Analysis of DotA 2

CS3247 Assignment 1

Defence of the Ancients 2

dota2 header

http://store.steampowered.com/app/570/

DotA 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) involving 2 teams consisting of 5 players each controlling a “hero” attempting to destroy each other’s respective “ancients” in order to win the game. Designed by Icefrog and his many predecessors including Guinsoo and Eul, the game first made waves in the gaming community as a Warcraft 3 custom game during the “Aeon of Strife era” before it was adopted as a stand-alone in 2013 by Valve.

dota 2 heroes

Latest list of heroes available for selection by players in Dota 2

DotA 2 is a powerhouse in both casual (all-time peak of almost 1 million players) and eSports (USD $10.9 million total prize pool for The International 4). Just like physical sports like soccer and basketball, DotA 2 incorporates both elements of cooperation and competition within an equal game environment.

valve stats

Steam stats for Dota 2

compendium prize

Prize pool compendium statistics for The International 4

Often criticized for its steep learning curve and unforgivingly harsh environment, players must utilize their knowledge of the game, their mechanical and technical prowess, their prediction of other players’ behaviours, and awareness of the metagame to the fullest in order to win.

doto screen

Screenshot during a game; this is the scene where the player has been killed by another player, and the camera is looking at a teamfight between two teams with some AI-controlled minions in the fray.

Elemental Tetrad

  • Mechanics
    • Mechanics is the key to the game. Understanding the rules and interactions of every aspect of the game is crucial to establishing dominance over opponents.
  • Story
    • Just like competitive physical sports, the focus is not on the story, but there is an overarching lore that encompasses the actors and objects in the game for flavour.
  • Aesthetics
    • Since split-second recognition and decision-making is highly important, graphical fidelity is kept simple, and high attention is paid to making sure heroes, items and spell effects are uniquely designed to tell them apart immediately in order to access the situation.
  • Technology
    • Valve’s Source engine is used to replace the Warcraft 3 engine, which allows for greater creative flexibility in terms of mechanics and aesthetics by removing the engine limitations of its predecessor.

Combined distilled observations resulting from watching myself and friends play

Lens 1: Goals

The ultimate goal in every game is the same; the sole victory condition is to destroy a building in the opponent’s stronghold known as the “Ancient”, hence the name DotA – Defence of the Ancients. While the game does not explicitly state this intention, players mostly learn from other players, from inference and observation of game materials, and from trial-and-error as a result of game design.

For the latter, it is observable that the Ancient can only be targeted after the requisite Tier 4 Towers are destroyed, which in turn can only be targeted if its previous tier towers are destroyed. This natural progression of inference, emphasized further by the successive positioning of the 4 tiers of towers, leads one to induce that the Ancient would naturally be the “Tier 5 tower” that should next be destroyed.

tower tier locations

Tower Tier position guide based on WC3 Dota mini-map

In order to reach the victory condition, there are many sub-methods, or strategies to utilize. However, the game does not disclose any of them, because the effectiveness of these strategies is highly dependent on the current game’s meta (the popular environment resultant from changes made in the latest game version) as well as the proficiency and drafts of both teams.

For example, during TI3, professional eSports team [A]lliance won by utilizing a split-push strategy that involved distraction and fragmentation of team members (more popularly derided as “rat doto”). During TI4, the meta resulted in Chinese teams – such as Newbee, Vici Gaming, and Team DK – changing their strategy from a late-game turtling strategy (known as “ricing”) to an early-game 5-man push strategy (known as “push doto”).

Lens 2: Rules

The rules of the games decide its mechanics which in turn decide the game’s meta, thus knowledge and proficiency of it is the key determining factor of victory. From micro-specific knowledge – such as “animation backswing” (time taken between the execution of a current action to the next queued action) and “cast point” (time taken to cast a spell) of each hero, to macro-specific knowledge – such as “fog of war” (areas of the map that players lack vision) and “creep aggro” (rules that AI-controlled minions follow that decide who they target).

aggro guide reddit

Reddit’s flowchart guide on Tower Aggro

The same rules are applied to every player, and they are unyielding and concrete in every single game, with changes explicitly outlined in the patch notes. While different game modes exist, most of them merely change the drafting stage (“All Pick” allows players to choose any hero that has not been chosen by other players, while “All Random” forces every player to select a random hero) while maintaining the rules of the core game.

There are so many rules that govern so many interactions that both the knowledge of all the relevant rules and the ability to exploit and execute them in the heat of the moment makes up the skill curve in the game.

Lens 3: Skill

The skills that differentiates high and low skill brackets can be broadly categorized as mechanical prowess (ability to execute actions well at the optimal timing and positioning), game awareness (knowledge of rules, constant awareness of the environment and spontaneous decision making), and communication (organizing and executing strategies and tactics, ability to pull off team synergies effectively).

While communication is highly dependent on the team dynamic and the level of cooperation within the players, the first two skill categories will largely vary between the skill brackets and are the major benchmarks of player skill. Naturally, mechanical prowess can improve upon repetitive practice, but game awareness can only improve if one makes a mindful effort to do so.

Lens 4: Chance

Luck is prevalent in many aspects of the game, from minor (damage ranges of normal attacks) to moderate (type of rune spawn) to major (effects of special attacks). While Icefrog has made attempts to normalize and reduce the effects of randomness, such as allowing 2 runes to spawn in both positions instead of 1 rune at a random position, and by introducing a “pseudo-RNG system” that partially introduces a level of determinism into probability-based events, there still exist game changing major events that are purely determined by chance.

list of rng doto

Non-exhaustive list of effects relying on random chance

However, these are sometimes balanced by a factor of risk-taking (“If the dice rolls correctly I win the fight, if it fails I lose the fight, so should I or should I not take the fight?”), and the skill level and experience of a player determines his ability to balance reward and risk optimally in the split-second when its required.

pure skill

From a comic by NerfNow.com, it illustrates the hero (Ogre Magi) that is the definition of “game-changing luck”, who has the innate ability to cast several spells multiple times simultaneously (Multicast) while retaining its effectiveness throughout the game without requiring any equipment.

Analysis from perspective of Lenses

Lens 1: Goals

While there have been methods to ease in new players ranging from game tutorials to loading screen tips, I believe that more can be done to outline the overarching decisions players need to make in every stage of the game. The victory condition should always be explicitly announced at the start of the game, and the sub-conditions should be outlined in a corner of the UI (allow experienced players to hide it). This allows new players to constantly keep track of their progress and to gain familiarity with the stage of the game they are currently at.

Lens 2: Rules

Due to the encyclopaedic volume of rules it is impossible to outline them all during play; it is similar to how the referee expects players to understand the rules and infractions of the soccer without outlining it to them. Therefore, knowledge of the rules is part of the learning curve that makes up a player’s skill level. However, more can be done by the developers providing the necessary information explicitly, though this in part has been mitigated by guides posted by players.

Lens 3: Skill

The balance of skill requirements in the game is excellent. While heroes vary in skill ceilings in order to utilize them to their fullest, they are almost balanced not by pure power (a high skill ceiling hero does not always win a low skill ceiling hero) but by utility.

