Game description
Limbo is a 2D side scroller platform game in which the player controls a nameless little boy who is looking for his sister. The player does not learn anything about a backstory. To progress in the game the player has to solve puzzles which make use of mechanical effects, gravity, magnetism, among other things. Additionally, one has to avoid dangers such as foothold traps. In some cases, these dangers are not immediately visible, such that the player cannot help but make the character die in the first attempt and avoid them in a subsequent try when he knows about them. The game appearance is a dark, moody, greyscale look. It makes heavy use of fog and artistic blur. The deaths of the character are usually cruel, illustrated by disturbing animations of the detachment of body parts.

Website: http://limbogame.org/
gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT6M1_NnNZ8

Lens of Pleasure
What pleasures does your game give to players? Can these be improved?

• It is satisfactory to solve a puzzle and make progress in the game: resolving a period of frustration with a “eureka experience” of finally seeing the solution can be very pleasurable 
• well-designed graphics, artwork and sound which work together in an aesthetically pleasing way are an enjoyable to experience for the player

What pleasures are missing from your experience?

• Game does not provide pleasure for players who especially enjoy the following game mechanics:
  – levelling up
  – collecting things
  – noticeable improvement over time
  – creating things
  – action
  Those aspects are not present in the game design.

Why? Can they be added? 

• It seems like a conscious choice by the designers to keep the game as simple as possible and to concentrate on the core experience, avoiding everything that could distract from it.

Lens of Surprise
What will surprise players when they play my game?

• In many cases, deadly foothold traps cannot be spotted beforehand. Suddenly seeing the main character die in one of them will probably shock most players.

Does the story have surprises? Do the game rules/artwork/technology?

• When first playing the game, it is surprising not to get any type of instruction on what to do.
• The very reduced graphics style might be surprising for some players; however many players have already seen screenshots before they start playing \
• The movements the player can execute (running left/right, jumping, pushing and dragging objects) are not surprising since it is common to all platformer games.

Lens of Curiosity

• since everything is kept very mysterious, player’s curiosity is triggered
• curiosity is the motivation to keep on playing since no formal goal is stated

What questions does my game put into the player’s mind?

• There is no explanation or introduction, so players will ask themselves:
• Who is the character? What are his goals? What is the objective of the game? What is this dark and foggy venue?
• Mysterious things, like a white butterfly, are placed in the game world without any further explanation. What are these things about?
• How difficult will the game puzzles become?

What am I doing to make them care about these questions?

• The game hooks the players with interesting puzzles
• The possibility of a great story which will unfold later and resolve the beginning mystery keeps the player interested.
• 

Lens of Freedom
When do my players have freedom of action? Do they feel free at these times? When are they constrained? Do they feel constrained at these times? Are there any places I can let them feel more free than they do now?

• When solving puzzles, player has the freedom to interact with moveable objects in the game world. For example boxes, ropes or corpses of beasts. However, the number of these objects is usually very low.
• The overall freedom the player has is very limited. Firstly of course by the fact that the platformer-genre only allows movement in two spatial dimensions. Secondly, because at every state in the game there is usually only one way (or very few ways) to progress.
• Other than trying to solve the puzzles, there is not much else to do. This fact does not change for the entire duration of the game.
• Despite this lack of freedom, the overall feeling of the game is not dominated by feeling constrained. This is partly achieved by the level design: Progress is made by moving to the right, and there is no boundary at the right until the end. This makes the world seem big and open, even though in fact only a certain range of the world can be accessed at any given time (you can’t move all the way back to the left because of certain one-way obstacles in the level design)

Lens of the Visible Progress
Players need to see that they are making progress when solving a difficult problem.
To make sure they are getting this feedback, ask yourself these questions:
What does it mean to make progress in my game or puzzle?

• The visual environment changes from a forest to a more industrial setting
• The character of the puzzles changes from (involving classical mechanics, animals, etc.) to puzzles which make use of technology such as electricity or gravity-inversion.
• The difficulty of the puzzles gets slightly harder in the course of the game
• Besides those aspects, we don’t feel progress. For example, the character does not learn

Game: League of Legends
Game Type: MOBA
Players: 5 v 5

League Of Legends

Opinions on the game

League of Legends (LoL) is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, inspired by the mod Defense of the Ancients for the video game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

League of Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe in terms of the number of hours played. As of January 2014, over 67 million people play League of Legends per month, 27 million per day, and over 7.5 million concurrently during peak hours. Currently, it has become one of the most played in Asia as well as the World Champions being Asians previously (TAIWAN).

