Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) is a street racing video game developed by the Electronic Arts Black Box Studio and published by EA Games. The game features several elements of street racing, with customizable cars, high speed police pursuits, and different kinds of racing events, such as speed traps, checkpoint races, drag races, elimination and finally the normal races. There is also a bounty system, wherein you are supposed to earn a certain amount of street cred before you can advance in the game. There are various modes in the game: Story Mode, Challenge Mode, Quick Race Mode and LAN Play.

Gameplay Video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ2tYcIvzXk

Analysis

Lens 1: Elemental Tetrad

Story: The game has a good story, which is relatable and gives the players a clear motivation to finish the game – a motive of revenge – which is one of the strongest. One place where it lacks is that the game kind of loses touch with the story in between and it becomes somewhat dreary and repetitive.
Mechanics: The racing experience, although enjoyable, is not very realistic in terms of the consequences of a wrong move – which I must say is one of the key selling factors – as it does not make the game too difficult for the average gamer.
Technology: The game is now old and can run on any of the current generation laptops/computers – all it needs is a decent processor, about 1 GB of RAM, any graphics cards and a keyboard/joystick/steering wheel accessory.
Aesthetics: The game was designed beautifully at the time of release, and even though the standards have reached higher and higher, it is still not considered jarring and old age, which is quite commendable. The world is beautifully designed and the cars are even better to look at.
Overall, I would say that it is a well-balanced game, which performs decently on all fronts, without compromising on any of the aspects.

Lens 2: Essential Experience

The essential experience of the game is racing – going as fast as you can without banging into stuff – except when you want to (during police chases). The game delivers well on the racing experience of speed. The experience is fun, sometimes challenging, but always rewarding. It might not be a very good adaptation of the real world driving experience, but as a fun video game, it delivers.

Lens 3: Goals

As mentioned above, the game sets clear goals for the player to accomplish to progress in the game. For each level, you must finish a specified number of races, get a specified amount of bounty and cause enough trouble to the city through various “milestone” events. After accomplishing this, each level has a boss that you must defeat in order to proceed to the next level.

Lens 4: Beauty

As mentioned in the aesthetics section, the world of the game has been beautifully created. It has highways, industrial areas, residential areas, and even some mountains – a typical city. Even more beautiful are the cars, with every attention being paid to the details of the various parts. One of the most beautiful things in the game is the nitrous flame, coming out of the exhaust. Also, the various customization of the cars make every car personalized and beautiful. And that is very important – since it gives you something to show off to everyone else, especially when playing with friends.

Lens 5: Skill

The game requires a lot of skill, in terms of reflexes and hand eye coordination. The learning curve is very lenient and you get used to the controls as you progress and get faster cars. There is also the “speed-breaker” mode, which slows down time and allows you to turn more accurately, which requires a lot of practice.

DISCLAIMER:  I do not own any of the images presented above. They are screenshots of the game and belong to the game publishers.

The game I want to analyze is FIFA 14. It was launched in 2013 by EA sports. It is a football simulation video game.  I have been following the FIFA series since 2007. It has evolved a great deal since then. It has many different modes, the most popular one being the story mode which is called the Career mode. Here you have two options, either you can start as a player or you can manage a team. FIFA 14 also has the provision of multiplayer, where one can either play locally with friends or one can play online with other people.

Analysis

Lens 1: Elemental Tetrad

Overall, the 4 aspects are balanced. Though the story is less detailed, but it goes well in accordance with the game.

1. Mechanics: FIFA 14 mechanics differ from its previous versions in two key aspects. First is when the player shoots the ball towards the goal. In FIFA 14 the shots look much more real and the ball behaves similar to what it would behave when an actual player would shoot it. The other aspect is the player movements. It appears that they have gone a little overboard trying to make the player movements appear real. Though the fall through reaction immediately after shooting or passing seems real, but the way they receive the ball is sometimes a little unreal.
2. Story: There are two main types of story modes, one being the ultimate team and the other career mode. In ultimate team mode one gets to build his dream team by earning money and buying, selling and loaning players. In the career mode there are 2 options, the manager mode where you can manage a football team and the player mode where you start off as a single player, advance your skills, try to become a star and eventually retire after which you can choose to be a manager.
3. Aesthetics: The aesthetics of the game are really detailed. It has stunning graphics. The players’ avatars seem very real. So does the stadium layout. The post goal celebration is also spectacular enhances the experience further. The crowd has been really improved from the past few version. Now there are 3D home and away supporters, living sidelines and the pre-match ceremonies are very well done. Even the post goal celebrations look beautiful.
4. Technology: The technology required to play the game is a good computer with a keyboard. A good graphic card is required to gain maximum pleasure from playing the game.

