MMORPG Report

Gunshine.net




1) What is the player experience?


 The player takes the role of a random immigrant of a Immigration facility controlled by a tyrannical government.  It is first more like a prison break since the player created character is treated more like a prison inmate.   Then goes out and explores the somewhat liner world.




2) What is the nature of interaction within the world?


 Interaction is done when an enemy runs up to your character and attacks, or you go up to an NPC or player controlled character.




3) How do players communicate?


There is a post enabled chat system that allows you to chat either publicly or in private with another player.




4) How do players socilize?


Players can connect over Facebook if they have an account or play the game together cooperatively.




5) What happens if/when players logout or are dropped out from the game?


Players status and progress is saved to the point where you were last standing in the game world and the world is persistent, it just goes on like nothing happened.




6) What do you have to do within the game?


You are given the choice to either join the Resistance or just be out for yourself against the world.




7) What do you think of the game?


I think this game is fun to play if you want to just explore and run around at a leisurely pace.  Very fun to play.

And here is a Screenshot.

Dead Frontier

1) What is the player experience?


The player experiences a world that is overrun by zombies and has to fight for survival.




2) What is the nature of interaction within the world?


 The player walks or runs around the game world, talking to other players or try to kill them, plus kill zombies.




3) How do players communicate?


Players can communicate via a chatting system that is an option at the bottom of the screen.




4) How do players socialize?


Players can link up via Facebook and even play cooperatively. 




5) What happens if/when players logout or are dropped out from the game?


The player starts from where they died or logged out last time.




6) What do you have to do within the game?


You have to run around the zombie infested world, kill the undead when they swarm you or try to attack you and get to safe havens across the world.




7) What do you think of the game?


Sadly, I am disappointed at this one.  The reason is because some trolling and obviously angry player ran right up to me and killed me right on the spot, for no reason at all as soon as I started the game.  It looks promising, but don't hold your breath.

 And here is a Screenshot.

Spiral Knights

1) What is the player experience?


The player takes the roll of a random knight-robot like being that they create on an odd world that keeps changing and shifting due to it being a giant clockwork planet, descending down to the planets core.





2) What is the nature of interaction within the world?
The players interact with the world be either talking to NPCs, buying things from the merchants, and fighting monsters.







3) How do players communicate?


The players can communicate by way of a messaging system, posting in a local chat or even through email and Facebook.





4) How do players socialize?


  Players log on, run around, talk to one another, or talk on a dungeon together.





5) What happens if/when players logout or are dropped out from the game?


The game is persistent and continues even after the player logs off.





6) What do you have to do within the game?


You have to go on adventures, get down to the planets core but experience something new all the time.  Since the planet is a clockwork mechanism and is called the Clockwork, everything in the game, during every minute of everyday is in constant change.  Meaning the game is always new.





7) What do you think of the game?

I think the game is spectacular.  It has cute graphics but is a joy to play and play alongside others since no one can kill one another and it is all about cooperation.  I would highly  recommend this new game from Sega for anyone to try.

And here is a Screenshot.

Chapter 21 Questions Exercise

1. How do you plan to deal with the issue of new players arriving in the middle of
a long game? Get rid of the victory condition, or find a way to make sure that players are matched with those of similar ability?

I will get rid of the victory condition when a new player starts.  This will mean they have their own learning period or rite of passage if you will to learn what they can and cannot do.  After they have learned what it is they can do, they then have to define what they will do on their own.  NPCs will be active and present at times and will offer not only training exercises but also practical wisdom of how to do well in the game.

2. What will happen to the gameplay when a player vanishes? How will it affect
the other players’ experience of the game (what they see and hear)? Does it disrupt
the balance of the game? Will it make the challenges easier or harder? Is the game
even meaningful anymore?

            The game will continue to run, regardless of who logs on and off.  Other players will be given a sound and a notice on their screen that a person that they have collaborated with or have seen has left the game for various reasons.  This does not disrupt the balance of the game and does not change the overall challenges already in place.  This does limit the game being a bit in terms of it being meaningful, but it not take away a player’s progress.