The main game’s objective is to destroy the last structure on the classic map, the enemies’ “Nexus”. Other maps have differences in the rules and objectives, such as the map “Dominion” where the team’s Nexus will lose health when the opposing team has at least three of the five towers in their control.

This game is frequently compared with its counterpart DOTA. However, it is different from DOTA in many ways. Some of the ways are:

1. Different mechanics
2. Bushes along the lanes that hide heros
3. Dragon that is similar to Roshan in DOTA but weaker
4. No “Denying”
5. Heroes are bought instead of free to play
6. Weekly free Heroes
7. Masteries outside of the game itself to allow players to customize how their heroes play.

Lens

1. The Lens of Surprise

The mechanics of ganking and how the players utilises the spells on each characters to their benefit will surprise players when they play my game. Bushes along the lanes will allow players to hide from enemies to suprise each other. There is also Fog of War that only allow the player to see what is around his character or his team. Since this is a MOBA, different players can use their creatively to surprise the players themselves

2. The Lens of Skill vs. Chance

This is usually a more serious game as there are 5 people playing and if you
spoil the game it might result in spoiling the game for everyone else. Hence this is a game

Team Fight

where the player should have a certain level of skill. However, there is always a custom games where players can train to play. The game is also tedious as there are lots of tatics to follow and adhere to. Adding more elements of chance does not enliven it as many believe this game to be based on skills. However, there are still some elements of chances that will surprise the players like % of stun chance.

3. The Lens of Cooperation 

I AM SUPPORT

This game focuses on team work to win and accomplish the mission. Each team has 5 players and there are different roles in the team (Carry, Support, 1Tanker) which makes a critical role in team fights. Each roles have different abilities to support, carry or tank in which they assist each other in team fights. For example, a Support Class Hero Soraka can heal her allies in battle by using her ultimate(Wish).

4. The Lens of Essential Experience

In this game, the essential experience that it provides to the players is the challenge of mixing up the skills and trying to predict the opponents moves and working together as a team to achieve the goal of the game.

5. The Lens of Time

Victory

The length of the gameplay is determined by the status of the game. Only
when the team is able to defeat the other teams Nexus will the game end.
Hence, some player might be frustrated if this game drags too long due to the
difficulty of destroying the opponent’s nexus.

Game: FEZ
Developer: Polytron
Release date: April 13, 2012

FEZ is a simplistic looking puzzle adventure game set in a quirky and cute looking world. One if it’s main features is the unique mechanic to rotate the 2d perspective in 3d. It follows a simple story and the player is able to progress by solving a variety of puzzles.

Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

Despite the initial 2d look of the game, the fact that you can rotate the world not only adds another dimension to the world (literally), but also provides the basis for most of the puzzles in the game- as most of them require the player to “think outside the box”, and cleverly use the mechanic in one way or another.

Fundamentally the game is as simple as it gets, as the player can only walk left and right, jump, and use the rotation mechanic. Despite the simplicity, the types of puzzles found in game are very diverse, and vary in complexity/ difficulty a lot.

Lens of Curiosity

The game starts off by introducing the player to the story and main mechanics. After that, the player is left to himself. By only being given the main incentive and not being lead in some way or another towards intermediate goals the player is encouraged to explore the game world. In fact since most of the play time consists of exploring the surroundings, the story goal often becomes a secondary one. Everything in game, including hints and puzzles stay canon to the world feel, and does not break the third wall, unlike where most modern games take UI-driven instructions to the player as the industry standard. All these factors contribute to making the player feel immersed in the world, and achieving the sense of curiosity to seek out challenges and explore.

The downside of this game relying so heavily on curiosity is that there will be players who won’t be curious enough to go forward. And when the story and main incentive is so weak, these people will probably just exit and forget the game completely.

Lens of The Puzzle

As mentioned before, the only way to progress through the game is by solving puzzle. Puzzles vary in difficulty greatly, and can accommodate both beginners and puzzle fans. Most of the time puzzles are related to some part of game mechanic or lore, and the players are rewarded not only with statistical game progression, but with knowledge of the hidden game mechanics and game lore – for example players can find Rosetta stone type slates scattered throughout the world, and if translated it can help player read hints and messages scattered in the game. There are many such examples where puzzles and sense of exploration blends so seamlessly, accommodating the general feel and immersion.

