The market size of the industry will increase to 17 billion yuan this year, and variety shows on related topics are popular all year round.
After "savage growth", can "script killing" usher in a real bonus period?
Huang Qizhe
"Friends who play'Script Killing', do you usually have no work? Otherwise, why is the way of leisure and entertainment, which is to spare a few hours from the precious weekend rest time, just to have an afternoon meeting with a group of strangers !" Pangbo's narrative in the latest season of "Talk Show Conference" shows that young people are willing to spend four or five hours in the fast-paced life to experience the weirdness of "Script Killing".
But no matter how difficult the outside world is, the online and offline markets for "Script Killing" are bursting, and variety shows on related topics are popular all year round.
As a "pioneering work", "Star Detective" has been popular for six years. "Rising star" "Cute Detective Detective" can still become a "sweet potato", and last month's new program "Singular Script Shark" also " Menacing."
In the Apple Store, the related head apps "Haiwan" and "Banchang Detective" ranked 10th and 19th on the social list respectively.
Open Dianping, there are as many as 1,194 related businesses in Shanghai.
The former hot room escape businesses have also changed their course and started a "script killing" business.
Looking at the whole country, iiMedia Consulting predicts that the market size of the "script-killing" industry will increase to 17.02 billion yuan this year.
As an emerging product, "Script Killing" has its explosive growth momentum, which undoubtedly creates imagination for new consumption and becomes a new track for capital to compete.
However, the lack of strict script-oriented controls, uneven quality, lack of supervision of physical stores, scarcity of professional talents, and the impact of the epidemic also reveal industry concerns.
Only by confronting these problems can we truly usher in the highlight moment of the "script-killing" industry.
Reasoning that niche games use variety shows to "out of the circle" into mass social products
The popularity of "Script Killing" in China is due to a variety show "Star Detective" that was almost stifled at the topic selection meeting.
In 2016, this reality show introduced from South Korea required the celebrity guests to infer the real murderer by looking for evidence at the "case scene".
It is precisely because of the popularity of this program in China that the "Script Kill" 1.0 mode, which can be played on a table, is advanced to the immersive 2.0 mode such as collection of costumes, scenes, and props.
Compared with the original Korean version, "Star Detective" lowers the threshold for reasoning variety shows, while also bringing a relaxed comedy atmosphere.
This also allows businesses to smell the social attributes attached to the "script-killing", which turns the niche gathering game from overseas reasoning fans into an immersive experiential consumption project for mass social interaction.
In essence, the "script killing" based on reasoning and thinking, which lasts for several hours at will, is indeed similar to a meeting.
Some people regard it as an advanced card game "Werewolf Kill" that incorporates role-playing elements.
However, as its audience continues to expand, "Script Killing" has also derived emotion books, comedy books, horror books and other types from the narrative framework of the original crime reasoning and the underlying logic of finding the true murderer. Different preferences of players.
With the development of the market, some excellent scripts can even be used as a literary creation for appraisal and evaluation.
The “Acha Talking Script” of the B station UP who focuses on “script killing” mentioned that, in addition to the game mechanism, a certain script has a full shape of the role played by each player, and it can even be expanded through layers of inference stories. Gradually feel the character changes of the characters in different growth stages, and then lead the players to feel the power of cultural inheritance.
It can be said that among the reasons why many young people experience "script killing", the priority of "making friends", "experiencing life" and "experiencing drama addiction" has far exceeded the initial "puzzling mystery".
It is precisely because of this that the "script kill" mode is splitting into a variety of gameplay.
In the newly opened 1925 Bookstore in Shanghai, a batch of red-themed "script killings" such as "The Pursuit", "Awakening Times" and "Dawn Project" have become a new way to expand the consumption scene of physical bookstores.
In the ancient town of Anren in Chengdu, some merchants offered a high price of nearly 2,000 yuan for two days and one night.
In addition to regular games, the organizer also arranges various experiences such as follow-up photography, theater performances, catering and accommodation, etc. "Script Killing" has become a new product integrating culture and travel.