3. What happens to the game’s score when a player vanishes? Is the game still fair?

            When the player vanishes/leaves the game their score is intact, for it’s a default mechanism.  Being a permanent record of a player’s progress it would be unheard of to delete a player’s progress fully unless they were deleting their own file and starting from scratch or something happened and they have to start from scratch, which is always a bummer.

4. Does your game offer a player an advantage of some kind for intentionally disconnecting him/herself (whether by preventing him/herself from losing or by sealing his
own victory)? Is there any way to minimize this without penalizing players who
are disconnected accidentally?

            There will be a certain amount of fairness in place, which means that players have to disengage from their current activity if they are disconnecting intentionally.  If they are being disconnected accidentally, their session will end but they will be able to pick up where they left off.

5. In a turn-based game, what mechanism will you use to prevent a player from
stalling play for the other players? Set a time limit? Allow simultaneous turns?
Implement a reasonable default if the player does nothing?

            To prevent a player from taking too long, there will be a time limit that will actually tick down to a defaulted action.  This action can be changed from normal attack to something else such as, time usage, casting a spell or causing an effect to go into play.

6. If you offer a chat mechanism, what features will you implement to keep it civil?
Filters? A complaint system? An ignore system? Or will your game require moderated chat spaces?

            There will be filters, a complaint system, and an ignore feature.  In certain areas there will be moderated spaces that are more public.  People will also have to know what zone they belong in and what is appropriate in terms of what is offered.

7. Is your game designed to prevent (or alleviate) collusion? Because you can’t prevent players from talking to each other on the phone as they play, how will you
address this? Or can you design your game in such a way that collusion is part of
the gameplay, as in "Diplomacy"?

            My game will not so much as alleviate, but inspire collusion.  Collusion will be a key pat of gameplay since players will need to work in a group to get tasks/quests done or to achieve a certain objective and/or progress.

FPS Map Layout -- Goggle Maps

A Goggle Maps FPS Mock-up.


The title says it all.

Chapter 10 Questions

1: What entities and resources will be in the game?  Which resources are made up
of individual entities (such as a resource of airplanes consisting of individual planes
that the computer can track separately) and which are described by mass nouns
(such as water, which cannot be separated into discrete objects)?

There will be various flora, fauna, and inhabitants that will be separate entities within the game.  Other entities will be clouds, masses of water, various worlds, and the planet Earth that are not individual.

2: What unique entities will be in the game?

Half of these entities such as the ones the player can directly interact with will change or only be encountered based on the player’s decisions to interact with them.  The other half will only be interacted with indirectly, such as atmospheric conditions. 

3: Which entities will actually include other entities as part of their definition?  (Remember that an avatar may have an inventory, and an inventory contains
objects.)

The various player controlled avatars will have various items in their inventory as well as clothing.  Natural entities will be things such as trees composed of leaves and bodies of water containing aquatic/amphibious life forms.

4: What attributes describe each of the entities that you have identified?  Which
attributes are numeric and which are symbolic?

Each and every sentient entity will have a predetermined path, positioning and lifespan in the game world.  The actions and path of these entities will be symbolic while things like the positioning and lifespan will be numeric.

5: Which entities and resources will be tangible, and which will be intangible?  Will any of them change from one state to another, like the resources in Age of
Empires?

Things like the flora, fauna, and items will be tangible while things such as sources of natural resources, the game world itself, and atmospheric conditions will be intangible.

6: What mechanics govern the relationships among the entities?  Remember that
any symbolic entity requires mechanics that determine how it can get into each of
its possible states and how other entities interact with each possible state.

Walking into or stopping an entity will cause any one of them to have a different reaction and perform their different actions.

7: Are there any global mechanics in the game?  What mechanic governs the way
the game changes from mode to mode?

If the player should die, they will restart at the last check point they encountered and triggered and/or have the option to load a previously saved game.

8: For each entity and resource, does it come into the game world at a source, or
does it start off in a game world that does not provide a source for additional entities or resources?  If it does come in at a source, what mechanics control the
production rate of the source?

The games’ entities will reproduce to create more of their population as they would in the real world.  Natural resources like water and lumbar will reproduce naturally as they would in the real world too.  These functions happen automatically as they would in nature.

9: For each entity and resource, does it go out of the game world at a drain, or does
it all remain in the game world and never leave?  If it does go out at a drain, what
conditions cause it to drain?

