Royal Revolt 2 is a 3D strategy MMO game for smartphones, tablets and Windows 8 PCs. It brought a breath of fresh air to the classic tower defence games, where now players can assume the role of both defender and attacker. Besides building up their own kingdom and setting up defences to prevent attacks, players now can also raid other player’s castle by sending in their own troops. All these can be done within a few taps and thus making the game easy to learn and play.

Game website: http://royalrevolt.com/

Gameplay Video:

MY EXPERIENCE

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

I felt that the technology and mechanics go very well together. Game is easy to access and it is available on our smartphones. I will also play the game even while travelling due to the easy mechanics of the games. I also enjoyed the aesthetics wise of the game as it was cute and allowed me to enjoy the impressive graphic while playing.

The storyline however felt a bit redundant. If a stronger and/or linear storyline could be used, I believe I will be able to connect to the game even more. What kept me playing is the interesting gameplay and the MMO aspect of the game.

Lens #39: The Lens of Time

The game is designed such that time is needed for building of structures and refilling “food” that is needed for raiding other players. This can be frustrating as I may want to play for a longer period but the game disallow me to.

Hence, I usually play the game only for a few minutes, and only get back when I have free time or nothing to do. Sometimes due to the long waiting, I did ever consider if I should quit.

10 minutes is needed for an upgrade

Lens #86: The Lens of Community

The game has a system of rankings, guilds and player raids. This sense of playing with and competing against other real players has somehow increased my competitive spirit, spurring me on to level up and raiding players to increase my ranks or just to get revenge.

However, I felt it still lacks a sense realism of community since the game is not real-time.

Lens #31: The Lens of Challenge

The game system usually paired me up with a stronger player when raiding. It gave me a sense of satisfaction when I am able to beat the stronger players, partly due to my own skills and decisions during gameplay.

However, many times the player will be too strong and I will spend “golds” to be matched with a lower level opponents.

Lens #30: The Lens of Fairness

Royal Revolt 2 is a typical freemium game – a pay-to-win gaming system. It definitely get on my nerves, when players of the same level as me have much better skills and equipment just because they are willing to spend real money on the game.

Luckily there are still players like me who does not spend money, which kept the game partially fair. I also pride myself, if I were to be able to beat those pay-to-win players who are much stronger than me.

Buying Gems with real money

FRIEND’S EXPERIENCE

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

My friend found that the technology and mechanics go very well together too. Likewise, at every free time, he will be using his phone to play the game. He even uses his tablet for a bigger and better screen. He sometimes played with the music on, in order to appreciate the game’s aesthetics fully.

As for the storyline, my friend too did not take much notice of it and he will skip all the dialogues of the characters.

Lens #39: The Lens of Time

Almost every free moments he had, he will be checking the game. He would even plan the gameplay to fit into his schedule, to allow the game always be ready for play whenever he is free. This let him not to feel a sense of disruption when the game disallowed to continue playing.

Lens #86: The Lens of Community

He is the leader of his own guild, and with his online friends, they will work and communicate with each other in order to achieve and level up their guild. He actually felt a sense of belonging with the community as they will chat frequently to discuss the game play and strategies.

Lens #31: The Lens of Challenge

He does felt the game is challenging too due to the fact stronger players were always been pair to him during raids. Sometimes he will challenge those stronger players just to test his skill. But similar to me, he will still tend to seek for an easier enemy yet with enough challenge.

Lens #30: The Lens of Fairness

Since my friend spends much more time than me on the game, even if his level may be same as mine, his skills and equipment are much better. This actually kept him near the level of those who pay for the game.

Unlike me, he rarely complains about the fairness of the game. However, sometimes he will still be willingly to spend a bit of money just to keep him on par with the other players and to keep his rankings up.

ANALYSIS

Mobility of device and ease of gameplay

I realized that the most effective way to get a person to be hooked on a game knowingly or unknowingly is the combination of device’s mobility and gameplay’s simple mechanics. A game with an easy gameplay will allow people to play without much thinking or just help them pass time. With the mobility of its gaming device – smartphone, which people carries around most of the time, it further entice the person to play the game almost anywhere and anytime. Just like how my friend and I were, while travelling or waiting for a bus, we will conveniently take out our phone and start playing game. It slowly becomes a habit, for us to play some games on our phone when we are free.

