MapleStory Gameplay URL :  http://youtu.be/T6Sudtsmsf8

Description of Game :  MapleStory is a side-scrolling multiplayer online role-playing game. Player can choose any character roles, each with different abilities and skills. Depending on the type of character that is chosen, the player will learn about skills and how to attack monsters with given abilities. There will be quests and missions for the player to complete.

[ Option 1 ] Analysis of MapleStory:

#5 The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

Compared to strategic games, MapleStory possesses a good simplicity and is suitable for all ages. It is not surprising to see players ranging from children to adults and even elderly.

Examples

1.1 Beginners can find themselves unlocking many quests in a short period of time, but as time goes, the quests get harder to complete and more skills are required from the players.  Same goes to hitting the monsters, the introduction of monsters with different personalities increases the difficulty of the game.

1.2 The goal of the game is to gain experience points to level up the character role. This can be done through completing a quest, fighting boss or killing monsters.

1.3 Players only need to learn how to navigate the character roles and learn to attack and they are good to go.

Knights of Pen and Paper is a turn-based retro style pixel-art role-playing game. The player can build his own party, by choosing from multiple classes and characters to control those classes, to take on the loads of quests and monsters littered throughout the game.

Game website: http://buy.knightsofpenandpaper.com/

Gameplay link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCGLS4g12J8

1. What parts of my game are fun? Why?

   • The game parodies a lot of popular culture, for example, including celebrities like Paris Hilton as a playable character and quoting lines from popular movies like Lord of the Rings. The dialogue between the playable characters and non-playable characters is also very interesting as it breaks the fourth wall at times.Figure 1. Player is able to choose both a character and a class

2. What parts need to be more fun?

   • Combat system might need to be more dynamic as it is quite simple, making it repetitive after long hours of game play.

1. Does my game have clear goals? If not, how can I fix that?

   • The game has clear goals in terms of storyline quests that the player has to clear in order to progress in the game.

2. Are the goals of the player the same goals I intended?

   • The player is able to grasp the goal of the game pretty well with the use of dialogue between the characters in the game.

3. Are there parts of the game that distract players to the point they forget their goal? If so, can these distractions be reduced, or tied into the game goals?

   • There is a multitude of side quests and optional areas for the player to explore which may distract the player from their goal. However, storyline quests are always tagged with a star icon on the game map, allowing the player to return to the intended goal at any time.

4. Does my game provide a steady stream of not-too-easy, not-too-hard challenges, taking into account the fact that the player’s skills may be gradually improving?

   • The game provides a steady stream of gradually increasing challenges as the player will encounter a variety of different monsters with different movesets as the player progresses through the game. This calls for the player to be flexible and adaptable to be able to counter the new monsters.

5. Are the player’s skills improving at the rate I had hoped? If not, how can I change that?

   • As this is a role-playing game, even if the player is less skilled, the player can level up their characters more to make the game easier.

1. Are my players here to be judged (skill), or to take risks (chance)?

   • The game requires the player to both have skill and take chances. As the combat is turn-based, the player will be judged by their ability to maximise the utility during every single turn. The player can even choose to encounter more monsters at one go if he/she is confident. The chance element comes from the player having to go through a check(20-sided dice roll) when upgrading a piece of equipment or when deciding whether the party encounters a monster ambush when travelling between areas.

Figure 2. Dice roll is used to determine monster encounters while travelling

2. Skill tends to be more serious than chance: Is my game serious or casual?

   • The game is quite casual as the player is given a lot of room for error. For example, even if the party gets wiped out during a monster encounter, the player is still able to resurrect the party with the use of gold.

3. Are parts of my game tedious? If so, will adding elements of chance enliven them?

   • As monster encounters while travelling between areas is decided by probability, it can get tedious later in the game when the party keeps encountering low-level monsters that provide marginal benefits when killed.

4. Do parts of my game feel too random? If so, will replacing elements of chance with elements of skill or strategy make the players feel more in control?

   • Although the success rate of upgrading a piece of equipment is decided by chance, there are items in the game that can increase that success rate, giving the player slightly more control.

1. How can my players earn money? Should there be other ways?

   • The player earns gold by killing monsters.

2. What can my players buy? Why?

   • Gold is used to purchase consumable items(potions), accessories, upgrading equipment at the blacksmith, hiring new party members.

