Week 2: Excercises

2.1: Think of a Game (p29):

1. The first game I could think of is Team Tag (There's no official name and I just literally translated it from the Thai name that I know) that I've played a lot during childhood. The rules are simple. Like normal tag, players decide on one player being the 'it' at the start of the game (by rock-paper-scissors etc..). As the game starts, other players are supposed to run away from 'it.' Then, when a player is tagged by 'it,' they will also become 'it' with the initial player who tagged them. As the game progresses, more players will become 'it' and there will be less players escaping. The game ends with every player becoming 'it' or the chasing team gives up on finding the rest of the escaping players. There's no number limit to the player of the game, and the play area is decided by the players themselves.

2. The second game is Dear Esther (2012). This is a digital game of the walking simulator genre. There are no rules except to walk around and explore the island the player is on to learn the story from the narrator. As the game progresses, the player will hear various voice overs that tells a story about a woman named 'Esther.' There are many places to explore in the game, from caves to abadoned houses and shores. The game ends when the player reaches what seems like a radio tower at the top of the hill (this tower could be seen as being far away at the start of the game). This is a single player game that focuses on the experience of the player, rather than the game play.

3. To compare, I will start off with the differences first. It is the obvious that the number of players required to play the games are different, while Team Tag could only be played with more than two players, Dear Esther only allows one player to play the game at a time. Another difference is the pattern of the gameplay, while Dear Esther presented only one pattern or the player vs. the game, where the player are supposed to explore and find out as much as possible, Team Tag starts off with a unilateral competition which eventually turns into team competition which then goes back to unilateral competition. The dynamic of the game changes thorughout the gameplay as the number of the chasers and the runners changes as the game progresses. There are also player vs. player pattern and cooperative play within the game as well. In addition, there is clearly a defense and offense system in Team Tag which obviously puts tension in the defense and obstacles for the offense to work through, while in Dear Esther, there is nothing coming to attack the player, except the past the the narrator is reminiscing that could create uneasiness or tension in the atmosphere.

Surprisingly, I've found more similarities between these two comepletely different games than I've expected. The first one being the replayable value of both games. Depending on where you choose to explore first in Dear Esther, you can hear different narrations, and some narrations will only be triggered in certain places. These narrations aren't in order either, so it takes several turns to piece together the story. There are also so many places to explore that it is almost impossible to ecplore the whole island in one play, therefore making the game replayable. As for Team Tag, with the different variables like the number of players and the play area, the game could be play over and over again and never be the same due to the behaviors of the players each time. And even with the same exact players playing within the same area, due to the different decisions each player make, the game can be entirely different as well. The next similarity is how exploration is a crucial thing for the players of both games. In Dear Esther, the only way to progress os to explore. The same goes for Team Tag, where the more you explore and be familiar with the play area, the better you will be in finding or running away from the other players. There is no downside to getting familiar with the play areas and to keep exploring until you know every spaces within those areas of the games. In addition, in both games, the players have agency in the game, or they feel like they do. Although Dear Esther only have one ending, players can choose to walk in any direction and explore the places in any other and piece together their own version of the story. This is even more true in Team Tag, where the players can run in any direction that is within the play area. They can choose to hide or keep running. They can even choose to play offense or defense, giving themself up to the 'it' player to become the offense team if it seems more advantageous to the game dynamic, or even if it seems more fun.

2.3: Objectives (p32):

1. Monopoly Deal - The objective is to be the first player to collect 3 complete sets of properties.

2. Beat Saber - The objective is to slice the boxed with the correct hand, avoid the walls and the bombs and complete the level you are in.

3. Outlast - The objective is to stay alive, by hiding and escaping, and find out the truth about Mount Massive Asylum while recording it on camera.

4. Mario Kart - The objective is to be the first person to complete the level you are in.

5. Ib - The objective is to stay alive and solve puzzles to escape the art gallery.

2.4: Rules (p33):

Games like Tag and its variations only have 1 rule. However, I couldn't seem to think of a game that have no rules at all. Would something be a game if it has no rule? I think that this excercise is difficult because rules define what the player can and cannot do within the boundary of the game. Without rules, the "magic circle" wouldn't be complete, or maybe it wouldn't even exist. The rules allow the game to function and create  the expereinces that was intended for the players. The game may cease to function without rules, or fail to entertain and immerse the players at all.

2.6: Challenge (p37):

1. Pump It Up (Arcade) - This game require you to physically response to each note and beat, and the player can pick the different level of difficulties. I find this game challenging due to the fact that you have to match your eyes and what you're seeing to your feet and their positions. Unlike computer and console games, where I use mostly my hand to play, Pump It Up requires the controlled movement of the feet and legs which is something I'm not used to. Although the game is easier with songs that I'm used to since I would know the beat, it is still very challenging to play after a while since the game exhausts me physically.

2. Mine Sweeper - Every time I play mindsweeper, I would clear the tiles very fast at first, and drops the pace gradually. There are two things that I find challenging about Minesweeper. The first one is that, after a while of playing, sometimes I find myself stuck with no clues left. Although I know that I might be overlooking a tile that would help me to progress, it is difficult to examine through all the tiles and numbers to find that one clue due to the large amount of numbers showing. Another thing is that I sometimes make a mistake in flagging the wrong tile. This is my fault, and doing so makes it extremely challenging to progress in the game since that flag would messed up the system that I had going for myself, causing me to click on a bomb or find myself in a deadend sooner or later.

3. Monopoly - The challenging part about monopoly isn't the rules, but the decisions I have to make. Since the game also depends on luck, there's not set strategy that would work all the time in Monopoly. During the play, I found myself questioning whether I should save money, or spend them on property and houses in order to get more rent, but then that doesn't mean that the other players will keep landing on my property that I spent so much on, and so on. Beacuse there's so many possibilities in monopoly and even more with different players, I find it challenging when making decisions that may or may not help me in reaching the goal of the game.

6.4: Blue Sky Brainstorm (p170)