Author|Mao Lina
Taking stock of the hot words in 2024, "male consumption power" must be on the list.
"Black Myth: Wukong", regarded as a "men's game", is still creating sales miracles. At the same time, we are more concerned about whether another type of product that meets men's "emotional needs" can give birth to a new king-Yu Guo. B is a male-oriented game.
AI mapping by Entertainment Capitalism
Just a year ago, "It's over!" I'm surrounded by beautiful women! 》 launched on STEAM, with sales exceeding 800,000 in the month of launch, and a positive review rate of 93%. It also became popular with a number of real-life actors, and attracted many companies to bet on real-life interactive games. In June this year, Entertainment Capital was also released to discuss this aspect.
But a year has passed, and the next "Done" game has never appeared.
The manufacturer invited Mr. Yua Mikami to produce "I'm Crazy in Love", and the production cost was as high as tens of millions (generally, the cost of real-person interactive games is two to three million), but the sales were dismal, and the number of reviews was only 318 ("It's Over") ” was 37,400), with a favorable rating of 71%. Someone in the comment area pointed out that “mutton is sold as dog meat, and Mikami-sensei’s appearance is too short and a waste of emotions.” Other "finished" games have also had dismal results. On the other hand, when it comes to women's gaming, "Love and Deep Space" has been making great progress. Not only can it compete with big DAU games, but its peripherals have repeatedly created sales myths.
The next "Finished" category king? Maybe not real humans? On October 12, a PV of only 108 seconds went viral from Station B, attracting attention both within and outside the gaming industry.
"Love is all you need" - This is a trailer video about a 3D AI companion, trying to attract male users with simulation, companionship, and "a girl who is super aligned with you." At present, the video has been played more than one million times on Bilibili. Some people in the comment area shouted the slogan "Play "Natural Selection" (developer) and be a happy man", which is obviously a reference to "Playing "Love and Deep Space" "Be a happy woman".
So as the first AI girlfriend in China that focuses on 3D+ companionship, can "EVE" become a male version of "Love and Deep Space" as the developers expect? Can male users be satisfied with the emotional value of this product and continue to pay for it?
AI Girlfriend, where have you come?
About two days after "EVE" was launched, the number of views on station B exceeded one million, which shows that the 3D+ accompanying style of play has indeed filled a gap in the market.
Currently, most of the products on the market that focus on AI companionship are text interactive. In short, the user enters keywords after registration, and then the system generates an AI companion based on keyword matching. If you want a unique interactive feeling, you need to continuously feed the corpus yourself for long-term "training".
Xiaoyu downloaded several popular AI agent companion software on the market: Wow, Glow, Hoshino, X EVA, Dream Island, Cat Box and Cos Love for comparison. No matter how attractive the slogan is, the actual experience of opening the software is very similar, and even the page UI designs are similar.
Left Cos love, middle Dream Island, right Wow
Taking Wow as an example, after registering, you first select your gender and preference, and then you can start your own AI companionship experience. Its community homepage has several tags: male gods, goddesses, black myths, word games, etc. Under each tag are AI agents that can be interactively selected. Each agent has a brief introduction that tells the user about it. What character.
Choose an agent that you like, and you can interact with text. To be honest, most of the text is a bit childish, and even the obvious flirting options feel awkward.
With the support of AI technology, intelligent agents also have voices, can reply using voice, and can also communicate with users on the phone. But on the one hand, the voices of most agents sound the same. Xiaoyu has experienced several female agents. Whether they are a 16-year-old yandere, a 20-year-old school beauty, or a 26-year-old social beast, their voices do not change much. It's that "sweet clip sound". When you are indifferent to their sudden care and love, many agents will suddenly read and respond randomly, from acting coquettishly to their cold boyfriend to "What organization do you work for?"
The agent's responses and conversations are all generated by AI, and if we as users don't know what to say, the system thoughtfully provides the option of "AI speaks for me". How to say it? There is a sense of déjà vu as Xiaobing fights Xiaoai.
In the chat settings, users can make identity settings, such as customizing the name the agent calls themselves, adding a short setting for themselves for the agent to remember, etc. If the existing agents in the system cannot meet the needs, these software also support users to "customize" their own agents.
Of course, compared with several other softwares, Wow and Hoshino are already relatively comprehensive. In addition to traditional two-dimensional characters, characters from film and television dramas and some real historical figures are also included. Moreover, the painting styles of the agents are quite varied, and there are also 3D real-life styles. The intelligent agents like Cat Box are almost all in the two-dimensional style.
X Eva is the continuation of Xiaoice's GPT clone project. In the early days, it worked with "Hanzo Forest" to launch an AI clone based on her model, and it became popular on social platforms for a while. Compared with other smart companion communities, it has a stronger "adult" atmosphere, and black stockings and long legs are standard features.