Lens 2: Fun

The game is immensely fun. It offers a vast variety of choices to the players. They can choose from a wide range of teams, can modify/create player formations and can play in many tournaments. It is very exciting to try and score goals and defend your goal from the opponent. Additionally, there are short practice challenges available as well to practice skills which are fun in themselves.

Lens 3: Essential experience

Playing the game gives you the experience of watching a football match in terms of graphics. The career mode effectively captures the experience of managing a football team or being a real football player. FIFA 14 commendably gives you the experience of playing as a team and of playing as an individual player.

Lens 4: Skill

FIFA 14 requires a lot of skill. It is fast paced and requires a lot of hand eye coordination. The learning curve is very steep initially. The controls also can be very overwhelming in the beginning. Also, after mastering the basic controls, one can try to perform the special tricks and challenges.  The career mode further requires management skills like who to buy/sell, managing the team, budget etc.

Lens 5: Modes

There are two basic modes in the game – Offense and defense. Both of them go hand in hand, but at one particular time you are either attacking or defending; not both. Since they don’t overlap, same controls can be used for the modes. It is very logical for the players to know in which mode they are i.e. if they have the possession of the ball, they are in offense mode and if they don’t then they are in defense mode.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the pictures posted above. They are the property of the game publishers

Game Website: http://www.mobygames.com/game/swat-4

Gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zg4OMScy7g

Description: SWAT 4 is a first-person shooter that requires the use of realistic squad-based police procedures to resolve hostage stand-off situations.  Players may outfit their squad and plan their approaches as they deem fit.  Scoring is based on how strictly players follow proper police procedures.

My Experience

The Elemental Tetrad

• SWAT 4’s graphics are realistic enough for my immersion and suspension of disbelief, with detailed items, locations & NPCs.
• As I pieced the story together, touches like a mass grave of babies in a cultist’s house got me emotionally engaged.

• SWAT 4’s mechanics were precise, and I felt in control due to the many commands I could easily give for any situation. However, AI SWAT members often got in my way and complained, making it rather irritating and causing quite a few accidental deaths.
• The technology in SWAT 4 was put to good use, as NPC enemies all had their own personalities. AI team members also knew different procedures and executed them independently in context.

The Lens of Projection

• SWAT 4 made me feel like a SWAT leader, following police procedures, and aiming to minimize hostile casualties.
• I could relate to real-life police as I arrested the baby-killer, furious as I saw their graves. I gave the suspect an unnecessary taser shot to express my disgust, and had to actively restrain myself from further brutality.

The Lens of Skill vs Chance

• Each SWAT 4 scenario is randomly generated, such as enemy placement and personalities. I took a very cautious approach, skilfully checking each room to minimize casualties.  However, there were still times when I was surprised by hostiles rushing in.  Thus with skill, I mitigated the problem of chance disadvantages.

The Lens of Control

• I opted to outfit my each member with non-lethal weapons, and commanded them as a team and individually with a few clicks. This made me feel masterfully in control as I directed each element and executed my grand plan for storming a toilet.  The interface was not deficient in options and mastered quickly.

The Lens of Rules

• I followed the ‘rules’ of SWAT 4 closely. These rules are not strictly enforced, and your score will be reviewed at the end of the game with no consequences.  Hence, the rules are rather up to the player, who enforces them on himself to get the highest score.

The Lens of Challenge

• I was constantly challenged as enemies started wearing armour and getting more plentiful. I had to devise new strategies to deal with more professional hostiles, but also had more tools like snipers.  The scoring also left the challenge up to me, where I aimed for 100% perfection in each scenario.