The “waiting” game

Royal Revolt 2 is a game that requires time. I found out that this kind of games tend to led to 3 scenarios.

1. Some gamers, for example myself, may get frustrated of the waiting. This kind of people may only play the game for a few minute and only get back to the game after a long while. They tend not to check the game often. After a while this may lead to their disinterest and stop playing the game.
2. Gamers may be hooked by the game and set notification to notify themselves whenever the game is ready. This causes them to spend almost all their free time on the game.
3. They are the players who hate waiting and are willing to spend. They will spend real money just to decrease the waiting time so they can continue playing as long as they want. This is where the revenue of the game is mainly from.

Through this, we can see that this is one of the way the game is designed to keep the players playing, though it does have its downside to it. However, the popularity of this game showed that the upsides out ruled the downsides.

The (un)importance of storyline

I found that storyline may not be the most important thing in a play-on-the-go game. Many people who play Royal Revolt 2 just want to pass time quickly. Also they may just want to play some game that does not require much thinking. Most of the time they just want to be entertained through fast-paced action gameplay and dynamic graphics. This may be reason why Royal Revolt 2 does not have a complicate story. It only gave the players a simple background story and everything else depends heavily on the main gameplay itself. People who continued playing is not because they are interested in story but because of the well-designed gameplay.

Players prefer games with dynamic graphic

Conclusion

Royal Revolt 2 is a good example of a game breaking out of the mainstream gameplay, by injecting a new perspective to the traditional tower defence game. This further proves that storyline may not be the most important aspect but the game design and ideas are the one that kept the players playing.

Binding of Isaac (BOI)

The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swh54ibRSDo&index=1&list=PLA958826F60F5B8B7

The Binding of Isaac is a top-down 2D roguelike in which the player assumes the identity of the protagonist, Isaac, and attempts to escape from his murderous mother by going deeper down each floor of the basement. Progressing further down each floor requires the player to kill all the enemies encountered and defeat the boss guarding the entrance to the next floor. Along the way, power-ups can be obtained to strengthen or weaken Isaac. The game ends when the final boss is killed, prompting the ending scene to start showing. New content is unlocked on completion of certain achievements, with some of the content being new power-ups, new floors or new ending scenes.

My Experience

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics: Enemies and bosses are characteristically different from each other. Power-ups obtained are stackable with each other. Permadeath keeps the game tense and engaging. Floors being randomly procedurally generated makes each playthrough different and gives me a chance to discover interesting and sometimes hilarious interactions between enemies and power-ups.

Story: Controversial story that touches on dark themes, e.g. religion and child abuse. Each ending is ambiguous and open for interpretation. It piques my interest to keep playing to unlock more endings to further understand the story.

Technology: The game is made in Flash, which while is good enough for the scale of this game, introduced slight lags when activity on the screen got too hectic. This caused slight irritation when the lag occurred, but not enough to spoil the experience.

Aesthetics: Cute artwork but disturbing enemy sprites.

Cute stuff

Overall, the aesthetics and story complemented each other well. The cute artwork was deceptively contrary of the dark themes, creating a unique experience. The mechanics kept things fresh for players that want to keep replaying to know more about the story. Its biggest flaw was technology, which the developer agreed and eventually changed in its sequel: Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Lens #27: The Lens of Skill

Bullet Hell

BOI in its essence is a game of skill. Besides testing my reaction speed, it challenges me to make decisions on either rushing each floor or to spend a longer time on each floor farming to possibly become stronger. Each subsequent floor becomes harder, requiring the player to farm floors to become stronger. However, spending a longer time on each floor means possibly taking more damage, making the later game harder.

Lens #20: The Lens of Judgement

The game judges me on whether I have good reflexes and can make smart decisions, and the achievements unlocked and amount of progress made in each playthrough affirms my skill.