Therefore, the core skills required in the game tends to be universal across heroes, and combined knowledge and proficiency of game-specific skill and hero-specific skill forms the entirety of a player’s ability to perform, with the former always holding dominance. Also, a large proportion of skill is determined not by mere regurgitation of facts, but by real-world attributes such as spontaneous decision making and team management.

Lens 4: Chance

I believe that more can be done to mitigate the pure randomness of some events. For example, an item called “Sange” has a % chance inflict an effect. Another MOBA called HoN implemented this by making it 100% chance to inflict a fraction of the effect, with each successive attack adding to the effect to a specified maximum. For another example, a hero called “Faceless Void” has an ability that inflicts an effect with a 25% chance. HoN implemented this as a 100% to inflict this effect every 4th attack.

icebrand vs sange

Comparison between implementations of the same item idea in HoN vs DotA

As mentioned earlier, Icefrog selectively implemented a pseudo-random distribution that made every probability-based interaction dependent on each other (instead of independent like a true random distribution) that mimics the expected long-term expected behaviour of a true random distribution even for low volume of samples. However, there are still areas that are open pure chance that may majorly affect gameplay, including the examples mentioned above.

psuedo RNG vs true RNG

Probability distribution of pseudo random vs true random

On a kinder note, many of these have been mitigated by the decision-making process of players and their risk appetites, and it introduces an element of speculation and risk-taking in gameplay. Admittedly, it would also be difficult to rework some of the random-based effects while keeping the intention of its existence similar, and creative implementation would be required to do so effectively.

Dota 2

dota 2

Short description of the game

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game released by Valve in 2013. It originated from a custom map made in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne back in 2004. The main objective of the game is for the players in each team to destroy the opponent’s Ancient tower. Players will get to choose from a variety of heroes to compete in the arena. Through the process of gaining gold and leveling up, players will ultimately overcome the enemy base’s defenses to claim victory.

Link to game website: http://blog.dota2.com/?l=english

Link to game documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZYMI1zB9s


 

Observation of myself

Lens #37 – The Lens of Cooperation

Teamfight focusFig 1.0 – Teams cooperate to take down their opponents

Right into the start of the game, we assigned ourselves to the different roles of the team. This is essential as having each player focusing on their specific roles improves the chances of winning. Therefore, players will need to work together regardless if they are friends or strangers. Cooperation is also enhanced by having proper communication channels such as the chat box and the chat wheel. Dota 2 also has special communication hotkeys where clicking on skill icons and health bar provides more information to your teammates regarding the current skill or health status. Furthermore, they are also able to communicate through the in-game microphone. Therefore, the game offers many opportunities for players to cooperate among their own team.

Lens #30 – The Lens of Fairness

Dota 2 does its best to ensure that the game is fair and balanced. Public games can only start when there are 5 players per team. Should any player suddenly quit the game out of anger, he will receive warnings or be put into a lower priority pool for future games. Furthermore, the game automatically tries to match similar party sizes into a game to ensure both teams are equally balanced in terms of team familiarity. On top of that, the game also has a matchmaking system that tries to put players of the same skills in the same game through internal skill calibrations after every round played. Therefore, the game is carefully designed to ensure that all players receive fairness in terms of gameplay.

Lens #25 – The Lens of Goal

350px-Ancients.jpgFig 1.1 – The ultimate objective, the Ancients

The ultimate goal of the game is clear. The minions of each team are programmed to walk towards the main objective, the Ancient. Therefore, it is clear to players that their ultimate goal is to destroy the Ancient. Completing the main objective will rewards players with cosmetic items and experience points to level their main accounts. There are also mandatory side goals such as destroying towers and also killing optional bosses where players are rewarded with items and extra gold which will give them an advantage in battles and bring them closer to the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal can only be achieved after destroying some key towers. Therefore, goals are interlinked and progressive.

Lens #7 – The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

  • Story

Dota 2 does not have any lore tied to the gameplay. Each hero also does not contain any personal history that spices up the rivalry between each of them.

  • Mechanics

The mechanics of Dota 2 are thorough and complex. They range from hero mechanics which involves attack types and how experience, stats and abilities are gained to gold economy which is affected by how much bounty players can gain from killing things. Some mechanics also involves chance such as the randomization of boss spawn timers and power up runes. Having played the game for many years, there are certain mechanics which are fully understood. Therefore, there were times when I found myself guiding players through important sections of the game where certain decisions can affect the outcome of the game.

  • Aesthetics

Realistic 3D graphics with high level of details and quality incorporated into the heroes, environment and cosmetic items.

  • Technology

Dota 2 is a PC game runs on a heavily modified version of Source Engine. It utilizes technology that enables players to customize any hotkey to any functions they want, including setting skill hotkeys and customizing their chat wheel.


 

Observation of friend

Lens #27 – The Lens of Skill

Having only played less than a week, there are many mechanics in the game which she has yet to be familiarized with. Furthermore, Dota 2 demands heavy hand eye coordination and cognitive reflexes. Therefore, veteran players have an advantage over newer players. However, upon playing more matches, she gets more experienced, skillful in performing certain roles and having faster reaction to enemy actions. Therefore, Dota 2 is a game which requires certain skills and it allows players to improve them with practice.

Lens #40 – The lens of Reward

cosmetic

Fig 1.2 – Cosmetic Rewards

Upon finishing a game, my friend experienced joy upon receiving a cosmetic reward. These cosmetic items can customize how each hero looks in the game. Furthermore, it is clear as to what these rewards do as the game provides good visual feedback on characters with their new cosmetic items after equipping them. However, these rewards are given out on a slow and random rate such that the possibility of completing a cosmetic item set is low. As such, the game has a reward system which needs to be further refined to ensure that players receive the rewards at the right amount and at the right time.


 

Learning Process

Even though two players may play the same game, they may have different experiences, decision making, interactions and feelings invoked while playing. This may result in different expectations than what the game designer wants from players. Therefore, as a game designer, it is good to test your prototype against players of different skills and background to ensure that the game is well designed.

Furthermore, the game might not necessarily need to do well in all aspect of the lens in order to be enjoyable. As shown by the analysis previously, there are certain lenses which Dota 2 did not successfully achieve even though it is a successful game with close to one million unique players per month.  It can be due to a combination of certain lenses that are well thought out and interlinked which may result in making Dota 2 an enjoyable game.