My Brother’s Experience

The Elemental Tetrad

• SWAT 4’s graphics are realistic enough for my brother, who enjoyed the blood spatter effects immensely. He had a great deal of fun trying to paint on the wall by shooting a corpse in a certain manner.
• My brother entirely disregarded the story, and just wanted to kill everybody. His fun came from the pure emotional detachment from the seriousness of the game’s story.
• My brother explored every mechanic SWAT 4 presented, but ultimately stuck to a true-and-tested formula of gassing the room and then shooting everybody who resisted.
• The technology in SWAT 4 was great, and the NPC hostiles adapted quickly to my brother’s careless playing style through mock-surrendering and suicidal attacks.

The Lens of Projection

• As my brother skipped briefings and also disregarded the subtle story artifacts that the player discovers through the level, he did not feel as much immersion as I did. However, he did still feel empathetic towards injured hostages, opting to rescue them quickly – perhaps due to his background as a first aider.  He would however, still get angry when he or his teammates were shot by hostiles, and would project himself into the game scenario rather than into the character.

The Lens of Skill vs Chance

• My brother did not approach SWAT 4 with much caution, and the random placement of enemies frustrated him as he was constantly surprised. However, he soon learnt to play at the minimal skill level to survive while maintaining as much reckless excitement as he could.

The Lens of Control

• My brother did not bother to take full advantage of the equipment outfitting options, and often lamented the lack of specific tactical equipment he needed as he progressed. He also felt frustrated that he could not control the situation as hostiles hid in tactically advantageous spots, and would sometimes restart the level to get a more favourable scenario.

The Lens of Rules

• My brother did not follow proper police procedures closely, and often did the bare minimum in order not to fail a level. However, he had a lot of fun bullying suspects or shooting his own teammates – his rule being that you could do anything to have fun as long as you did not die or get less than 50%.

The Lens of Challenge

• My brother was constantly challenged by enemies adapting to his recklessness. As he formed his own rules, he also formed his own challenges – such as killing all his teammates and completing a level solo.  Upon being stuck due to good enemy positions, he would get frustrated and rush into the room, then quit or restart once he inevitably died.  He preferred playing custom games where he could set the number and skill of enemy hostiles himself.

Analysis

Background of Players (Projection & Skill)

I realised that the existing knowledge and background of the player is important in game design.  As I was formerly trained in urban combat operations, I understood the best way to minimise casualties.  I made full use of the options available to me for each situation, and felt very immersed in a familiar role.  However, my brother did not as he had yet to enter the military, but had experience as a first-aider.  This affected what roles the players projected themselves into (police vs himself), the skills available to them (urban ops vs Call of Duty-style rushing), and the challenge they faced (perfect scores vs frustration, game-rigging and restarts).

Subtle vs Direct Elements (Story, Skill, Rules)

I learnt that not all players could identify subtle gameplay/story elements, and needed to have them directly highlighted to them.  I enjoyed SWAT 4’s story immensely, taking the time I used to scope out a room to also take in any evidence/artifacts.  I also paid attention to the text-based briefings so that I could plan my approach with the intelligence.  However, these were all missed by my brother, who wanted to get into the action.  I believe that he would also be able to enjoy the story had they been presented in a more direct manner, such as through cutscenes or objectives, or even through AI teammates making story-specific remarks.

My brother’s lack of military background also resulted in poorer skills.  While the game did have a tutorial level on the mechanics available, it did not explicitly go through other rules such as police and military procedures/tactics.  This was slowly picked up by my brother the hard way, or with my coaching.  Hence, the game is deficient in its assumption of its players.  If a player’s initial frustration due to a lack of skill and success leads him to quit the game, then it would not have been successful.  However, SWAT 4 prevents this with its flexibility and customisability.

Designing for Various Play Styles (Challenge)

I realised that SWAT 4’s flexibility allowed my brother to continue playing despite his initial frustration.  He could customise enemies to fit what he wanted to play (A Call of Duty-style shooter), and there were no hard and fast objectives to meet.  He could indeed, find success by using an entirely different approach from myself (lethal vs non-lethal).  The vast array of lethal weapons and explosives available were also put to good use by him, while I did not even try out any of them.  Thus, SWAT 4 was well-designed for different types of players in mind.

I felt that SWAT 4 could be even better designed with different built-in game modes, a sort of pre-set for their custom games.  This would allow players to immediately choose what they wanted.  However, even if players opted for vanilla SWAT 4, the AI does an incredible job of adapting to the play-style on the fly.  This keeps the challenge up and the gameplay fresh.