3. Is money too easy to get? Too hard? How can I change this?

   • As gold is not readily available, the player has to make the choice to either make the current party members stronger by purchasing new accessories and upgrading their equipment or to hire new party members that have better skillsets to complement the party setup.

4. Are choices about earning and spending meaningful ones?

   • Earning gold is very straightforward while care has to be taken while spending else the player would have to spend more time to earn more gold.

5. Is a universal currency a good idea in my game, or should there be specialized currencies?

   • The game uses a universal currency (gold) for all purposes which is suitable as it simplifies the economy of the game.

1. What does it mean to make progress in my game or puzzle?

   • Progress is made in the game when the characters in the party levels up and when the player completes the storyline quests.

Figure 3. Characters level up and can put points into several skills

2. Is there enough progress in my game? Is there a way I can add more interim steps of progressive success?

   • Progress in the game is sufficient as leveling characters is not tedious.

3. What progress is visible, and what progress is hidden? Can I find a way to reveal what is hidden?

   • Progress in terms of the character levels is explicitly shown on the character screens while progress in terms of the storyline is implicitly reflected as the player explores the various locations in the game world.

In 2010, Bethesda released a “sidequel” to the highly successful Fallout 3, titled Fallout: New Vegas. This time it was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, many of whom had previously worked for Black Isle Studios on Fallout and Fallout 2. As a result, New Vegas became an amalgam of Fallout 3′s potential along with Fallout and Fallout 2′s spirit. Players start off as a Courier who returns from near-death and explore the Mojave Wasteland as they seek revenge.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-x-1fm2cq8

The Lens of Judgment

The player’s actions are judged by the game through both the ‘karma’ and ‘faction reputation’ system. Their choices will change how NPCs react to the player’s presence.

‘Karma’ is a reflection of all good and evil choices the player makes during the game. Having a consistently negative karma can adversely affect the player. For instance, an NPC in the game named Cass can be the player’s companion throughout his or her adventures. If the player continues to have bad karma, Cass will eventually leave the player’s company.

Regarding ‘faction reputation’, certain choices the player makes can result in a ‘tug-of-war’ situation, such as completing the quest ‘Ghost Town Gunfight’ will raise the player’s reputation with Goodsprings, but decreases reputation with the Powder Gangers. Completing the quest ‘Run Goodsprings Run’ will have the opposite effect. As a result, a high rep with a faction or town may give certain benefits, such as gifts from the people of the town, while a low rep may lead to hits being taken out against the player. It can even give the player access to new areas in the game.

The Lens of Meaningful Choices

At certain points in the game, the player will be forced to make tough decisions. Based on the player’s own mentality, morality, and intentions, they have a few options to choose from in order to progress further into the game.

For instance, when meeting the NPC Boone for the first time, the player will undergo a quest called ‘One for My Baby’ where Boone will request the Courier to find the person who kidnapped his wife. The player is given the option to either painstakingly find the real culprit through interviewing the townsfolk and even breaking into a safe (resulting in loss of karma), or frame any one of the other townsfolk. Other alternative playthroughs can be done, but ultimately, the positive result is to have Boone, a skilled sniper, as a companion throughout the game.

In another quest called Birds of a Feather, the player is given the task of sending their companion Cass to her execution at the hands of the quest-giver. The player is now forced to make a choice to either lose a companion for monetary and XP gain or to enter a fairly difficult gunfight with the quest-giver and his gang, resulting in failing the quest but keeping Cass’ companionship.

The Lens of the Story Machine

From the two lenses above, the player’s actions and choices will change the political and environmental landscape of the Mojave Wasteland. As a result, the player will be given access to more avenues to advance further into the story. However, this is not restricted to the main storyline, as the player’s interactions with NPCs, including their companions, will allow them to involve themselves in the NPCs’ lives, hopefully making the player more invested in the inhabitants of the Mojave Wasteland.

Another way the player can affect the story is before the final battle at the Hoover Dam, where the player will have to choose to either support a specific faction or independently claim the territory of New Vegas. This is done through completing quests given by the specific faction in order to gain a positive reputation with them.