Boom Beach – game analysis

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Game website: http://boombeachtroop.com

Game demo: http://boombeachtroop.com/boom-beach-guide/

Description:

Boom Beach is a mobile combat strategy video game. Players have to develop their own military base against the attack from other human players. A complete military base consist of headquarter, troops, defences and resources building. The resources collected from the resources building can be used to upgrade military base. Beside the resources building, players can obtain(“steal”) resources by conquering surrounding islands from AI-players and other human players by accessing the map view from in-game ui (the right-hand side map)

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My perspective of the game in terms of lenses which contribute to game experiences:

  1. The lens of Elementary Tetrad
    – Technology: Boom Beach is build on IOS and Android platform. It can only work on mobile devices. However, It can connect from device to device, which means players can play the game using the same account although they are using different devices. In addition, Boom Beach also connect to Facebook so that players can check other friends’ Boom Beach status.
    – Story: Boom Beach’s storyline is set in a tropical archipelago with the player on an island with defences and troops. Players need to defence against an enemy known as “The Blackguard”.
    – Aesthetics: Good visual on graphic and continue to improve through several updates. Simulation of weather: For volcanic islands, there are magma crystals dropping from the sky. For other islands, there are frosty and raining weather. Suitable background sound during war increases the user experience.
    – Mechanics: Existing mechanics similar to some of the strategy games in current market, like clash of clans. It has its own well-balanced mechanics and interaction with many players.                              20140513032032a0ds8vczf4s26erj
  2. The lens of Freedom
    – Freedom on base design: players can move any building on their military base around, which means players are able to design their own style of defensive strategy against other players’ attack.
    – Freedom on upgrading base: players have their own decision on which building to upgrade first. Players can either upgrade their defensive building first in order to increase the difficulty of attack by other players or upgrade their resources building first in order to achieve more resources.
    – Freedom on choosing which kinds of troops: Different kinds of troops have different capabilities. There are seven troops in Boom Beach. Players have the freedom to choose which kind(s) of troops to use for different offensive strategies.
  3. The lens of Surprise
    – After destroying the enemy base, players may have the chance to obtain power stones from the enemy base. Power Stones have 3 stages: Fragment, Shard and Crystal. These power stones are given randomly. Obtaining a piece of power stone is difficult and obtaining a good piece of power stone is rare. Hence obtaining a piece of power stone will always make the player very happy and hence tempted to continue to play the game.
    – The Sculptor uses power stones to create crystal-powered statues that can help player’s enhance the war effort tremendously. Each new statue is unique, and its powers cannot be predicted. It is always a surprise when players obtain a good crystal-powered statue.
  4. The lens of problem solving
    – The goal of the game is not only to win a battle or obtain enough amount of resources but also having less or no casualties when the battle has ended. Strategy plays an important part in this game. Players who uses same troops may have different battle results or different number of casualties due to different strategies used. Therefore, the goal of this game is to find a way to win the battle while ensuring minimum casualties.
    – On the other hand, players also need to find a way to build their defence system so that they can prevent attacks from other players.
  5. The lens of Essential experience
    – Boom Beach is connected to IOS game centre and Facebook. All players are able to check their ranking among all friends, local and global. This increase the motivation of players to achieve a higher ranking.
    – Players are able to form their own task force which is another way of obtaining resources. Players within same task force can interact with each other.
    – Boom Beach makes players to wait before they can achieve what they want e.g. upgrade a building or train a kind of troop as these take time.IMG_0231

Other player’s perspective of the game in terms of lenses which contribute to game experiences:

  1. The lens of complexity
    Too complex for some users who only like casual game, for example, Angry Bird or Candy crush.
  2. The lens of fear of loss
    How do “fear of loss” comes about? Boom Beach is designed in a way that players can obtain resources from other players’ base through attack. This means players may also lose their own resources as long as they are not online because their bases are being attacked by other players. Hence in order to obtain certain amount of resources to upgrade a building, players have to stay online until they have obtained enough resources and at the same time to also prevent other players from attacking. By using this way, Boom Beach ensure that players will always be online to play the game or players are less likely to quit the game.
  3. The lens of fun
    – It is fun when enemy base is destroyed as this means the strategy used to attack the enemy works. The player experiences a sense of achievement.
    – Players may need a longer time if the players’ objective is to collect enough resources. This is because the players have to destroy many enemy bases in order to collect the amount of resources needed. However this is fun because during this process, there will be no attack from enemies and hence no resources will be lost.
    – It is fun to have high ranking among all the friends or even global high ranking.
    – It is fun to play the same game with friends. In addition, discussion of the same game with friends within the game is also possible.
  4. The lens of Surprise
    Simplistic and predictable storyline. There is no too much surprise on storyline of Boom Beach.

Learning points:

  1. A good game may not be suitable for all players, but there must be some elements that all players like which captures their interest of the game.
  2. It is not necessary to develop a game that builds on high and latest technology. However, it is essential for a good game to keep a balance between elementary tetrad.
  3. Good music, graphic and deep storyline may directly influence good user experience, but they are not essential.
  4. Social interaction is quite important in game nowadays. Many users play game only because it is a social trend.
  5. A good game may not be totally new and not similar to other games out in the market. However it needs to have some new features to attract new players.
  6. Intermediate or useful awards make the life of a game longer. Surprises and rewards beside only victory points are new motivation when players get stuck or bored. Game is not just about winning, but to keep playing. Randomness is a good way of showing surprises to users.
  7. Freedom! A good game make users feel that they are involved and are in control of the game. They have the freedom of creating their own culture/city etc and not just follow the rules made by the game designer. A good game gives the user the freedom of choice and not just constrain the user to follow the rules created by the game designer. The sense of involvement is an attractive feature to ensure users to be addicted to the game.

By Weng Yuan (A0099778X)

Asphalt 8

Gameplay:

This game consists of several stages (each stage contains a number of different type of races such as ‘classic’,  ‘drift’ and ‘infected’) in which the next stage can only be unlocked once sufficient points is accumulated by playing the races in current stage. I had chosen to do an observation and analysis, playing the classic race mode in which the goal is to compete with 5 other Artificial Intelligent (AI) cars to reach the finishing line first. The car runs on free acceleration as the player does not have to press any key to accelerate. The player however, has to press anywhere on the left side of the screen to apply the brake or to reverse, and on the right side to activate nitrous.

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My Experience

  • This game is very thrilling as my emotions throughout the game constantly changes according to the situation of the game. This experience is governed by the lens of surprise and fun. I am elated and satisfied when I win or overtake an AI. However my feelings are reversed and stress takes over when I am losing or when I am re-spawning after a crash. It is an anxious filled situation while guarding the other AIs from overtaking me.
  • Much focus and attention is needed during the process of overtaking and the resistance from being overtaken. This is contributed by the lens of flow. As I am playing this game, I realized that I become oblivious to my surrounding. I recognize noise and conversations occurring in my environment but my ability to process them is impeded. Upon completion of my game, I would try to recall if there were any significant conversations that I may have heard while playing the game.
  • The interest and captivation of the game is not limited to a simple concept of racing. The game poses a career mode in which the player has to continue playing each stages to unlock the next stage and eventually unlock all the super cars. This progressive mode allows me to pass through stages upon winning and collect money or credits which can be used to upgrade or buy a better car as the AIs will get tougher in following stages. This is contributed by the lens of endogenous value.
  • Being a lover of cars, the experience of virtually owning expensive cars and modifying them to my personal taste and preference gives me much satisfaction although the game does not contribute to a real driving experience; the lens of the player.

Friend’s experience

  • He commented that the inability to win the race contributes to his frustration. He also claims that boredom strikes when there is a lack of challenge, for example when he is leading and the AI are too far behind him. This particular incident which rarely happen has violated the lens of challenge.
  • He also said that the different kind of races such as classic and drift, prevents him from getting bored of the game as there are variations to the expectations and goals of each game. This factor is contributed by the lens of goal.
  • He also mentioned that the game is quite fair. This is because, for different stages, the AI car performance are limited to certain capability. As long as our car is in the same category to be competed in that stage, then there are equal chance of winning and losing the game. The game indicates a minimum required performance level for the car in order to stand a chance win a particular selected race in a particular stage of the game. This is not only fair to the player, but also equally fair to the AIs. This is governed by the lens of fairness and competition.
  • Unlike me, my friend exploited the game quite adventurously. Rather than just overtaking the AI and preventing them from overtaking him, he tend to overtake the AI by crashing them in a way that will make the AI to re-spawn. As this functionality is supported by the game, he takes full advantage of it. His curiosity in finding out what will happen to the AI when he bang on to them is contributed by the lens of curiosity.