Error Recovery

I found that SWAT 4 might have a steeper learning curve for those without police/military backgrounds due to the tactics they have to devise.  Furthermore, health was not recoverable, and teammates stayed dead. Ammo could also not be picked up. Hence, a wrong step early in the game could lead to quick failure, and players are not able to recover from their mistakes.  Hence, rather than basing game difficulty on the minimum score required in each play, SWAT 4 could have allowed beginners to recover and learn from early mistakes by featuring things such as regenerating health, calling for more backup or ammo.  This would reduce beginners’ frustrations while they learn.

Controls, Controls, Controls

Lastly, what impressed me most about SWAT 4 are its controls.  With an easily navigable control interface, even unskilled players could quickly and easily do what they wanted.  The menus were contextual, logically grouped and colour-coded for superior control and feedback.  Hence, this is something I would spend a considerable amount of time planning and aiming towards when designing a game.

-Daryl Lim

Part I     Introduction

Please allow me to list all the lens first so that we can find the link between

Lens 1 – Essential Experience

Lens 2 & Lens 3: Surprise & Fun

Lens 4: Curiosity

Lens 5: Endogenous Value

Lens 6: Problem Solving

Lens 7: Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics Story Mechanics Technology

Lens 8: Holographic Design

Lens 9: Unification Theme

The game which I would talk about is Defense of the Ancient 2.

It is one of the most famous Moba(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Games)s game right now. The designer of this game is IceFrog and this game is originally just a map of Warcraft3. Ice Frog coporates with Valve, which is a famous Game Company to reproduce this game with independent Game Engine. And it is one of the most popular MOBA game right now.

The aim of this game is to destroy the buildings of the opponents and defend your own building. Each player in this game would play a hero. Each team has 5 heroes totally. These two team would fight with each other.

Video Address for this game:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dota2

Part 2: My own Experience:

In order to play this game, I need to log in into the game platform provided by Valve first and find another 9 players who would like to play together with me.

Firstly, I would pick one hero. There are more than 100 heroes for player to pick and each hero has its  own shape and skills. After picking heroes, game really begins. As a hero, you can choose to farm, push, gank. And you need try to kill your opponent so that you would become stronger and they would become weaker. As you get more and more advantages, you may choose to push and destroy their buildings. Once you destroy the last building, game over and you would win.

I would describe my experience based on different lens.

1. Lens 7: Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics:

The game is using Source2 game Engine. When I play the game, I would be able to appreciate the attractive scene. It makes me feel good. Besides the scene, the heroes have different kinds of equipments. With these equipments, the hero would look totally different and it makes user always feel interested and I seldom become bored because of the shape of the heroes.  Skills are also very magnificent. Such features are all because of the aesthetics.

Story

In fact, during the game experience, I seldom think about the backgroud story of this game. Though this game also has its own story, even each hero has a description which talk about who they are and where they come from. However, story is not very important in this game. And during the game progress, only the dialogues of the heroes sometimes would illustrate some story. At other time, I just need to keep farming, pushing, killing enemies.  Story is really not important here.

Mechanics

As a MOBA game, story is not important. In contrast, the Mechanics is quite important.

Dota2 has great Mechanics and it is the key for its success.

When I am playing, I can get extra money and experience by do the last hit to enemies. i can but different items which would help me to fight easily, I can copearate with my teammates and kill all our five opponents without scarifying even one of us if we make good combo. Such experience really make me excited and they all belong to the good mechanics of Dota2.

The designer, IceFrog also keeps improving Mechanics to make it a better game.

Technology

Same as Aesthetics, Dota2 take use of Technology to make sure the stableness  of web connection. This is a online game. If the connection is not well enough, it would be quite annoying. When i am playing dots, the ping is smaller than 50ms and it provide me with a good feeling.

2. Lens 6: Problem Solving

The secret of the success of dota2 is there are always new problems for you to solve because I am fighting with different real people!

Some game provides problem for player to solve but once all problems have been solved, the player may get bored. Dota2 is different. As a player versus player game, I have totally different problem to solve in every round of game. As there are also many heroes for me to pick. i also get different experience when playing different heroes.