Whichever option the player chooses at every junction in the story will result in completely different endings. All the endings can be seen here: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_endings

The Lens of Challenge

Hardcore mode is an optional setting in New Vegas which makes gameplay more realistic, which in turn makes things a bit tougher for the player. Effects include:

–          ‘Stimpaks’ heal over time instead of instantly

–          Ammunition has weight

–          Companions can die

–          The Courier must eat, drink, and have proper sleep cycles or they will suffer increasingly negative effects, up to immediate death

The Lens of the World

 The world that New Vegas encompasses is essentially a world that is stuck in the 1940s, but flung forward in time where technology has progressed to the level of science fiction. Most of the planet is still a desolate wasteland and hasn’t recovered from the nuclear fallout. The Mojave Wasteland is home to giant bugs, ghouls, mutants, and the terrible Deathclaws. Finding clean water is a luxury as most of it is irradiated, and radiation medicine is as important as food.

However, the focus of the Mojave is on the people who live and work there, who struggle everyday to see tomorrow. The player will experience their plight as The Courier is one of these survivors. They will hunt and scavenge for resources in order to fight another day. Considering the game is set in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas, the inhabitants who visit there often indulge in hedonistic acts in order to forget their suffering. It is not unlike the Las Vegas in the real world, except there’s a casino/restaurant where a secret group of cannibals dressed in fancy garb reside.

The world in Fallout is a dark and morbid place, but setting it in Las Vegas makes things much more lively as it steals the attention away from the horrors of the world, much like what videogames do.

Basic Description

Genre: Arcade and Action | Platform: Mobile, Android (4.4 Star Rating)

Story: Princess Peach has been caught by a stupid programmer and player taking on the role of Warrior (assumed IQ>250) will try to save her.

Features: Warrior are suppose to pass through all obstacles laid path(rightwards direction) in all levels and stages. There seems to be only 1 unique solution for each level and stage. Warrior can walk left/ right/ jump.

Link to Website/ Youtube/ Gameplay Demo: http://youtu.be/XC5Y-b_lzak

Lens #71: The Lens of Freedom

Basic Description of Lens: This lens investigates player’s feeling of freedom must be maximized.

Features that match the Lens (2x Images):

• + There is no world time limit to how much time the player can take to solve the obstacle (unless the obstacle is timed). This allow the player to take extra care in solving the obstacle.

• + Players are free to die as many time as they want to test the obstacle. Doing so, will allow the player to have less frustration as they can continue the game without any loss.

• – Players feel constrained because there is only 1 unique solution for each stage. Therefore, they would have to accept the feeling of losing (death) for many many times before able to pass the stage.

Critics on Feature and recommendation:

• The game offers more constrained than freedom gameplay which is the main point of the game.

• 1 Recommendation would perhaps to introduce special bonus stages that will allow them to pass the obstacles or offer alternative solutions (more freedom) in the game.

Lens #57: The Lens of Feedback

Basic Description of Lens: This lens suggest the importance of player’s feedback from judgement, reward, etc.

Features that match the Lens (2x Images):

• + The main feedbacks of importance are the simple storyline and the “losing” message when player died.

• + The simple storyline with the on-screen controls (< >, Jump) basically creates the instruction to play the game without any further tutorials. Players are in fact encouraged to explore the obstacles and space in the game to reveal the solution.

• + The “losing” message is more of a “troll” that describes the player’s IQ, which is suppose to incur rage and make the player try the stage again.

Critics on Feature and recommendation:

• The game could have offer more feedback messages e.g. hints or similar if the player stuck in the same stage for too long. These would provide a more interactive approach to help players achieve their goals.

Lens #4: The Lens of Puzzle

Basic Description of Lens: This lens ensure the puzzles are doing enough to to shape the player’s experience in solving it:

Features that match the Lens (2x Images):

• Using the 10 Puzzle Principle to evaluate, Strange Adventure generally meets the most principles in practise, some worthy principles to note are:

• +, – Puzzle Principle #4: Give a Sense of Solvability + Puzzle Principle #6: Parallelism lets the Player Rest

  • The game has a bottleneck which is a double edged sword. It is good as it implies that there is at least 1 solution to solve it.

  • But is bad in that player are unable to continue further if they do not solve 1 of the obstacle in the stage as there is high chances player might abandon the game totally by assuming that they can’t figure things out.

