The Creator Ecology of Local Game UGC 2021-2022： The foundation is weak, and the market demand and business exploration are improving under the concept of ＂Meta-Universe＂ ｜ Industry Analysis
The popularity of the concept of meta-universe is driving the market to pay attention to and discuss the creative concept of game UGC. In the expressions of game giants such as Epic CEO, the game UGC is called an important content production method of verse.
Under this trend, in 2021, there were many financing incidents of game UGC platform in overseas markets, such as Tencent and Lego investing in cross-platform UGC creation platform Mod.io, game UGC distribution platform Infinite Canvas obtaining $2.8 million in seed round financing, and Israeli game MOD platform Overwolf completing $75 million in series D financing in November.
The early game UGC can be traced back to the game MOD (Module). MOD’s full English name is Modification, which means that players modify the data and models in the game to create new characters, levels and even gameplay. Game MOD has derived classic games such as DOTA and CS in history, but it is mainly used as an extension and supplement of the game itself, and relies on the player community to create electricity for love.
Now, the game MOD is further developed. The content created by players is no longer limited to the expansion of the game itself, but becomes the main play content of the platform.
Roblox and other platforms with game UGC as the main content production mode are based on the extension of game MOD logic to a certain extent, but the product design idea, operation mode and business model are reconstructed-the platform provides game creation tools, players play game modules created by other users, and provide sharing to help UGC creators complete commercialization, while the platform can precipitate UGC content assets and user social relations.
In the process of developing the game UGC platform, the core is still the UGC creator, and the key of each platform at the current stage is to establish a more mature game UGC ecosystem.
From the investigation of East-West games, it is not too difficult to transform the game MOD creation and development on the game UGC platform at present. MOD creators can create on the UGC platform quickly after short-term adaptive learning.
With the subdivision and improvement of the demand for game UGC content, some game manufacturers gradually open up to the game UGC, and the emergence of a new generation of overseas game UGC platforms, and the development of a new generation of young people’s content and social platforms have provided a benchmark for China.
However, compared with overseas, the domestic game MOD creation ecology started late and is relatively weak, and the game market is different from the regulatory environment, thus lacking the soil for game UGC. This means that for the local game UGC platform, the challenge of establishing the creator ecology is even greater.
Ecology of local UGC creators:
It started late and lacked UGC soil, making it difficult to commercialize.
Compared with overseas markets, the ecology of domestic game UGC creators is still immature, mainly composed of fans who generate electricity for love.
Judging from the investigation of East-West Games,On the one hand, most domestic MOD developers gather in private communities such as QQ group, lacking the atmosphere of community communication, and being unfriendly to newcomers who want to blend in.
Many domestic game UGC creators said that the love for a game and interest in game development are the beginning of creating MOD. However, there is a lack of introductory tutorials, and it is difficult for interested parties to find the integration of MOD community, which makes it difficult for domestic UGC ecology to continuously absorb new blood.
On the other hand, it is very difficult to make a profit through the game UGC in China at present. Due to the legal problems related to copyright and the low openness of game officials to MOD, there is legal risk in selling game MOD directly.
The common way for MOD creators to make profits is that players customize MOD orders and fans reward them, which is also very harsh for a creator who lacks exposure.Kaze, the MOD developer of Diablo Dungeon in China, told the game, "There are twenty or thirty active MOD developers in Diablo Dungeon circle, but only two people, including me, can generate income and work full-time."
In China, only sporadic MOD development teams have a commercial operation mode, and they are generally "incorporated" by game manufacturers. For example, it was established at the end of Shanghai in 2019, and was invested by Tencent in the same year, focusing on the development of DOTA2 veranda MOD.
DOTA2 veranda
The development of game UGC in China is still in its infancy, and the historical reason is the lack of game UGC soil in China.
First of all, the game UGC represented by the game MOD was born in the stand-alone game community, and the offline nature of the stand-alone game allows players to modify the game content. In China, online games and mobile games are the mainstay, and the official often excludes the game MOD, and the modification of game files is easily judged as plug-ins or scripts, so it is difficult for players to access MOD.
Secondly, there is a lack of large-scale game MOD sharing community like Nexus, and there is a lack of communication between MOD developers and players. It is difficult for an excellent MOD to spread to the player community.