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Analysis

  • Through the comparison based on the observation above, it is evident that different player undergoes different emotions while playing the game. While I feel nervous in the process of winning the game, my friend feels a sense of determination instead of nervousness. While I experience defeat and dissatisfaction upon losing a game my friend feels a rush of frustration and stronger emotions of failure. On the other hand, winning gives satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment to both of us.
  • The approach taken by myself and my friend varies as we attempt to achieve the same goal. I played the right way by overtaking the opponent and preventing them from overtaking me  However, my friend achieves the same goal by crashing the opponents down and using their defeat as an advantage to clinch the first position. This proves that players might explore the game play from outside of the structured and regulated or ‘correct’ way of playing. In some cases, that might be a more interesting approach for the player.
  • A player might select this game due to his interest in racing games or have significant interests in cars thus motivating them to continue playing this game. Both me and my friend possess significant interest in cars thus we continue playing this game in order complete all the stages and buy the most expensive car in the game.
  • On the other hand, the contributing factor that may interest a player who may not possess prior interests in cars or racing might find this game thrilling due to its progressive feature, as many people are motivated to succeed, win and collect rewards. Furthermore, the element of excitement and addictiveness which was truly engaging for me and my friend could be a key factor to attract more players.
  • In any game, the motivation to continue playing is contributed by rewards for effort. This means that the player is rewarded by winning for putting in the effort of strategic planning, time, focus and attention and various contributing factors. The reason for mine and my friend’s continuation to playing this game is because of the fairness and competition of this game. The thrill and challenge to succeed is reasonable and attainable. The challenge is reasonable enough for me and my friend not to give up on playing, and enough to keep us thrilled. The fairness is expressed when we are awarded for our efforts.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

shadow-of-mordor-1940x1091Shadow of Mordor is an action role-playing game set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of The Lord of The Rings. You play as Talion, a ranger who has wraith-like abilities, whose main quest is to avenge his family and take down Sauron and his army of orcs.

The game’s website can be found at https://www.shadowofmordor.com/ and its gameplay trailer can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4.

 

My Experience

e29b413bdf7fd7c1816fc7a325e7f5e2683fe3c3.jpg__620x348_q85_crop_upscaleOne of the first things I do when I play Shadow of Mordor is to open the map and look for indications of Intel. To kill an orc warchief easily, I have to kill his bodyguards. To kill his bodyguards, I have to aim for specific orcs which when interrogated, will give me information on a specific orc’s strengths and weaknesses. As I set my targets in my mind, I find that this ties in with the Lens of Goals, where a good variety of short and long term goals keeps me always in reach of the next objective. Short term goals such as gathering Intel are achievable and rewarding as it makes the final objective of killing a warchief much easier.

The Lens of Meaningful Choices also applies heavily in my mission to kill orc captains and warchiefs. I am constantly caught having to make choices that will affect outcomes in the game. Should I kill the orc now or brand it so that it can follow my commands? Killed orcs give only a moment of peace as they are quickly replaced, while branding an orc allows me to control his actions but give me some kind of responsibility to make sure he does not get himself killed by other orcs. Similarly, when I’m trying to intercept a duel between two orcs, I have to choose if I should kill both orcs when they are weakened, kill the one left standing as well as determine the correct timing to step in. Each action I take affects the outcome and determines if I will have an advantage in the future, which makes each decision more meaningful.

mordornemesisI find that I am emotionally invested in the orcs that I fight throughout the game. Every time I encounter that orc that has killed me the previous five times, I feel frustrated in having to face him and his degrading insults again. On the other hand, when I have successfully killed orc after orc, I become feared amongst the orcs and gain a reputation as being the toughest being to beat. Orcs that I have killed even sport the scars I have given them, tying in Aesthetics and Story in the Elemental Tetrad. While these actions do not contribute directly to the main story, the unique interactions between each orc make the world of Shadow of Mordor that much more immersive. Following the Lens of the Story Machine, different interactions with different orcs will generate different reactions from them. This essentially allows players to craft their own experiences and mini-stories.

 

Friend’s Experience

Middle-Earth_Shadow_of_Mordor_Nemesis_System

 

My friend frequently enters the section on Sauron’s army, which shows the hierarchy and relations between the orc captains and warchiefs, as well as each identified orc’s strengths and weaknesses. The Lens of Problem Solving contributes to this reaction, as my friend has to constantly find a way to bring down the more powerful orcs by analyzing them in Sauron’s army. Each orc has his own unique set of strengths, such as invulnerability to stealth or the ability to poison the player, which acts as a problem my friend has to overcome. Furthermore, taking down the wrong orc at the wrong time may create problems in the future, which leads my friend to constantly check each orc’s relationship to his leader, if any.

 

Unlike Sauron’s Army, the Upgrades section was rarely accessed by my friend. Experience points were also disregarded throughout the game. He found that even with low upgrades to his character, timing and dodging attacks are still easy due to his own skills and prior experience to similar types of games. As long as my friend is able to counter an attack at the right timing, getting killed is very difficult. The Lens of Skill does not seem to be effectively used in this case due to the following:

  • Due to the familiarity with the combat system, some players will fare much better than others, which may make the game unfair.
  • The level of skill required may be too low for seasoned players, making the game not as fun as it could be.

In this case, the game Mechanics on the player’s end in the Elemental Tetrad may need to further refined to ensure a better utilization of the Lens of Skill.

 

One of the main mission’s objectives is to mind control all five orc warchiefs. While the act of brainwashing them is the same (lower their health then brand them), my friend went through a different path to approach each orc:

  • Directly confront the warchief and brand him.
  • Brand the warchief’s bodyguard then kill the warchief. The brainwashed bodyguard fills in the now vacant position as warchief.
  • Command one of his mind controlled warchiefs to pick a fight with another rogue warchief, wait for his health to dwindle, then brand him.

The application of the Lens of Freedom allows the freedom to choose how he executes his actions to achieve his objectives.

Comparison Analysis

Even though my friend and I have played the same game, we have each gained our own set of unique experiences. This may be because different lenses appeal to each of us, thus we gain a richer experience from one lens as compared to the other. My friend may find that the Lens of Skill has been under-utilized, but others may feel that the skills required to play Shadow of Mordor are just right.

 

Lenses are also commonly interrelated and a combination of them can apply to each aspect of the game. For the act of killing an orc, multiple lenses are considered:

  • Lens of Goals: to set the goal of killing the orc
  • Lens of Freedom: to explore different ways in luring and killing the orc
  • Lens of Problem Solving: to plan the best way to kill the orc
  • Lens of Meaningful Choices: to decide on the plan of action
  • Lens of Skill: to execute the plan and attempt to kill the orc
  • Lens of the Story Machine: the after effects of the attempt

The variety of ways that lenses come together adds to the experience of the game. Although some lenses may not be used effectively, the game can still be fun as long as there are sufficient lenses that are able to enhance each other. The same can be said for the elements in the Elemental Tetrad. The Technology used in making Shadow of Mordor is not revolutionary, nor is the main Story particularly creative. However, as each element comes together, they help to shape the game and turn it into something unique and fun.

