Dahe Daily·Yu Video Reporter Wang Weihao
htmlAt the end of June, five departments including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Scripted Entertainment Business Venues" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), from the content, minors Protection, safety production and other aspects, for the first time, fast-growing new business formats such as script killing have been included in the management. Sealed rooms, time travel, exciting elements, puzzles to be solved... As an emerging entertainment and social method, script killing has been highly sought after by young people in recent years, and it has also been accompanied by a series of chaos. However, with the introduction of management regulations, script killing is expected to bid farewell to the barbaric growth over the years.
■Script killing, which has been popular for many years, has been officially included in the supervision.
" script killing " is also known as script reasoning. It means that players play the roles in the script, reason around the plot, and jointly reveal the secret or discover the murderer. In 2016, Script Killing came to the traffic stage with a mystery variety reality show. Seeing the market prospects of role-playing party games, merchants entered the game one after another.
2019 is recognized in the industry as “the first year of Chinese script killing.” According to the "2021 China "Script Sales" Industry Research Report", the number of script sales stores nationwide soared from 2,400 to 12,000 in 2019, and increased to more than 30,000 by the end of 2020. The size of China's physical script sales market in 2021 has More than 12 billion yuan. Among the offline trendy entertainment methods preferred by Chinese consumers in 2021, script killing ranked third with 36.1%, second only to watching movies and sports and fitness.
Like many emerging industries, script killing has been growing wildly since the rise, followed by constant controversy. This time, five departments including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Ministry of Public Security issued management regulations, bringing the script-killing industry into an era of strict supervision. The "Notice" clarifies that the business scope of script killing is "scripted entertainment activities" and is not allowed to be opened in residential buildings or below the ground floor of a building.
There are also strict regulations on the content of scripts. The content of scripts, performances, props and costumes must be legal and compliant, elements that are not suitable for minors must be eliminated, and age-appropriate reminders must be provided for scripts. In order to prevent minors from becoming addicted to it, the "Notice" stipulates: "Except for national legal holidays, rest days and winter and summer vacations, scripted entertainment business premises shall not provide scripted entertainment activities to minors."
reporters noted that the new regulations The transition period is before June 30 next year. During this period, scripted entertainment business venues must conduct self-examination and self-correction. In the future, business premises that do not comply with regulations and do not make rectifications will face a series of measures such as rectification and suspension.
■Script killing shops mostly exist in the form of "lounge bars", and the threshold for opening a store is not high
Although script killing has become popular all over the country, many people have not been exposed to script killing, and do not even know what script killing is, and they cannot feel it at all. The popularity of the industry. Unlike movie theaters, KTVs, and gyms, script-killing shops are often "hidden" very deeply.
The reporter searched on commercial platforms such as Dianping and found that there are currently more than 300 large and small script-selling stores in Zhengzhou, distributed around various business districts in the city. However, there are only a handful of script-killing shops with independent storefronts. Most of them are "hidden" in residential buildings and office buildings. It is difficult to find them without accurate location information or acquaintances to guide them. And those script-killing shops that are opened in large numbers in residential buildings obviously do not comply with the new regulations.
"Script-killing shops basically exist in the form of 'floor bars', mainly due to cost factors. They do not rely on offline traffic. The channels to attract customers are all online." Mr. Zhang, the owner of a script-killing shop, said that script-killing shops The main consumer groups are students and young white-collar workers in the workplace, ranging in age from 18 to 35. Participating in the script-killing game is called "playing the game", and players joining the game are called "getting on the bus." The most common script on the market requires 6 Only experienced players can "drive", and a game will take at least 4 hours to start. "There are busloads of students coming to play, but most of them are individual tourists. We have to come together according to the time scheduled by the guests, and all these communications are completed online."
The operating model of Script Killing determines its threshold for opening a store and not tall. Currently, there are a large number of script-killing incubation companies on the market that can quickly "produce" stores."Rent a 200-square-meter house and decorate five or six rooms. Each room costs 3,000 yuan. Adding the investment of buying scripts and hiring game hosts, you can start it with tens of thousands of yuan." As the manager of an incubation company, Mr. Liu calculated an account for the reporter. Currently, the charge for a single script kill in Zhengzhou is between 80-150 yuan. Although business is usually slow, it will explode from Friday night to Sunday and on holidays. "Under ideal conditions during the peak period, a single room can open three games a day. With some income from drinks and snacks, the daily turnover of a five-room store is nearly 10,000 yuan."
"Brand output, store design, script supply , game host training, online operations, we provide nanny-style services, you just invest money, and it will not be a problem to recover the cost in a few months." This has become the consistent saying of script killing incubation companies.
