XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

Option 1

Game: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

Website: http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/
Gameplay: http://youtu.be/1VP4YmExQAE

Introduction
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based tactical role-playing strategy game where the player is the commander of an elite military organization named XCOM, protecting Earth against an alien invasion. The player directs his or her soldiers in turn-based combat missions against alien enemies around the world. Apart from the combat, the player also directs the organization’s research and engineering divisions in creating new technologies and improving XCOM’s base of operations, and manages the organization’s finances

No.2 The Lens of Surprise
– The fog-of-war in the turn-based combat results in surprising enemy encounters as enemies are only   revealed when the player’s solder is within visible range of the enemy.
– New types of enemies are introduced during combat when the player first encounters them. New or unexpected enemy appearances can result in unit losses or mission failures if the unknown enemy is not handled properly.
– The story line also has a twist at the end in terms of why the aliens invaded Earth.

The usage of a simple fog-of-war is a good design as it creates many surprising encounters and creates unpredictability during a standard turn-based combat. The element of surprise from hidden enemies also results in the player having to adjust and adapt their strategies accordingly. Although some of the maps are notably repeated, the element of surprise creates intense and unique combats each time. The element of surprise from hidden enemies also results in the player having to adjust and adapt their strategies accordingly.

No.4 The Lens of Curiosity
– The story line creates curiosity by creating and open-ended and continuous analysis of why the technologically more advanced alien beings would want to invade Earth as player clears the missions.
– Each alien type has a compelling back story and is revealed after defeating them and doing a mandatory autopsy ‘research’ on them. Each alien type autopsy also reveals more upgrades for the player.

The story line paired very nicely with the revelation of the analysis as the player completes more mission and defeats more aliens. The autopsy design also generates curiosity and the drive to meet and kill more aliens as each alien has its own special autopsy and analysis result. This curiosity pushes the player to keep on playing the next mission, collecting alien specimen and researching new technologies.

41 The Lens of Punishment
Soldiers that are injured during combat requires recovery time before they can be used for the next combat.
– Soldiers that die in combat are permanently dead. They leave behind only their equipment.
– Failing or ignoring missions will result in a decrease in the amount of resources given to the player.

The punishment in the game might create a domino effect resulting from a single mission loss. If the player loses all his best soldiers in a combat, he also loses the mission. With no high level soldiers available, player will have to go into combat with the lower level soldiers. This causes a more difficult battle and result in an even higher chance of loss. Loss of missions also results in a decrease in resources given to the player. This might result in an irrecoverable loss which stemmed from a single mission loss.

Should have a slightly tweaked system that allows a better chance of recovery.

No. 49 The Lens of Visible Progress
– Higher level aliens look bulkier, more armored and carry a bigger weapon.
– Higher level soldiers do not physically look different. Only the rank beside them changes.
– Armor and weapons look much more advanced as the story progresses.
– Alien space ships become much bigger as the story progresses.

Even though the soldier’s physical appearance does not change as he levels up, the rank placed beside its name during and outside of combat is very obvious and can easily tell which soldier is of higher level. You can tell how far you are progressing in the game as the alien space ships encountered will become bigger with each mission completed.

No.51 The Lens of The Pyramid
After defeating all the basic types of the aliens, the game slowly introduces the upgraded versions of similar types of aliens.
– The final mission re-introduces all the different types of missions according to how powerful they are and the backstory to where the alien came from (different from the autopsy backstory)
– Each mission becomes gradually more difficult by having different combinations of aliens. It allows players to find out how to defeat a particular combination before adding more to it. Higher level missions can only be completed flawlessly only if the strategies introduced at the lower levels are applied accordingly.

The introduction of the different types and levels of aliens is very well-balanced. The design of the tactics learned at the lower level being reapplied at the higher levels is very well designed and balanced and done very implicitly. Players will automatically think of the strategies used previously and apply it during the higher levels. This makes the game intuitive to play and not frustrating for the players as they encounter tougher aliens.

DOTA

DOTA (Defense of the Ancients)

Dota is a multiplayer online battle arena mod for the video game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Dota pits two teams of players against each other: the Sentinel and the Scourge; normally it is a 5v5 game. The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents’ Ancients.

Each player controls one hero; there are more than one hundred heroes for player to choose, each with different skills and abilities. Most heroes have 4 skills. Players can gain experience points from killing enemies and neutral units. When player accumulate enough experience, he gains a level. Leveling up improves the hero’s HP and damage, and give hero a skill point to enhance one skill.

