Gameplay:

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

My Experience

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

Friend’s experience

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

Analysis

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

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

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

My Experience

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

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

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

Friend’s Experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comparison Analysis

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

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

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

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

Introduction

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

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

Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Key Mechanics:

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

Background Story:

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

Aesthetics:

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

Technology:

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

Analysis of player experiences

Lens of Economy

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

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

Lens of Meaningful choices

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

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

Lens of Competition vs Cooperation

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

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

Lens of Fairness

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

Self Realization

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

1. Lens of Elemental Tetrad

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

2. Lens of Fun

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

3. Lens of Flow

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

4. Lens of Chance

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

5. Lens of Endogenous Value

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

Friendly Observation

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

1. Lens of Fun

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

2. Lens of Flow

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

3. Lens of Chance

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

4. Lens of Endogenous Value

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

Simply Analysis

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

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

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

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

Game: Dota 2

About Game:

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

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

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

My Analysis:

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

• Lens of Elemental Tetrad

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

• Lens of Cooperation

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

• Lens of Economy

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

• Lens of Friendship

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

• Lens of Skill

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

Analysis on a friend playing the game:

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

• Lens of Elemental Tetrad

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

• Lens of Cooperation

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

• Lens of Economy

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

• Lens of Friendship

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

• Lens of Skill

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

Comparison

• Lens of Elemental Tetrad

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

• Lens of Cooperation

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

• Lens of Economy

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

• Lens of Friendship

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

• Lens of Skill

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part 1. My own feeling and experience when playing

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

Part 2. Others’ feeling and experience when playing

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

Part 3. Analysis

The lens of experience:

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

The lens of surprising and fun:

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

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

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.

Assignment 1

Game Played: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag

YouTube demo Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKkc4IoMb70

Game Website: http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-GB/games/assassins-creed-black-flag.aspx

Description of Game:

This game is set during the golden age of piracy.  During the early 18^th century Caribbean, Edward Kenway finds himself tangled between the affairs of the Assassins and Templars as he sets off in his adventure to find riches.  Player goes through the adventure in 3^rd person perspective, doing missions through stealth or mindless sword fighting.  The game offers an open world concept where players can explore the vast map with notable destinations such as Havana, Kingston and many more.  There are plenty of pirate activities to keep player busy such as treasure hunting, conquering forts and bounty hunters, to become the richest and most fearsome pirate of the Caribbean.

Observations of MePplaying

The Lens of Essential Experience

In essence, this game is about the player being a pirate captain, having his own ship to sail the vast seas.  As a player I want to become the most dangerous and powerful pirate I can be. The game allows me own my own ship, upgrade it and use to torment my enemies in the game. This made me feel awesome.  I also realized that I am someone who wants to experience everything the game has to offer.  The game captures what it means to be a pirate during that era by having mini games such as harpooning sharks and whales, treasure hunting, assassinating merchants for my clients and many more. All of these activities make the experience complete and enjoyable like me.

Harpooning Whale

The Lens of Surprise

At times when I am being chased after, I would find myself so fixated to screen and my controller would be swaying with my body to navigate away from the enemies. Then suddenly a storm might appear out of nowhere.  During these freak storms, huge waterspouts can appear and damage the ship hull when in contact. This surprise adds to strategy as well as I am able to trap unsuspecting enemies this way.

The Lens of Curiosity

With such a big map, I cannot help but wonder what would be at the edge of the map. Would you appear at the other side of the map should you try to go beyond it? I tried answering that myself but before I could reach the edge of the map, I find myself facing with a huge battle ship!  After defeating it, my ship was given an extra upgrade.  Now I cannot wait to find other such ships and see what they may drop!

The Lens of the World

The game does provide some side missions which complements the main story. However, these stories do not tell more about the world, which is the down side of the game.  You cannot help random people in the world and understand their problems and issues which makes the world a little shallow after some time.

The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics – Physics is very closely related to the real world.  Players can use a variety of methods to complete a mission (stealth or brute force).  Player’s actions have no impact on the story.