• + Puzzle Principle #7: Pyramid Structure Extends Interest

  • In some stages, the current obstacle requires the clues from previous stages to be solved which extends the interest for the players

Critics on Feature and recommendation:

• The game could work more on “Puzzle Principle #9: Give the Answer!” since the essential experience that players want to achieve is to get the “Aha!” or “realization” moment.

Lens #27: The Lens of Skill

Basic Description of Lens: This lens ask to look at the skill of the players who play the game

Features that match the Lens (2x Images):

• + The most essential skill that is required to play the game is patient. Players need to be very patient to try out the possibilities and therefore have to lose many times.

• + The possibilities are not easy from stage 1, it requires the player to think out of the box.

• + The way to think out of the box is hindered by the creator’s advanced design of the puzzle. The + creator predicts the player’s general movement and puts an extra traps to hinder natural movement.

• + Thinking out of the box/  Ability to react instantly and differently is difficult for most people who does logical routine everyday which therefore creates a superior experience for players seeking the “Aha!” moment.

Critics on Feature and recommendation:

• The game can be improved by allowing different level of level difficulty/ easier obstacle at the beginning of the game so player can adapt themselves to the game better.

Screenshots:

Additional Information:

Music and Sound: From http://www.playonloop.com/ and http://sc.chinaz.com/yinxiao/
Artwork: ASCII art from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:ASCII_art.
Similar genre games: Super Mario
Link to Android Play Store: http://goo.gl/zsbXKZ
Link to creater site: http://rage.thankcreate.com/
Player User Type: Philanthropists and Achievers (http://goo.gl/Tkdr1E )

Game Website: http://lol.garena.com/home

YouTube Link of game play:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_WLD8ZkNg

Introduction

Developed and published by Riot Games,Leagues of Legends is now one of the most popular multiplayer online battle games in the world. This game is played by 2 teams of people with maximum number to five for each. There are totally about 120 different champions for players to choose. On the classic Summoners Rift Map, there are three roads, top, middle and bottom, connecting the two opposite teams’ base; each side owns three turrets to guide each roads. Players will gain experience points and gold by killing opposite players, neutral monsters, opposite turrets and minions that spawn and attack the other team regularly. With gold and experience points in battle, players can buy items and increase skill points to strengthen their champions. The game is ended by destroying the last structure on the map, then enemies’ “Nexus”.

Lens of Skill

In Leagues of Legends, the skill is really an important element that makes this game fancy. All the champions have 1 passive, 3 basic and 1 ultimate skills. Instead of just pressing the keyboard and attacking enemies automatically, players need to aim properly, decide when and which skill to use; sometimes even the order of champion’s skills can make a difference. Besides that, each player needs to kill as many minions as possible to get more gold for items while fighting against enemies. Some professional players know what items are the most suitable for their champions, and they may also choose certain items based on what their enemies have.

A skilled player is even able to carry the whole team and win the battle, which does earn respect and esteem from other players. For each champion, it takes time to be professional, and there are totally 120 champions(the company is always continuing to produce new champions). That is why people keep playing Leagues of Legends again and again.

Lens of competition

Competitive games can satisfy the basic human urge to determine who is the most skilled player. Leagues of Legends provides such a fair platform for two teams to compete with each other. When doing the matching of two teams, the system tries to make their average level as balance as possible. As the consequence, the result of a battle is not predictable. Sometimes the team appears stronger at the beginning may lose in the end.

There are several modes available for different kinds of players. Those novices can join some tutorials to gain a better idea of how the game is running. After that, they can join the “Co-op VS AI” mode, which matches players against bots team. Besides the novices, experienced players can also join this mode to practice their new champions.

Lens of Cooperation

In Leagues of Legends, players need to queue up for few seconds to start a new battle. Before queuing, people could invite their friends to be in the same team. If there are no friends online, players will be assigned to teams with strangers randomly. During battles, people could meet new people, and build friendship with them.

During the battle between the two teams, cooperation is always the priority. Typically, players have different role in the battle: one in the top road(can also be two), one in the middle, two in bottom(one will support the other by healing, watching for invasion) and one doing the “jungle”(this player will kill those neutral monsters to gain gold and experience in battle, and at the same time assist three roads if possible). Usually, after about 20-30 minutes, two teams will gather together for the team fight.