3.Lens 4: Curiosity

Dota2 is keeping updating. Designers keep making new heroes. After some time, i would be able to play  a new hero and it make the game always attractive.

Besides the new heroes, Dota2 also make people curious because there are infinitely many combinations of heroes. Each combination would create totally different game experience and I enjoy the process to try a new combinations.

4.Lens 5: Endogenous Value

Game can produce endogenous value. So does dota2. Equipments are the mainly endogenous value created by dota2. I can get new equipment after each round of game. I can also buy them in the store. These equipments would not change the power of heroes, but only the shape of them. I really like to collect new equipments for my favourite heroes and it make me feel proud when others see my hero.

5.Lens 9: Unification Theme

Whatever hero I choose to pick, I always get one same goal: Kill enemies and destroy their buildings. This is the unification theme of this game and therefore, I would never lose myself and do not know what to do.

Part III              Others’ experience

Second part is the experience that I watch one famous Chinese player 2009 play this game. in order to avoid being bored, my second part would have another structure:  I would describe what I saw and I would try to link the phenomenon to the lens

1. He picks one hero whose name is Pudge and he explains to the audiences the skills of this hero.

Lens 6: Problem Solving

How to correctly use a hero is in face a problem need to be solved. As an experienced player, he “shares” his “solution” to the audience.

2. He use good skills to kill the opponent and therefore h becomes quite excited.

Lens 7: Elemental Tetrad

Player versus player always make people more excited than versus computer. The  Mechanics of this game allow you to kill others.

3. He buys an item which can enhance the hero’s skill and try to prove to the audience how powerful his skill become.

Lens 4: Curiosity

There are 100 more heroes, there are 100 more items. It is always curious that how things would be if one hero get one specific item. Sometimes a good choice for the item can really excite the player.

4. He appreciate the specially good effect of his skill.

Lens 7: Elemental Tetrad

Good design of Aesthetics make game much more fun

5. When he farms, he is ganked by his enemies. He died.

Lens 2 & Lens 3: Surprise & Fun

Playing with other player can always give you much more “surprise” then computer. Human currently can give you more surprise~

6. He feel very excited when his team destroyed their opponent’s building and win.

Lens 9: Unification Theme

He finish his goal for this game and it really excites him.

Part IV        My final conclusion:

What I have learned from this experience:

1. The experience gained from playing game myself sometimes is really similar to the experience gained from watching others’ playing experience. For example, I would get the same feelings when I kill an opponent as watch him kill an opponent.
2. There can also be some differences, for example, I would be more excited when I finish some hard operations myself then watching others finishing them.
3. From 1 and 2, I think the different is that the degrees of emotions can be different but the game determine what kind of emotions or experiences would you have.
4. Different game focus on different lens, as a MOBA game , Dota2 focuses on mechanics much more than story. instead, some RPG (role playing game) may focus on story much more than mechanics.
5. It is good experience to analyse game experience instead of just playing without thinking. I really learned a lot this time.

Bioshock Infinite

Game Website: http://www.bioshockinfinite.com/?RET=&ag=true
Game Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snDNJdmSSHcShort

Description: The game happens in the virtual city ‘Columbia’ in 1912. The player is a disgraced agent named Booker Dewitt who is given the job to rescue a woman called Elizabeth who is trapped in the city.

1. The Lens of Fun

What Parts of the game are fun?
It feels great to finish the missions, especially when Elizabeth is successfully rescued. It is also fun to use the fancy equipments and weapons, such as the magic potion that enables player to throw fire arrow. Besides, the highly artistic game environment makes it even more pleasant to play.
What Parts need to be more fun?
The part when the player needs to search for the clues to achieve the current goal is a little dull and tedious. Sometimes the player needs to spend much time searching through the whole city. And it would be much better if there are more objects that the player could interact with, except for the money and food.

2. The Lens of Curiosity

What questions does the game put into the player’s mind?
The game keeps the player think how to achieve the goal, how to go to certain places and eventually save the girl. Along the way, the game also requires the player to keep themselves equipped with weapons and food while maintaining a good health. Therefore another question that players may constantly bear in mind is ‘where to find more weapons and health kit?’
How does the game make them care about these questions?
The game system constantly reminds the player of the current goal and provides certain feedbacks to direct the player to the right track. There are also some delicate hints that make the player wonder what is awaiting them in future.