Lens of The Interest Curve

One of the most interesting factors for this game is the lack of in-game guidance. This puts complete trust into the player in regards of game progression and sustaining the interest. Due to such design, the game feels more like an experience rather than a game. The interest curve is determined purely by players’ preference in visuals and curiosity. Besides that, a lot of the initial interest (hook, in other words) depends on the first few minutes of the game.

Due to the fact that the game has no pre-determined, or even recommended path for the player to go, it is possible that one will spend a huge amount of time just wandering through areas where puzzles are too hard, or tracing back long ways just to get one puzzle you figured out due to one solved being similar. This would affect the interest curve

Lens of The World

The world plays a major part in the game. From aesthetic qualities, to complimenting game mechanics and even playing bigger part in many of the puzzles. The world is comprised of 4 sides which when switched between, provide different map layouts- As the perspective is 2d, the overlapping objects serve as platforms.

Game world is shrouded in mystery- but there is a lot of depth to be discovered if the player is curious enough. From old civilization alphabets to cities and monuments, each tell their own story in a quiet way, and the player is free to interpret as he likes. Either way, a lot of the lore elements serve as hints for the puzzles that are in the game, so in a sense, the game rewards players for being curious.

Higurashi When They Cry

Higurashi When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に Higurashi no Naku Koro ni?, lit. When the Cicadas Cry), known simply as When They Cry for the North American release of the anime adaptation, is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft sound novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The games are built on the NScripter game engine and are playable on the Windows operating system. A sound novel is similar to a visual novel in that the gameplay requires relatively little player interaction as most of the game is composed of text dialogues.

The game utilizes intermissions where the player can obtain several Tips. These Tips allow the player to read various supplementary information that may or may not be useful in solving the mystery. For example, one of the Tips can be as simple as “this is a small village; children who go to this school are combined into one classroom regardless of what grade or year they are in.” On the other hand, they can provide valuable hints, such as being able to read the excerpts of the newspaper articles regarding the murders that occurred in Hinamizawa. At the beginning of each of the story arcs, a cryptic poem by someone known as Frederica Bernkastel is read; these reveal some of what is going to happen in the following arc.

(2) Analyse

 1. Lens 2 Surprise

1.1 The players will be surprised by the story of this game. The game tells a murder mystery story, which is hard to be guessed by players.

e.g: The hero of the first story is the murderer, but even the hero himself does not know that, neither the players.

1.2 This game provides tips that may or may not be useful to the players. Players may guess the story by themselves; but the players’ stories are usually much different from the true story, which makes surprise.

2. Lens 4 Curiosity

  2.1 This game is only to tell a story. The story is very difficult to predict, and the tips provided to the players increase their curiosity.

  2.2 The game puts several separate mystical stories into different part of the game. The players will think of questions such that “what happened to the people” or “who kills them”, and they will not get the answer until they play the later parts of the game (When They Cry: Kai)(“Kai” = “解” = “solution/proof”).

  2.3 Some separate stories are related to other stories. When player read a story, they may also think of the questions that previous stories put to their mind.

3. Lens 39 Time

  3.1 The length of the gameplay activities is only determined by how long does the player take to read and think about the stories.

  3.2 The whole story is quite long, but it is separated into several parts of the game. The player can play the game at anytime, and can finish one part of the game within several hours.

  3.3 The game is like a novel, and it let the players think about the truth of the stories at any time and as long as they like. The players are totally free to read and think, with on time limits in the game.

4. Lens 70 Story

  4.1 The game really needs a story because it is a sound novel game. The whole game is just to let the player discover the truth of this story.

  4.2 It is a murder mystery story, and difficult to reach the truth when the player read it at the first time. It is separated into several small stories, and the small stories are all within the same world and same timeline. The players would be interested in the truth hidden under all these small stories and try to discover it.

5. lens 72 Indirect Control

 5.1 The game designer wants the players to be interested in the story and to discover the truth by discussing with other players; also, the game designer would like the players to extend the story by themselves.

 5.2 The game let the players to do it without set the goals.

First, it separates the game into several parts, and published them in different time. For example, players can only read the story without knowing any “truth” when the first five parts of the game is published; at that time, the players are willing to discuss the story together to get the truth. And the parts that contain “truth” are published after several months.

Second, it allows any player to rewrite the story as dojin (within the same world, using the same characters and not for making profit) and publish it as novel, manga or any other form.  Then the players are free to extend the story to any form and extend the story as they like.

e.g. This game now has been rewrite and transformed to PS2, NDS, IOS and Android; the form of the story now includes games, manga, novels, and TV series. All the extensions mentioned above are done by the players and other dojin groups.