Story – Many betrayals and revenge. Story is mostly linear and storytelling.  I can complete more missions in their specified way to complete the character’s memory.

Aesthetics – I enjoy the elaborate environment with interactive animals, landscape and atmospheric sounds. Very close to the real world counterpart and historical theme.  Hard impact causes vibrations on the controllers.

Technology – No interesting technology used in the game. Only the Xbox360 controller.

Friend Analysis

The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

Game feels too complex as there are many buttons to remember and ways to complete the mission. Sometimes, has to repeat the same mission multiple times due to slow reaction time and franticness. I have to complete some fighting scenes for her.

The Lens of Story

She just wants to know the story.  She would do the minimum (upgrades, side missions) to help her reach the next level as she has no patience to do other side quests.

The Lens of the Puzzle

She enjoys the time to think and crack the puzzles in the game. Such as figuring how to go through the mazes and solving complex questions. She would be so engrossed with the game and does not like to be distracted.

Statue Puzzle

The Lens of the World

What she likes about the world is that they include many elements which make sea sailing fun.  As a music lover, she would sail and listen to the sea shanties that the AI crew sings.  To build up her repertoire of sea shanties, she would always try to find new songs when she reaches a new location.

The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics – lack the function to review past story and cut scenes.  Not helpful for users that play sparingly.

Comparison of Analysis

Technically Well Executed

Given the complex environmental elements in the game, there are hardly any bugs found in the game.  This contributes t great game experience.

Game Playability

A lot of thought is place to give players a fun time.  No need for long journeys to the same location by using viewpoints.  We find us enjoying the story faster and with less annoyance.  Upgrading of the ship (jackdaw) can be done easily and quickly without the need to travel to specific locations like many other games.

Mission Types

Lack of variety.  Every story scene has similar mission types which get boring after a while.

Lack the ability to do good, add side stories

Often times we would just execute assassinations. Developers can add side stories that are not related to the story but about the world.  It would make the game feel richer.

Enemy AI

Both of us feel that the enemy AI is too dumb in some ways.  They would not attack as a group but only on one-on-one situations.

Fun Stuff

Developers added surprises like challenging huge battle ships and harpooning huge sperm whale which are quite fresh.

Complexity

Complexity is relative. I think having multiple ways of completing the game adds to the depth of the game but not for players that are slow in learning the buttons.  It could lead to more frustration then fun for them.

Description

A surreal survival and an adventure game with a randomly generated open-world map. The objective is to survive as long as possible while weathering obstacles that the game throws at you.

Website

http://www.dontstarvegame.com/

Video

Personal Analysis

The Lens of Curiosity

Don’t Starve throws me into a surreal world full of dangers and surprises to survive in. No tutorials, no guides, no hints, leaving myself to answer my own questions. As I mindlessly click around in this unknown world, it is satisfying to learn every bit of survival knowledge including danger zones, hostile enemies, crafting recipes and an item’s use. My clicks became more purposeful after that. However, this also leads to more questions as I explore further unknown territories and face obstacles such as seasonal changes. To me, this repeated satisfaction of discovery forms the core experience when playing the game.

The Lens of the Weirdest Thing

The art style of Don’t Starve is telling of its quirky and eccentric nature. Many weird things accompany weird mechanics in the world of Don’t Starve. Understanding and utilising these oddities provide immense gratification as I have never experienced them before. Hence, it is always exciting to encounter these weird things in the game, and despite dying multiple times because of them, I still approach them at first sight. As Don’t Starve gave me the impression of being a weird game, these weird moments seem normal and coherent within my expectations of the game.

The Lens of Punishment

The punishment system in Don’t Starve can be frustrating and brutal. I feel frustrated whenever I die as my progress is completely reset with a new world and new conditions to adapt to. At first, this punishment seems unfair given that there were no tutorials or any guidance offered by the game. However, I later realised that this punishment system highlights the importance of survival and heightens the fear of death, which truly adds to the survival experience in Don’t Starve.