3. The Lens of Surprise

What will surprise players when they play the game?
After each mission there would be a new piece of land unlocked which will always give the player surprises when they begin exploring it. May it be a mysterious stranger that gives hints and suggestions, or a new powerful potion hidden somewhere in a deserted room, or unexpectedly strong enemies, there would always be something unknown as the game proceeds.
Do players have ways to surprise each other?
Players could surprise each other too. For example, the player could give orders to Elizabeth after she is rescued, but the way she carries out the order can be different each time. It is also a delightful surprise to discover the special abilities of Elizabeth.

4. The Lens of Virtual Interface

What information does the play need that isn’t obvious just by looking at the game world?
The player needs to know where to look for weapon, food and medicine. Sometimes the objects are hidden in a place that is not easy to find. It can also be tricky to figure out how to go to a destination requested by the game. The user may also switch between different windows to check their game progress, their health status and etc.

When does the player need this information?
The play needs it most when she or he is facing problems defeating the enemies or deciding the next step to finish the mission.

5. The Lens of Essential Experience

What do I want the player to experience?
The game aims to provide the gamers with a thrilling feeling of being a hero and fight against the evil. It has achieved this goal by providing detailed and artistic scenes and well-planed plots.

A business simulator where you have to lead a transportation company through many game-years of development and competition against other companies, human or AI. Competition is for profits and status, as well as the market share of your industries.
You have to build transport links (trains, road vehicles, ships, airplanes) between factories and cities, each supplying a certain kind of cargo. Then you put vehicles on these links to periodically go through your orders, performing a primitive operation (like loading/unloading, transfering cargo) at stations.
Originally released in 1991 by Scottish developer Chris Sawyer, has undergone substantial improvements and growth in complexity. As of late can be used for online play, which is how I have personally drained many hours on this game.

The lens of Economy

Economy is the main driving force of the game. You spend money to build your infrastructure, and earn it from the deliveries. The earnings you use to further develop by upgrading railroads or airports, buying new vehicles or improving your links.
Money might be too easy to get. Initially you can take out a loan, and when the business kicks off, there’s an ever increasing income. However, the game can escalate into a fierce, fast-paced building competition whereby running out of money could ruin the fun, so this is not really an issue.
A rather accurately implemented inflation and interest rates, as well as the ability to buy shares of other companies and bribe local councils give a very realistic, dynamic experience.

The Lens of Judgment

Players are judged by economic performance indicators, such as income, operating profits, units of cargo delivered, company value, etc. This results in a status (president/chairman/chief executive…); a higher status gives you a fancier house.

All players are given equal opportunity and starting conditions, and they can compare their success or failure to other companies. The game is completely transparent, i.e. you can see the financial situation and infrastructure of others, which is a good motivation to do better.

The Lens of Skill

I have played with both complete novices and die-hard veterans, and skill does have a big influence on the result of the particular player.
The game’s success was mainly driven by its railway building system, which gives an unparalleled degree of freedom. Mastery of the signalling systems determines the efficiency of your network and your revenues.

The picture shows a highly sophisticated railway system, built by someone from the forum community. These people are very tenacious about perfecting this craft, and articles such as http://blog.openttdcoop.org/2009/12/30/efficient-stations-and-tight-packed-train-streams/ are in good supply. There has even been a paradigm shift from “point-to-point forth and back deliveries” to circuit-like networks, which are more efficient but harder to convert to a different rail type.
Although learning curve is steep, fun starts already at the lower stages of the curve, so no one is cast out. The game also offers alternative channels for the players’ creativity – people enjoy building beautifully engineered railways (like above), or developing cities, or keeping up a theme like eco-friendly or a soulless corporation. All these different gameplay courses co-exist on the same game map, so players of different skill level can enjoy each other.

