are often programmed to have a higher chance of dropping specific characters — oftentimes the newest additions to the game — instead of just dropping anything.
Gachas通常被设计成受横幅本身的影响，有时还受外部元素的影响。 例如玩家完成的拉动次数，一次购买的次数等。gacha条幅的全部吸引力在于，它们通常被编程为具有较高的丢弃特定角色的机会-通常是最新添加的游戏-不仅仅是丢东西。
Gacha-driven progression tends to make more money from players than lootboxes. For this reason, it’s important to understand both their allure and design.
Gacha驱动的进度趋向于从玩家那里获得比战利品盒更多的钱。 因此，重要的是要了解它们的魅力和设计。
明星力量 (Star power)
When we talk about gacha systems, there are two popular forms of progression that developers use. The first flattens out the character ratings and uses rarity to drive power. What that means is when the player makes a pull to collect characters, they typically start at one of the lower rarities. Characters are not ranked by their rarity, but instead, the rarity itself acts as a form of growth.
当我们谈论gacha系统时，开发人员可以使用两种流行的渐进形式。 第一个拼合了字符评级，并利用稀有性来驱动功率。 这意味着当玩家拉动以收集角色时，它们通常从较低的稀有度之一开始。 角色不是按稀有度排序的，而是稀有度本身是一种成长形式。
By finding additional copies of characters, you can “rank up” your version of them — raising their overall power and allowing them to compete in higher-level challenges. These kinds of systems are usually popular in games that feature unique characters and a smaller overall pool of choices.
通过查找字符的其他副本，您可以“升级”它们的版本-增强其整体能力并允许他们参与更高级别的挑战。 这类系统通常在具有独特角色和较小总体选择池的游戏中流行。
Instead of the gacha hunt being focused on getting a super rare character, it becomes a hunt for the characters you like and trying to get the resources to build a high-ranking team with them. What makes this system work is that the hunt for characters is more personal to the player. You’re building a team based on the powers and abilities you like, as opposed to being told that one character is the best in the game.
gacha狩猎不是专注于获得超级稀有角色，而是寻找您喜欢的角色并尝试获取资源来与他们建立一支高级队伍。 使该系统起作用的原因是，对角色的追寻对玩家而言更为个性化。 您是根据自己喜欢的能力和能力建立团队，而不是被告知一个角色是游戏中最好的角色。
With that said, it should be obvious that not every character is equal. Any game that features unique abilities and an ever-growing pool of characters will run into cases where someone is simply better than everyone else. If someone is really good at the common level, they could be game-breaking at the legendary rank.
如此说来，显然不是每个字符都相等。 任何具有独特能力和不断增长的角色池的游戏都将遇到某些情况下，某人比其他所有人都更好。 如果某人真的很擅长普通水平，那么他们可能会打破传奇级别的游戏规则。
What usually ends up happening in these cases is that the developers will not overly nerf that character, but assign them very low drop chances, which in effect, will raise the pay-to-win aspect of the game. This is where the banner design comes in: allowing someone a chance to acquire a very rare, very powerful character, but only if they spend premium currency (and money) on a limited time banner.
在这些情况下，通常最终会发生的情况是，开发人员不会过度折磨该角色，而是为他们分配非常低的掉落机会，这实际上将提高游戏的“以赢取酬”的方面。 这就是横幅设计的目的：允许某人有机会获得一个非常罕见，非常有力的角色，但前提是他们在有限的时间横幅上花费了高级货币(和金钱)。
In Marvel Strike Force, one of the best characters in the game after their introduction was never part of an event to be able to unlock her, because she was the defacto best healer in the game. Another option is to have a very hard challenge that is the only way to acquire a character, but getting them requires a lot of time or money spent in the game.
