关于在线游戏行业术语的名词解释

关于在线游戏行业术语的名词解释 作者：Nicholas Lovell

游戏行业中充满了许多令人匪夷所思的术语，广告业也是如此。所以，游戏发行和营销作这两个行业的交接点，对术语的困惑就更是普遍了。我从《How to Publish a Game》中挑出一些术语及作了相应的解释。我希望不断扩充以下术语表。

Conversion-Rate(from )

A/B testing：A/B测试也称为对比测试或分离测试（split-testing）。它是测试网站或在线服务的游戏中的两个变量，最后得出哪个变量更符合要求。 Ad Server：广告服务器，能够长时间地智能传输多重广告活动展示的网页工具，如OpenX 和 DoubleClick的“动态广告报告与目标定位”技术（DART，即Dynamic Advertising Reporting Targeting）。

Affiliate marketing：联盟营销。联盟方是指把用户引至你的网站，然后向你收取一定费用的第三方网站，其收费标准通常是网络广告点击费用或CPA计价方式（CAP，即Cost Per Action，按广告回应数计费）。联盟方通常由联盟网络管理，如Commission Junction和Trade Doubler等。如果你能把游戏玩家引向某网站，如Amazon或iTunes，你就可以注册成为联盟方，然后靠网站的访问流量获得额外收益（通常是单位销售额的5-10%）。

App：现在多指适用于智能手机（如iPhone 和Android）的应用程序。

AppStore：苹果销售应用程序的在线商店。

ARPU：每用户平均收益。这是从移动行业借用而来的衡量标准，显示的是每个用户平均花费。通常按一个月来计数。不要与ARPPU混淆。

ARPPU：每付费用户平均收益。很多人会把它与ARPU混为一谈。在免费游戏中，可能有成千上万的用户，但只有一部分人会付费。大多数游戏公司会引用ARPPU，但许多观察者会把用户总数与ARPPU相乘得到收益数。计算公式如下：

ARPPU x付费用户数 或 ARPPU x 用户总数x转化率（见Conversion Rate） CAC：新用户获取成本，也称为CPA。

CANSPAM：美国在2003年出台的反垃圾邮件法，即管理发送商业性电子邮件的法令。

Churn：用户流失率。每年或每月退出某项服务的用户百分比。

Conversion Rate：从非付费玩家转化为付费玩家的人数百分比。

CPA：每个新用户获取成本（Cost Per Acquisition/Action）。若一个网站每次将一名用户引向广告商网站时，如果该用户做出指定行为，广告商就要向该网站支付一定费用，这就是在线广告的收费模式。所谓特定行为，包括填表或注册，但最普遍的是支付费用。例如，每人次被援引用户成为游戏《EVE Online》的订阅用户，该游戏就要支付7美元给广告网站。CPA也被游戏开发者和发行商作为了解从市场营销来源，获取用户成本的重要指标。

CPC：网络广告每次点击费用（Cost Per Click）。网络广告模式根据链接的点击数向广告商征收广告费用。Google广告联盟AdSense的收费模式就接近CPC。 CPI：每安装费用（Cost per Install）。网络广告模式，每成功安装的一个应用程序，开发者/发行商就要支付一定费用。

CPM：每千人费用（Cost per Mille）。所有媒体（游戏邦注：包括电视、无线广播、印刷和网络）广告费用的主要参数指标。CPM测量的是广告显示1000次所应支付的费用。在网络环境下，CPM指的是每个条幅广告所产生1000个广告印象的成本。

CPT：每千人费用（Cost per Thousand）。参见CPM。

DAUs：日活跃用户（Daily Active Users）。

DLC：可追加下载内容。它一般指的是盒装游戏的可下载附加内容（有可能免费，也可能需另外付费）。例如，《Oblivion》的infamous horse armour、《Burnout Paradise》的附加内容等。

eCPM：有效的每千次展示费用。eCPM的计算方法是合计CPC或CPA收益然后去除广告展示次数。

EIS：企业投资计划，是由英联邦的一个政府首先提出来，用于鼓励早期的商业投资。

F2P：免费玩（Free to play）。参见Freemium。

Freemium：是指一种游戏运营模式。游戏收取的是玩家在游戏中的额外服务费用或购买虚拟商品的费用。

GaaPy：游戏是产品（game as a product）。（游戏邦注：这是作者自撰的一个词）

GaaSy：游戏是服务（game as a service）。（游戏邦注：这是作者自撰的一个词）

Geo-targeting：地域定向。指针对特定地区的受众投放广告。

Impression：网络广告展示的基本单位。放置广告图像的网页每一次显示，称为1个印象。

IP：知识产权。也指互联网协议。

Match Three：一种游戏机制，即玩家组合三个（或其他数字）物品后，可将这三个物品消除。《宝石迷阵》（《Bejeweled》）就是典型的Match Three游戏（也称连线消除游戏）。

