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

 

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.