Cooperation:

Teamwork is the soul of Dota. There are 4 primary roles in Dota: carry, ganker, supporter, and initiator. Each role has different job. Without carry, it’s hard to fight with the enemies at later stage; without ganker, the carry of the enemy will grow up fast; without supporter, a team won’t have the essentials such like carrier, ward; without initiator, team battle may become messy. All of roles are important, and that’s why there is synergy when the players work together. Inside the game players can communicate to each other by typing, but friends or teams usually use network chatting software because sometime there is no time for players to type. Dota should has its own voice chatting system.

Competition:

Dota gives a fair measurement of player skill, which is well reflected in the ladders. The ranking is stable. For a senior player, his rank would be almost the same unless he improves his skill. Almost every player wants to win in a Dota game and winning in a Dota game can be something people can be proud of. Like most competitive games, winning makes people feel good because the struggle becomes the triumph. There are many famous Dota players around the world, which have a lot of fans. Normally, a novice cannot defeat an expert. Winning largely depend on experience and skill. I agree with this kind of setting.

Fairness:

Fairness manifests very well in Dota. In general, the map is symmetric. The computer controlled units of both sides have the same attributes. For the heroes, formal games use captain mode. The two captains will ban and pick the heroes in turns. There is no imbalanced hero in Dota, and every hero has shortage. Dota did well on this aspect.

Economy:

Dota has a combat-oriented money system. In addition to a small periodic income, players can get gold by killing hostile units. If a guard tower is destroyed, every enemy hero will get considerable revenue. Money is not always growing, because death will be punished. And in order to let the enemies earns less, players can deny their allies if there is no hope to rescue them. There are plenty of items for player to buy, which may be too complex for novice.

Meaningful choice:

Players have to make decisions very often in a Dota game. Players need to choose how to allocate their skill points when they reach every level. For example, if the enemies are very aggressive, players often add a survival skill, such like Blink and Invisible. Also, players need to decide when to buy which equipment. Usually, if the enemies dominates a game, players tend to buy cheaper items once the gold is enough because dying can take away some of the gold. Another important decision is deciding to attack or retreat, players must have an overall consideration including the time, terrain, HP, skill cooling down of the both side and so on. There is no dominant strategies in Dota, all the choices must base on the current circumstance. Usually a small decision can have a huge impact on the final result.

Game link: www.playdota.com

 

Angry Birds Star Wars (Option 1)

1. Lens of Problem Solving (6)

The game requires players to hit all the pigs in every stage with the minimum number of birds, with a specified maximum number of birds.

Players may have different skill levels which may cause novices at judging the expected target to experience difficulties in passing each stage.

Each type of bird is given a different special ability that can help get through certain obstacles. The order of the bird is also pre-determined that require players to solve them in a limited number of ways. The terrain changes so that new obstacles are introduced that require players to use different strategies to overcome, such as meteorites that block the path, lasers that knock the birds from their path, etc.

2. Lens of Flow (18)

The game has clear goals where player have to hit all the pigs with the specified number of birds or they would be considered to fail the stage and forced to restart. High scores are notified to the players so players know that they have to get a high score.

The goals of the players are the same goal Rovio intended. There is no other way to clear a stage until all the pigs are hit. While players can choose to give up the goal of obtaining a high score, this goal is not essential.

Bonus stages can be unlocked by hitting special eggs placed in some stages. To hit these eggs, players may overuse birds so that they do not have enough to hit all the pigs, hence having to restart. However, the number of these eggs is minimal at the cost of not being tied into the game goal, since there is no significant advantage to clearing these bonus stages.

The challenges presented to the players are in different forms for different ‘worlds’, such as laser, meteorites, or gravity. However, they are not necessarily increasing difficult.

Once players learn to control the direction and speed of the birds from the catapult, the only skill required is the time of executing the special ability. These skills do not take many tries to learn, hence there is little improvement after the first few stages. To get a perfect score however, precise execution is required, which encourages players who are goal-centric to work on improving their skill.

3. Lens of Skills vs. Chance (34)

Players are judged initially by skill for those stages that are relatively straightforward, but as stages become more complicated, players need to take risks to get perfect scores.

This dependency on chance reinforces the idea that the game is more casual than serious.

The game is balanced between requiring skill and strategy to hit the pigs at the right instance to clear a stage, but also requiring risk taking to minimize the number of birds used, hence obtaining a higher score.

4. Lens of Parallelism (50)

Players are required to solve each stage before proceeding to the next. This creates bottlenecks. Players can play bonus stages but them while helping to eliminate these bottlenecks but also cause the player to be distracted from the main goal.

Parallel challenges such as bonus stages have the same gameplay; hence there is a lack of diversity and challenges.

Since the game does not become increasing become more challenging, making progress on parallel challenges has minimal impact on solving the main play. However, since the main play and the parallel challenges have similar gameplay, it may help to improve the player’s skill.