In overseas MOD communities, high-quality MODs can be recommended by websites and understood by players, and even there are many bloggers who focus on MOD evaluation in Youtube. The existence of the community has laid a foundation for the development of UGC culture, and also made MOD works familiar to players and have a commercial basis.
Finally, the development of game MOD depends largely on the attitude of platform and game official.Some games with a large player base, if the official attitude is conservative, it is difficult to have a sustainable small MOD community in China.
Monster Hunter: The World and The Dark Dungeon are two typical examples.
In 2018, Steam’s "Monster Hunter: The World" has many domestic players, but according to the expression of relevant MOD developers, the game MOD popularity has gradually become deserted. "Hunting Skill MOD Production Team" is one of the largest MOD production teams of Monster Hunter: World in China. Its leader Ryu said that at the peak of the game popularity, 6-7 players customized orders a month, but now almost no orders have been received.
In contrast, Diablo Dungeon has not many gamers in China. This game has been online for five years and has launched the second generation, but Kaze said that there are still 7-8 players asking about the customized service of MOD every month.
Ryu believes that "Capcom is not open enough to MOD, the engine is closed, there is no official MOD development tool, and the creative workshop of Monster Hunter: World is not opened on Steam, which greatly affects the development of game MOD."
Creative Workshop is a game MOD sharing community provided by Steam, and the game official can decide whether to open it or not. Dark Dungeon still has more than 60 MODs uploaded every month in the Steam Creative Workshop, and many of them are made by domestic creators.
Kaze’s "Dark Dungeon" MOD works Ilyina
New changes:
Market popularity and paying users have improved, and some games have gradually opened up.The local game UGC platform began to appear.
With the changes in the domestic game market and players’ game consumption power, some forces have emerged at this stage to promote the ecological development of domestic UGC.
On the one hand, players promote ecological construction from bottom to top, and customized payment behavior becomes an important driving force, and secondary audiences are more willing to pay for game MOD.
Although there is a lack of large MOD communities such as overseas Nexus, some domestic MOD enthusiasts are also spontaneously organizing the promotion of MOD culture, so that players interested in MOD can join in the creation.
For example, in 2020, the mod production team of the hunting skill began to produce MOD-related tutorials, established the MOD production Wiki of Monster Hunter: The World, and opened related MOD production tools to enthusiasts.
Ryu told Dongxi Games that through these actions, about 200 fans were attracted to join the "MOD Development Learning Group", and the MOD Development Exchange Group soon had more than 99 messages when it was busy. Even now, because of the retreat of the game fever, the communication atmosphere of MOD development is not so warm, but it also planted the seeds of the game UGC for these 200 fans.
At the same time, just as paying for love has become the consumption concept of mobile games for many new generation players, there are also players who want to control their favorite characters in stand-alone games. Kaze believes that "the player’s demand for MOD customization is also a force to promote the ecological progress of domestic MOD."
Kaze’s original intention of becoming a MOD creator is to design a character of his own in Diablo Dungeon. After the character was uploaded to the creative workshop of Steam, it gradually attracted other players to customize it.
According to him, most players are willing to pay 1,000 to 2,000 yuan for MOD customization services among the MOD orders received by players every month. If we cooperate with art outsourcing again to make the MOD screen more beautiful, each MOD order can be increased to about five to six thousand yuan, and this price can also be paid by one or two players every month.
It is worth noting that the people who pay for MOD customization have a great overlap with the secondary audience. Secondary enthusiasts usually have a higher acceptance of UGC, and it has become more common to pay for customizing humanities and maps in other IP fields.
Nowadays, most of the game MODs uploaded by Kaze are customized by players, and most of them are the characters of two-dimensional painting style. Ryu also said, "Generally speaking, many people who ask for customized orders are secondary players."
On the other hand, some game manufacturers are more open to game UGC, and local game UGC platform products have begun to appear, supporting game UGC creators to develop and realize more content.
For example, the sandbox game "Island of Alan" released by Tencent is still in the testing stage, so the MOD creation editor is opened to players, and players are encouraged to create UGC with bonuses every month.
Revelation of Fire in UGC Works of Tencent’s Island of Lan
At the same time, domestic games such as "Come to the World" and "Restart the World" have also appeared. Some game developers and engine tool vendors, based on the accumulated technologies and products, have created platform products with game UGC as the main gameplay, and encouraged UGC developers to create on the platform through subsidies and other means to promote the development of domestic UGC ecology.