Resource entities such as wheat and trees die at the end of their lifespan are consumed by the sentient entities to be used.

10: What conversion processes exist in your world?  What trader processes exist?  Do
any feedback loops or mutual dependencies exist?  What means have you provided
to break or prevent deadlocks?

Since everything will be mutually dependent, the sentient and natural entities consume each other in one way or another to survive.  If one entity or resource dies off then the whole natural system fails, the world then also dies off in the natural process of extinction, another way for the game to end abruptly.

11: Can your game get into a state of equilibrium, static or dynamic?  Does it include
any form of decay or entropy that prevents states of equilibrium from forming?

Once an entity dies it decays, while other entities must consume each other or resources to survive.  This creates that natural equilibrium found in our own natural world.

12: How do mechanics create active challenges?  Do you need to establish any
mechanics to detect if a challenge has been surmounted?

That feeling of having to fight your way out of a pinch, or seeing a problem or someone who has a problem and you can help them out if you want too.  These events will trigger challenges, surmounting them will require that all enemies be beaten or the boss eliminated for instance.

13: How do mechanics implement actions?  For each action that may arrive from the
user interface, how do the core mechanics react?

User interface is controlling the current avatar to interact with the world around them, who’s each and every action there is an opposite and equal reaction from the game world or any of the other entities.

14: For autonomous entities such as nonplayer characters, what mechanics control
their behavior?  What mechanics define their AI?

The autonomous entities will act on their own being an animal performing actions and displaying behaviors natural to them in the real world and more sentient entities such as people like humans or otherwise living out their own lives (i.e. doing tasks on schedules, working, eating, swimming, traveling, etc etc).

Chapter 10 Question 2b on Tetris

2 b. Document the effect of each of the player actions allowed in Tetris on the

attributes of the currently falling tetromino. Bear in mind that some actions
have different effects depending on which tetromino is currently falling. Where
this is the case, be sure to document the effects of the action on each different
type of tetromino.

There are seven types of tetrominos piece in the game of Tetris.  These are; I aka Stick, J aka Inverted L, L aka Gun, O aka Square, S aka Inverted N, Z aka N, and T aka Ice-T.  These pieces fall at random in the game, and all seven of them have a different effect depending on the player’s actions.  The pieces can be turned left or right and be turned in a full 360 degrees, with 90 degree turning intervals and be moved from left to right across the screen until it hits the bottom.  When a piece is falling down to the other blocks then the player must think of what to do.  The core mechanics of Tetris is to test the player’s problem solving skills and memorization skills too.  The challenge they are laid with is in a timer of sorts, the speed of the tetrominos increases making them fall faster.  Also the speed at which the tetrominos fall at can be increased by a down button input from the player.

When the player sees a stick piece falling the best thing to do is to line it up so that it can fall into a deep, single line between blocks.  Or if there is an empty space on the bottom then it can be laid flat.  The same can be said for the L and J pieces so that they fall with the one jutting out square fitting into a single hole and also form a line.  The other pieces such as the S and N pieces can be stacked on one another to create a line and a stair way effect.  Once a line is formed, it vanishes and the whole field of previously fallen blocks goes down one line.  A unique piece like the T tetrominos can be fitted with its middle square sticking out to form a line but it can also fit into an empty space along the walls of the screen.  Although these are only a few of the many infinite strategies that can be formed to get a highsocre on Tetris, which players have to think of or make up themselves as they play this addicting game.

Donkey Kong Quiz

1. Mitchell is unabashedly cocky and fond of self promotion, proclaiming himself the "Sauce King" of Florida for his successful line of homemade hot sauces. Next to his family, Mitchell considers his arcade scores his greatest achievements in life.

How typical are these types of values and attitudes among 'core' gamers and how important is it to understand these values if you are a game designer? What *are* these values, exactly?

These values are the extreme, competitive behavior of competition and beating out all other people, thinking individualistic.  These are the values that are best incorporated in first-person shooter games, to keep that competition going.

2. Steve Wiebe has been laid off as a Boeing engineer, and now spends his time as a science teacher. His friends and his wife, Nicole, describe him as a tragic figure who always comes up short, despite being proficient at music, sports, art, and mathematics.

