自1913年,現(xiàn)代填字游戲的發(fā)明者Arthur Wynne在《紐約世界報(bào)》上刊登第一個填字謎題以來,“新聞+游戲”這一模式已經(jīng)席卷世界各地報(bào)紙超過100年了。
作為美國歷史最悠久的幾家媒體之一,《紐約時報(bào)》是這一模式的長期踐行者,至今已連續(xù)推出數(shù)十年填字游戲?qū)冢湓谡麄€填字游戲圈的地位非常重要。
圖源:The New York Times
2016年,《紐約時報(bào)》將填字游戲搬到移動平臺,又于2021年收購了在Twitter風(fēng)靡一時的“Wordle”。除了“Wordle”之外,《紐約時報(bào)》也在不斷推出新的小游戲:有同樣經(jīng)典的“數(shù)獨(dú)(Sudoku)”、結(jié)合了連連看和消消樂玩法的上頭小游戲“Letter Boxed”,還有考驗(yàn)玩詞匯量的拼字游戲“Spelling Bee”。
圖源:The
New York Times App截圖
值得注意的是,用戶上手玩這些游戲無需任何付費(fèi)或者訂閱門檻,但一旦上癮想要解除部分游戲的每日次數(shù)限制( “Letter
Boxed” 一天一關(guān), “Tiles” 一天兩關(guān))或者保存分享游戲記錄,便不得不登陸或者訂閱《紐約時報(bào)》。
在這一模式加持下,游戲服務(wù)已成為《紐約時報(bào)》人氣排行第二的訂閱業(yè)務(wù),截至2020年年底,《紐約時報(bào)》擁有84萬游戲訂閱用戶。該公司聲稱Wordle推出之后,用戶游戲次數(shù)已經(jīng)累積超過5億,截止2021年年底,該游戲累積吸引超過100萬名玩家,而這些都是潛在的訂閱用戶。他們希望到2025年,其數(shù)字訂閱用戶能增至1000萬,并強(qiáng)調(diào)將維持此款游戲免費(fèi)的特性。
圖源:http://www.yooxz.com/game/200462.html
除此之外,2017年,《澎湃新聞》也在自家網(wǎng)站推出了“澎湃填字”,并很快將其上線到APP平臺,用戶依舊可以免費(fèi)玩,但若想?yún)⑴c排名或者分享成績則需要完成賬號的注冊和登錄。值得一提的是,玩家通過分享填字游戲給新用戶就可以獲得游戲提示?!芭炫忍钭帧蓖ㄟ^這種獎勵方式鼓勵用戶分享此款游戲,從而促進(jìn)了以現(xiàn)實(shí)中熟人社交為基礎(chǔ)的高效裂變。
圖源:澎湃新聞App 截圖
借助各種小游戲?qū)τ脩舻膹?qiáng)大吸引力,這種“新聞+游戲”的捆綁模式使得新聞媒體不僅可以培養(yǎng)和強(qiáng)化現(xiàn)有用戶的粘性,還可以獲得更多的新用戶的訂閱,增加訂閱收入,可謂是一舉多得。
你有玩過這些填字小游戲嗎?來Newstopia小紅書賬號評論區(qū)和我們分享你的游戲體驗(yàn)吧!
選題:馮帆洲
作者:馮帆洲
Since the British cruciverbalist
Arthur Wynne published the first crossword puzzle in The New York World in 1913, the “news+games” model has swept across
the journalism industry worldwide for over 100 years.
As one of the oldest news agencies
in the United States, The New York Times has been a long-time practitioner of this model, continuously featuring
crossword puzzle columns for decades.
In 2016, the crossword game was
launched on its mobile platform, then acquired a popular “Wordle” game on
Twitter (now X) in 2021. In addition to “Wordle”, The New York Times has introduced new games such as the classic
“Sudoku”, a game combining LinkGame and tile-matching video game called “Letter
Boxed”, and a word puzzle game called “Spelling Bee.”
Notably, users can play these games
without payment or subscription at first, but if they want to remove daily play
limits on some games (only
one puzzle per day for “Letter Boxed” and two for “Tiles”) or save and share
game records, they are required to log in or subscribe to The New York Times.
This model has made game services
the second most popular subscription business for The New York Times, with 840,000 game subscribers by the end of
2020. The company claims that since its launch, “Wordle” has been played more than
500 million times and attracted over one million players by the end of 2021,
all of whom are potential subscribers. They aim to increase their digital
subscription users to 10 million by 2025 and emphasize the intention to keep
this game free.
In addition to The New York Times, some Chinese media outlets have also flavored
their platforms with games. In 1999, Southern
Weekly launched the “Xiaoqiang Crossword” column, which was all the rage
soon and became one of the representative crossword games across China. Then,
as fewer people read printed newspapers and more favor reading news on online
mobile platforms, Southern Weekly released a web version of “Xiaoqiang Crossword” in 2009 and a mobile version
was also released later, to adapt to changes in audiences’ reading habits.
Similarly, The Paper introduced “Paper Crossword” on their website in 2017,
which was soon expanded to their mobile app. Users can still play for free, but
they need to register and log in to participate in rankings or share their
scores. It is worth mentioning that players can receive hints by sharing the
game with new users. Through this reward system, “Paper Crossword” encourages
users to share game information, promoting efficient viral growth based on
real-world social connections.
With the strong appeal of various
mini-games, this “news+games” bundle model not only enhances the engagement of
existing users but also attracts a larger number of new subscribers,
effectively increasing subscription revenue and positively impacting the growth
of news organizations.
Have you ever played
one of these crossword games? Share your experiences with us in the
comments section of the Newstopia account of Xiaohongshu!
Topic
proposal: Feng Fanzhou
Author: Feng Fanzhou
主編(Chief editors): 馮碧漪 江宇軒
Explore every possibility
for better journalism.
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