5. Lens of Control (53)

When players use the interface, it does what they expected in that players pull back on the catapult and expect to see the birds fly. It may not fly exactly according to the player’s expectation due to challenges of the game including ‘gravity’ that alters the path of the bird.

The interface is easy to master; players just need to touch to pull and release.

Players have a strong influence over the outcome of the game since the birds fly in the direction according to their plan, even with obstacles such as gravity, once they expect the gravitational pull, they can adjust the speed and direction of the bird.

Since players are in control of the birds, hence players feel powerful. While players can be made more powerful, this will reduce the challenge of the game, hence a balance needs to be struck.

Game’s web site: http://www.rovio.com/

Game YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY29T3Sqz30

Age of Empires Online

Option 1 – 5 lenses: Story, Head and Hands, Beauty, Competition vs Cooperation, Fairness

Assignment1_A0004660U

Age of Empires Online (abbreviated AoEO), is a history-based real-time strategy (RTS) computer game based upon the gameplay of the Age of Empires series. The game centres around developing the ancient civilizations such as Egyptian, Celtic, Greek and many more. The main gameplay revolves around the player being able to develop a civilization from its birth to its peak and fall. To assure victory, the player must gather resources to spend on new units, buildings and more advanced technology. Resources must also be preserved, as no new resources become available as the game progresses. A major component of the game is the advancement through four ages with each advancement bringing new technologies, weapons, and units. Quests are the main Player Vs Environment (PvE) aspect of the game, completing objectives and defeating AI player.

Story

Age of Empire Online has an interesting theme of ancient civilizations which invades each other and battle for territories. Although there is no concrete storyline, the historical aspects helps to define the scene design and development of the game such as costume and architecture.  The non-existence of a storyboard is justifiable as the main objective of the game is to build cities, armies and defeat all enemies. The story is also highly extendable as already done by the developers; more civilizations could be added and there are 6 as of now. The game map is also based on the world map locating these civilizations in the geographical area.

Unlike RPG games, there is little story line and it can get dull when doing quests endlessly on single player mode.

Head and Hands

This is a strategy game and the player definitely will need to make some intellectual and logical decisions in building up his army. He needs to manage the resources, plan a series of actions to have a stable economy and advance his troops. He will need to be mindful of the objectives of the quests and prioritize.

On the other hand, he will need to have nimble fingers to command all the troops, villagers and maintain all the infrastructures. That will require a fair combination of mouse clicks and keyboard hotkeys/shortcuts. The player needs to be mindful of the gameplay and also physically act on his judgments.

Beauty

Unlike the earlier series of Age of Empires PC games, the graphics of AoEO is less realistic and cartoon style. The colors are much brighter and the interesting or even flashy to some. Although some game enthusiasts maybe skeptical about it being less realistic, the graphics are nonetheless high quality in style of animated HD movies.  It may be more appealing to larger crowds of casual gamers. Taking note that mobile games are gaining popularity and most mobile games also have cartoon style or cute graphics. It also introduces the game to those who are less accustomed to strategy games.

Lack of realism sometime may lead to beauty such as use of bright and contrasting colors. Design and color of terrains and water are of pastel colors which can give pretty, clean and happy feeling. Being cartoon style, models are made to emphasize the special features and not realism which makes the objects look beautiful.

Competition VS Cooperation

Being a strategy game where the aim is for player to defeat the opponent, be it the AI or other player(s), there is a lot of game modes to explore. In fact Age of Empire is a fairly successful PC game which leads to the development of this multiplayer online version which aims to increase the interactions between players. Much of the time in the beginning, player completes quests to gain level and soon after, players can opt for Player vs Player (PvP) matches and the game even has system to establish matches for random players. Cooperation comes in form of alliance wars where different groups of players battle against each other as well as cooperating with friends to complete cooperative quests which are generally more challenging.

Fairness

This game is an online game which is free to play for 3 of the civilizations. The concept of online game is to increase the total players and popularity of the game. There is little profit based on the download of the game itself. However, players can purchase premium contents of the game such as special items and booster packs to customize their PvE (Player vs Environment) gameplay experience.

Player could also buy tech points to upgrade their technology tree, better gears which could give unfair advantage over other players during PvP matches. However, it still depends on the player himself on how he manages and wins the game. PvP arena at times set up matches between 2 players with large level difference which is positively unfair.

 

Monster Hunter in the Lens

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is a 2008 video game in the Monster Hunter franchise for PlayStation Portable: (Trailer). The title of the game tells players exactly what they are going to spend all their time doing. Basically answering the key question of what is this game about.