在Marvel Strike Force中 ，游戏中最优秀的角色之一被介绍之后就永远不会成为能够解锁她的活动的一部分，因为她是游戏中事实上的最佳治疗师。 另一种选择是面对一个非常艰巨的挑战，这是获得角色的唯一方法，但是要获得角色需要大量的时间或金钱。
The other form of gacha design is using the rarity as the form of progression.
gacha设计的另一种形式是将稀有性作为渐进形式。
稀有度 (Rarity power)
An easier way of classifying and ranking characters in a gacha system is with the use of rarity. Developers will either have fixed characters set at specific rarities or have one pool of characters and have different rarity versions of them.
在gacha系统中，对字符进行分类和排名的一种简便方法是使用稀有性。 开发人员将为特定的稀有度设置固定的字符，或者具有一个字符池并具有不同的稀有度版本。
This system is very popular as it provides a very easy metric for the player to figure out the quality of units, and makes it easy to design gacha banners around. For games that make use of an IP, you can bet that the most powerful/popular characters of the IP will be assigned the highest rarities. For these titles, the star rating itself dictates the base and maximum level of power a unit can grow to, and typically work like this:
该系统非常受欢迎，因为它为玩家提供了一个非常简单的度量单位，以弄清单位的质量，并使其易于设计周围的gacha横幅。 对于使用IP的游戏，您可以打赌IP的最强大/最受欢迎的角色将被分配最高的稀有度。 对于这些头衔，星级本身就决定了单位可以发展的基本能力和最大能力，通常这样运作：
- 1–2 star — very first units you’ll get; typically comes with starting an account. They should never be in your party and will quickly be outclassed by gacha pulls. 1-2星-您将获得的头一个单位； 通常会附带一个帐户。 他们绝对不应该参加您的聚会，并且会被gacha pullsSwift超越。
- 3–4 star — Bread and butter units with the 4 stars being the best you can get at the start. Early progression will be defined as getting a full team of 4-star units. Getting 4-star units at the start will be hard, but will provide a massive boost through the early game. 3–4星—面包和黄油单位，一开始可以得到最好的4星。 早期进展将被定义为拥有完整的4星级团队。 一开始要获得4星单位将很困难，但在早期游戏中将提供巨大的推动力。
- 5 star — Incredibly powerful units that will dominate the early game, and will be the minimum for end-game content. They will often have unique abilities and will flat out be better than anything lower than it. Outside of special events, they will be extremely hard to get as a new player. Most likely, they will not be rewards for just playing the game, and can only be acquired through specific situations, AKA banner pulls. 5星-极其强大的单位，将主导早期的游戏，并且将是最终游戏内容的最低要求。 他们通常会拥有独特的能力，并且会比任何低于它的东西都要出色。 除了特殊事件，作为新玩家很难获得。 他们很可能不会仅仅因为玩游戏而获得奖励，而只能通过特定的情况获得奖励，又名横幅。
- 6 star — The most powerful and rarest units in the game. Will often have abilities entirely unique from anyone else. Even the worst 6-star units will still crush the early and mid content of the game. Outside of specific events, you will not be earning a 6 star without incredible luck. 6星-游戏中最强大，最稀有的单位。 通常会具有其他人完全不具备的能力。 即使是最差的6星级单位，也仍然会压垮游戏的初期和中期内容。 在特定事件之外，如果没有不可思议的运气，您将不会获得6星。
Once again, Arknights does just that with its 5 and 6-star characters. Characters at this tier for their respective classes are the best versions and come with unique powers that only they can do, such as attacking at a longer range, summoning units, etc. And of course, the drop chance normally for a 6 star is very low: sitting at 2% per pull.
Arknights再次以5星和6星角色来做到这一点。 此级别上各自角色的角色是最好的角色，并且具有只有他们才能做到的独特力量，例如，在更远的范围内进行攻击，召唤单位等。当然，通常六颗星的掉落几率非常高低：每次拉动均坐2％。
You may be asking yourself “do more rarity tiers make the game better?” and the answer is no. Some gacha games will go down to three or four: common, special, epic, and insanely rare, but six is usually the max. Any more rarity tiers will not matter to the game because the player only cares about the highest value characters they can earn and that is where the game’s balance lies.