X Eva's clone homepage imitates the UI design of Moments. Strangers can view the blogger's 3 posts for free. If you want to see more Moments content or unlock voice calls, you will have to spend money. For example, if you need to turn on the charging mode for a video call, one battery costs 90 ice flowers (1 yuan = 7 ice flowers), and the maximum standby time is 90 days; unlocking photos costs 20-35 ice flowers; recording exclusive songs, radio stations, dramas, and finding clones count Tarot is an additional fee.
Xiaoyu believes that from the perspective of experience, uniqueness, etc., if the "borderline controversy" is put aside, X Eva is closer to the standard of a "cyber girlfriend" in my mind. At least its voice sounds more real, and different settings The changes in the characters' voices are also obvious.
Looking at the situation of the above-mentioned popular AI software, it is not difficult to find that there is indeed a relatively blank space in male love companionship products, and there is currently a lack of 3D realistic "cyber girlfriends" on the market. This is also a natural choice. Once this PV is released, The reason why it has so many views and discussions.
Do the otaku guys and the top guys need cyber girlfriends?
“Male consumption is on the rise” and “Black Myth” allows the outside world to see male consumption power.” Will the emergence of "EVE" make male users dig into their pockets? Xiaoyu conducted a scope survey in several game groups.
Brother Zhao (pseudonym) is recognized by the group as a "townie", and he spends a lot of money to make beautiful girls happy. He saw the PV of "EVE" as soon as it was released, but Brother Zhao admitted that he would not spend money on his cyber girlfriend. Because "If you can enjoy everything in real life, who will find fun in a virtual person?"
Xiaoyu asked him what he thought about what everyone said: "The emotional value provided by cyber girlfriends is more real." Brother Zhao was very dismissive and said, "It can be seen but not touched. There is nothing real about it."
Cybergirlfriend doesn't have much competitiveness in front of current bosses like Brother Zhao. What about those who are addicted to giving rewards in the live broadcast room?
Netizen A is a serious fan of live broadcast rewards. He said that if "EVE" is launched, he will download and experience it, but the intensity of krypton gold may not be much greater than what he spends on anchors.
Mr. A said that the outside world has a misunderstanding about these "live broadcast tippers", thinking that they continue to spend money because they lack companionship and get emotional comfort from the anchors. Some people even take risks and commit crimes for this reason. The emotional value brought by anchors is on the one hand, but more importantly, the vanity of "being seen" makes them continue to spend money.
"Instead of enjoying the host's sweet thank you, I enjoy the feeling of having a carnival and making awesome barrages." Ordinary people who have no sense of presence in life, because of other people in the live broadcast room Touted and gained the feeling of standing in the center of the crowd.
"If I spend money in "EVE" and the loudspeaker on the world's public screen will cycle through the screen, then I will most likely make money. If the money can only unlock more functions, I will spend it in vain."
The only one who has a clear tendency to spend money is Xiaoyu's otaku friend Fengfeng, but the premise is that "there must be something about her that can really impress me."
Fengfeng is an iron-blooded two-dimensional man who has seven or eight "wives" on his mobile phone, and he spends a lot of money on each one. For example, although the water goddess Funina in "Original God" is not a charming character in the traditional sense, her practice of standing on the throne of God as a human for five hundred years deeply moved Fengfeng.
Compared with pure companionship and "super aligned her", Fengfeng pays more attention to whether "EVE" has its own story. He said that if it were just a "cyber girlfriend born for me", he would download it and be a desktop pet, but he would never put too much emotion into her and regard her as his "wife".
Another friend of A Zhai said frankly that it is too early to say whether he will accept this product or whether he will pay for it. "I remember that there were a lot of criticisms during the open beta of "Deep Space" that it didn't look good. Now isn't the water exploding?" He said that judging from the PV, the realism of "EVE", especially the processing of some micro-expressions, is indeed better. But without seeing the actual content, these are all just painting the cake, especially since he has had the experience of being defrauded by PV many times, and "the psychological shadow is too heavy."
In the comment area of "EVE", Xiaoyu found that users would be more concerned about how the companionship experience she can provide is reflected? "Can she remember what I said?" and whether it can provide a unique sexual experience. But at the same time, some people are worried that this will involve issues such as personal privacy and data security.
Can you be a happy man by playing "EVE"?
Although the results of the exchange with the first brother and the otaku brother were not as optimistic as Xiaoyu initially imagined. They generally hold a wait-and-see attitude towards "EVE", and are wary of "the developer can't easily trick me into paying money." But Xiaoyu believes that just as "Love and Deep Space" has truly discovered new users, the groups that will be captured by "EVE" in the future may be hidden in places that we have ignored.