In the game, players is able to chat by typing and use some quick warning(for example, holding Alt and click Left click of mouse) to inform the danger at a particular position to other teammates. Nowadays, Leagues of Legends also supports a tool for players to talk to each other online.

Lens of Reward

Regardless of winning or losing a battle, each player will gain different amount of experience points and influence points based on their contributions to that battle. Players need experience points (out of battles) to increase level, which can be up to level 30. The benefit of gaining levels is to unlock Mastery Points and Rune Page slots which improve slightly the overall strength of the Summoner’s chosen champion in-battle. In Leagues of Legends, champions and runes can be purchased by either the influence points, which can be gained freely, or riot points that can be gained by paying real time money only.

Lens of Friendship

Players are able to meet and make a lot of friends in Leagues of Legends. During battles, people need to either type or talk to their teammates in order to cooperate, through which them begin to have connections to each other. Usually, after a specific battle, players will send friends requests to those who are skillful or kind to people. Then they can fight together in another coming battle. It is certainly very enjoyable to make new friends and fight with them.

Demon’s Souls is a third-person action role-playing game developed by From Software, a Japanese video game developer most famous for the Armored Core and Tenchu series. The player controls a customizable hero and has to explore and make his way through stages set in five major locations. The game has garnered accolades for its brutal difficulty as well as its deliberately-paced and challenging combat system.

Official website (USA): http://www.demons-souls.com/
Gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWlBomIcUlU

Despite Demon’s Souls breaking almost every game design “rule” in modern big-budget games with its relentless combat and labyrinthine level design, it succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of the original Japanese publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, which admitted it had made a mistake^[1] not publishing the game in the North American market. I will examine the game through a consolidated set of 4 related lenses: Judgment (20), Skill (27), Challenge (31), and Punishment (41) and a fifth unrelated lens of Infinite Inspiration (11) and point out what Demon’s Souls did that accounted for its success.

Looking at how there are situations where the player can go from full health to zero while being unable to do anything, anyone who has read the hundreds of articles and books on game design would cry out at this blatantly terrible decision to make the game inaccessible and the difficulty curve a difficulty cliff. Yet Demon’s Souls is unforgiving too in its judgment of the player. The game assumes the player does not need mollycoddling and every mistake is penalized. The game judges that the player’s pride would not let him give up at being instantly killed by a swarm of weak skeletons and insert another game into the console, because he knows he made a mistake. The game judges that the player understands that accomplishments require struggle and effort. And most importantly, the game judges that the player can figure out where he went wrong, by heavily emphasizing deliberate action and punishing button-mashing and rash decisions.

Fairness in the game’s judgment comes from highly telegraphed actions from the game’s wide variety of monsters, fixed level design and monster placement, consistency in its feedback to player actions, and freedom in allowing the player to customize his equipment to suit each stage and playing style right from the beginning of the game. As an example of Demon’s Souls consistency and deliberate pace, most weapons have a relatively long “swing time” where the attacker is unable to take any action. So, if a player were to rapidly press the Attack button, he would be left vulnerable if his attack missed. However, the same applies for all enemies – they do not have the ability to interrupt their attacks in mid-swing too, allowing players to safely attack during those considerably long attack animations. So, punishments are applied fairly to everything.

This is one of the skills that Demon’s Souls cultivates in the player as he makes his way through the game. The game tests the player’s observation skills and positioning skills: each enemy has a massive ‘tell’ before each attack that the player can take advantage of to avoid damage, and the many environmental traps like long falls or even a stray pillar can cause your death if you roll carelessly – or the enemy’s if you manage to lure him off or get him stuck in a pillar. Knowledge is another aspect of Demon’s Souls that a player will learn is necessary for survival in the bleak world, be it knowledge of enemy placements and level layouts, weaknesses and attack patterns of monsters, or even the most effective weapons to forge and craft. The most important skill tested is probably patience in many various ways: trial-and-error is the main form of progress, taking on enemies requires you to wait for the right gap in timing or chink in armor, and careless repeated deaths can take away an entire day of progress. While in-game progress can be lost, the player’s knowledge of the game can only increase as he plays, and the game’s mechanical depth work such that the more knowledge a player has, the better he will do. The avatar’s skills just give the player more leeway in making mistakes – it is always the player’s skill that allows him to win, and this is one aspect Demon’s Souls executed perfectly.