Lens #49: The Lens of Visible Progress

From this to THIS

BOI shows my progress during a playthrough. Power-ups all make visible changes to the character and the projectiles. Each new power-up that is picked up add to the change in aesthetics of the character sprite, showing how powerful the character has become. The game also shows the progress of the player’s career in playing BOI. It shows the tally of total number unlockables and how many are left, even changing the start menu to reflect the progress that I have made in unlocking all content of the game. This appeals to the completionist in me, urging me to keep replaying to unlock everything.

Lens #53: The Lens of Control

The control scheme is simple; WASD for movement and arrow keys to shoot projectiles. Use SHIFT to set a bomb, Q to use an item, and SPACEBAR for the spacebar item. Controls respond fluidly to the command of the player. Enemies are fair in that their own AI and movesets do not change. Whenever I lose in the game, the irritation I feel is always with myself as the outcome is due to my control.

My Friend’s Experience

I got a friend who was new to BOI and got him to play a few games for me.

Lens #2: The Lens of Surprise

That’s all you get

At the start of the game, players are simply thrown into the game with four instructions and nothing else. Everything from then on is a surprise for new players. How enemies and bosses move and the effects of power-ups. Nothing is explained at the start and there is enjoyment in exploring new things.

Lens #29: The Lens of Chance

What RNG can do for you

Due the random nature of the game, sometimes the power-ups received are quite underpowered. The friend who played the game felt that the game is too “RNG-reliant”. The power-ups received dictated his progress in the game, and thus became too random.

Lens #69: The Lens of the Weirdest Thing

The setting of the game is weird. Weird monsters appear in the basement and the further down players go, the more detached from reality the game becomes. The ending revealed on completion of the game do not explain anything directly and leaves them puzzled and interested to make sense of the whole story.

Lens #10: The Lens of Resonance

The dark theme and issues dealt with in the game resounds with players. Players can empathise with the main character, and it forces players to think about these controversial issues that are seldom covered. It creates depth for the game and offers additional meaning for players playing it. It creates for a more satisfying playthrough.

Analysis

Comparing the two sets of notes, we both agree that BOI is a satisfying game where the good controls and level design provide an interesting and enjoyable experience. The weirdness of the story and dark theme explored gave the game additional value, making the experience of the players more meaningful.

Using the Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad, we can see that of the 4 elements, none is more important than the rest. Developing the game in Flash has resulted in a somewhat subpar game, where if better technology is used, a better experience for users can be achieved.

However, from the two experiences, we see that there is a conflict of Skill versus Chance. I thought the game had more emphasis on skill while my friend thought that the emphasis on chance. This brings about the difficulty of how to balance skill and chance, which corresponds to Lens #34: The Lens of Skill vs. Chance. In my opinion though, while BOI’s element of chance with power-ups does indeed contribute to ease of a playthrough, an immensely skilled player can still complete the game without strong power-ups. The balance of skill and chance in this game is still acceptable.

From all the lenses we have identified and judging the game based on them, I would argue that BOI has a good game design. The game is designed to be hard for starting players, and through the gradual improvement of the player, the game judges them and reaffirms their steady improvement. The element of chance and randomness of the game allows replayability, which helped to maintain the interest in the story.

Short Description

Battle Camp is a mobile-based game that is very much like Pokemon. The player starts off with 5 basic monsters in his team and progresses to each new town by defeating a hall boss (much like Gym Leaders). Every new town gives access to better monsters, which improve your team’s Power Rating (PR).

The rarity tier of monsters goes from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super, Ultra, Epic and Legendary Monsters. Players can only obtain up to Super monsters by completing the main questline. For Ultra monsters and above, players can either compete in Events, or spend money to spin “Ultimate Grabs”, which has a random chance of giving Ultra and Epic monsters.

Each monster has its own zodiac sign, which means there are 12 versions of each particular monster. Another way for players to improve their PR other than obtaining monsters of better rarity is to match zodiacs e.g. using all “Scorpio” monsters in the team. This will activate powerful passive bonuses, which may include additional Attack stats, or HP stats.