您可能会问自己“更多的稀有等级会使游戏变得更好吗？” 答案是否定的。 某些gacha游戏会降至3或4：普通游戏，特殊游戏，史诗游戏和极少见的疯狂游戏，但通常最多只能有6种。 更高的稀有度等级对游戏无所谓，因为玩家只在乎他们能赚到的最高价值的角色，这才是游戏平衡的地方。
Gacha design is more alluring and is a major monetization element, but it does raise one big question.
Gacha设计更具吸引力，是主要的获利元素，但确实提出了一个大问题。
gacha的设计好吗？ (Is gacha good design?)
Gacha and lootbox monetization go hand-in-hand when it comes to their harm to players. The association to gambling — specifically slot machines — cannot be understated. Players are literally spending money to gain power over their peers, and this is clearly pay-to-win design. The system works and is an effective progression model for free to play games, but it comes at a cost.
当涉及到对玩家的伤害时，Gacha和战利品货币化是并驾齐驱的。 与赌博的关联-特别是老虎机-不可低估。 玩家实际上是在花钱来赢得同龄人的力量，而这显然是“双赢”的设计。 该系统有效并且是免费玩游戏的有效进度模型，但要付出一定的代价。
One of the reasons why I did not spend a lot of money playing Marvel Strike Force, or the other mobile games I’m playing now, is the fact that at the end of the day rarity trumps all. You can be the very best player of these games, but without a pool of five and six-star characters, you will be stopped by the abstraction of the game.
我之所以没有花很多钱玩Marvel Strike Force或我现在正在玩的其他手机游戏的原因之一是，一天结束时稀有性胜过一切。 您可能是这些游戏中最出色的玩家，但是如果没有五星级和六星级的角色，您将被游戏抽象所吸引。
Every single gacha-focused mobile game I’ve played goes the same way — start out with fast progression, get one or two lucky pulls, and then spend the rest of my time waiting for incremental upgrades unless I spend money. Again, keep in mind I am not the regular consumer of any of these games and value money over time.
我玩过的每一款专注于gacha的移动游戏都是以这种方式进行的-从快速发展开始，获得一两次幸运，然后剩下的时间都花在等待增量升级上，除非我花钱。 同样，请记住，我不是这些游戏中的任何一个的普通消费者，并且随着时间的流逝而物有所值。
The system works, and developers have gotten more elaborate with their gacha banners. The use of rarity tiers to drive progression is a design we can trace from the ARPG (action role-playing game) genre. But as we talked about in an earlier post, lootbox (or gacha) design by itself is not enough to drive engagement.
该系统正常运行，并且开发人员对其gacha标语进行了更详细的说明。 我们可以从ARPG(动作角色扮演游戏)类型中追溯到使用稀有等级来推动进度的设计。 但是，正如我们在较早的文章中所讨论的那样， 战利品(或gacha)设计本身不足以推动参与度 。
Player skill, or mastery of the systems, is not enough to circumvent these systems. Because rarity also limits the power, there will always come a time, from a statistic point of view, that you will not be able to keep up with the enemies.
玩家的技能或对系统的掌握不足以规避这些系统。 因为稀有性也限制了力量，所以从统计的角度来看，总会有一段时间，您将无法跟上敌人。
Personally, while using a ranking system is easier in terms of monetization, I like having characters try to exist as evenly as possible. Part of the reason I was drawn to Marvel Strike Force was the fact that you were free to mix and match characters to create teams as in an RPG. The problem came as balance was quietly pushed aside in favor of creating teams focused on synergies.
就个人而言，虽然使用排名系统更容易获利，但我喜欢让角色尝试尽可能均匀地存在。 我之所以被Marvel Strike Force吸引，部分原因是您可以自由混合和匹配角色来创建角色，就像在RPG中一样。 问题出在平衡被悄无声息地拨开以支持建立专注于协同作用的团队之际。
Instead of being able to build a team of your liking, the only way to compete was to build teams that focused on those synergies for massive bonuses. This strategy became the major source of monetization with the developers releasing new teams one new character at a time, and then made the last character the hardest (and most expensive) to acquire.