The LENS of CURIOSITY seeks to prompt players with questions. “I’m hunting monsters? Seriously”

Questions inevitably surface in players minds. More so as they get familiar with the game: Monster’s weaknesses, attack patterns, movements, carving drops and most importantly how to bring them down. Combined with vast variety of options in the form of monsters, terrain, equipment, carves, weapon styles and challenges. There is no lacking in probable questions.

There are literally hundreds of items for player’s disposal, including eleven weapon-types, with attack powers and buffs. Hence, players get to ponder on the how(s) and what(s) to achieving combinations to complement their individualistic and personalized styles. The game motivates curiosity such that it never gets boring, even after thousands of hours of game play.

Analyzing the game play of this game is described by the LENS of SKILL.

Monster hunter sits in the middle of being a “casual game” and a “hardcore game”; it is easy to play, yet difficult to master. The level of strategy involved is as deep as the combined imaginations of up to four simultaneous players. All made possible with its controls. The steep skill curve makes the balance in the LENS of SKILL questionable.

Unlike most role playing games, this game is nothing about numbers; players should be able to venture cold into any hunt with only the weakest weapon in the game and yet slay everything in his/her path. That is the level of skill achievable; timing, precision and movement. The more one plays the better he/she gets.

However contesting players for such proficiency at an early stage in the game experience could be a disincentive. A player unable to handle the learning curve quickly dismisses the game. It can be just too difficult or laborious to achieve. But anything that falls short of in virtuoso skill can be subtly convinced or gloriously feigned through cooperation with peers.

Discussing synergy among peers as mentioned in the LENS of COOPERATION.

The prime factor where monster hunters earn its fans is indisputably, when players try their hands on the multiplayer gameplay. Via the PlayStation Portable’s Ad-Hoc functionality, players are enabled to experience the social gaming phenomenon, unlike the MMORPG Games, and adventure in up to a party of four for a thrilling and savaging multiplayer hunting party.

Monster hunter fully capitalizes on the amazing potential of local multiplayer, and succeeded in thoroughly exploiting it; Perfect communications setting, where players are in the immediate vicinity yelling and laughing at one another, friends and strangers bonded by the display of skill and reliance.

In single mode, the player is allowed 3 deaths before the quest is over. In co-op mode, the total number of deaths between players is three then everyone’s quest is over. Such a challenge promotes cohesiveness; Players knocking heads, wrecking brains, devising a strategy to slay the monster. Team play is the key to hunting down those ferocious beasts. Monster Hunter miraculously manages never to feel lonely or fruitless. But isn’t the game appearing to be overly repetitive?

Players experience an unconventional form of progress, discussed in the LENS of VISIBLE PROGRESS.

Players repeat tasks, over and over, honing their skills and upgrading their equipment. Mission structures higher skill rated missions, reusing repeated locations but with stronger or different patterns of more monsters. Monsters possess varied, albeit predictable, AI patterns that are still interesting enough to entertain. And one would ask, “Does it ever end?”

The player’s character is constantly changing: constantly scavenging and crafting new items, trinkets, pieces of clothes or armor; weapons get shinier and sharper, but most importantly players get better at playing the game. Because skill is in question, there is always the ability to improve, as players tackle quests they discover new and amazingly different approaches.

The experience is, to say the very least, far more psychologically fulfilling than in other forms of progression: Players progress as a hunter more so than progress in the game. The repetition, often unwanted in games, isn’t a problem no matter the number of times, players always relish the monster’s falling moment, screaming its last cry.

“Can this really be fun?” In the LENS of FUN, it is asked.

Monster Hunter has essentially no complex story line  other than a clichéd explanation of the player’s origin. But considering the nature of the game that flows hence forth, it’s well sufficient. In a game that otherwise features no “end goal”, many feel achieved and full of iconic moments playing the game.

Hunting yields surprising options; in other games killing monsters is all too common, but here, players get to chop tails and break horns or capturing for rewards. But to do so requires timing and precision which makes the action of doing so fill the players with overwhelming joyous sensations.

The fun is exemplified more so when players do their hunts in groups. Cracking monster heads and chopping off tails with coordinated group tactics. No matter being a novice nor expert, the surprises from hunting together highlights monster hunter’s fun factor, especially those laughable moments when your peers make comedic mistakes at a costly blow.

The crux of the game is so well-grounded in a hunter’s common sense that the fun in the game is felt in the experience.