Blowout growth vs. store closures, opportunities and hidden worries coexist
The blowout growth of "script-killing" physical stores also stems from its operational positioning between the two major products of offline entertainment on the market today-immersive drama and tabletop game stores.
Compared with immersive drama, it does not require too many professional actors to intervene. It can be opened only by providing scripts, costumes, venues and props, and has lower operating thresholds and costs.
Compared with the board game shop, the experience price of "Script Kill" for the same customer order stays at an average price of two to three hundred yuan per person is far higher than the former.
Young people’s offline entertainment and social interactions need richer experiences and more fashionable gameplay, which makes many industry analysts quite optimistic about the “script killing” and define it as a “new outlet” for entrepreneurship.
In fact, in the past few years, the industry chain of "Script Killing" has also become quite large: upstream script creation agencies, publishers, and midstream distribution platforms, as well as offline physical stores, apps, and online variety shows that directly face consumers. Hook up.
According to the company's data, the number of newly registered related companies reached 3589 in the first half of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 294.4%.
On the other hand, many stores that followed the trend of investment have also closed down.
According to the Xianyu Index, in April this year, the number of platforms reselling scripts, props, store tables and chairs on the grounds of "closure" increased by 110% from the previous month.
Since the content of the script is still blank in supervision, the murder, terror elements and even the content that guides drinking may also have a negative impact on young people.
The People's Livelihood program once reported on a woman who was in a coma after drinking too much alcohol and seeking medical treatment due to the plot requirements of the "Script Killing".
It can be said that opportunities and hidden worries are becoming an integral part of the rapid expansion of this emerging business.
Freshness in the past, hoping that industry norms will "quench" the market
Industry insiders pointed out that the root cause of this problem is that "script killing" largely depends on the content and quality of the script.
Right now, the explosive growth of the number of downstream stores makes upstream content creation a scarce resource.
The lag in production capacity naturally brings about the unevenness of the script.
Many creative agencies hire a few writers to go to so-called "script killing" exhibitions in various cities with a script outline.
Due to the limited time of the exhibition, buyers often can only place orders through the trial of the new script provided by the agency.
What's more, a "preview" of the outline can get considerable benefits.
Therefore, there has been a script model of "proficient ghostwriter" similar to film and television dramas, which has led to the rampant "plagiarism" and "rollover" scripts.
In order to avoid homogenized competition and retain and expand customer sources, many shops have to abandon bulk boxed scripts with prices in the hundreds of yuan, driving up the prices of so-called "city-limited editions" and "exclusive editions."
For players, the evaluation of the "script killing" experience also tends to be polarized.
The "skilled work" that spends an afternoon clocking in is very likely to be "unfinished."
A script inspired by Lin Juemin's unique "Book with Wife" was once popular, but many players complained about the "collapse" of the second half of the writing, the "crotch" mechanism, and the waste of good themes.
In addition to the quality of the script, the player experience is also linked to unstable factors such as the professional level of the DM (host) and the quality of the players on the same field.
In addition, comparing dramas and board games with the majority of "returning customers", the mystery is revealed and the "script killing" that loses the fun makes customers spend most of the same script in a "round trip".
Once the freshness of the "punch-in" of new players has passed, the "script-killing" market is likely to face "favoring."
In order to enhance the player experience, DM standard training is being carried out in many places. In addition, many creative institutions have expanded and improved the quality of scripts by introducing screenwriters and reasoning web writers in the film and television industry. On the other hand, "Eight Hundred", "Wandering Earth", "Infernal Affairs" and other film and television IPs with market appeal have authorized the production of "Script Kill" scripts. When the film industry is hit by the epidemic, turning to "script killing" is "self-help", and it also brings the possibility of improving quality and increment for this emerging format. Furthermore, the Script Killing Industry Association is about to formulate industry standards to take good care of this emerging business through unified standards, so that "Script Killing" will bid farewell to "barbaric growth" and usher in a real dividend period.