 The Lens of Visible Progress

One of the most rewarding experiences in Don’t Starve is watching my base grow larger as I craft more equipment and buildings in my base. The base that I build is larger and more impressive each time I improve. This visual indicator of progress gives me a sense of accomplishment whenever I return back to base after a day’s hard work out in the world of Don’t Starve.

Elemental Tetrad Analysis

The mechanics of Don’t Starve aligns well with the game’s intention to stimulate my curiosity and encourage discovery. As you get better at surviving, the game will introduce new dangers to challenge your ability to adapt. Don’t Starve is hence well-balanced in the aspect of empowering and challenging the player. The game’s art direction, music and sound also complement the world of Don’t Starve. The quirky yet catchy background music changes to suit the theme and current state of the game. Every sound that the game produces, such as chewing sounds as I eat, contribute to the immersive yet unusual survival experience in Don’t Starve. The story of Don’t Starve also does a good job of telling me about my current plight while letting me discover the rest (as seen in game description), exactly like the game mechanics. The game’s use of a simple pseudo-3D world also promotes the game’s simplicity while maintaining the crucial art style for in-game assets.

Friend’s Analysis

The Lens of Curiosity

Like me, my friend also asked many questions when he played the game for the first time. Initially, he was amused by little interactions with the creatures such as being chased by an angry bee. He derived more satisfaction from these actions and interactions rather than his ability to survive. As time pass, his amusement from these interactions declined while he began to grow more frustrated with dying, since he had not invested in the survival aspect of the game. His curiosity is mainly targeted towards the combat system in Don’t Starve.

The Lens of Punishment

The punishment system in Don’t Starve was a total turn-off to my friend. He is irritated whenever he dies for unknown reasons, which is understandable given Don’t Starve’s harsh punishment system and lack of guidance. To make matters worse, he never bothered to find out the reasons for his deaths. As a result, he dies repeatedly for the same reasons, and it adds to his frustration.

The Lens of Fun

My friend clearly had minimal fun at the end of his Don’t Starve game session. His drop in excitement level shows through his increasingly dreary mouse movements and lack of expression. He only finds fun in the action aspect of Don’t Starve fight or flight combat system. During combat, my friend seem to be more focused and excited compared to exploration and base-building. Since he was not very interested in the aspect of survival, a huge part of Don’t Starve was not enjoyable to him.

The Lens of Visible Progress

This lens is lacking in my friend’s playthrough. His progress was minimal hence he had only a few buildings in his base. As a result, the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment derived from this lens did not apply to him. Consequently, the lack of a progression indicator despite killing many creatures made him feel that his investment in the game was not rewarded. Eventually, he got bored of the game and refused to play it further.

Comparison Analysis

The Lens of Curiosity

This is perhaps one of the more crucial lens that Don’t Starve is based on. Both my friend and I had had many questions at the start which drive us to play the game. However, the type of questions we asked differed. I had wanted to find out how I could survive longer, whereas my friend had wanted more action from the game. As the main focus of Don’t Starve is survival, I am able to derive more satisfaction from the game compared to him since the game does not offer much in the action department. What we expect from the game and what the game provides in response to these expectations determine how much the game is “fun” to us. Therefore, it is important to know the type of game you are creating and the questions it answers towards your target audience.

The Lens of Punishment

It is tricky to balance between player punishment and reward. Don’t Starve’s punishment system motivates players such as myself that appreciate its difficulty and its unique rewards. However, for players such as my friend who want an easy and straightforward game, Don’t Starve can come across as an unforgiving and frustrating game. It is hence crucial to provide multiple levels of difficulty in order to cater to players who seek various levels of challenge.

The Lens of the Weirdest Thing

Making a game unique has a possible drawback of making it strange and off-putting. Being able to provide a different but relatable experience is the crux to creating a unique game. Although I find the game strange, I find the mechanics behind them interesting and not at all overwhelming. However, my friend did not appreciate Don’t Starve’s weirdness as much as I did, and I believe that this translates to lesser satisfaction on his part. Making a game special in its own way is important for it to stand out, but one has to ensure that the mechanics are still reasonable and not “out of this world” bizarre.