Xiaoyu talked about "EVE" with a friend who makes games. He felt that it may not be accurate to measure the imagination space of "EVE" with the thoughts of game users, because the development progress of male-oriented and female-oriented products is too far apart.
"Frankly speaking, before the appearance of "Love and Producer", there were almost no mobile games on the market that were specifically targeted at women and focused on emotional needs. So it became an instant hit when it met real needs. But for men, If we only talk about products that focus on emotional needs, there are actually not many. Almost all two-dimensional games have Master Love elements, which is a kind of satisfaction of emotional needs. But for women, in fact, the so-called female condensation has only begun to appear in the past few years. products, and the quantity is not large.”
The "Little Girlfriend" character in "Collapse of Iron", Liu Ying
"Like text interaction, in addition to the domestic ones you said you have experienced, many people will also train KIMI and Doubao, including foreign Character.ai and Talkie AI. You will find that the proportion of male users in them is unimaginable. That’s so high.” Indeed, Jan Zoltkowski, the founder of Janitor.ai, once said that the proportion of female users of its products has reached about 70%. Xiaoyu’s actual measurements also found that there are not many male agents in these domestic software. Indicate the number of female users.
Or we can say that Jagged game users are the most demanding group of people for this type of "cyber girlfriend" and "cyber boyfriend", because they have indeed seen the good things created by Ninth Art. Just like "Love and Deep Space" received a lot of bad reviews in its internal beta, but has repeatedly been able to compete with big DAU games after it was launched, the imagination space of "EVE" is hidden among those groups that we have ignored.
Let’s talk about something that may not be so closely related to our topic. If you search for "rural beauty hanging paintings" on Pinduoduo, you will find that the highest-selling product is AI-generated real-life beautiful girls. Wearing low-cut clothes, they are either feeding chickens or planting rice seedlings, which looks ridiculous and funny.
But judging from the sales figures, this type of "AI New Rural Beautiful Girl" hanging paintings is the most popular product. Xiaoyu clicked into the comment area and found that middle-aged and elderly men in rural areas are the main consumer products of this kind of hanging paintings, and many of them don't care at all whether it is generated by AI, they just think this "beautiful girl is really beautiful."
Most men in these lower-tier cities have emotional values that cannot be satisfied. Similar to the growth of "Love and Deep Space", it comes from users in lower-tier cities who have never been exposed to B games. What "EVE" needs to capture may be those young men in "second- and third-tier cities" who have emotional needs but are cash-strapped - a group of people who are not considered nerds and have little interest in iron-blooded second-tier games, but crave more realism. of intimate relationships.
Buying an exclusive game for 68 yuan on STEAM is not expensive, but after experiencing "The End", many people are not willing to pay for games similar to "The End" because "the plots are all very different and can be found on Bilibili."
However, if "EVE" adopts the same operating concept as the National League B, free download + built-in krypton points for purchase, it may arouse the interest of young men in further consumption. If it is like the trailer PV, the AI girlfriend will react differently according to the different situations of the users, then this "sense of exclusivity" may become a lever to stimulate consumption.
It is worth noting that the developer of "EVE" naturally chose a boss who once created the male love mobile game "Age of Singularity". Since its release, the global cumulative estimated revenue has been more than 150 million yuan. As a game that has been released for many years and continues to Although there are many famous "old games", "Age of Singularity" has achieved pretty good results.
Like otome games, "Age of Singularity" has four major heroines. Those more exquisite and exciting illustrations and plots can be unlocked by drawing cards with krypton gold. This shows that developers know how to “handle” male users. If the "Tauren" plot hadn't driven away many hard-core otakus during the public beta, it might have been a small hit. With the lessons learned from "Era of Singularity", it is estimated that when they create "EVE", they will avoid such blood pressure-raising settings and focus on "understanding you" and "accompanying you".
I don’t know whether it is intentional or unintentional, but there is currently a voice in the public opinion field that pits "EVE" and a group of women against the game, trying to create an atmosphere of "cyber girlfriends" versus "3D husbands." But from the perspective of promotional rhetoric, the self-positioning of "EVE" is also very similar to the Samantha system in the movie "HER" - emphasizing the interactive companionship of thoughts and souls, rather than the "real existence of another dimension" that women mainly focus on in the game. of him".
Overall, the launch of "EVE" is worth looking forward to. More importantly, Cyber Girlfriend should be more conscious of entering the sinking market and take a route similar to the AI Farmer's Wife. Instead of making the same mistakes as all the previous "Finished" likes, which lacked creativity and only followed the same crowd. Even if technology develops further, it should not be separated from sincere consumer observation. "The end of technology is the beginning of love."
Original title: "Cyber Girlfriend, AI Peasant Woman...Who is the next "Finished""