An important aspect of the game is that players cannot sit down and complete a ‘playthrough’ in a single session. It is a passive game, where Energy is used to battle monsters, PvP other players, participate in Events and fight bosses. Every 10 minutes, 1 energy regenerates, and the total energy cap at any one time is 5. This means that players can only play for a short while, depending on how fast they use up their energy. After depleting their energy, they must either wait 50 minutes or use In-App-Purchases (IAP) to buy extra energy.

My experience

1. Lens of Time

A lot of times, I just play the game passively. After using up my energy, I just close the game and go and do other stuff. Even though the game notifies me when my energy is refilled, sometimes I forget and let them go to “waste”, since there is a cap imposed. This is directly related to the Lens of Time. In this case, for me I think it is just a different style of gameplay, and I am neither frustrated that the game is too short, nor bored because it is too long.

2. Lens of Endogenous Value

When I ran out of energy, I went to the ‘Management’ Tab and looked at my monsters and inventory. This is relatable to the Lens of Endogenous Value, which asks the question of ‘what is valuable to the players in the game?’ For me, it is obvious that my team of monsters and those in my inventory have endogenous value because it is essentially what the game is all about to me – improving my team and getting better monsters.

3. Lens of Motivation

I also find myself exploring the ‘Social’ Tab and looking at my friends’ monsters, comparing his team to mine. I also PvP occasionally when I feel like it. I think the Lens of Motivation comes into play here as I feel motivated to play and upgrade my team so that I can beat other players.

4. Lens of Spectation

An interesting thing that happened when I was doing this assignment was that another friend (not the one who I was planning to do this assignment with) became interested in watching me play. This may be explained by the Lens of Spectation, and I think the game is interesting to watch because animations are everywhere and people are generally attracted to moving things.

5. Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics – This game is heavily invested in aesthetics, as it is filled with nice animations and good looking monsters. On one hand, the common and lower-leveled monsters tend to look small and cutesy, while evolved monsters grow in size and give off intimidating looks, so this actually allows the game to cover a broad theme of art.

Technology – For technology, I do not know what game engine is powering the game, but I feel that it can be improved. When playing on my Android device, I always experience lag. On the other hand, my friend has no lag problems on iOS.

Mechanics – The mechanics of the game mainly revolves around matching gems, and is not new. Unlike Candy Crush, the player can move a gem anywhere on the map, displacing gems along the path taken and making multiple combos this way (see gameplay video).

Story – There is hardly any storyline progression in this game.

My friend’s experience

1. Lens of Time

Unlike me, my friend was glued to his phone screen. It was clear that the 50 minutes recharge time for energy is too slow for him, and he was frustrated that he could not play longer.

2. Lens of Endogenous Value

Similar to me, while my friend was waiting for energy, he would look through his current team of monsters and inventory.

3. Lens of Chance

During his playtime, he actually used his free “Ultimate Grabs”. Although initially a paid feature, sometimes the game gives out free grabs as rewards to players in event. The chance of getting a good monster from spins is totally random. One of the questions asked by the Lens of Chance is: Does the randomness give the players positive feelings of excitement and challenge, or negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control? Actually, it depends. If the player receives a very rare monster (e.g. Epic-tier monster) from the spin, then they would obviously be very excited. However, the chances of this happening is very low, and most players experience negative feelings when spinning such “Ultimate Grabs”. A lot of them have even advised other players to spend their money on other items instead, such as buying energy. In fact, some have even came up with their own term for “Ultimate Grab” – they ridiculed it as the “Rare Grab”, which means you only get Rare-tier monsters from it. Unfortunate for my friend, he did in fact get a rare-tier monster from his grab.

4. Lens of Reward, Lens of Triangularity

My friend participates in events actively. Relating this to the Lens of Reward, events can be counted as the main source of rewards for players, as they usually reward monsters with much better stats compared to those that can be obtained through quests. Players are always excited to receive these better monsters as rewards. At the same time, events can also be related to the Lens of Triangularity. Event rewards are separated into Tiers and only the top 5000 players receive good event rewards. Some players may choose to spend lesser energy, and are satisfied with a lower tier. However, they may also choose to spend more energy to advance to the next higher tier. This is obviously very risky as players are competing against players and if everyone were to spend more energy, then nobody would advance at all.