The Lens of Time

Transport Tycoon starts in year 1930 and goes until 2030, when following a victory announcement you can keep playing for as long as you like. A year in-game takes around 20min in real life.
During this course, several autonomous developments take place:

• New, better vehicles become available
• Cities grow, their buildings become modernized
• New types of rail (normal, monorail, maglev) and airports spring up – see picture
• Your old vehicles wear out and are prone to breakdowns
• New factories appear (like oil rigs), used up ones close down

All these mutations give a temporal dimension to the game, letting you anticipate progress and preventing boredom. In addition, the graphs from above record a history, so you can see your performance in retrospect.
I think the game’s time handling is integral to the experience. It takes you through the growth of a world whose architect is you yourself. By the end it feels like a lifetime has passed, and you have become familiar with all the cities, terrain and competitors. Saving the game after completion is like taking a photograph of this experience that you can later revisit and reminisce.

The Lens of Problem Solving

Transport Tycoon is played in an isometric world, and you have to lay your railways, roads, and sometimes carve water channels manually. Some tiles don’t allow certain variations of rail, so figuring out how to get from point A to B can be a headache and a creative exercise – “is it better to build rail over the mountain and let trains slow down, or build a very expensive tunnel?”. Landscaping, bridges and tunnels are your primary tools of navigating the world that you have to combine to achieve the best efficiency and cost.
One type of industry is banking, and banks are built in large cities in later stages of the game. The problem is that it’s awfully difficult to build a station close enough, as cities are very restrictive to demolitions. Solutions include pre-emptively building a station in larger towns at the start of the game, before they’ve grown into a city. In this case you have to solve the problem of predicting which cities will grow, and where a bank is likely to be built. Or bribe the council to allow demolition.
Then, there are primary (mining) and secondary (processing) industries. You have to manage the delivery chain to ensure ample input and output of resources, and that you’re not accidentally fueling a competitor’s factory.
Solving these problems is a great source of fun and competition.

Hearthstone is an upcoming F2P digital collectible card game from Blizzard   Enterntainment that revolves around turn-based online 1vs1 matches between two opponents. Players start the game with a substantial collection of ‘basic’ cards, but can gain rarer cards through purchasing packs of additional cards, or as reward for success in the Arena. Hearthstone is set withing the Warcraft universe.

Since I have played numerous physical card games back in the days, the game highly resonates with me. As it is done by Blizzard, despite the large amount of bugs, it is still very polished for a game still in beta phase. The game successfully imitates real cards (it has the right ‘feeling’), is very well balanced, and has a nice learning curve. As expected from the company that brought World of Warcraft, the graphics are slightly cartoony, but a pleasure to look at.

Skill

• The success of one’s game relies heavily on one’s skill
• Skill can be shown in
  • Creating playing decks out of cards in Constructed Mode
  • Creating playing decks out of cards in Arena Mode
    • Each arena run you are given a random choice of 3 cards iteratively until your pack of 30 cards is full, which shows your understanding of the game mechanics and trends
• Playing the game
  • It is paramount to know how to react to opponent’s plays
  • Knowing when and how to play defensively/aggressively
  • Approximating the probabilities of you drawing ‘that special card’ you need
  • Controlling the game board – dictating your opponent’s counterplays
• It does not happen often such that a higher-skilled player dominates the lower-skilled player as an internal ranking system of players has been implemented (see section Balance)

Chance

• The most important aspect of chance comes in drawing cards from the deck of 30 cards
  • The correct or incorrect order for one’s success defines the outcomes of many games
• Every time one buys a new card pack, he/she gets a random set of 5 cards out of 382
  • Different rarity class cards have different chances of appearing
  • Every card revealed can become a Golden vanity card with a small chance
• Every time one finishes an Arena run, he is rewarded with a random amount of packages that may include in a predefined range a random amount of
  • Gold (in-game money), Dust (for crafting new cards), Card packs or a random card
• Every day each player receives a new randomly selected quest with a gold reward
• Chance is not as important to a player’s long-term success as skill
  • With extended knowledge of the game and intelligence, one can work around the lack of synergy between cards and the unluck of drawing the wrong cards

Elegance

• Can easily be compared with chess, which is considered one of the most elegant games
  • The game is between 2 people with relatively equal chance of winning
  • Uses mindgames and countering
• Each match is a short-term goal for a player with the purpose of winning it
• Each match contributes to long-term goals
  • Gaining experience both in-game and mentally
  • Levelling up the characters
  • Unlocking new cards
  • Ranking up in the global ladder and ranking system
• The game is elegant in the freedom and simplicity it gives the player in the ways he/she can construct the deck and play it