(3) Links:

   Game Official site: http://www.oyashirosama.com/web/top/index.htm

   A Game Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0QKoD40asQ

Description of BombSquad

BombSquad is a video game which runs on the Mac and Ouya platform and it allows up to 8 players in a game by connecting from a variety of controllers (PS3 controllers, XBox 360 controllers, most USB/Bluetooth gamepads and iOS/Android devices via ‘BombSquad Remote’ app). It’s basically a simple game where your character get to jump, punch, throw and bomb to defeat the opponent and aim for the goal. There’s a few mini-games ranging from Capture-the-Flag, Bomber-Hockey, King-of-the-Hill, Epic-Slow-Motion-Elimination etc. with different goals in it.

https://www.ouya.tv/game/BombSquad/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duTWs4YKICI

Lens #25: The Lens of Goals

• BombSquad has a clear goal for each of its mini-games making it simple for people who are new to the game to just pick it up in no time.

• The goal is achievable and rewarding at the same time. Users will have a sense of satisfaction when he or she achieves the goal.

• There are both short and long term goals. Short term goals which is in the mini-game itself, and long term goal which is to unlock each mini-game in order to proceed to the next stage.

For example:

• The goal of Capture-the-Flag is capturing the enemy’s flag and bringing it to its own territory.

• The goal of Epic-Slow-Motion-Elimination is to reach the peak of hill to touch the flag. Players will be in slow motion.

Lens #38: The Lens of Competition vs. Cooperation

• BombSquad is a mixture of competition and cooperation, as the game is best played with multiplayers (up to 8 players), players are given a choice to be in a team or in the opposing team with a friend, which means they’re given a choice to compete or cooperate in the game with other players. (Teams 2-8 players)

• There is also options for players to play freely and not have any teams (no cooperation) but to compete individually (individual competition). (Free-for-All 2-8 players)

Lens #42: The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

• BombSquad has the right balance of simplicity and complexity. Its complexity rises out of the fairly simple system as the concept of the whole game is pretty simple.

• The complexity comes in when there are obstacles to reach the goal such as bombs, opponents punching, lifting and throwing you off the arena and so on.

Lens #44: The Lens of Character

• BombSquad has being made to be lovable as it has some funny qualities inserted into it.

• Characters in BombSquad are interestingly designed as little creatures, and the game becomes hilarious from the way they run around, to the moments where you can attach a sticky bomb on someone’s face, you can also pick someone up throw them off the arena, freezing them and other ways to attack the opponent.

• The graphics and the background music of the game enhance a jokey atmosphere and making the game to not be taken seriously.

Lens #84: The Lens of Friendship

• BombSquad is being designed in such a way that it is most fun when played with friends.

• It can break the ice among people as it either requires cooperation to defeat the opponents or have to have competition among one another.

• Its sense of humour in the game alone will allow players to want to talk and laugh about it, that’s when people build friendship through playing BombSquad.

)

Official Page: http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield-4

The game is a First-Person Shooter (FPS), online multiplayer. The game is about warfare on a battlefield, be it an urban environment or in rural areas. A player can play as infantry, use a tank, a fighter jet and a variety of other military vehicles and aircrafts. One match may consist of up to 64 online players and is divided into 2 teams. There are many game modes but the most common are “Conquest”, “Rush” and “Obliteration”.

Conquest

Each team starts with the same number of tickets. The objective is to drain the other team’s tickets. The number of tickets for a team decrease when a player is killed or when the enemy holds more than half of the flags in the game.

Rush

Attacking team starts with a number of tickets. Their objective is to blow up designated M-COMs before they run out of tickets. The defending team’s objectives is to drain their tickets before all points are blown up.

Obliteration

Each team starts with its own set of 3 M-COMs to defend. The objective is to find a bomb that can be carried by either one of the teams and use it to blow up their enemy’s 3 M-COMs.

*M-COMs are just some object that needs to be blown up.

1.     The Lens of Essential Experience (#1)

The experience that the game tries to give is the feeling of what it is like to be in a firefight in different locations, but of course without the actual harm. It does this with such effectiveness using superb animation quality as well as sound effects. A few examples are as follows:

• There is screen blurring when you are getting shot at. This is to simulate the fact that you can’t really get a good look at who is shooting at you so you would have to find cover first.
• Animations of the humanoid player models are mostly life-like. The way they run, jump across obstacles or even when they’re standing at the same position, they just look and feel real. It is quite different from a lot of shooters where the player models are quite stiff and almost robot like. These animations give a better sense of realism in the game.
• Environmental effects also play a part in the experience. When looking towards the direction of the sun, there is a lot of glare and you can’t really see anything within that view. During a game, it could be sunny at first but after a while, a lightning storm can come in and you would see the tidal waves start to get higher and the trees begin to sway violently.