Guild Wars 2 Analysis

CS3247 Assignment 1: Option 1 – Analysis of Guild Wars 2

 

The Lens of Challenge

  1. Easy to attaining maximum character level due to relative flat leveling experience curve.
  2. Difficult to craft legendary weapon due to expensive materials and materials that can only be gained through tough achievements.
  3. Reward at the end of a tough terrain and puzzle-liked jumping task.
  4. Maintaining top server position in server versus server war.
  5. Recognition for having 100% world map explored.
  6. Different difficulties of achievements, from easy resource gathering to difficult jumping task.
  7. Easy to reach max level for all crafting skill with gold.

 

The Lens of Skill

  1. Supports movement using WASD keys for finer maneuver during critical situations.
  2. Dodge system for all characters to evade incoming attack, limited by stamina system.
    1. Requires players to have fast reaction time.
    2. Requires players to make on spot decision in order to fully utilize their number of dodges.
    3. Can be trained to become part of muscle memory.
  3. Balance player versus player system where players can choose on default characters and equipment.
    1. Players have to fully understand all characters to give them an edge in the fight.
    2. Good decision making and fine motor skills are required to correctly out one’s actions.
  4. Good tactics, commanders, siege and defense equipment operation are needed to be successful in massive server versus server war.
    1. Such experience can be gained during the course of war.
  5. Jumping tasks require good gauge of distance, fine motor skill, observant and patience to succeed.
    1. These skills require considerable effort and are difficult to nurture.

 

The Lens of Economy

  1. Open and transparent market system shared by all servers, where players can view items posted by others
    1. Can be accessed at any place in game.
    2. Trading flourish due to ease of selling and buying items.
    3. Little chance for price manipulation due to large supply of items.
    4. Reduces frustration due to selling an item too cheaply or buying overpriced item.
  2. Multiple game currencies for different purposes.
    1. Gold – The general currency used for trading.

i.      Can be gained through monster drops and questing.

  1. Vis – The secondary currency used in game to buy some crucial items that are Vis exclusive.

i.      Can only be gained through real time dynamic events.

ii.      Non-tradable, forces players to obtain some items through their own effort.

  1. Gems – Can be bought through real cash.

i.      Allows trading between gold and gems through the principle of demand and supply.

ii.      Helps to discourage real money trading.

iii.      Most cash items are for cosmetic purpose or can be gathered through drops.

iv.      Cash items that provide unfair advantage are too expensive to be abused.

  1. Tokens – Rewards for completing dungeon instances.

i.      Used to trade for dungeon specific equipment which is used for cosmetic purpose.

  1. Crafting leveling skills as a major component of gameplay.
    1. Low level drops are always in demand due to low level crafters.
    2. Used by game developer to prevent price crashing of any items, by making them as ingredient for new items.
    3. Allows new players to sell drops for decent profit to fund for their equipment.
    4. Decent equipment comes at affordable price due to excess supply from crafting.
  2. Limited number of item stacking on an item slot to stop player from amassing too much of the item at any point of time.
    1. Further prevent price manipulation due to item hogging.
  3. Anti-inflation measures placed on gold to make the game more new player friendly.
    1. High tax, 10% for listing and 5% for being sold, placed on items listed in the market.
    2. Some crafting materials are only available through non-playable characters.
    3. Huge amount of gold is required for siege and defense equipment in Server versus Server war.

 

The Lens of Freedom

  1. Different approaches to play the game, most of which alone could result in maximum character level.
    1. Grinding – Relative flat level experience curve.

i.      Grinding becomes less boring due to more visible changes in character ability.

ii.      Equipped with decent equipment, character could kill monster at its level range with relative ease.

iii.      Dynamic level adjustment to character’s level when it enters a region below its range.

iv.      Lower level maps are no longer more efficient at character leveling.

v.      Game population becomes more evenly spread to all maps

  1. Questing – Interesting storyline where character is one of the two main heroes preventing an evil dragon race from corrupting the land.

i.      Different deviation of starting and mid storyline, depending on how players set their characters and their interactions during the quest.

ii.      A lot of replay value for players who want to try out different possible deviation of the storyline.

  1. Real time dynamic events – Group activities that can be done repeatedly.

i.      Can only be done when they are frequently activated at a fixed interval.

ii.      Activation notification sent to characters within its radius.

iii.      Good reward encourages strangers to gather together to complete the event.

iv.      Good range of activities, which include resource gathering, escorting, defend an area, invade an area, etc.

  1. Dungeon instances – Small group of 5 with an average of less than an hour completion time.

i.      Allows players to choose different paths to complete the same dungeon.

  1. Exploration – Experience is gained when a region of map is explored.

i.      Some difficult to access places allow a fun and challenging exploration experience.

ii.      Extra monetary reward given out at a map completion so that explorer does not suffer financially.

iii.      Mini quests that have no impact on main storyline and are part of the exploration experience.