Balance

• Game has in-game matchmaking ranking system that matches players according to their approximated skill level based upon former success or the lack of it
• Everyone has the ability to acquire the same cards through the same means, thus being completely fair
• As some in-game classes are sometimes inherently stronger than others, the community counters these classes automatically by building decks that work against them, thus weakening and giving other class decks a higher chance of winning
  • So although Blizzard does nerf the cards that are so good that are used in almost every deck, no explicit balancing is needed on their behalf

The Nameless Quality

• Has very natural design and feel to it
  • A lot of emphasis is put on such that the cards feel physical as in real life
  • Although possible to implement the game in 2D, the game takes advantage of 3D effects to make the feeling of the game more realistic
  • Many apparently static ‘beauty’ elements of the game are interactable as you wait for your turn
    • E.g. clicking on roof tiles of a decorative house to break them off
    • E.g. petting a lying-down gryffin from the Warcraft universe
• From the Alexander’s Fifteen Properties of Living Structures has
  • Boundaries – strict enforced game rules and limited cards per class
  • Alternating Repetition – drawing a card from the deck
  • Deep Interlock and Ambiguity – The cards played might have different effects given their position on the board and based upon which cards it is on the board adjacent to
  • Gradients – as you get better in the game, you also get more skilled opponents
  • Echoes – there are 3 types of cards: minions, spells and weapons
  • The Void – the game board is initially empty and can be emptied, leaving a big space
  • Simplicity and Inner Calm – self-balancing game as time progresses
  • Not-Separateness – high emphasis is put on the synergy between cards and is paramount for success

http://eu.battle.net/hearthstone/en/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyVIsEgk68Q

The video game I want to analyze here is NBA2K series produced by 2K. I have been playing the game starting from NBA 2K9 and the newest version currently is NBA2K14. The game is a sports game with many different modes. The most basic one is to control an NBA team fight against another one. I love the game because I love both playing basketball and watching NBA matches. I find it interesting and competitive especially playing with friends instead of combating with AI.

Main website: https://www.nba2k.com/

Youtube demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9rWnS34UAI (The demo is on PS4)

Figure. NBA 2K 14

Lenses:

l  Essential Experience

n  The game is able to accurately capture the essence of what a player or a manager or a coach gets from playing a real-life basketball/NBA league. For example, you can play as a player starting from rookie year to win numerous awards.

n  The game allows people who are not good at playing basketball enjoy the fun of basketball.

n  The game allows experienced basketball players or NBA fans to gain the sense of achievement by building great teams and winning the championships in the league.

Figure. 30 teams in NBA league

l  Fun

n  NBA 2K series are definitely full of fun. The games contain many different modes which fulfill different requirements and I love combating with my friends via the games.

Figure. Play 1 on 1 with best friend

n  Among all the modes, I love the Jordan Challenges and Create a Legend in 2K 11 best. I can not only experience the highlights in Air Jordan’s career but also play as Jordan starting from his rookie year and finally become a legend by our own effort.

Figure. Create a Legend

l  Skill

n  The game requires multiple skills to play well. Different modes even require different sets of skills. For example, Quick game requires the skill to control the whole team; MyCareer mode requires the skill to control only one basketball player; Association requires the management and trading skills, etc.

n  Players like us have to improve our skills to achieve the goals we want.

Figure. MyCareer mode

Figure. Control one player in one match

Figure. Manage the whole team

Figure. Control the whole team in one match

l  Fairness/Competitive

n  NBA 2K series are definitely skill-based and fair games. Players with more skills and experiences are more competitive compared to those who seldom play the game. There are strong teams and weak teams, but your skill will finally decide which are indeed strong.

n  You can adjust the “fairness” by selecting suitable difficulty levels. There are several levels for players of different background.

Figure. Different difficulty levels allow various players to have fun

l  Control

n  NBA 2K series are powerful “control” games. The game has training sessions that help players get familiar with and therefore master the controlling system. You can always complete complicated actions by using game controller or keyboard.

Figure. Training Camp

n  It is also the “realest” basketball game. A few years ago, NBA Live series was another famous NBA basketball game. However, it eventually failed to compete with NBA 2K because of its controlling system was too poor. It was too easy to score and I cannot feel the power of my controlling skills.