 

 

 

Sid Meier’s Civilization V

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Introduction

Sid Meier’s Civilization V is a 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games where each player will lead a civilization from prehistoric times into the future on a procedurally generated map of hexagonal tiles. Civilization V is not merely an expand-and-conquer game but also a game of diplomacy between nations, economic development through important historic eras, as well as scientific and cultural advancement of a Civilization. With these different victory conditions to consider, players can pick and steer their course of their Civilization towards what they feel is optimal for their Civilization’s playing style.

Game’s website: http://www.civilization5.com/

Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Key Mechanics:

  • Worker and resource management
  • Exploration and expansion of territories
  • Tactical turn-based combat system
  • Economical, scientific and cultural development (similar to character development in standard RPG)
  • Trading system between players

 

Background Story:

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Each player will take on a leader of a well-known civilization that existed either historically or presently and bring them from Ancient Era to the modern space and nuclear age by going through their own technology research period into order to advance onto the next era. Along the way, civilization will develop great people, such as artists, scientist and missionary that could help bring a civilization closer to a golden age and as civilization grows and thrives, they will encounter other civilization on the map presenting opportunities for diplomacy or conquest. 

Aesthetics:

  • High-End 3D graphics render of terrains and units during gameplay Sheep_on_hills_(Civ5)
  • Cut-scenes dialogues with world leaders are well animated and properly dialogue in their respective native language to provide that accurate and cohesive feelings of interacting with foreigners.2203461-5_10_2012_3_05_03_pm
  • Each civilization will have their own unique music soundtrack that is based of that nation’s culture to add to the mood of playing as that particular civilization  Soundtrack collection : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn3t1ZQKSPo&list=PL623D4383628F41F3

 

Technology:

  • Adopts a game engine that uses hexagonal tiles
  • Uses graphic engine to render the high-end 3D objects and animations for the aesthetics
  • AI system to handle computer-controlled city states and world leaders to make the best decision of response with regards to how the player handles his civilization

Analysis of player experiences

Lens of Economy

The main mechanics behind Civilization V resolves around worker/resource management as well as trading to sustain the economy of each Civilization. All civilization will have the same sectors of economic growth mainly food, production, gold, science .etc. However the kind and quantity of resources that each civilization can produce via economic growth is dependent on the kind of terrain that the civilization is currently at.

CivV-Brazilwood_buffs_590x369_opt

Myself Friend
Strategy: Establish high food, production, gold and cultural yield Strategy: Establish high food, production, gold and scientific yield
Civilization Location: Near coastal lines, open fields, mountains Civilization Location: Mountainous, quarries, mines, hills
  • Build up to 6 workers to work on nearby tiles for resources
  • Set citizens, specialist on automatic as they try to sustain economic growth
  • Prioritise building farm, trading posts, fishing ports, trading ports, boats, museums, theatre
  • Trading of unused resources for higher demand resources.
  • Build up to 5 workers to work on nearby tiles for resources
  • Micromanage citizens, specialist internally to maximise economic growth
  • Prioritise quarries, mines, trading posts, universities, schools, laboratory
  • Territorial conquest of nearby areas for strategic resource

Economy essentially is about proper allocation and management of resources and Civilization V has done an accurate job of highlighting the difference that each nation’s economic growth strategies will have due to the geological situation of each nations.  Some civilizations can attempt to do trading with other nations for more resources while other may have to resort to hostile takeover of land to acquire the resources that they currently lack.

Lens of Meaningful choices

Civilization V has its own social policies tree, akin to a character skill development tree in standard RPGs, providing players with meaningful choices to make as social policies adopted are personalized for each civilization and will have a different long-term impact on the civilization.

allsocialpolicies

Myself Friend
Strategy: Diplomatic Victory Strategy: Military Victory
Social policies taken:

  • Patronage; for befriending and allying with city states
  • Aesthetic; for spreading culture and tourism to other nations
  • Freedom; increase influence for every trade route with each city-state, tourism boost from cities with broadcast tower
Social policies taken:

  • Honour; for military might
  • Rationalism; for science and technology superiority in military upgrades
  • Autocracy; for military support and growth

Each policy has their own advantages but the entire cause of the game is not long enough to adopt all of the policies provided. It is up to a player to best plan up their most optimal path taken with the given number of turns and live with the decisions made. Because of the nature of having various victory conditions, there is no dominant strategy when it comes to policies. Each combination of policy will still be able to provide some kind of victory that will be unique to its own case and that is what makes the policy segment of the game meaningful and impactful for the players.

Lens of Competition vs Cooperation

As player encounters other civilizations, they are often presented with opportunities for diplomacy or conquest. The decisions made often depends on the situation that each nation is currently under and will change over the course of the game as players alternate between competition and cooperation with nations.

civ5

Myself Friend
  • Send spies to other nations to pose as diplomats and rigging their elections
  • Accepted a research agreement with 3 nations at different point of time in the game
  • Signed defensive pact, accept embassy and opened borders with other nations
  • Establish International trade routes with all the nations
  • Go with war because ally is under attack
  • Send spies to other nations to steal their technologies
  • Demanded strategic resources from nearby nations. Demand refused. Territorial conquest to take over strategic resources
  • Embargo trade with certain city states and enemy nations
  • Ally with city states before going war with other nations.
  • Plunder other trade routes

From the experience that both my friend and I went through, it is difficult to determine if some actions are actually pure cooperative or competitive. Some actions are cooperative with some players at the level of being competitive towards other players while some competitive actions can actually result in cooperative results if it is in line with another player’s objective. Regardless of the case, the constant tension between competition and cooperation is evident in Civilization V and the player has the choice to decide to take either stance or a mix of both stances.

Lens of Fairness

Civilization V is an asymmetrical game because each nation that a player starts with has a unique ability and a special unit/building that only they can build.

Myself Friend
England – Elizabeth2000px-Civilization-V_elizabeth_scene Ethiopia – Haile Selassie HaileSelassie-620x
  • Sun Never Sets – +2 Naval unit Movement and +1 Extra Spy when introduced in the Renaissance
  • Longbowman (Crossbowman) – Range +1, which is a huge advantage
  • Ship of the Line (Frigate) – +7 Ranged Strength (35), +5 Defense (30), +1 Sight – a big bonus with the native Movement of English Ships.
  • Spirit of Adwa – +20% Combat Bonus to all Units when fighting a Civ with more Cities than Ethiopia.
  • Mehal Sefari (Rifleman) – Costs 200 vs 225 for a Rifleman. Starts with Drill I. Gets a +30% Combat Bonus while fighting from inside the Capital, which diminishes in power as it gets a few hexes away.
  • Stele (Monument) – Gives +2 Faith in addition to the regular +2 Culture of a Monument.