  1. Achievement – Predefined activities that character has to complete daily, monthly, or in its lifetime.

i.      Recorded in character’s profile and a point system allow players’ effort to be recognized.

  1. Resource gathering – Different resources are spread randomly throughout all maps.

i.      Limit of each resource point is character bounded.

ii.      Therefore players who prefer resource gathering are not restricted by competition to the resource.

  1. Server versus server war – 24/7 War, with weekly reset and ranking update.

i.      Players could log in any time and enter the war, provided the players limit for their server is not reached.

ii.      Reward given when an objective is achieved.

  1. Extensive range of character customization, giving each character its unique identity.
    1. Appearance customization is similar to that of the creation of Sims in The Sims game franchise by Maxis.
    2. Each character class can wield a number of different types of weapon types.

i.      Allows different playing styles even with same character class.

  1. Most character classes can wield two different sets of weapon at the same time

i.      Players can now better adapt to different combat situations.

ii.      Abilities activated when swapping weapon encourages players to utilize dual wielding system.

  1. Equipment can be mounted with other equipment skins while retaining their stats.

i.      Players no longer have to make a compromise between looks and weapon ability.

  1. Good transport system and few restrictions on character movement.
    1. A number of teleport points evenly spread out on a map.
    2. For a small fee, players can teleport straight to a specific explored region on any map.
    3. The fee is scaled according to the character level.

i.      Low level and poor players can still enjoy the convenience of transport system at a lower cost.

  1. Good jumping feature allows players to access weird place on map like roof top and hill top.
  2. Water is no longer a physical boundary as players can dive deep into the sea to explore.
  3. Customizable chat system support creation of different chat tabs to cater to players’ needs.
    1. Players can pick which kind of chat to appear in their tab.
    2. Multiple tabs allow players to switch chat effortlessly according to their activities.
  4. Freedom to change community.
    1. Multiple guilds feature allows players to conveniently switch main guild without the need to leave other.
    2. Players can switch servers once a week to find their ideal servers.

 

The Lens of Community

  1. Real time dynamic events create opportunities for strangers to gather together and forge new friendship.
  2. Profound guild system support for guilds’ operation.
    1. Guild leveling feature as a common goal which members work together in.
    2. Member ranking feature creates an orderly hierarchy with different level of power access to different ranks.
    3. Guild bank allows members to share their wealth with other members and for the operation of the guild.
    4. Multiple guilds feature creates a platform for like-minded people to gather together for different situations.
  3. 24/7 Three-sided server versus server war.
    1. Forces guilds within the same server to cooperate together to have constant military presence throughout the week.
    2. Although war is a number game, difficult objectives still requires cooperation from a large number of people.
    3. Instead of wandering aimlessly in battlefield, commander tag feature to direct players to battle front.
    4. Diplomacy at work to prevent the onslaught of two other servers and the loss of guilds to other servers.
  4. Cross server communication.
    1. Players can chat in game with one another even though they are on different servers.
    2. Guest system to be introduced soon, which allows players to visit servers that they have friends in.
    3. Foster and maintain friendship with anyone that plays the game.
  5. Both real time and non-real time events organized during festive holidays for players to indulge in the festivals together.

 

Guild Wars 2 Official Website: https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/

24/7 Massive server versus server war gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk06sCaB0l4

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

Genre: Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)
Website: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

PVP: http://www.youtube.com/channel/SW3Mf6hmkrgxA
Raid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSHmyQwwzxY

Lenses Used:

  1. The Lens of Cooperation
  2. The Lens of Challenge
  3. The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity
  4. The Lens of Economy
  5. The Lens of Chance

The Lens of Cooperation

  • Grouping up with various classes and having different roles eg. Tanker, Damage & Healer brings about social and cooperation value being in a team that beats various bosses and monsters.
  • The ability know what each other roles are even when they are complete strangers and eventually get to know each other
  • The mechanism to participate in Player vs. Player battles in a team through Battlegrounds having to beat the other team of real players through proper strategy and cooperation between members to help each other with their specializations.
  • The ability to team up to 25 players in a raid brings about the feeling of being in a battalion fighting against the enemy for the good (bad for Horde). The developers have ensured that every 25 players will need to cooperate and perform their roles with due diligence in order to beat such bosses.

The Lens of Challenge

  • Challenges in the game start off easy and eventually gets tougher to beat with characters having to gear up with proper items and buffs before being able to defeat a boss.
  • Requires a deep understanding of the character that is being played especially the abilities of each character which are different based on the character’s class in order to react accordingly based on the situation of the battle or to maximize damage/healing/tanking with proper rotation of ability usage.
  • Developers continually introduce new challenges over the years where players can expect challenges and new game mechanics in order to defeat bosses that would otherwise wipe out the team for those ignorant of them.