However, at present, the development of domestic game UGC platform is greatly influenced by the supervision of the game industry, and most of the published products are in the internal testing stage, which is far from the mature system and scale overseas.
Circes, the creator of the VR social game "VR Chat" and "Chinese Bar RE", believes thatIn order to maximize the effect of platform assistance, manufacturers should at least lower the threshold for users to make UGC, and assume the responsibility of content review, so that users can create suitable content for the game.
Stones from other mountains:
New Trends and Challenges of Overseas Game UGC
The overseas MOD community developed earlier, with a larger group of game UGC developers and MOD fans. On platforms such as Nexus, Overwolf and Roblox with game UGC as the main content and gameplay, a large number of creators developed and shared their works. For example, more than 130,000 creators have released more than 3.4 million modules on the MOD community Nexus, which is dominated by RPG games, and the website has 29.79 million members.
UGC creators of these games also have richer means of realizing:
1. MOD charges.This is low in enforceability for the third-party MOD community such as Nexus, but it is applicable to the first-party MOD community.
Microsoft launched the Minecraft market in 2017, through which creators can sell game MOD. In the third quarter financial report released by Microsoft in 2021, it was mentioned that the number of MOD downloads in this market exceeded 1 billion times, providing creators with more than 350 million US dollars in revenue.
2. Fan donation.This is similar to the domestic situation, but overseas MOD is more widely spread, and fan donation platforms such as Patreon are also more popular, which makes MOD developers gain more benefits through this channel.
3. Game UGC developers can also create certain benefits through platform sharing and subsidies, which generally come from platform advertisements and user rewards.
For example, the creator of Nexus redeems the corresponding contribution points through the download times of MOD, and then redeems the contribution points for cash. In July, 2021, Nexus announced that it had paid over $750,000 to developers, and they planned to pay over $1 million to MOD developers every year in the future.
4. Some game UGC creators can earn revenue through Youtube and live broadcast, and this part of the revenue may even exceed the platform share.
Evan Zirschky, a well-known developer on Roblox, once said in an interview with Infinite Canvas that he earned tens of thousands of dollars through live broadcast of Roblox only in 2016, but only at the end of 2018 did he reach the cash withdrawal threshold of Roblox ($250).
5. A few MOD creators can also divide MODs into free basic versions and paid advanced versions for sale.However, this kind of realization means is relatively rare, which requires higher awareness and MOD quality of the creators themselves.
Overseas game MOD community nexus
At the same time, the products and business models born around the game UGC mechanism are also more diverse. There are both game UGC platforms for developers and players, and platforms that provide MOD development and commercial solutions specifically for developer services.
Of course, compared with the huge base of game UGC creators, there are still a few real full-time creators. The sharing conditions of platforms are usually harsh. For example, on Roblox, according to official website’s public information, developers can only get 24.5% of each player’s payment, and they need to accumulate more than 250 dollars to reflect it. By the end of 2020, Roblox officially said that there were more than 8 million active developers, but only 4,300 people reached the cash withdrawal threshold.
The strict conditions of platform sharing reflect that its income is not optimistic, and Roblx is still at a loss. Compared with the rich monetization methods of the game UGC creators, the business model of the game UGC platform is still relatively traditional, mainly advertising and player payment.
For example, Curseforge takes subscriptions and advertisements as its main sources of income. In order to retain developers, the platform will divide 70-80% of subscriptions and advertisements to creators.
Therefore, the newly emerging game UGC platform at the present stage is exploring new modes, providing services other than MOD download for creators or players, and looking for new ways of commercial realization.
Mod.io, Infinite Canvas and other platforms are selected for UGC developers to provide cross-platform capabilities of UGC content, so that works can radiate more users. Even Infinite Canvas provides a series of services for creators, such as funds, development tools and works marketing schemes, to enhance the brand value of game UGC content.
On the other hand, the Overwolf platform chooses to broaden the boundaries of game UGC creators, not only helping creators to make game MODs, but also making various plug-ins and applications for games, providing creators with development tools and commercialization support. For players, it is equivalent to an aggregated tool platform.
Overwolf
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