The Lens of Visible Progress

Being able to visually gauge one’s progression is tantamount for a player who invests long hours in a game. I felt rewarded when I saw my base develop in Don’t Starve, but my friend did not experience this satisfaction as he did not focus on his base’s improvement. Needless to say, he felt that his progression was stagnant and this made him lose interest in the game more quickly. Therefore it is important to give players some knowledge of progression in games to maintain and secure their interest. Such progress indicators also provide players with the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Website: http://www.thinkwithportals.com/
Gameplay Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUiD2IyUpDI

Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform game developed by Valve and released in 2011. As the sequel to the much smaller but critically acclaimed Portal, Portal 2 expanded the world and the scope of puzzles that the player had to tackle, but still maintaining the core gameplay mechanic of the original game. The player has a “gun” that shoots two different portals that are connected to one another. Whatever goes in the first one will come out of the second one. The game is structured through a series of “test chambers”, each of which has an entrance and an exit, and the player has to figure out how to use his portal gun to get himself out of each chamber. As the game progresses, the complexity of the puzzles gradually increases as more mechanics are introduced.

Self-Observation

Elemental Tetrad

• Aesthetics – Portal 2 has a very clean aesthetic with relatively little variation in colour schemes and very few superfluous effects (e.g. particle or lighting effects). This helps to 1) reinforce the industrial setting of the game, and 2) significantly improves clarity of the puzzles. The puzzles faced by the player can become very complex in the later levels, and the clarity of the aesthetics provides the player with all the information he needs to solve the puzzle, allowing him to focus on tacking the puzzle.
• Story – The main aim of the player is to escape the facility, and while the protagonist remains silent throughout the game, she is accompanied by various announcers and non-playable characters that humorously convey the story. Various objects are also placed around the levels in specific ways to tell the story in more subtle manners.
• Technology – The physics system in the Source engine is very robust and allows for interesting puzzle design, as objects maintain their momentum when going through portals.
• Mechanics – The core mechanic of portals is unique and interesting by itself, but more mechanics are introduced throughout the game (e.g. new objects that can pass through the portal or new environments). While the mechanics seem simple, they are combined together in many different ways, resulting in brilliant level and puzzle design.

Lens of Essential Experience

While teleporting through portals is the game’s core mechanic, its “essential experience” is allowing the player to feel like they are outsmarting the various antagonists of the game, who tend to be various AIs that are intent on trapping the player in the facility or killing the protagonist. The antagonists consistently taunt the player (albeit in humorous ways), suggesting that the player is too incapable to escape the facility. Furthermore, the puzzles players are presented with often seem impossibly complex at first glance, causing the player to feel extremely smart and satisfied with himself once he has completed each level. On closer inspection, the levels are actually designed in such a way that the player is subtly guided towards the solution (e.g. through particular placement of certain objects or emphasising certain parts of the level through aesthetics), while simultaneously making the player feel like he is discovering the solution by himself. All these factors result in a puzzle game that is especially satisfying to complete and hence extremely fun for the player.

Lens of Character

The game has great characterisation even though there are so few characters in it. GLaDOS and Wheatley are AIs that both act as companion and antagonist to the player throughout the game, switching roles mid-game. They are extremely talkative characters, with humorous dialogue filling practically the entire game, even while the player is solving a puzzle. This is unique in that character development and storytellingis fused with the gameplay, instead of being separate aspects like in other games where gameplay is interrupted by cutscenes for narrative purposes. Perhaps the weakest part of Portal 2’s characters is the protagonist herself, Chell. She remains silent throughout the entire game, and very little can be gleaned about Chell from whatever dialogue there is in the game. She feels like a boring, blank slate in some ways. However, this does seem to be Valve’s style, as they also make use of a silent protagonist in their other major game, Half-Life.

Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

In my opinion, Portal 2 nails the fine balance between simplicity and complexity. It starts off with a deceptively simple mechanic and slowly introduces the player to new ways to use the portal gun (e.g. falling through a portal from high up to gain speed). As the game progresses, other mechanics are introduced that interact with the portal gun (e.g. cubes that can be thrown through portals), leading to more complex and interesting puzzles. Hence, there is an “emergent complexity” to the puzzles as the player is introduced to new mechanics incrementally and methodically. Furthermore, while the mechanics are extremely simple to understand, the levels are designed in very unique ways that forces the player to use these simple mechanics in many complex and interesting ways, leading to more complicated and thus satisfying puzzles for the player to complete. Observations while watching a friend

Lens of Essential Experience

My friend’s essential experience with the game was near identical to mine, in that she found it much more fun than the average puzzle game and was also highly satisfied with herself every time she completed a level. She also felt that the game does a very good job of “making you feel very smart”.

Lens of Simplicity/Complexity
My friend was extremely excited and intrigued by the portal mechanic in the game, proving that the simplicity of the portal gun was a very interesting mechanic even for less experienced gamers. Furthermore, usage of the portal gun was intuitive for my friend, and she was able to easily complete the early stages without being too confused over how the portal mechanic worked. This once again shows how Valve managed to nail the “simplicity” element of game design, whereby the game is intuitive to play but still challenges the player to complete difficult puzzles.

Lens of Control

My friend does not have much experience with first-person games, leading to some difficulty in using the standard WASD controls to move the character efficiently. While this did not hinder her from completing the puzzles, it certainly did cause frustration at some points where tight control of the character was necessary. However, it is difficult to see how Valve could have made the controls friendlier for inexperienced gamers, as the WASD controls have been the standard control scheme for first-person games for more than a decade now.

Lens of Character

While I personally found the characters in the game extremely interesting and entertaining, my friend did not care much for their dialogue. Many of the jokes that I found funny did not hit home for my friend, as she either didn’t understand what they were saying or simply didn’t find it very funny. Humour in games is a relatively rare occurrence. Most games tend to tell “serious” stories, and those that do not often find humour in ridiculous premises or simply have slapstick humour. Trying to include more “highbrow” humour is a challenge in games due to everyone’s differing sense of humour. There is also a lack of control over the specific timing of joke delivery (due to the interactive nature of games), which can often make or break a joke. The dialogue from Western games often leans towards Western sensibilities as well, making it harder for the international audience to fully grasp the nuances at times. When done right, humour in games can vastly improve the player’s experience, partly due to how rare it appears in games. However, it is challenging to write great dialogue that appeals to all gamers.

Analysis

Both my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed playing Portal 2, and for similar reasons. We both experienced the “essential experience” that I believe Valve had intended, as completing puzzles in Portal 2 is just so much more satisfying than completing other puzzle games.

The main differences in our experiences were in ease of controlling the character and the degree to which we enjoyed the dialogue and story.

As I am very experienced with first-person games, it never occurred to me that the controls could be a stumbling block for some players. My friend is more accustomed to games where the character being controlled can be seen, or games which have a cursor on-screen (e.g. real time strategy games). However, using a different perspective would change the overall “feel” of the game, and even though using a first-person perspective might alienate some players, I feel that it is too closely linked to the essential experience for it to be changed.

As for the humour and dialogue in general, such things can be very subjective, making it relatively difficult to determine what should be the “best” way to write dialogue and stories for games. Even though my friend did not find the dialogue to be very funny, we both agreed that the way the story is presented is very interesting, as the game has a lot of character even though the player sees very few characters throughout the game. Using various announcers as the primary characters in the game is an interesting technique of storytelling in games, and one that is seldom seen. Portal 2 proves that when done well, this technique can be very effective.

On the whole, both my friend and I agreed that Valve succeeded in creating an extremely fun and unique puzzle game that manages to mesh gameplay and storytelling in an elegant fashion. Of course, the game seems to be lacking in certain departments (e.g. bland graphics and the protagonist’s non-existent personality). However, these seem to be calculated design decisions instead of oversights. While these are usually signs of bad game design, they contribute to the player’s experience in positive ways in Portal 2, adding to the experience rather than detracting from it. In my opinion, Portal 2 is the pinnacle of great game design as every aspect of it was thoroughly thought out, and it is simply great fun to play.

Wong Kang-An
A0097091Y