It can be argued that Demon’s Souls’ challenge does not cater to a wide variety of skill levels, although certainly there is a wide variety of challenges themselves ranging from those in the game (environment, monsters, bosses, level design, inventory management, player invasions etc.) to outside the game (the player’s own fear or nervousness as he enters an unknown area leading to poor decision making…) But that does not matter, because Demon’s Souls was never a mass-market game by virtue of its brutal nature that expects a lot of investment from the player’s side, and thus never needed to cater to different skill levels. For the player who is willing to learn about Demon’s Souls, the payoff is huge as every challenge overcome provides an overwhelming sense of satisfaction many games do not provide in the interests of “creating flow” or “not breaking immersion”. In exchange, Demon’s Souls sets a baseline of skill and does only a few things to mitigate that.

One such thing is drawn from the lens of infinite inspiration. One much-lauded feature is the ability to leave messages on the ground for other players to read. These include warnings like “Be wary of a fall ahead” and hints like “Use spells on the next enemy”, which provide all the help the game is willing to explicitly provide. In an interview with Eurogamer^[2], director Hidetaka Miyazaki says the inspiration for that feature was his car being stuck on a snowy hillside. The cars behind him slowly pushed him safely over the hill, but he could not stop the car to express his gratitude to the people behind. The essence of simply helping out other people through mutual adversity is relayed in this unique message feature. You do not know who wrote these messages, and if you wrote one you know you will not receive any gratitude (although in the game you can “recommend” a message and if a recommendation comes while you are playing you get your health fully restored), but you simply do it anyway because every little thing counts in Demon’s Souls and you want to help (or harm) your fellow players. I think this is a perfect example of capturing the essence of an experience and putting it in a game.

Option 1:

(note: There may be more than 2 pages because I have included the lenses’ description. Without the pictures and my own text, the description of the lenses already filled up 2 pages)

An analysis of Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances

Game website: https://www.tiberiumalliances.com/home

Gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K73eoCLY55Q

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1.)Lens #18: The lens of flow

1.1) Does my game have clear goals? If not, how can I fix that?

The goal of the game is to move you base towards the center of the world map and hold down the position. While not particularly mind-blowingly exciting, the circular shape of the world map meant that as a player gets closer to the center, they are bound to encounter competing players and engage in player versus player battle. This is the main focus of the game.

1.2) Are the goals of the player the same goals I intended?

Gaining levels and building the strongest base and army are natural goals of the players. Since players require increasingly larger resource income to maintain the pace of progress, they will seek out areas can keep up with their consumption demands. The re-spawning artificial intelligence (AI) enemies become progressively stronger towards the center of the map and this attracts the players. This falls in line with the developers’ goals.

1.3) Are there parts of the game that distract players to the point they forget their goal? If so, can these distractions be reduced, or tied into the game goal?

The goals are very natural and clear to the players. There are no distractions from this goal.

1.4) Does my game provide a steady steam of not-too-easy, not-too-hard challenges, taking into account the fact that players’ skills may be gradually improving?

Yes. As players progress towards the center of the map, they will encounter stronger AI enemies as well as other players who are capable of defeating the AI enemies in the region.

1.5) Are the players’ skills improving at the rate I had hoped? If not, how can I change that?

Unfortunately during the earlier servers, the players were progressing far too quickly than the developers had hoped. As a result, the game has seen patches that consistently slow down players’ ability to progress.

 
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2.) Lens #32: The lens of meaningful choices

2.1) What choices am I asking the player to make?

Players have to plan the use of their resources, the armies that each of their bases contain, the position of their different bases and their armies’ formation of attack and defence.

2.2) Are they meaningful? How?

Each player generates a particular resource required to attack other bases. Since there is no way to increase this income(not even through the in-game real-money purchases), players have to plan their course of action in order to maximize their efficiency. Additionally, players have to commit a set of military equipment and personnel to each base as the cost of reassignment is prohibitively high. Thus, players have to observe enemies in his or her region and move their set of bases to best defend their positions.

2.3) Am I giving the player the right number of choices? Would more make them feel more powerful? Would less make the game clearer?