不能组建自己喜欢的团队，而是竞争的唯一方法是建立专注于这些协同效应的团队以获得巨额奖金。 随着开发人员一次释放一个新角色并释放新团队，然后使最后一个角色成为最难(且最昂贵)的角色，该策略成为了主要的获利来源。
Two of the very best (and important for PvP battles) characters could only be acquired by having a team made up of five specific characters that must then be ranked up to almost max star level by the time their events appear in order to unlock them.
最好的两个角色(对PvP战斗很重要)只能由一支由五个特定角色组成的团队来获得，然后必须在其事件出现之前将其排名达到几乎最大星星水平 ，以解锁它们。
一星 (One star)
It’s a shame, as I like the idea of collecting different characters, and the thrill of getting some special or unique character that changes my strategy. I do not like being told that the only way to move forward is to pull a slot machine lever or play for the next two years daily. I’m still in the honeymoon phase of Arknights, and I’m interested to see how long it lasts. The problem is that if you live by the rarity system, your game could die by it as well.
很遗憾，因为我喜欢收集不同角色的想法，以及获得一些可以改变我策略的特殊或独特角色的快感。 我不喜欢被告知前进的唯一方法是每天拉动老虎机杆或玩接下来的两年。 我仍处于《 阿肯奈特》的蜜月期，我很想知道它能持续多久。 问题是，如果您以稀有系统为生，那么您的游戏也可能因此而丧命。
All new content gets filtered through it — if a new character does not have a five or six-star rarity version then it’s useless to your core fans. But that raises a big problem — how do you keep creating new characters that are both original and can sit at the top of the power curve? At some point, your six-star grouping will essentially be split between the good ones everyone wants, and the ones that are made obsolete now.
所有新内容都会通过它进行过滤-如果一个新角色没有五星级或六星级的稀有版本，那么这对您的核心粉丝是无用的。 但这带来了一个大问题-您如何继续创建既原始又可以位于功率曲线顶部的新角色？ 在某个时候，您的六星级组合实际上将在每个人都想要的好事物和现在已经过时的事物之间进行划分。
There is a solution I’m sure some of you are thinking about right now — why not just extend the rarity system after the game has been out for some time? And that is something you cannot do. If you are selling consumers that the six-star units are the most powerful and people spend money to get them, telling them that was a lie will destroy your consumer base.
我确定有一个解决方案，我敢肯定，有些人现在正在考虑-为什么在游戏结束一段时间后不只是扩展稀有系统？ 那是你做不到的。 如果您要向消费者推销六星级的产品是最强大的，并且人们花钱购买它们，告诉他们这是谎言将破坏您的消费者基础。
One option some developers will use is creating a second-tier system that overlaps with the base one: essentially doubling the rarity system. The problem is that now you’re not chasing after a new character, but just raw stats, and is often viewed as even more pay-to-win.
一些开发人员将使用的一种选择是创建与基本系统重叠的第二层系统：将稀有系统实质上翻倍。 问题在于，现在您不是在追逐一个新角色，而只是在追逐原始数据，并且通常被认为是更赚钱的。
For me, gacha-based design is highly effective in what it does but still falls on the predatory side of monetization like loot boxes.
对我而言，基于gacha的设计在其功能上非常有效，但仍然像战利品盒一样落入货币化的掠夺性一面。
And now, a question for the reader: can you think of a way, or a game, that executes gacha design well without the black hat design?
现在，给读者一个问题：您能想到一种无需黑帽设计就能很好地执行gacha设计的方法或游戏吗？
If you enjoyed my article, consider joining the Game-Wisdom Discord channel. It’s open to everyone.
如果您喜欢我的文章，请考虑加入 Game-Wisdom Discord频道 。 它向所有人开放。
翻译自: https://medium.com/super-jump/studying-gacha-progression-8bc7f357a9c5
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