 

There is definitely a great degree of discrepancy between the starting abilities/boost that some nations get to gain. While it will translate to a huge advantage to a particular mechanics of the game, each other nation will also generate a different advantage to other aspects of the game. Rather than balancing out all these advantages across, the developer of civilization decided to offer different victory conditions to cater to the differences of nation’s abilities. In doing so, there is some fairness within each individual nations as to how they can complete the game victoriously, but if the game is considered as a whole, there is still a large discrepancy between nation’s ability/boost.

Conclusion

Civilization V is an extremely long and comprehensive games that opens up lots of flexibility for the players. From the observation of the game through the same lens, both players took on different approach and strategies with respect to the same aspect of the game (Ie. economy). This can be largely explained through the lens of meaningful choices and fairness, in which the game offers different options for different nations due to their innate abilities and units/buildings that each civilization needs to best made a plan around it to optimize it for victory. The developers have done a well job in creating a unique realistic experience of ruling a nation for each individual player.

Diablo III

Diablo III is an action role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. The player will choose one of the few classes of characters, and proceed with the limited skillset to ultimately slay the final boss, which is Diablo himself. This game is only available to play online, however single player or party play option makes the game all the more fun and rewarding to play.

Website: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/?-
Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geuAc8F7Gt0

Self Realization

Watching myself play the game is very interesting. I become self-conscious, but nonetheless, I never thought I would actually see myself having those attributes. Below are a few lenses that I felt relevant to my playing experience.

  1. Lens of Elemental Tetrad

The game covers all elements of the types aesthetics, technology, mechanics and story. The beautiful artwork that took the game developers over 10 years to design is simply amazing and surreal. It is also available on multiple platforms such as Windows, OS X, PlayStation, and Xbox. I played on my Desktop running Windows. The mechanics of the game makes it very challenging, with the limited skillset, the player has to pick and choose the fewer number of spells to breeze through the levels. The story of the game is a very familiar background since it’s progression from Diablo, the first installment.

  1. Lens of Fun

The game is immensely fun! I see myself playing the game, not knowing the time and just going with the flow of the story. Before I know it, few hours passed. As the game is all about killing monsters, I constantly seek out monsters on the map to slay, and look out for better gears such as legendries that drops from the monsters after I kill them. I am constantly on the edge of my seat as I face more difficult monsters, and as my level goes up, carefully selecting my skills that will assist further in my combat.

  1. Lens of Flow

Playing the game constantly has objectives. There is a direction, which I need to go. Certain quests must be completed before I can proceed further. To make our lives simpler, the game lists the quest and objectives by the side, and arrows and markers on the map to let us know when we are near our next objective. The flow of the game is very smooth, so is the storyline.

  1. Lens of Chance

The game has many powerful artifacts and items that will help me complete my game in a shorter time, kill the bosses in a quicker way. When a legendary item drops by chance, I know the type of the item, but I don’t know the roll and stats of the item. The process of identifying the item makes it more intriguing, because there can be many different rolls and stats of the same type of item. The game often teases us, sometimes giving me what I want, sometimes just to tempt me and give me something else that is of lesser use. Ultimately, the game may start of seemingly easy. But to conquer the higher levels, I will need luck by my side to get the better if not the best weapons in the game.

  1. Lens of Endogenous Value

The game includes many items, with random stats. Getting the best ideal stats is based entirely on luck. There is an option to raise the value of your item by permanently changing 1 attribute. Even that change is random, it may change into another attribute that I don’t like. There are also artifacts that allow me to add a socket for instance, into an item that has a very good stat. Coupled with achievements and leaderboards, I always strive to get a better item. Hunt more by killing more monsters, even when I have to replay the level over and over again, and with rising difficulty, it’s never too easy.

Friendly Observation

Watching my friend play is another totally different experience. My friend is on a much higher level than me, and he has better items and gear than me. He also uses a totally different class to play the game. Below are the lenses that I observed from him playing.

  1. Lens of Fun

Looking at him play doesn’t seem like he is having fun with the game. His facial expression seems like he is studying actually. He has a gaming mouse that has a few more buttons than the normal mouse, and he hot keyed those buttons to shortcuts in the game. Hence he plays with just 1 hand, without even touching the keyboard much. He slouches and rests his head on his other free hand.

  1. Lens of Flow

An observer actually doesn’t know if the game has any flow. At least, when I watch him play, I was more intrigued by the way he kills the monsters. I didn’t notice the objectives listed beside the screen. It feels as though he is just hacking and slashing the monsters. It does not appear to have any flow as he teleported out of the dungeons and back in just to put down some items and kill more monsters. A quick question yields the reply “I’m just rifting”, which means he is actually doing a quest, which involves going into the ‘rift’ and killing monsters to lure the boss out and kill it.

  1. Lens of Chance

There are times where he would sit up, and stop click his mouse. That’s the time when he is identifying the legendries he picked up during his battles. As he is identifying the items, there is a loading bar that lasts for about 4 seconds. During which, he seems to be eager and hoping for a better item than his current gear.

  1. Lens of Endogenous Value

There is a part where he begins to craft an item’s attribute. Depending on the attribute that surfaced, he would either continue to craft, or he will stop crafting. I guess for this lens, he held the item he is crafting in comparison to his current gear. He would very often spend millions (which is quite a lot in the game) until he is not able to continue crafting.

Simply Analysis

A quick analysis through the lens that I have used, the game could be really fun, but the expression of the players can really be deceiving. For me, I felt that the game is really fun, but my friend might feel it and still look quite bored.

The flow of the game actually stops for my friend at very high levels. It becomes a stop of flow, as he can simply breeze through the levels. He simply keeps playing the same highest level.

Because he is at a higher level, he can fight higher-level monsters; he gets a better chance to get better items with better roll. Lens of Chance is adjusted according to your level, and how tough are you based on your gear.

The game may present itself to be fair, but the chance of getting an item that is more valued is more favorable to players with higher levels. Hence, it can be frustrating when he is playing because I see that clearly he gets more legendries than me in an hour.

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Dota 2

Game: Dota 2

About Game:

Dota-2-2

A strategy multiplayer online battle arena involving two teams of each 5 players with each team occupying a corner of the map. The goal of the game is to destroy the Ancient of opponent team, a building inside the base of the team. Each player controls a “Hero” character and focuses on levelling up, collecting gold and buying items to be stronger when meeting enemy’s Hero.

Game Website: http://blog.dota2.com/

Game Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_xkp_VCMU

My Analysis:

When I play Dota 2, it feels a lot like playing a sport. There is constantly a lurking fear of losing. I also question my randomly assigned teammates for their ability to play, because the success of destroying enemy’s Ancient depends on team work.

  • Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Dota 2 has low computer specification requirement. The game put less importance on technology. It also generally ignores story, as Heroes have their background story which is irrelevant in the game and was carried over from the original Dota game. Both mechanics and aesthetics are important in Dota 2. The gameplay mechanics of Dota and Dota 2 are the same, but their visuals make the difference. That is what attracts me to play Dota 2. Dota 2 also offers much visual customisability which offers personalisation of the game display. Mechanic has the utmost importance in Dota 2 because the game needs to have all Heroes to be on the same playing level; one may have advantage over another, but there could not be one that can always win the game. As such, the game is always updated with refinement of skills, items and “Heroes” property (like strength, defence, etc.) scale.