Is Weibe's 'tragic' aspect typical of core gaming 'types'?

What role does self esteem (high or low) play in the culture of hard core gaming and such subcultures as competitive vintage or 'classic' game playing? How would you best describe the relationship between low self-esteem and videogame mastery?

Steve's tragic aspect is not typical of core gamers, for one core gamer can be not good at anything at all but still be good and gaming, while another gamer can be good at one thing and also be just as good at gaming.  Self-esteem high and or low plays a really significant rule in the core gaming subculture, for a low self-esteem gamer would simply be paranoid to stay on top of all the others while a high-self esteem gamer wold be fine just doing what they do best even in public, play games.

3. Despite Wiebe's protests that his own first score was disqualified for being submitted via unsupervised videotape, Twin Galaxies accepts Mitchell's score over Wiebe's and proclaims that Mitchell is still the record holder.

How valid do you think videotaped gameplay should be in establishing videogame playing records?

If valid, why? If not valid, why not?

I think that taped game scores are not valid, because you are doing it in the privacy of your own home where you can do almost anything.

 

4. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, wondering "Who would have guessed that a documentary about gamers obsessed with scoring a world record at Donkey Kong would not only be roaringly funny but serve as a metaphor for the decline of Western civilization?"

What do you think of the film?

Is it an accurate portrayal of what makes videogames so compelling for those who play them?

I thought the film was an amazing real-life tale of a super nice, casual underdog simply asking for some friendly competition against a paranoid, very competitive wizard.  It is an accurate portrayal of what makes video games so compelling for us, in it's heyday and even now into the future.

5. On November 10, 1981, Walter Day opened an arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa called Twin Galaxies. Though it was a modest arcade of merely 22 arcade games, it soon became known as the International Scorekeeper for the burgeoning video game industry. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies set rules for gameplay on hundreds of games, while maintaining a records database of competitive high scores. Twin Galaxies is considered by gaming historians as being the first organizer of professional gaming, putting competitive electronic gaming on the world map.

How important do you think organizations like Twin Galaxies are in the vintage arcade gaming community?

Could such communities exist without such organizations?

What role does Twin Galaxies play ultimately, and why is this significant to the film and its story?

Twin Galaxies is extremely important, in that it helps bring the gamers in the community together.  Such communities would not exist without an organization like Twin Galaxies, for then people would not generate such vibrant communities.  The role of Twin Galaxies is that it is a hub for gamers to come together and have all kinds of experiences.

6. The film depicts Wiebe's skill at Donkey Kong being linked to his ability to deeply understand the title's game mechanics, particularly the way that rhythm and timing work to ensure a successful outcome.

The film in one scene compared his love of drumming and his abilities at basketball as well as his musical talent as part and parcel of his gift at playing Donkey Kong.

How would you best describe this set of inter-related skills?

Have you experienced anything like this yourself when playing games? Have you been able to associate the skill of playing games with similar related skills and talents and how would you best describe the nature of this set of inter-relationships between skills/passions/abilities?

This would be a multi-skills ability, the ability to do many things that are different but all involve a certain action to initiate and participate in.

7. In the film, Wiebe, while playing the game says hello to Mitchell. Mitchell didn't respond. As he's walking away from Wiebe, Mitchell says, "There's certain people I don't want to spend too much time with." Mitchell offered no explanation for his behavior towards Wiebe but did later explain that at the time of filming, he had not played video games for "more than a year", and that the filmmakers had not given him enough advance warning to train for a public record-breaking attempt. Seth Gordon, the film's Director, in referring to Mitchell's character says that Mitchell "is a true puppet-master", "a master of information-control".

What do you think Gordon means by this? What role does such behavior play in general terms in videogame culture?

Gordon means that since Mitchell has attained so much money and fame due to his past exploits he can influence a lot of people and get what he wants even if he is not there in person.  This sort of behavior is what we call, a godmodder.

8. What did you think of the film? Is it really only about the game "Donkey Kong" and those who seek to hold the highest score or is it really about something more?

What did you think of the film? Is it really only about the game "Donkey Kong" and those who seek to hold the highest score or is it really about something more?

This film was not about Donkey Kong per-say, but it was about gaming.  Gamers and game players in general,  what kinds of them are out there and what they do other than game almost all the time.