■The ebb and flow of the script killing industry in Zhengzhou
Damao entered the script killing industry in 2017 and is quite famous in the Zhengzhou script killing circle. From his point of view, Zhengzhou script killing has gone through several stages of development. In 2017, script-selling was just emerging. At this stage, a large number of young people were eager to try new things, but there were few stores and few scripts, and the market supply exceeded demand. “At that time, script-selling shops were overcrowded wherever they opened, and queuing for a room was the norm. "
Subsequently, the popular script killing attracted a large number of entrants. With the explosion of script creation, the game forms became more abundant. Based on the traditional reasoning script, categories such as emotions and camps were developed. At the same time, with the update of technology, holographic rooms and AR rooms have appeared one after another. Gamers have greater choice, and the market has entered a period of balance.
"In the past two years, under the influence of the epidemic, the industry has entered a period of reshuffle. Some smaller stores have either been eliminated by the market or voluntarily left the market." Damao said that in previous rounds of epidemics, the script-killing industry was unable to operate. It is difficult for a group of stores to continue to persist. In addition to the epidemic factor, the more important reason is that competition is becoming fierce.
"After several years of development, Script Killing has accumulated many old players, and they have very high requirements for the environment, scripts, and game hosts." Damao said that although store decoration and style are prerequisites for attracting customers, Script Killing is the only one that attracts customers. At the core of the store, the homogeneity of scripts is relatively common in the market. Some merchants do not bother to go to exhibitions to find resources and carefully test new scripts. "Using classic old scripts to attract new customers and using high-quality new scripts to attract old customers is a long-term solution." Damao said that scripts are generally divided into boxed, city-limited (city-limited) and exclusive. Boxed scripts can be found online. Buying them ranges from tens to hundreds of yuan. The city limit is for the release of script-killing venues. There are only a few sets in a city, and the price is about two thousand yuan. The exclusive ones are the characteristics of script-killing venues, and the price is higher. Everything is available.
"Generally speaking, the life cycle of an ordinary script is only a few months. A powerful script-killing store will sign a contract with the publisher to get limited edition and popular scripts." Damao said, in addition, script-killing DM (game host) ) is also the soul of a store. "In every game, the DM guides the game with a script. He must use language expression and deduction skills to mobilize the atmosphere, promote the development of the plot, grasp the rhythm of the whole game, and immerse the players in it. An excellent DM can become the signature of a store. Let customers spend money on him,” he said.
■Script killing is no longer an industry for making quick money, and will usher in standardized development
With the introduction of new regulations on the management of script killing, the entire industry will enter an era of strong supervision. From the perspective of the industry, script killing will say goodbye to its barbaric growth. Ushering in standardized development.
"In fact, the consumption of minors is not high, and many businesses have also realized that there is no need to touch the red line for this." Mr. Chen, a script killing operator, said that for a long time, some entrepreneurs who are speculating on hot spots have been Looking for quick money, some pirated and shoddy scripts will be used, including some pornographic and violent scripts. This is a harm to regular stores and script publishers. After the new regulations are implemented, scripts must be registered on the network supervision platform, which curbs the use of bad scripts from the source and better helps the industry develop in a healthier and orderly manner.
Da Mao said that in the past few years, many practitioners came in, and some accompanying problems disrupted the normal growth rate and internal growth logic of script killing. "Starting from 2020, the larger script-killing shops in Zhengzhou will not buy pirated scripts, avoid vulgar scripts, and try their best to find scripts that can promote positive energy. This is a kind of industry self-discipline."
It is summer, The script-killing industry is entering its peak season. In Damao’s view, due to control requirements, script killing is currently not operating at full capacity. This year’s market will probably only recover to 70 to 80% of previous summers. “Script killing is no longer an industry for making quick money; To be a business, you must have strength and resources, and the store must have a certain scale. In the past year or two, many stores have been eliminated from the market, and some stores are now on the countdown to closing. Generally speaking, publishers have city-limited authorizations for scripts. It’s been three years, and many people are facing the choice of whether to stick to it. “In his view, after this reshuffle period in Zhengzhou, what will eventually remain will be stores with strength and reputation, and the market will show a new trend in the future. The situation of "the strong will always be strong".
"As for whether the entire industry can go further and longer, it mainly depends on whether the user group can further break out of the circle. At present, many people have not played script killing. From a national perspective, script killing is still developing upwards. I We are very confident about the future," Da Mao said.
Download the Yu Video APP and find reporters with one click
Source: Dahe Daily·Yu Video Editor: Wang Fenghua