  • Lens of Cooperation

To win a game, teamwork is crucial. If teammates don’t cooperate accordingly, an easily winnable game could turn around. I think this is an important element of the game as it makes the game more exciting with different Heroes’ skill combo. My experience with cooperation on public game is not so good. This is because on player pooling for a game, I will get people of my level, i.e. noobs. Most of the time, there will be one or two noobs trying to lead the team when they don’t know what they are doing. Since I play support Hero most of the time – i.e. the sidekick, I can only follow those killing Hero. That’s why I prefer playing with some friends on my team as it is easier to communicate who should do what.

  • Lens of Economy

While it does not look so, Dota 2 incorporates economy deeply in the game. This is because gold in the game can be spent on items which make a Hero stronger. Different items may affect the game differently; some improves solo fight while others team fight. A different situation would call for a different action to take and different items to buy. This makes the game very interesting to me because you can see people thinking differently on which items to buy or which action to take even if their situation is similar. I usually buys same items since I am less adaptive to different gameplays, so I play it safe.

  • Lens of Friendship

I have friends who play Dota 2 as well. The game often becomes a topic in our conversation, e.g. the professional competitive scene, as well as in our jokes.

  • Lens of Skill

Skill plays an important role in Dota 2. You need to be able to calculate and judge quickly whether you can score a kill if you meet an enemy – even if you leave the battle with 1 HP – or you will be killed. However, this is also affected by luck since sometimes a Hero’s skill may trigger multiple times. As such, your judgement skill will be refined if you keep playing the game. This adds dynamicity in the game as you may pull out some moves that makes the enemy taken aback. I would support the idea of skill, because this means you need constant effort in playing the game so that you have more experience to play better for the next games. Although, I hate this lens a little since this means when I stop playing for some time, I can’t play as good when I start playing again.

 

Analysis on a friend playing the game:

As a background, my friend is a veteran player as compared to me who is new to the whole scene.

  • Lens of Elemental Tetrad

My friend cares less on aesthetics since he is used to playing the original Dota which has same mechanics but less attractive visuals. He focuses on the mechanics, especially in knowing whether his hero can outperform enemy’s hero without breaking a sweat.

  • Lens of Cooperation

He supports cooperation in the game, but much less than how I advise good cooperation. He practices so much such that he can win battles alone with no support from his teammates.

  • Lens of Economy

My friend, being a veteran, enjoys the economy side of Dota 2. He rarely buys same items in sequence throughout a game, even with same character. He judges how much he can earn for the next few minutes and decide what items to buy.

  • Lens of Friendship

He is one of my friends who play Dota 2 and follows the professional scene deeply. He has the same view as me in regarding Dota 2 as a bonding game.

  • Lens of Skill

My friend is very skilful in Dota 2. Compared to me, it would like level 1 compared to level 50, at least. He enjoys this very much, as he plays the game every day. This is along with Dota 2’s main idea: easy to learn, hard to master. This creates a difference when we play. For example, I would always hesitate whether I should engage the enemy or not when he is on sight. My friend would judge straightaway whether he will engage or not, or worse, if he should run away since the enemy team might just be around the corner.

Comparison

  • Lens of Elemental Tetrad

I am more attracted to the graphics while my friend is more attracted to the mechanics. This also means that the game maker would make more money out of me because Dota 2’s business is on sale of cosmetics in the game, e.g. a new mask for your Hero, a different courier model, etc.

  • Lens of Cooperation

While both of us are in support of cooperation in the game, the extent differs. I am a new player so I rely very much on cooperation with more skilled players to win. On the other hand, my friend is that skilled player who win the game, requiring assistance to ensure there is a backup in battles.

  • Lens of Economy

Both my friend and I likes the economic side of Dota 2. The difference is that I follow normal, recommended items build, i.e. buy A then B. My friend has more experience on what to buy, so he would determine what to buy depending on the situation, e.g. he will not buy both A and B, but he buys C instead since he is rich and the enemy team is losing.

  • Lens of Friendship

We are buddies. Dota 2 is one glue out of many.

  • Lens of Skill

Our skills differ greatly, like heaven and earth. But both of us like the idea that the game requires skill. This is because improving your skill becomes one objective of a game, even if we lose the game. The difference is that my friend is a hard-core Dota 2 player which play to win, while for me, I play for entertainment and to be social. It’s like there are those who play soccer every day and there are those who follow soccer matches and play sometimes. As such, lens of skill comes differently. I look at matches to see how people play well and try to imitate them if I decide to play. My friend knows how to play, so when he watches a game, he can comment whether the player made a good decision or not.

 

Overall, comparing me and my friend, I can say these things about Dota 2:

  • Not everyone are attracted to play Dota 2 because of the visuals. A reason could be Dota 2 is developed by a company while the original Dota was a user mod, thus people prefers Dota 2 as it is more likely to get updates than a user mod.
  • Economy and cooperation add dynamic to Dota 2, making each game unique to its own.
  • Dota 2 equals to good bonding session.
  • Dota 2 is a lot like a sport; you need to spend time on it to be good at it. While this is not exactly addiction, it makes players to continue playing as they don’t want their skills to rust. This is an interesting aspect of the game, that is, to make people coming back to the game without making it outwardly addictive.

Hearth Stone: An Exciting Card Game

Today I would love to share and comment on a well-known game, developed by The Billzard—-Hearth Stone. First of all there is a youtube video that gives a rough idea of how this game is played. The link is as followed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcAjg4pnxlM

Basically, the game is played with cards. Two players carry a deck of 30 cards respectively and use various combinations to beat the opponent.

 

Part 1. My own feeling and experience when playing

When I am playing this game, I acted quite experienced, especially when I draw a card. I could always analyze the situation on the board now and make seemingly good decisions. I do have the feeling that the game is under my control because I have been playing this game for 2 years and I am familiar with almost every card. Although it has nine characters and each of them owns quite different specially-designed cards, I am still handling them well. No matter it is winning or losing, my expectation is correct most of the time. This is the experience I gained from the past two years. To add on, there is also sometime that I would shout out loud and excitedly. It mainly happened when I draw an extremely crucial card out of my deck which can help me revert the hard situation on the board and play a comeback. I would be so excited that it takes me 3 or 4 times to drag the card onto the board. Another example is when enemy put a significant card onto the board, I will point to that card and say something like why you appear or why are you, showing my frustration of being beaten by that card. It is full of surprise and fun and it contains problem solving as well. All of these elements contribute to my experience.

 

Part 2. Others’ feeling and experience when playing

I have spent plenty of time online watching other famous players playing hearth stone. Twitch and douyu (Chinese website, similar to twitch) are the most welcomed channels. Worldwide champions all play live there with their web camera on. I really admire their skills. When they are playing, they act more mature and confident. Of course, some of the players are more emotional. Their reaction would be a lot stronger because they have played too many games. Their experience will decrease the fun when they achieved some hard wins. However, if it is something they did not see before or they did not expected, it is imaginable that how excited they would be. Besides that, professional players wear a smiling expression all the time. They play with the fun extra elements that the Blizzard designs in the user interface. What impresses me most is their playing speed. I always see they conduct 4 or even more operations within 1 or 2 seconds. While the animation of first operation is still going on, they actually finish their round already. Meanwhile they have planned what they will do in next round verbally.