However, some of the implementations such as sun glare can be overwhelming at times, hampering the gameplay. Some would love to use it to their tactical advantage whereas some people just hate it because they can’t see anything. They have their reasons to like it or not but it is difficult to decide if it is a justified reason when there is so much differing opinions from a large group of players.

2.     The Lens of Dynamic State (#22)

There are many environmental objects in the game that can be changed. Be it a building, a wall or water level, their states can change over the course of the game. All these are known by all players when they are in the vicinity. Other player states such as knowing the positions of enemy players on the map also have an impact on the game. This makes it such that usually not 1 game is the same as another.

For example, if a building has been totally destroyed, you won’t be able to take cover in it anymore. If a forest area has totally been deforested, it wouldn’t be wise to advance your position along the route by land as there is no more cover, forcing you to either go by another route or go by air. Knowing the positions of all enemy players also extremely useful in choosing the best attack route.

3.     The Lens of Skill (#27)

As with most FPS games, Battlefield 4 involves a lot of physical skill, that is the hand eye coordination required for aiming accurately at an enemy. Also you would need some skill in controlling the recoil of the gun you are using in the game. Players also get to drive tanks, attack boats, fly helicopters and fighter jets and each have its own different skill set. The game requires a team with different combination of skillsets.

There is quite a bit of mental skill required as well. By observing your environment and the situation, the player will have to decide whether to engage the enemy head on, hide and let the enemy pass you by so you’d sneak in instead or fall back and wait for reinforcements to come. The game’s final objectives makes such decision choices possible.

Social skills are definitely required as well. Team coordination is a definite must in this game as it plays a huge factor in winning the game. But besides that, you can always make use of strategies that involve fooling the enemy team by setting up a decoy. Also given the current environmental situation, one can guess where the enemy would most likely attack from.

The skills can definitely be improved over time with experience and practice are definitely rewarding to the player. However, there can be quite a large skill gap among players and can be quite frustrating at times.

4.     The Lens of Cooperation (#37)

As mentioned before, Battlefield 4 is a team based game. In the game, a player will be part of a squad of up to 5 players which in turn is part of the team of 32 players. The game allows a player to choose among 4 classes: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon. Each class has a specific role in the game and a good combination of these classes and their coordination will make it a strong squad. For example, when any member runs out of ammo, a Support class player can provide ammo for the squad. If the squad faces an enemy chopper, they would have to rely on the Engineer class players to help take it out. If a fellow squad member has fallen, only the Assault class player can revive him. There are so many other things that make playing solo very difficult in the game. This is what makes cooperation very important in this game.

Players are able to communicate with one another through in game voice communications or text chat. The squad can be friends or strangers. But given the clear objectives of the game, it is quite natural for strangers to communicate with one another as well. It is actually a good place to make friends with them.

5.     The Lens of Beauty (#63)

Battlefield 4 basically mimics real world environment and when set at its extreme graphics quality, it is absolutely beautiful as an art piece. The way the maps are designed, the object textures, how real the water moves and looks like, how impressive the explosions look all contribute to the aesthetic beauty of the game. However of course, with such attention to detail, it requires an extremely capable computer which some might deem too expensive to upgrade to or they may be forced to play at low graphics settings.

Other videos:
Advertising Gameplay
Gameplay Video
Video on Lens of Beauty 1
Video on Lens of Beauty 2

Short Description

Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is a survival horror first person shooter where players have to cooperate in order for their characters to stay alive until the end of the round. Set in a zombie apocalypse, you play one of four human survivors who have to fight through hordes of common zombies, known as the Infected (and a few special ones) to the safe houses which also serve as checkpoints. L4D2 has been built upon the Valve’s proprietary Source engine and the game play is controlled by the “A.I. Director 2.0”.

Links

Game’s website: http://www.l4d.com/game.html

Analysis

Lens #7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Technology: L4D is built on Valve’s proprietary 3D video game engine Source. Source provides developers with tools such as a rendering system, a modelling and animation software, a map creation tool, a physics engine as well as other features.