MAUs：月活跃用户（Monthly Active Users）。

Metacritic：是指专门收集对于游戏、电影、音乐的评论的网站，网站会整合每个评价的分数再做出一个平均分做为这个项目的评分。虽然没有公布确切的运算法则，但仍然可作为某个游戏人气指数的参考标准。

Meta tag：元标签是一种嵌入网页最前沿的标签信息。它通常与有效的SEO有关，但现在的效力显然大不如前。良好的“关键字”和“描述字段设定是不错的实践方法，但对SEO而言，高品质的页面设计比通过元标签找游戏更重要。 MMO：大型多人在线游戏。

PSN：PlayStation Network的简写。

Publishers：发行商。根据David Lau-Kee（知名游戏公司Criterion Software Ltd的创始人之一）的说法，发行商就是指“在未来的电子游戏发行领域毫无立锥之地的吸血鬼”。在网络广告中，发行商一般是指网站，当开发者和广告商协商其网页游戏合作项目时，此开发者就是发行商。

Registered users：注册用户。这是一个被网络项目再三引用而实际上通常无效的指标。一个成功的网络项目需要的是活跃的用户，其测量标准是独立用户（参见Unique Users）。

Remnant：低利率出售的广告宣传行为，通常是通过网络渠道。之所以称之为“remnant”，是因为网络渠道的广告主并不知晓自己的广告会展示在哪个网站上，所以他们以较低CPM或CPC为标准付费。

Smartphone：智能手机。所有新一代先进的移动通讯设备，如iPhone、Palm Pre或采用Android操作系统的手机。

SEM：搜索引擎营销。为了出现在Google、Yahoo和MSN等网站搜索排行榜而支付费用。

SEO：搜索引擎优化。通过确保关键搜索词条出现在网页文本中来增加网站流量的过程。

Triple A：AAA级游戏，其销售数量至少是1百万个单位。

Unique user (visitor)：独立用户或独立访客，它是标准的网站用户测量单位。它通常是指最近30天内访问某个网站的独立个人，计数为每人为1单位（忽略个人访问次数）。一些网站使用不同的时间范围来计算唯一性，如2周、三个月等。

UGC (user-generated content)：用户创造内容。这是指由用户在游戏中或网站上创造的内容。例如，《小小大星球》中的创意关卡、《Second Life》中的增加内容和第一人称射击游戏的修改或增强程序。

XBLA：Xbox Live Arcade。是Xbox Live上的一项游戏下载服务，所提供的大多是一些老少皆宜的休闲小游戏。

XBLIG：Xbox Live Indie Games，是独立游戏制作人发布到微软的Xbox Live市场上的游戏，其运行平台是Xbox 360。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2010年7月6日。（本文为游戏邦/编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Glossary of online games

Nicholas Lovell

The games industry is full of confusing terms. So is the advertising industry. And now that games publishing and games marketing crosses over both disciplines, the potential for confusion is rife.

I’ve taken the glossary from How to Publish a Game and reproduced here. Over time, I expect to add to it as new terms are adopted. If there is anyting you would like to see in here, let me know.

A/B testing

Also known as split-testing, A/B testing involves testing two small changes to your website or game on a live service and measuring which performs better.

Ad Server

A web tool such as OpenX or DoubleClick’s DART that intelligently delivers multiple advertising campaigns spread over time.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliates are third-party websites which refer users to your site in return for a payment (on a CPC or more usually a CPA basis). They are often managed through Affiliate Networks such as Commission Junction or TradeDoubler. If you are referring gamers to a site such as Amazon or iTunes that sells your own game, you can register and become an affiliate yourself, generating additional revenue (typically 5-10% of the sales generated) from sending traffic to the site.

App

Currently means an application for smartphones such as the iPhone and Android, as distinct from a web page accessed from a mobile phone. AppStore Apple’s online store for applications for the iPhone. ARPU

Average revenue per user. A metric borrowed from the mobile industry, it shows how much the average user spends. Typically a monthly, rather than a yearly, figure. Not to be confused with ARPPU.

ARPPU

Average revenue per PAYING user. Confusion between ARPU and ARPPU is rife. In a free to play game, there may be many millions of users, but only a percentage of them pay. Most games companies quote ARPPU, but many observers multiply ARPPU by total number of users to get revenue. To calculate revenue, they should multiply EITHER ARPPU x number of paying users OR ARPPU x total users x conversion rate.