 

Part 3. Analysis

The lens of experience:

One important reason that professional players are more experienced is that they are exposed to almost full deck. There are quite a number of legendary cards that not every one of us could have chance to obtain. It costs quite a lot of money, as well as lucky. The endogenous value of these cards allows those players to come up with better decks than others. They know what would happen in next round or even the round after next round because they are much more familiar with the trend.

 

The lens of surprising and fun:

Professional players train themselves with various new strategies. They try different combinations and it gives a lot of surprise back to all of us. This is the value of this game and this is why hearth stone attracts so many people. Even The Blizzard had admitted that they did not expect hearth stone to be such a success. They underestimated its power of bringing players surprise, fun and happiness. I am also enjoying problem solving in hearth stone. I would have a feeling of satisfactory if I could use my deck to beat the opponent, especially when I predict his action precisely. It would give me a hint that I am a good player and thus I could be more confident.

 

To conclude, hearth stone is a fantastic game that brings tremendous happiness to its players. It is a precious experience to have played this game this long time.

Diablo III : ROS

Game : Diablo III:ROS

Diablo III is a hack and slash action role-playing game (ARPG) It retains the isometric perspective from its predecessors and has added even more elements to the game to keep building on their vision for the world of Sanctuary since their first release in 1996 by Blizzard Entertainment. It has since been ported to the Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 home consoles, and will have a PlayStation 4 release at a later date.

Website link: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/

Game play demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEvThjiE038

pic2 pic1

 

Analysis about the Game (Myself)

Len #7: The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

  • Diablo III’s mechanics were complex, yet easy to comprehend despite having dynamic difficulty levels ranging from normal till torment six that can be changed during any time of the game. The whole gameplay and interactions make me feel immersed in the game throughout with its complex environments and execution of the skills’ physics.
  • Diablo III does not end the story with a series of ACTs levels, it has even more endgames additions like rifts to engage me to pursue personal goals and achieve greater glory in the game.
  • Diablo III’s dark and moody atmosphere graphics are definitely realistic to engage my curiosity and suspension, giving me the ‘wow’ factor to keep on exploring/killing and wanting for more unique experiences.
  • The technology used in Diablo III was ever evolving, from desktop PCs to being able to port to others like Xbox360 and PlayStation 3. Who knows if gestures would be incorporated into the game as well in the future?

Lens #71: The Lens of Freedom

  • Diablo III enables me to roam around the world map, allowing me to bounty quests as and when I like. I don’t feel constrained having to follow the rules and procedures.
  • However, this can be achieved if all the ACTs levels have been completed at least once.

Lens #29: The Lens of Chance

  • Random goblins might appear during the gameplay which gives better equipment upon being killed. As I play the game, I always hope for this random chance of goblins appearing so that I can upgrade my equipment. But the chance is slim, yet always looking forward to encounter one.

Lens #57: The Lens of Feedback

  • Every quest (e.g killing 100 monsters..) will have first-hand updates on the number of monsters I have killed. Upon finishing a quest, the next quest follows up, allowing me to make my next step.

Lens #40: The Lens of Reward

  • Different difficulties give out different levels of equipment. The stronger you are, the higher level you will attempt to get the best equipment out of it. I will always aim to complete quests as fast as possible and many cycles to maximise my chances of getting legendary items.

Lens #36: The Lens of Competition

  • Diablo III’s PVP mode allows me to test out my build against other players. This will give me a rough gauge on my character ability to survive among the strongest.

Analysis about the Game (Player X)

Len #7: The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

  • Player X was busy testing out the available skills to his disposal, killing every enemy with different skills. As the number of skills is abundant for him to choose from, he is spoilt for choices, randomly executing skills for the right combinations.
  • Player X doesn’t even bother to read the storyline and proceed on to do quests. His top-most priority was to complete the quest fast and ruthless, using every possible skill to eliminate the enemy.
  • Player X finds the environment of the game realistic, to the extent of fine rain dropping from the sky to animations of enemies dying in many different ways.
  • Playing an ARPG game on desktop takes time for Player X to adapt to the different controls as he is more comfortable with playing on other platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.

Lens #71: The Lens of Freedom

  • Despite completing the quest, Player X wants to finish exploring the whole map before proceeding on the next quest. He felt total control over his character without any constraints. At times, he will restart the round just to kill the boss again with other builds he came up with.

Lens #29: The Lens of Chance

  • Player X was surprised by the appearance of the goblin and started to chase after it. But he realised he is always obstructed by mobs of monsters around him while the goblin run away. He felt frustrated when he could not kill it the first time, while the second time, he managed to kill it and realised the advantageous of killing these goblins.

Lens #57: The Lens of Feedback

  • Player X was encouraged by the feedback while doing his quest, knowing how much more enemies to kill before he can complete his quest. Even when his life was low, the sudden red blinking of the whole interface tells him that he need to avoid getting killed by the monsters.

Lens #40: The Lens of Reward

  • Player X tried different difficulties levels and realised the difference in the items he gotten from the rewards. He then always chose to attempt the highest difficulty to challenge himself as well as looking forward to the greatness of rewards he can get.

Lens #36: The Lens of Competition

  • Player X challenges other public players and lost some, win some. Knowing his equipment isn’t good enough to take on stronger players, he kept farming and farming, hoping he can get the best possible equipment for his build and challenge once again.

Comparisons and Analysis

Experienced vs Novice Players

  • Comparing both the processes, I realised how both the knowledge of the game will affect each of the lenses. As Diablo III is rather a steep learning curve, for those who are new to this ARPG, will definitely take some time to immerse oneself into the game. As I am a seasoned player, I know how to make full use of the skills available to me regardless of which character I use, how to handle each different situations when encountering enemies. For novice like Player X, he will need to take a longer time to adapt to the game design; skill sets as well as manoeuvring the available resources. Able to see how these two types of players react to different challenges imposed on them also makes things clear why the developer of the game has six different difficulties level to cater to, so that player will get familiar as they move up the difficulty level.

Interface & controls

  • One motivation about Diablo III is its improved control option to the classic Diablo II hotbar, including full customization of all shortcut and mouse buttons, to make using the skills during combat quicker than ever. Even for novice, they can have the luxury of customizing their own combinations of skills they prefer. Hence, designing a game must be flexible and not as rigid to restrict player’s freedom. Game feedback is essentially as important for both experienced and novice players as this will reduce doubts that they might have.

Gameplay

  • Despite Player X starting to learn the game with minimal help or knowledge, the progression of the game makes it easy and flexible to comprehend. Although there isn’t a tutorial to guide him through, player X still can slowly pick up the different mechanics with ease without my coaching. I felt that Diablo III can be better designed with the different types of skills combinations available to players who have no ideas about customizing their own instead. This will give more flexibility to less-seasoned player.

Calm vs anxiety

  • Another thing that I identify is the mood while playing the game. As for me, I was rather calm and always in control of what I have to do next. Whereas for player X, there is also a sense of nervousness felt throughout the game as he is also anticipating what’s going to happen next, when mobs of enemies appear, he tends to anyhow spam skills by randomly pressing buttons on the keyboards without having a proper strategy. However, as it progresses, it get better each time with much control. Thus Diablo III was well-designed for its surprising elements incorporated into the game.