General

1. Lens of Community

There are 12 versions of each monster in the game. When getting new monsters (spinning grabs or event rewards), players do not necessarily get the new monster in their zodiac. Hence, trading among players is a very important aspect of the game as it allows players to match their zodiacs and receive bonuses.

Analysis

A learning point from the analysis of Lenses of Elemental Tetrad would be that a game does not need to have all elements; in fact if even one of the elements is done well (e.g. Aesthetics), players would be drawn into the game all the same.

Different people can have different reactions and experiences to the same game. This is evident in the Lens of Time analysis between me and my friend. Therefore, it is not only important to use the different Lenses blindly as a guide to game design, but to also consider that different people may react differently to the same Lens. A learning point from this may be that players are generally very fussy, and one man’s meat may be another man’s poison.

Despite the differences, some parts of our experience do share common reactions, such as the part on Endogenous Value. Although this may sound contradictory to the previous point about players reacting differently, I think this further reinforces the learning point that players are hard to please.

From both our experiences, I have been able to use multiple different Lenses to analyze the game. As a learning point, it is important to note that while using the different Lenses to design a game, it is better to stick to the rule of “more is better”. Some features may appeal to certain audiences e.g. passive playing and make others frustrated, but as long as the game has other features that addresses the needs of such players, then it would still be okay even if you have to make the player wait a while for some energy.

Website: http://pennypop.com/

Gameplay videos:

(Battle System) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cR5Ibg0ozo

(Ultimate Grabs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIkiu0yk4aQ

Wargame: Red Dragon Analysis

Wargame: Red Dragon is a real-time strategy game by Eugen Systems, which focuses on potential military conflicts in the 1980s, featuring military units with details reproduced from actual sources.

The Game launch trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3az0LsKc0

Analysis After Playing:

The Elemental Tetrad

The game prides itself on historical accuracy, realistic physics and its IRISZOOM engine, which allows players to zoom in from a satellite view of the entire battlefield, down to ground level to observe individual unit combat. The in-game camera is able to pan, zoom and rotate with very high flexibility, which theoretically enables players to reproduce the gameplay footage in the trailer. The aesthetics and mechanics were extremely well-tied together. All units were given symbols that signified their general role, such as MANPADS, armour and the like. In fact, the player can choose to use NATO’s universal unit type symbols, or the generic RTS ones if they are unfamiliar with military symbols. The story only exists in the campaign, and players usually play skirmish modes or online against one another. The technology behind the AI is less impressive however. Setting the enemy to a higher difficulty does not make them smarter; it only lets them cheat by earning more resources and calling more units.

Lens of Pleasure

As I play Red Dragon, I control the military units of the major powers of the world, pitting against other powers of my own choosing. I can choose to view the battlefield in the typical fashion:

Or more unconventionally, the exact same scene close-up (see the F/A 18C Hornet firing missiles in the background!):

The technology to zoom in seamlessly is not groundbreaking in any sense, but its implementation was coupled with very beautiful graphics, which made it a pleasure to view the combat up close.

Lens of Economy

Every player in the game begins with a set number of points, with which military units can be purchased. Throughout the game, players earn points by maintaining control of key sectors in the map, which provide continuous revenue for the purchase of additional reinforcements. In order to keep things less complicated, the currency is universal, meaning that these points can purchase any kind of unit, as long there is enough of it.

Lens of Problem Solving

The game has an extremely steep learning curve, with over a thousand units to use across the various featured nations, with a lot of detail. For example, the infamous AH-64A Apache helicopter:

I noticed my playstyle tends to lean towards the use of heavy armor and infantry to take control of the map. I dislike sending small sorties against the enemy because of the potential for losses; instead I prefer to scout with inexpensive units and then push forward with overwhelming force.

Lens of Skill

As a direct follow-up from the previous lens, the complexity of the game can make it difficult to decide what units are useful in battle. However, when I managed to learn the usage of these units in battle, it was very satisfying. Furthermore, the game allows you to watch replays of your prior battles (as well as those of other people), so that mistakes can be spotted and corrected in future games.