The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

  • Various numbers of classes and race combinations to play introduces a wide variety of different abilities.
  • It is definitely easy to start playing but tough to properly master a characters’ role and decide which abilities to choose.
  • The game world being very huge makes it complicated for new comers to start exploring and know where to go to perform various tasks. However, the developers have included a world map for explorers to explore easily with major cities marked on the map in case they get lost.
  • Recently, talent trees have been simplified by the developers to further simplify the complexity for casual players to readily pick up and play without putting too much thought into deciding where to spend ability points.
The Lens of Economy
  • Players have various ways to earn money: Completing quests, killing mobs, crafting items and selling, collecting raw materials for sale etc.
  • The developers have ensured that economy will always be stable where players are limited to take up only maximum of two professions where these professions are able to craft weapons and armors or even potions and buffs that will help to improve characters gears.
  • The inter-dependence between these professions result in creation of a vibrant market in the Auction House.
The Lens of Chance
  • Item drops are random in the game. Some items are known to drop in certain dungeons and areas.
  • The stronger the mob, the better chances of getting a good item. This is especially true for bosses where they will definitely drop a rare item but there will be a chance where it can drop a legendary item for a particular class and specialization.
  • Players are continually defeating bosses and mobs to obtain the best gear possible. Even after the bosses drop the item, it is usually the case that each player in the team will roll dices to determine who gets the item.

Sims 3

Video Game Chosen: Sims 3
Genre: Simulation
Link
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MloaJR2YkGA
Website: http://www.thesims3.com/

Lens 1: The lens of imagination (45)

  • Most if not all the objects in Sims 3 are modeled after actual reality. Objects like television, fridge or even beds are pretty much similar to what our reality has to offer.
  • Things that are modeled after reality have to done in a way such that player are accustomed to.
    For example during sleeping it is possible for character to move around and even dreams.
  • Time is something that player has to imagine. It is not realistic and feasible to simulate real time and therefore player has to get accustomed to character progressing faster such as life span of a character, its career or even its mundane activities.

Lens 2: The lens of the weirdest thing (69)

  • In the various expansions to Sims 3, there are many different forms of unusual things that can make the game mechanics even more interesting. This gives players the option the freedom to choose the form of game mechanics they want in their game by purchasing only the expansion they are interested in.
  • In the normal Sims 3, ghosts do exist and character is able to interact with them.
  • In Sims 3: Showtime, genies are available and can grant wishes to character.
  • In Sims 3: Seasons, aliens appear at time and have power to manipulate Sims’ minds.
  • These features give Sims 3 a touch of what can possible not happen in real life and give players a good laugh at the end

Lens 3: The lens of the world (74)

  • In the various scenarios/maps in Sims 3, there are various stories that a character can take in the forms of career or even the various recreational activities. Different activities improve different aspect of the character life. For example a character that is very focused on social activities will probably have lots of friends and usually host a lot of parties.
  • Some similarity to reality is the need to have a job for income. Hence there have to be a balance between working and playing (or event working on his skills).
  • In the world there are many options for character to explore. Some examples are Pubs, Gym, Music Concerts, Pool parties or even things like fishing.
  • The world in Sims 3 allows players to simulate a “perfect” life for themselves which is usually achievable in the game.

Lens 4: The lens of freedom (71)

Character features

  • Players are given the option to create their characters in any way they want. This includes down to the detail options such as face and body features, or even the clothes they wear.
  • However, players might get overwhelmed by too many options and they can therefore have the lazy option of generating a random character with the random name and traits.

Character Property

  • Players are able to build their houses with many options. Things like furniture, lightings, walls colours and many more are up for the players to choose.
  • Player can also customize the grass outside their house with even more stuff such as a soccer goal post, car lot, or even just plant trees to make the whole place even attractive.
  • However, the house is constrained to the limited land plot designated to the player. Also the maximum number of floors is restricted to 5 to simulate realism.
  • As the same with character features, players are allowed the option to purchase a pre-built house to prevent the hassle of building from scratch.

Character Life

  • Character can choose what form of career they want to take.
  • Character can also learn what skills they want to learn, as well as spend its time on the recreational activity that the player likes.
  • Players are also given the freedom to push their character to do things that are either not ethical in or common in actual society. For example a player can choose to do minor crimes such as stealing or even join a criminal career to provide a twist to the usual life that people take.