Mechanics: L4D2 is a cooperative first person shooter where players have to fight through different maps where the key objective is to get all your team members to safety in the safe house in order to escape the zombies that are chasing after you. Along with rifles, guns and grenade launchers to reach zombies at a distance, L4D2 also provides players with melee weapons which are effective for clearing your way through enemies. The two distinctive ways of killing zombies give players the choice of different playing styles or simply allows them to use their weapons as the situation requires.

Story: The game took place after the “Green Flu” pandemic, where most of the human population had been transformed into zombie-like creatures due to the virus infection. In relation to the prequel, the events in L4D2 are set after L4D and the story started with the characters in Georgia. While some of the characters have back stories which are explored through the dialogue, players are kept in the dark about the source of the virus and the events of other parts of the world.

Aesthetics: L4D2 had nice graphics. Most of the game had a daytime setting which lights up and displays the level of detail of the game. The movement of the Infected looked realistic as they run towards the characters. The injuries sustained by the zombies are also in such detail that one could see the exposed internal organs of the zombie. For those who are not fans of graphic violence, there is the realistic flowing water to look out for in the “Swamp Fever” campaign.

Lens #18: The Lens of Flow

L4D2 seems to present the players with a good flow as they constantly communicate with one another and still stayed focused on the game. However, I personally felt that there is no cycle of “tense and release” as mentioned by Schell, as I felt constantly tensed during the game and the only release was after the map when we were shown the leaderboard.

Lens #25: The Lens of Goals

L4D2 has very clear goals to the players. The game requires the players to work towards goals that are pretty instinctive, namely to try to stay alive until the end of the map and eventually, the campaign. Considering the challenge of completing the campaign, it could be rewarding for the player. However, if you are playing in the Versus mode, those playing as human survivors will try to stay alive and the others who are playing as the Special Infected will try their best to kill the human survivors. In this case, the reward would be beating the other team by making more progress on the maps.

Lens #32: The Lens of Meaningful Choices

Besides the various strategies that players can formulate and then choose for themselves, the gameplay offers players a small amount of meaningful choices. For weapons, players have to choose between carrying a pistol which has a longer a range or a melee weapon which is more deadly; a med pack for healing or a defibrillator kit for reviving a dead team member; pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails or the bile bombs which all have some sort of area effect. If players choose to take longer and more difficult routes, they’ll be rewarded with better weapons. Getting to choose the ending would not be a meaningful choice as most players would choose to stay alive throughout the game.

Lens #38: The Lens of Competition vs. Cooperation

L4D2 provides an entertaining mix of gameplay that encourages both competition and cooperation among the players. In the 4 player Campaign mode, cooperation is heavily emphasized as it would be difficult for the players to reach the end of a map or complete tasks if they are playing alone. Players also have to look out for one another as they can heal another team mate with their first aid kit or damage the others with friendly fire. Every team mate (who is still alive) also has to make it into the safe house for the map to be considered complete.

The game allows the players to compete in the form of individual score. At the end of a map, a leaderboard will show all the players of that map which human survivor got the most kills or did the most damage.

The interesting aspect of the competitive gameplay would be how 8 players can play simultaneously in a 4v4 Versus Mode in which 4 players would play as human survivors and the other 4 will play as the Special Infected, zombies with other abilities that make them more dangerous than the Common Infected. In versus mode, players would have to communicate and cooperate with one another better to launch combination attacks (for the Special Infected) and to stay alive (for the human survivors). The team competition in the Versus Mode combines competition and cooperation in the game.

Team Fortress 2 (TF2)[1] is an online competitive First Person Shooter (FPS) that consists of 9 distinct types of character classes. Each 9 classes have their advantages and disadvantages against one another, just like the simple game of rock-paper-scissors. Two teams, Red and Blu (not Blue), will compete against each other to achieve an objective. For example, Blu will push the bomb cart to a destination and Red will try their best to obstruct/stop them. Or, both teams will try to enter opposing team’s intelligence room to steal their briefcase and head back to home base to score a point.

Lens #2: The Lens of Surprise

• Each holiday seasons Valve[2] will update the game with new weapons, gameplays, skins and/or hats. There is always something to look forward to at every Christmas, New Years, Halloweens, Easters, and other western holiday seasons.
• Once in a while when a player dies in-game and waiting to re-spawn, random weapons or hats will be given to the player.