Analysis After Watching a Friend Playing:

Lens of Pleasure

I noted he was pleasantly surprised that the units all were voiced according to their language and nationality, instead of using heavily-accented English for all units. However, he did comment that this made playing non-English nationalities harder as he was unable to decipher what his units were saying.

Lens of Economy

Being new to the game, but not to the genre, he played frugally, keeping an eye on the points he had. I noticed that he tended to purchase more expensive but powerful units. When asked, he said he was not fond of managing large numbers of weak units.

Lens of Problem Solving

He complained about the large number of choices for units, but after playing a while with the basic choices, he became more able. He chose to use aerial-based tactics such as using napalm bombers to overwhelm infantry entrenched in urban areas, and sending assault helicopters to harass enemy ground forces.

Lens of Skill

He commented that the game does not overly encourage what is known as micro-management; overall strategy is emphasized.

Combined Analysis:

It turns out that people derive different kinds of trivial pleasure from the same game. For example, my friend was impressed and liked the voice acting. In hindsight, I think that it was fairly well-done too. Furthermore, in real-time strategy games, every player has different ways of designing their strategies. I dislike scattering my forces piecemeal, but admit that is primarily due to my incompetence in managing many things at once. As an experienced player in other real-time strategy games, my friend was skilled in manipulating the aircraft and helicopters, and rarely lost any, despite them being unarmoured. In this sense, we solved the same problem in different ways.

Description:

Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena video game. It is played in discrete matches involving two teams of five players, each of which occupies the opposite corner of the map. Each of the bases called the “Ancient”, which the opposite team must destroy to win the match. Each player controls a “Hero” character and focuses on leveling up, collecting gold, acquiring items and fighting against the other team to achieve victory.

Game website: http://blog.dota2.com/?l=english

Analysis of my gameplay:

Observing my friend playing:

What I have learnt from the process:

Lens of emotions and Elemental tetrad – story

My friend and I were going with the flow of the game i.e. following the team around. Perhaps we are not so aggressive in nature; hence there are similarities in the way we play.

I realised that the elemental tetrad – story can be created by the players themselves. The game designers create the elements of potential conflicts while the players will able to create the experience through those conflicts. It is a refreshing idea. Emotions are created based on how the players play the game. For instance, if it is a friendly match, the teammates would be forgiving and will purely enjoy the process, not the result. By allowing players to have the freedom to decide what they want to do with their heroes, it gives lots of variety of attack technique such as sneak attack or gang attack. This allows different game experiences every time they play.

Elemental tetrad – mechanics and Lens of skills

My friend is more skilful than me, however he is more defensive. One thing I notice is that the personality of the players plays a part in how the game wins. Somehow, the personality of my friend connects with the hero in the game, which might be the reason why he loves this hero so much. Also, the game finds and matches the team’s skill level so that it will not be unbalance. Once you know how to play a hero well, you will enjoy the game better and better. Sometimes you will find interesting techniques to kill using your items and skills. That makes you want to play more to try out.

Unification theme and Elemental tetrad – aesthetics

This game is more of heroes in 2 different teams fighting to defeat each other’s base which is the Ancient. The overall aesthetics match the strange creatures (heroes) and it emphasise on how surreal the game environment is. This gives off a sense of uniqueness or fantasy-like environment. I am more into the aesthetics so for instance every time I see a cute courier, I will be very tempted to buy. I love the music especially when into gang fights. The music that is played makes me more engrossed and makes the fights more epics. My friend on the other hand, is not really into the aesthetics. However, if he is wandering around the jungle, he will sometimes imitate after what the hero said.

Technology

My friend and I have experienced this latency of the network connection. Especially in team fights, the game screen will sometimes hang and the next time you know, your hero died. You do not even know what kills you. I hope that the game server will improve.

Lens of Endogenous Value

The game makes the struggle easy to understand, which is determined by your health, gold and your levels. Recently, it makes changes to the runes such that opponents will go to the runes to get gold. Even before the game “starts”, players will start to kill each other just to get it. I find that this is a good design as compared to the previous version as it allows the fun to begin even earlier. No more waiting till the creeps appeared.