The number of choices feels comfortable. Suitable for fans of strategy games.

2.4)Are there any dominant strategies in my game?

Unfortunately there are several dominant strategies that discourage alternative playstyles.

 
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3.) Lens #37: The lens of cooperation

3.1) Cooperation requires communication. Do my players have enough opportunity

to communicate? How could communication be enhanced?

The game places heavy focus on team work. There is an “alliance” feature where players can come together as a group and share their territories or work together to attack and defend against other players. There is an in-game forum as well as each “alliance” granted their own forums.

3.2) Are my players friends already, or are they strangers? If they are strangers,

can I help them break the ice?

Unfortunately little is done to help break the ice. Players have to depend on themselves to make friends. However, the nature of the game results in many “alliances” seeking to recruit players, which helps a little in breaking the ice.

3.3) Is there synergy () or antergy () when the players work

together? Why?

Yes. This is because as players work together, they share their territories and allow other friendly players to move across the region much quicker and easier. Furthermore, friendly bases that are near a player’s base will automatically help defend the player if his or her base comes under attack.

3.4) Do all the players have the same role, or do they have special jobs?

The roles are entirely defined by the “alliance” they belong to. Typically some players will be assigned to push towards the center, some will be “spies” to infiltrate enemy alliances and some will travel across the map to capture bonuses for the entire alliance.

3.5) Cooperation is greatly enhanced when there is no way an individual can do

a task alone. Does my game have tasks like that?

Yes. Through cooperation, players will be able to manoeuvre easier, gain larger bonuses that apply across the “alliance”, protection from attacks and teamwork to defeat much more powerful enemies.

3.6) Tasks that force communication inspire cooperation. Do any of my tasks

force communication?

While certain situations due to player behaviour (of the player and others on the server) may encourage player communication, there are no situations whereby communication is forced.

 
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4.) Lens #82: The Lens of Inner Contradiction

4.1) What is the purpose of my game?

The purpose is to let players engage in player versus player combat.

4.2) What are the purposes of each subsystem in my game?

The attack and defence subsystems provide strategic gameplay.

4.3) Is there anything at all in my game that contradicts these purposes?

The game is very straight-forward and does not have any elements that contradict the purpose of the game.

4.4) If so, how can I change that?

N.A

 
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5.) Lens #87: The Lens of Griefing

5.1) What systems in my game are easy to grief?

Since the majority of resources is awarded when a base is destroyed, it is possible for players to wait until another player weakens a high-resource base before jumping in to do the last attack and get the reward.

5.2) How can I make my game boring to grief?

The developers have implemented a feature that locks down a base when attacked. This lock-down prevents other players that are not the original attacker from attacking the base.

5.3) Am I ignoring any loopholes?

The developers have acted to close certain loopholes while some are ignored.

Site: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFE9ZEJM0Q

Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG combined with some aspects of TPS (Third Person Shooters) in a fantasy setting. Guild Wars 2 has special features that set it apart from other MMOs, such as a unique “quest” system known as events which spontaneously occur in the world. The game is action-oriented and features highly interactive combat.

Lens of Story

The game’s story is a sequel to Guild Wars, occurring after the events in the book trilogy. In the games, the story is told from the player’s perspective, while in the books it is that of legendary heroes, some making cameo appearances in the game. The main story gives depth and background to the game.

Starting from character creation, players have to make choices affecting their main storyline

Player actions affect the outcome of their main story, and choices made during character creation reflect this. The story is told not just through words, but with a mix of aesthetically pleasing art and audio aided by the game engine. Most NPCs are voiced, allowing players to hear them talk and feel more immersed in the game world. The game’s event mechanic allows for stories to be interactive, changing in response to the player’s actions; success or failure of an event has different consequences. Unfortunately, the main story converges very quickly and towards the end it simply felt rushed. Moreover the story feels generic – the heroes somehow defeat a great evil thereby averting doom. Nonetheless, the story has been improved through new content updates can add chapters to the story such as the Living Story expansion. There are also many side-stories that are hidden throughout the game, awaiting discovery.

Lens of Challenge

The game’s difficulty level scales with the player’s level, becoming more difficult as the player progresses. The game’s event mechanic reflects this; higher level zones have more difficult events. However, most players reach the maximum level quickly (usually within weeks), and difficulty eventually plateaus at end-game, leading many players became bored upon reaching level 80.