Lens #16: The Lens of Player

• TF2 is a typical FPS game with the main objective having to kill the opposite team. In general, players like to shoot with different types of guns in different playable maps.
• Players would hate to see similar gameplays with a limited range of weapons to choose from. Therefore TF2 has different objectives, a wide range of maps, and updates for new weapons and accessories in every holiday seasons.

Lens #27: The Lens of Skill

• The most fundamental skill is aiming, obviously. For Sniper to deal a large amount of damage, a headshot is required; getting either instant kill or 95% of the life chipped off from the opponent’s health. The rest of the characters also require good aiming skill, though not as essential as a Sniper class.
• That aside, to kill without a good aiming skill is also possible. For instance, the Engineer can build a Level 3 sentry gun and sit by one corner and drink his beer; that sentry gun will shoot all incoming opposite team at 100% accuracy. The Engineer just needs to resupply the ammo and repair the sentry gun. Medic needs to point at his healing target at a general direction and he can heal the target already. Spy needs to get behind an enemy’s back and stab them. Demo-man lays down some sticky bombs and waits for his opponent to walk by before detonating them. It’s about trickery and mind games, too.

Lens #38: The Lens of Competition vs Cooperation

• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being competitive and 10 being cooperation, TF2 would be a 7. Though skill is a necessity in a FPS (you can’t be winning if your aim is off), it’s the cooperation of the team members that will enable the team to complete the objective.
• Players are given a choice to play either competitively or cooperatively, and the outcome of the match will depends on the ratio between competitive players and cooperative players. If there are more competitive players on a single team and there are more cooperative players on the opposing team, then the latter have a higher chance of winning the objective. But of course, there has to be a good mix between competitive and cooperative players; being competitive will motivates but the player might die easily while being solo. Being cooperative will help each other during difficult times but the motivation to finish the objective isn’t as great as a competitive player.
• TF2 doesn’t have a campaign or story mode; hence in all the gameplay it has to offer, it is the competition of who can achieve the objective faster.

Lens #76: The Lens of Character Function

• There are in total 9 different types of characters in TF2; Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demo-man, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and lastly, Spy.
• All of them have strong points and weak points, which balanced out nicely in the end.
• Scout is strong when the terrain is big and against slow-moving classes, but weak whenever he is in open ground.
• Soldier is strong against low health classes while weak against Sniper.
• Pyro is strong against Spy, while weak against medium and long range weapons.
• Demo-man is strong against low health classes but weak against long range weapons.
• Heavy is strong against low and medium health classes but weak against Sniper and Spy.
• Engineer is strong against anyone as long as his sentry guns are up, but is effectively a sitting duck.
• Medic is a healing class which helps to keep his team alive. His primary role is not to kill and run away whenever possible.
• Sniper is strong against anyone who is far away, but weak whenever he is in range of others’ killing zone.
• Spy is strong against anyone whose back is facing him, but weak whenever he is spotted.
• And since every character has both strong and weak points, it is absolutely essential that the whole team must compromise with each other to achieve their objectives.

League of Legends VS Defence of the Ancients 2

Disclaimer: I am aware that I am risking my life by writing this post. If you are a hard-core fan of DotA 2, take note that this post favors League of Legends. If you want to argue why DotA 2 is more suitable for you, please write your own post (I play one DotA 2 session for every three League of Legends sessions. For me both games are great, but one is better than the other)

League of Legends (gameplay-video) and Defence of the Ancients II (gameplay-video ) are undoubtedly the most popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games (link). There are myriad of non-stop arguments on the internet about which game is the best. Both player communities have their own opinions why the game they play is better than the other. I have played both games for a considerable amount of time (each > 4 years if DotA I is considered). Having played both games, I believe I am in a prime position to share my opinion on how both games hold up to each other

For the benefit of the inexperienced, I will briefly describe the gameplay of both games. Both games – LoL and DotA 2 – need each player to control a character in a 5 VS 5 game. The characters spawn (and revive) on their base, and their goal is to destroy the opponent’s base. There are several rewarding tasks that must be done by every character to achieve the goal:

• Creeping – killing enemy computer-controlled troops to gain money (money is used to buy equipment to further strengthen the characters) and experience (characters can gain level from experience and learn abilities/ get stronger)
• Killing – killing enemy player-controlled characters to gain money, experience, and to punish them (loss of gold in DotA, and absence from the game field for several seconds in both games)
• Pushing – destroying enemy defensive structure to allow troops to further attack their base
• Customization – learning abilities and buying items are two main means of getting stronger

Among these two games, statistics has declared that League of Legends is more popular and commercially successful compared to DotA 2 (link1; link2 ). DotA 2 did indeed experience a rapid growth during its opening, but it was due to burst of players who are familiar with DotA 1; however, League of Legends player statistics has been proven to be growing for four years.