Lens 5: The lens of character traits (77)

Personality Traits

  • Characters are given many different personality traits for players to choose from. Players are allowed to choose any 5 from the many given choices if they are creating the character.
  • Traits can also be inherited via genetics from parents to simulate realism.
  • Personality traits are grouped into 5 different category and some examples from each category are:
    • Mental: Can’t stand art, Insane, Computer Whiz
    • Physical: Athletic, Light Sleeper, Neat
    • Social: Charismatic, Flirty, Loner
    • Lifestyle: Ambitious, Frugal, Over-Emotional
    • Hidden (Needs to be unlocked): Burglar, Pizza Appreciator, Pyromaniac
  • Certain traits allow for the character to have actions or benefits specified to that trait. For example given a Charismatic trait:
    • Characters build charisma skill 25% faster than other Sims
    • Characters in the Political career have more success asking for contributions
    • Characters’ conversation will never bore other Sims

Skills

  • Skills also helped characters develop their life in the game. Each skill helps the character to do certain things better and they are seen through its daily activities.
  • Example: A character with high handiness skills is able to repair his television set efficiently.
  • Some example of skills are: Logic, Creativity, Painting, Fishing

FIFA13

Developer(s) EA Canada
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Genre(s) Sports Game, Association Football Simulation
Website: http://www.ea.com/fifa-soccer-13
Lens #27: The Lens of Skill Physical skills: 

  • Dribbling system requires the player to skillfully use the right analog combined with various other buttons and directional (left) analogue to be able to pull of slick maneuvers over the opponent
  • Free kick, penalty, corner and crossing all requires the player to practice their set-pieces as well as know how to aim, how much pressure and force to apply to the ball using the controller

Mental skills:

  • On-pitch actions require the player to think fast and decide with side of the pitch to attack from, what formation and tactic to use for a particular match and more.
  • Career Mode” requires the player to think about who to sell/buy to improve their team, how can one effectively manage the team as a role of a manager.

Social skills:

  • During the match, player have to constantly be able to read the opponent moves to be able to attack or defend against them.
  • In multi-players matches, especially in a 11 vs. 11 match, players need to be able to coordinate with their teammates, and they are do so using mike to communicate with each other, enhancing their teamwork.

While the various physical skills listed will make some players better than the others, but the game does not make it much unfair. During online play, player will be classified into different groups (base on their match records), and will only challenge players in the same group, usually of the same level of ability.

Also, the game provide chances for players to improve their skills, for instance, new skill training exercises that pop up while matches load.

Lens #38: The Lens of Competition vs. Cooperation The game gives the player a choice of whether to play cooperatively or competitively in its online mode. As per soccer match, each match consists of two team playing competitively, and each team consists of 11 players (each controlling one avatar on the field), playing cooperatively in order to win the match. Thus the online mode allows up to 22 players playing cooperatively and competitively at the same time.
Lens #31: The Lens of Challenge The challenges in the game can be separated into online and offline mode.

Online Mode:
Player will be separated into different division/tiers based on their match record, so generally as you win more, you will move up the tiers and faces much better opponent, subsequently raising the difficulties of each match

Offline Mode:
As for playing against AI, the player is free to choose between the different level of difficulties base on their own skill level, with difficulties ranging from amateur, semi-professional, professional, world-class, legendary, ultimate. The multiple level of difficulties keep the game balance as it won’t feel too easy or too tough for most players.

Lens #49: The Lens of Visible Progress In the mode of “Online Pro” or “Career Pro”, player controls a avatar called their virtual pro (VP), which they can advance the VP abilities by performing or succeeding in various requirements stated.Looking at the above picture, on the right is the requirements to fulfill while below it shows the reward. On the left, we can see the overall progress of your VP and also below it is the visible breakdown of the growth thus far. Also, progress are built successively, for example after unlocking “Completing 8 goals”, then we can unlock the next progress, “Completing 20 goals”, which is hidden from us at the start. All these makes progress easily visible for the player and also allows the player to look forward to future progress available for them.
Lens #60: The Lens of Modes The are basically 2 modes in the game, the “Offense” mode and “Defense” mode. In each mode, the controls is totally different and there are no interfaces for them. Below is a image showing the difference in the control for both mode.Although there are no interface to show the different mode during the game itself, a clear change in the different mode can be easily seen as if the player avatars possess the soccer ball, it is clearly in the “Offense” mode, whereas if the opposition have the ball, it is in the “Defense” mode. Furthermore, the game kept the mode to the bare minimum, having just two of them, which makes it logical, and also both mode have clearly defined role, without one overlapping the other. Certain controls that overlap both modes have the same buttons assigned to them, as it will be unreasonable not to do so. For example, the “Sprint” and “Run” have the same buttons assigned as they are used in both modes, which is perfectly logical.