Game description (taken from steam market): “Hack, slash, and smash your way to victory in this award winning 2D arcade adventure from The Behemoth! Featuring hand-drawn characters, Castle Crashers Steam Edition delivers hi-res visuals like nothing you’ve seen before. Four friends can play locally or online to save your princess, defend your kingdom, and crash some castles!”

Own elaboration on game mechanics: Castle Crashers was originally a console-based game but is now available on PC. My friend and I played using the keyboard (mouse can be used too, depending on own settings), moving around the 2D plane with up/down/left/right arrows, and attacking and using skills with left hand keys. Game is broken down into stages (think Candy Crush), new ones unlocking upon completion of previous ones and progress is shown on a pathed map. Each stage consists of hacking at enemies (similar gameplay) and travelling right until a boss fight, which has varied gameplay (normal battle, a race/chase, battle with tanker which deals damage by running over players and creating explosion spots instead of melee attacks). Screenshot of a normal melee-oriented boss battle shown below:

Analysis of Self

Player and game profile: Female, enjoys MMORPGs, RPGs, FPSs, arcade games, story is very important in RPGs, takes gaming maybe a bit too seriously. First game of Castle Crashers, playing with the friend to be observed later in a “co-op” local game. Plays games primarily on the PC.

1. Upon launching the game, I felt excited. The graphics (aesthetics) were to my liking –old school, cute cartoon characters, very colourful and medieval themed –and the music was also fast-beat and exciting, to make the player crave for action. The theme (lens 9: theme) was reinforced by the type of monsters, their costumes, the weapon choices (sword, axe, bow and arrow etc.), and the story (saving the princesses). Having a unification theme makes the game feel more complete, well-made and also prepares the player for the game.

2. As the game started off easy, I was having fun and was eager for more. I kept wanting to travel rightwards because that was the way to progress (lens 2: fun & lens 5: endogenous value). Cut scenes at the start of the game and before boss fights add to the excitement and eagerness. Here are some other examples of lens 2, 3, 4 that add to the fun and plays on curiosity:
   1. Monsters that look dead and part of the background would spring up to attack us!
   2. Boss would hit us normally for most of the fight then suddenly pause to drink a potion which we were curious to find out its mysterious effects.
   3. At the end of the boss fight, players had to battle it out for the only princess available… Was totally caught by surprise that I had to turn against a fellow player!
   4. Variable game play of boss fights, as mentioned in the game mechanics section, resulting in many mini-games and not just all about hack-and-slash.
   5. Random objects that may or may not be interactable (crates, ladder, animals etc.).
   6. The game is social and playing with friends is always fun!

3. I felt cooperative at first because we had to work together to kill off enemies which highly outnumbered us (lens 6: problem solving via cooperation) or kill the boss. However, I felt greedy and more and more competitive as the game progressed. This was because we realized that the gold dropped was not shared and whoever got to the gold first will gain it. The same went for opening of treasure boxes, food drops that refills health points etc. I found myself abandoning my friend who was being flanked by monsters to open treasure boxes… Because of how players battle amongst themselves at the end (story, mechanics), this game has a very unique game play that is both cooperative and competitive!

4. Negative emotions due to game mechanics: I felt angry and confused when I was unable to escape attacks or hit the boss as I was not used to the controls. When I was on the verge of dying, I felt even more flustered and played badly, spamming the keyboard keys without much thought. I felt sad when I didn’t have enough gold to upgrade my character and when I died, especially to my friend at the end, because I did not like killing off fellow players!!! I felt bored when my friend kept taking all the items from me.

5. I felt successful/satisfaction when we completed a stage, when I got to kill enemies, and when I got to items before my friend and when I obtained new skills and ability points. Being and RPG, players would want to keep upgrading so obtaining items, skills and ability points is fun and satisfying. It is also exciting and satisfying when we get stuck at some parts of the map but finally break through (lens 6: problem solving).

Analysis of friend

Player and game profile: Male, enjoys all kinds of games, places priority on immediate fun rather than story. Played Castle Crashers on solo-mode. Used to own an X-Box, plays primarily on PC now.