Customer Acquisition Cost, also known as CPA.

CANSPAM

The US Act of 2003 that regulates the sending of commercial email in the United States.

Churn

The percentage of customers who leave a service every month/year. Conversion Rate

The percentage of players who convert from free players to paying players. CPA

Cost Per Acquisition/Action. An online advertising model whereby an advertiser pays a publishing website a cash amount every time the website refers a consumer to the advertiser’s website and the consumer takes a specified action. It may include filling a form or registering, but the most common is making a cash payment. For example, EVE Online will pay $7 every time a referred user becomes a subscriber.It is also used by game developers and web publishers as a key metric to understand how much it costs them to acquire a customer from all of their marketing sources. CPC

Cost Per Click. An online advertising model whereby an advertiser pays a publishing website for each click on a link. Google’s AdSense program is based around CPC.

CPI

Cost per Install. An online advertising model, currently mostly confined to the iPhone, where developers/publishers pay a fee for the successful installation of an app.

CPM

Cost per Mille (or Thousand). The primary measure of advertising cost across all media (including television, radio, print and web). It measures that cost per thousand “views” of an advertisement. In an online context, it refers to the cost of a thousand impressions of a single banner.

Cost per Thousand. See CPM.

DAUs

Daily Active Users.

DLC

Downloadable Content.Generally, I suppose this would mean any content that has been downloaded. In practice, it appears to mean additional content that can be downloaded (whether for free or for a payment) for boxed products. Examples include the infamous horse armour for Oblivion or additional content for Burnout Paradise.

eCPM

Effective Cost Per Thousand. A method of comparing a CPC/CPA campaign to a standard CPM campaign. By aggregating the total amount of CPC/CPA revenue and dividing by the number of impressions served, you can calculate the effective CPM.

EIS

Enterprise Investment Scheme, a UK government initiative to encourage investment in early stage businesses. See p. 166.

F2P

Free to play. See Freemium.

Freemium

A business model whereby you give your core game away for free and charge users for premium services or virtual goods.

Free To Play

Also known as F2P. See Freemium.

GaaPy

A “game as a product”. A phrase coined by me, see p. 19.

GaaSy

A “game as a service”. A phrase been coined by me, see p. 19. Geo-targeting

Showing content, usually advertisements, only to people in a specific country.

Impression

The basic unit of online advertising. An impression is counted when a single user sees a single ad.

IP

Intellectual Property. Also stands for Internet Protocol.

Match Three

A game mechanic where players combine three or more similar items to make them disappear. Bejewelled is a classic example of a match three game. MAUs

Monthly Active Users.

Metacritic

A website that aggregates review scores for games, films and music to give a blended “average” score. The exact algorithm of weighting is not revealed, but Metacritic is a good guide to the general reception of a game.

Meta tag

A meta tag holds data about the content of a web page in the <head> section. Often associated with effective SEO, but no longer as effective as it once was. It is good practice to have good “keyword” and “description” fields, but good quality page design is more important for SEO than playing games with meta tags.

MMO

Massively-multiplayer online game.

PSN

PlayStation Network.

Publishers

In games, “blood-sucking leeches who have no place in the future of digital distribution” (according to David Lau-Kee, see p 21).In web advertising, publishers generally means websites, such that a developer talking to an advertiser about his browser-based game will be referred to as a publisher.

Registered users

An oft-quoted but generally useless metric for online businesses. A successful web business needs active users, and that is best measured by Unique Users.

Remnant

Advertising that is sold for low rates, typically through networks. It is known as “remnant” because advertisers buying from a network don’t know exactly which sites their ads will be displayed on, and so they pay a lower CPM or CPC rate.

Smartphone

Any of the new generation of advanced mobile handsets such as the iPhone, the Palm Pre or the Android operating system.

SEM

Search Engine Marketing. Paying money to appear in the search rankings on sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation. The process of driving traffic to your site by ensuring that key search phrases are included in the text of your website.

Triple A

A premium selling title, targeting at least 1 million units. Unique user (visitor)

A unique user or unique visitor is the standard audience measurement unit on the web. It typically means a unique individual who has visited a website in the last 30 days, counted only once no matter how many times they visited. Some sites use different time frames (2 weeks, 3 months) for their uniques.

UGC (user-generated content)

UGC or user-generated content is content created by users within a game or website. Levels created on Little Big Planet, content built in Second Life or mods for first person shooters are all UGC.

XBLA

Xbox Live Arcade.

XBLIG

Xbox Live Indie Games. （source:gamesbrief）

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