9. Have you ever played "Donkey Kong"? What was your memory of playing it? Where were you, when was it?

Yes, I have.  I was playing it for fun because it had Mario, Peach and DK in it.  I was in a pizza places' arcade back in my freshmen year of middle school when I played it.

Gameplay design Questions from Fundamentals of Game Design, Chap. 9

1. What types of challenges do you want to include in your game? Do you want to
challenge the player’s physical abilities, his/her mental abilities, or both?

My game would include a mix of physical and mental challenges; such as how to defeat certain enemies, time limited puzzles/races, memorization/problem solving skills, key choice making, exploration, and finally some fast-paced/action-packed/simple and/or complicated platforming to mix it up to the right feel.

2. Game genres are defined in part by the nature of the challenges they offer. What
does your choice of genre imply for the gameplay? Do you intend to include any
cross-genre elements, challenges that are not normally found in your chosen genre?

This game will have the player solving puzzles that involve platforming/using certain enemies as a trigger and even several sequences where they have to win a few battles or at least beat the enemy back to access a certain part of a challenge to initiate/complete it.

 

3. What is your game’s hierarchy of challenges? How many levels do you expect it
to have? What challenges are typical of each level?
 

The game environment will be on Earth as well as other dimensions or points in history of our planet.  But being such a large world, only by acquiring certain skills and completing two challenges will the player be able to progress in a nonlinear fashion that will be long but will allow the player to go at his/her own pace, effectively telling or weaving their own story.

4. What are your game’s atomic challenges? Do you plan to make the player face
more than one atomic challenge at a time? Are they all independent, like battling
enemies one at a time, or are they interrelated, like balancing an economy? If they are interrelated, how?

Some of the time the player will actually be trying to solve a puzzle either with obtainable objects or in the environment to prevent enemies from intervening, which if the time limit runs out then they will be forced to fight a randomly generated number of enemies and/or enemy types to spice it up every time but also keep the players on their toes.  But these only happen at key plot moments, for at most the player will be will be solving a puzzle that will have a beneficial or adverse effect on the whole overworld but it can be changed from good to bad and vice versa.

5. Does the player have a choice of approaches to victory? Can he/she decide on one
strategy over another? Can he/she ignore some challenges, face others, and still achieve
a higher-level goal? Or must he/she simply face all the game’s challenges in sequence?
 

The player has the option once completing a certain challenge, be it apart of the main plot or a small diversion to freely explore the part of the world in which they currently located at their leisure.

6. Does the game include implicit challenges (those that emerge from the design),
as well as explicit challenges (those that you specify)?

There will be only two explicit challenges, as homages to two other great gaming franchises/titles like easter eggs for the player to find.  There will be implicit challenges that the player will have to engage in even with the final goal is explained at the beginning of the game as per the plot.  Though the problem is not what final goal to accomplish, but how to get to the final goal and how to do it when you are there is the question.

 

7. Do you intend to offer settable difficulty levels for your game? What levels of
intrinsic skill and stress will each challenge require?

There will be a sort of training period for every character so the player can get a feel for each of them based on the cast’s strengths and weaknesses to suit the play style but the player will be able to set multiple difficulty levels to either make the game an enjoyable experience or a real challenge.

8. What actions will you implement to meet your challenges? Can the player surmount a large number of challenges with a small number of actions? What is the
mapping of actions to challenges?
 

 With a multitude of weapons, actions, and abilities unique to all the characters that the player will acquire as the progress, anything is possible.  But all of the weapons, actions, and abilities will have more than one usage and can either be helpful and/or hindering depending on the given situation in the game at any given time.

9. What other actions will you implement for other purposes? What are those purposes—unstructured play, creativity and self-expression, socialization, story
participation, or controlling the game software?
 

This game will give the player the option to deformate the game world but to their leisure, they can choose to form an island, move a mountain range, or melt a glacier.

10. What save mechanism do you plan to implement?

There will be an autosave function at every checkpoint (these will also serve as respawn points since it only makes sense when doing a mission or challenge of some kind), but the player will be given the option to save manually as well.  Also the player can not only save a game on the spot from a pause menu, but even start a new game file, save it, load it, copy it, or even delete/erase said file to their liking.