1. Since he was now playing solo, he started off apprehensive. With two players, it was already difficult to survive and he was not sure how a single-player game will go. At the same time, he felt excited (lens 4: curiosity: having different modes adds to the excitement of the game) and confident (since this is a repeat play).

2. He was satisfied and happy when he cleared each stage. When he did not, he felt disappointed yet in some sense accomplished and eager for more. This is because the game grants players some ability points when s/he fails to clear the stage and players can become stronger and attempt to clear the stage again (lens 5: endogenous value in playing over and over even if the player isn’t strong enough to clear the stage yet).

3. My friend was obviously more focused playing alone. Now his intention was just to clear the stage whereas previously, we were just trying out a new game, having fun and also fighting for resources.

4. He also felt panic or curious when he didn’t know what was happening. Playing solo also meant that the stage restarts upon death, so staying alive was more important than in multiplayer where we can revive each other. When death is less imminent, he would be curious and ask what he’s supposed to do now and try out new things (lens 4/6: curiosity/problem solving).

Comparison and Learning Points

The lenses I focused on are surprise, fun, curiosity, endogenous value, problem solving, the elemental tetrad and unification theme.

The similarities in our experiences are: fun, surprise, curiosity, being eager for more and satisfaction.

It is fun to kill monsters, maybe because it makes players feel powerful and in control, and also, there is endogenous value in doing so –gain money and items to improve self and to progress through the game. The ability to upgrade one’s character to progress further into the game is essential to keep players playing for longer hours. The awarding of ability points even if a player fails a stage is also important to prevent players from rage-quitting, and also makes a player want to test if s/he can defeat the stage on the next try. Another factor that keeps players is that the game is broken into short stages. Like in Candy Crush, the player keeps wanting more. Short stages are less tiring and gives the sneaky illusion that one has only been playing for a short time.

There are a lot of options, random objects and different gameplays which ups the surprise factor and player’s curiosity: a few stages unlock upon completion and lead to different paths in the game, player chooses how to pump ability points according to own play-style, map has interactable objects and boss fights are varied. The most difficult part of each stage is the boss fight and thus it is the part to “look forward to”. The game becomes more interesting when there are different ways to defeat the boss, keeping players excited to meet the next challenge and problem solve. Different boss fights also evoke different emotions and satisfaction upon victory (racing against the boss vs attacking it).

Castle Crashers is social and the ability to play with friends usually adds to the fun factor, although it also requires better technology. As mentioned, the game is both cooperative and competitive and this is quite unique. Perhaps I felt sad and bored because I was expecting a cooperative game (since it seemed as though we were a TEAM with the same goal); it was quite difficult to keep switching from being allies to enemies. In hindsight, it should have been much more fun if it was clear from the start that it was a largely competitive game. I was also expecting a lot more story since it’s an RPG but was highly disappointed in that aspect. Hence, my conclusion is that the marketing of a game is important to hit the right target group!

Another reason why my friend probably enjoyed the game more than I did is that he was familiar with console games while I was not. The game instructions were catered for console-use and although there was a disclaimer indicating so, I still feel that they should have catered for PC-use if they really wanted to bring it to the PC. (There’s almost no excuse since it has been available on PC for about 2 years…) If not, players like me would just feel very lost and confused, and our interest in the game will dwindle.

Overall, Castle Crashers has its fair share of fun and surprise, but is not exactly my cup of tea. Its plus points are that it pushes the boundaries by being/having mini games of a mash of genres (it is competitive, cooperative, race, puzzle, mindless hack and slash, a bit of skilled fighting and character placement etc.), and it does have nice graphics. It could greatly improve in terms of story and providing assistance to new players (it was super difficult gauging if I was in line with or in rage of the monsters or not, not the mention the instructions for consoles popping up all around).

CS3247 Assignment 1

Defence of the Ancients 2

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.

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.

Steam stats for Dota 2

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.

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 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).

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.

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.

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 4^th attack.

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.

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.

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

Fig 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

Fig 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

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.

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.                              
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.

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)