While a portion of DotA 2 supporters argue the reason of LoL’s popularity is due to it is an “easy game”, I have my legitimate arguments that probably will be easily dismissed by them if they have not played both games for at least a year.

The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity

DotA 2 supporters often claim that DotA 2 offers more “complexities” than League of Legends. I cannot argue with that. However, it does not imply at the slightest that to excel in DotA 2 is harder than to be good at LoL.

There is a fallacy that DotA 2 complexity makes it more competitive and in-depth. This is totally untrue as the complexities are innate – they are not the products of game dynamics. These innate complexities make it extremely hard for a new player to learn DotA 2, as they carry the burden of knowledge – that is – to win a game, knowledge is more important than skill. Even mechanically speaking, these innate complexities are not intentional in the first place; it is the legacy of limitation/presets of Warcraft III on which DotA 1 stands on.

Here are some examples of innate complexities that are epitome of burden of knowledge for DotA 2 beginners (Note: this section may interest ONLY experienced reader):

• Orb effects – whether an attack modifier item work together with another attack modifier is totally arbitrary as it is originated from Warcraft III.
• Black King Bar Spell Immunity – it repels damage from all abilities, but does not make your characters immune to other characters’ ultimate abilities’ effect (another Warcraft legacy)
• Imbalanced distribution of complexity – some characters are totally easy to play such as Skeleton King which only has an active ability, while some others are really complex such as Chen which has five abilities, and needs to control other characters (neutral creeps) with their own abilities. Beginners who are oblivious of this fact can accidentally choose a very complex character.
• Damage type – normal, pierced, siege, hero, spell, chaos, pure, composite, etc. each damage type is reduced by different resistance and is very confusing for new player (compared to normal, spell, and pure damage in LoL).
• Thundergod’s Wrath – deal damage to all enemy characters and reveal them, but stealth characters are only revealed, not damaged. A failed programming attempt made into innate complexity.

In comparison to DotA 2, League of Legends does not have these so-called complexities. Complexities in League of Legends arise from dynamic action of the characters. A good example will be “denying”. In DotA it is possible to deny (kill) your own troops to prevent enemy from getting experience and gold. It is not possible in League of Legends. Some argue that this make DotA 2 more complex, however the reality dictates otherwise. In DotA 2, a player will try to monotonously deny his/her creep while in League of Legends a player will devise a complex way to prevent their opponent from creeping such as nuking and zoning. Ingenuity on usage of abilities and items is needed to compete in League of Legends.

The Lens of Pleasure

Another thing that makes League of Legends more popular than DotA 2 is the pleasure it guarantees to its players.

In DotA 2, when you kill a player’s character, you will gain gold and experience while the killed player will lose gold. This makes early kill really game-changing in DotA 2. If a team manage to secure its dominance in the early game (first 10-15 minutes of a 45 minutes game), it is very likely to win the game. This is because the team whose players are killed frequently will not be able to gain level/ buy better equips while the dominating team will keep getting stronger from the kills. Moreover, if a character dies he can immediately be revived by paying. Winning team can confirm their victory, since a blunder – that allows other team to win – can be redeemed.

The experience of a common DotA 2 public game is described as follow: 10-15 minutes of anticipation and excitement, another 30 minutes of bullying/ or being bullied. This will make a game slightly fun, and later either it becomes boring since a win is guaranteed, or it becomes depressing since a loss is imminent. Although this does not apply to every game, this commonly applies to general public games. (Note that professional competitive scene in DotA 2 is very different from public games)

Meanwhile, League of Legends do not penalize killed player by reducing their gold. This way, early kills do not assure victory since the opposing team has a chance to strike back. League of Legends also disallows instant reviving. The suspense never ceases even until the end of the game since a mistake from either the winning or losing team can be the end for them (eg. The winning team players’ characters are all killed in a teamfight, and the losing team rushes to destroy the base). League of Legends still reward early dominance but it introduces negative feedback to the winning team.

Conclusion

It is clear to us now why League of Legends is more commercially successful compared to DotA 2. Firstly, it is because League of Legends does not have a lot of innate complexities as in DotA 2. This makes the game easier to learn by beginners. Secondly, in public scene, League of Legends provides more pleasure to both the winning and losing players by creating continuous suspense; while DotA 2 aims only to please the winner.