End-game content includes PvP and dungeons, which are much more challenging than regular events. However, there is a large gap in difficulty between regular events and dungeons; events are usually easy while dungeons are difficult, and there are few activities that are in-between. Dungeons require more effort and time to complete (e.g. Fractals requires 2 hours) compared to events which take minutes. Rewards from difficult activities sometimes do not scale well; one may spend hours doing dungeons and merely get items that are worthless. The sudden jump in difficulty and disproportionate reward has discouraged players from participating in most end-game content. Those who are willing either end up being frustrated at their lack of progress (even punished by it), or actually enjoyed those challenges. While dungeons have two modes (story and normal), story mode is hardly challenging neither rewarding, while normal mode is so difficult that it takes hours regardless of skill level to complete.

Dungeons take a lot of time to complete (1+ hours), and sometimes do not reward well

Guild Wars 2 leans towards the very challenging side for end-game content (dungeons/new content/bosses) and the easy side for pre-end-game. This may have been a consequence that the end-game content testers were primarily employees or highly active (veteran) players of the game.

Lens of Economy

Money can be earned from doing events, selling items and trading real-money currency with other players. Items can be traded via the auction house anywhere in the world. Players need money to teleport, buy crafting materials and equipment upgrades. Money is easy to acquire since almost every activity rewards it, and newer expansions had made acquiring money even easier. However, money sinks such as teleports are quite expensive especially if the player is high leveled, and offsets the ease of getting money. There is account-bound currency known as “Karma” obtained in a similar way as money, allowing players to buy untradeable crafting materials and equipment and rewarding active players with unique items. Being wealthy does not significantly influence gameplay, because everyone is expected to reach close to maximum stats with little effort needed. Thus money is usually spent on novelty or convenience services rather than on equipment. Real-money micro-transactions are generally cosmetic and provide little in-game advantage.

Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics:

Its art-style is aimed towards a painting-like approach. The developers wanted the player to paint their story, to tell it the way they want it. The black bolder around the HUD makes it seem that the entire game screen is a painting. The details in the game’s art play a role in story-telling. A bunch of strange letters (written in New Krytan) appearing in-game may spell a message, perhaps even tell a story. The game has audio dialog for almost every NPC dialog ever spoken; in towns and cities, a player can overhear chatter that provide hints on what is going on in the game world.

Technology:
Being an MMO, the game can evolve through online updates, adding new content and improving features of the game. The game engine is advanced enough to allow an amazing level of detail to be displayed, allowing for stories to be told in highly interactive and elaborate ways.

Being an MMO, new events are introduced along the game’s life

Story:
Story-telling is one of the game’s heavily advertised features. The player can choose options that affect the story. Story-telling is not just limited to the main story. There are many tales within the game, some of which can be gleaned from something like listening to NPCs talk.

Mechanic:
The game features mechanics found in many RPGs, such as the ability to fight monsters using spells and play from the perspective of a citizen in Tyria. On top of this, the game features mechanics found in Third Person Shooters, such as the ability to aim anywhere and dodge. Some mechanics like downed mode and player revival is borrowed from games like Borderlands. Being an RPG, the game’s mechanics allows players to role-play as the character they have chosen, giving depth to the game’s story.

Lens of Community

Guild Wars 2 has a guild system, and players can belong to multiple guilds allowing them to participate in multiple communities (or create their own). Cooperation is needed to complete certain events, like fighting massive bosses; some can man turrets (for less powerful players), and some can act as cavalry (veterans and others). Participants are rewarded proportional to their contribution, and the reward is not diminished by the participation of others. However, some events also become difficult to complete if there are not many players; some are even designed for over 50 players.

World versus world (PvP) requires players to work together to defeat other servers

Player actions can aid others. The Elementalist can create a wall of fire and a Ranger could shoot arrows through it, making the arrows catch fire giving a damage boost. This encourages players to work with others. Combos do not require players to be in a party, so interactions can be ad-hoc.

The developers have also encouraged the community to host events; many events are organized by players in the forums or mediums such as Reddit, such as server raids on powerful bosses like Tequatl.

Why Flappy bird was removed?

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