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

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.

NEO RUI SHAN

Game: League of Legends (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DehYAG7698Y

• Introduction
League of Legends (LoL) is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game which is similar to Defense of the Ancients (DotA). For every game, each player will get to choose a character, also known as champion and are teamed alongside with other players to destroy the enemies’ base. Similarly to DotA, the players earn small amount of gold passively during the game and by killing minions and enemies’ champions. After each game, players will earn experience points after each game which allows them to level up their Summoner (personification of player) till a maximum of level 30. Gaining levels will unlock mastery points and tune slots which help to improve the overall strength of the player’s chosen champion in-game.

• Lens of Character Function
– Every champion is unique in their own ways. They play different roles in a game too
– There exist several character functions such as the junglers, assassins, fighter, mage, support, tanker and marksman
– For instance, a support champion naturally plays the role of healing wounded allies and strengthening their stats, such as providing them with higher defence or speed for several seconds. They can also be used to stun the enemy champions to buy time for their allies to escape. A good such support in LoL would be Sona

– Not only should a team have well balanced characters, they must also decide which champions should run the top, mid and bottom lane, depending on the functions and equipment, for more advantages

• Lens of Competition
– LoL is a Player VS Player (PVP) or Player VS Bots game
– Playing with bots will be pretty boring for advanced players as the enemy bots are very predictable since they are programmed to do their every action
– Each game in LoL PVP is a trilling competition since every player have different playing styles
– and thus, playing frequently and gaining experience is really important for serious competitive players as they must be exposed to different styles and learn how to counter them

• Lens of Cooperation
– Nobody plays to lose, especially in a team game. Therefore they will be more pressured to contribute to the team in one way or other
– It is important for teammates to look out for one another’s backs and help each other to escape whenever their champion is at the brink of death
– Newer and weaker players usually are more selfish and complain a lot during the games, especially when other players make a kill steal (KS) or they will fight over which lane to use
– On the other hand, stronger and experienced players cooperate to take down enemies together even though they did not get the kill, they will offer the lane to someone who needs it for than their champion
– Communication is very important when playing LoL. Most of the time, I would sign in to Skype to talk to my other teammates about the strategy we should employ in the game according to the way our enemies play

• Lens of Skill
– LoL is not really a difficult game once you get a hang of it. Most of the time, a win and lose is highly dependent on the players’ skills on how they use the champions and good teamwork
– A team with an extremely skilful and strong player and four other weaker players can still win a team of five average players and of course, it also depends on how well the other team can cooperate too
– Memorising all the skills and abilities of every champion is definitely a plus point as you can predict and avoid the incoming attacks
– The timing to stun opponents and to use skill shots on them is really important as well. For instance, one of my favourite champion Anivia, has a skill called Flash Frost which flies really slowly for a short distance in a straight line, thus I must always predict the movement of my enemies before firing Flash Frost, a hit can damage and slow down the movement of enemy champion by 20% for 3 seconds which is very crucial for the enemy to escape and for myself to take the kill

– Adding on, players should also know what to equip their champions during the game. Strong players know how to vary the equipment used during late game, while less experience players would google their champion’s guide beforehand and follow the recommended equipment set

• Lens of Chance
– In every game, there bound to be some chance and luck too. Although LoL is a game that depends on skills, players do have chances to finish off their enemies even though it seems near impossible
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiu5quoGvoU
– In the above Youtube clip, it portrays the chances that the champion Ashe has to finish off opponents from far with her Enchanted Crystal Arrow. The players must be really skilful in estimating the timing to make those kills

– Furthermore, equipment such as the Phantom Dancer allows the champion which wields it to have an increase chance of 30% critical strike which is extremely crucial during a 1-1 battle in game

Although chance plays a part LoL, I believe that experience players, who balance their team well with the correct champions, along with good teamwork and skills can still dominate the game. All in all, I believe LoL is a well-balanced game of fun and skills which is why they are extremely successful in the gaming industries. They are rumoured to be able to be on par with DotA or even surpass it.

The Game

Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a free-to-play tower defense video game which is the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies. In this game, the player is a homeowner and has to decide on the type of plants to use to fight off waves of zombies so as to keep his garden alive. Each type of plant has its own unique role on the field, and zombies also differ in terms of health level. New and more powerful plants/zombies are unlocked or appear as the game progresses. This game requires the player to think and plan the strategy on the spot as the waves of zombies appear.

Official Website: http://www.popcap.com/plants-vs-zombies-2
YouTube Tutorial/Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvYGXpPhv7Q

Analysis using Lenses

#1 – The Lens of Essential Experience

The main experience that players get is the trill of killing the zombies using different types of plants, which also requires some skills and tactics when planting the plants. The ultimate goal is to prevent the zombies from reaching the end point, hence players need to act fast. They need to think and plan carefully, or even change the type of plant halfway through the game when the zombies are too difficult to tackle.

However, in Plants vs. Zombies 2, a new way of killing the zombies is introduced, though at a cost (using the gold earned in the game). This new experience involves players using finger actions like pinching, swiping and flicking zombies away, and electrocuting the zombies by long pressing the screen. This makes the game more fun to players and brings more interactivity as players can directly “touch” and kill the zombies instead of just placing plants around the area and waiting for the plants to shoot the zombies down.

#2 – The Lens of Surprise

Several surprises are incorporated into the game, which adds an additional element of excitement for the players:

• Completing each level unlocks a new item: New plants, power ups, costume, gold, key to a new world, etc. The surprise involved here is that players cannot guess what they will be unlocking for the next level, which makes the game more interesting as the player is more motivated to want to complete the goal for the level and get rewarded with a surprise, which is something they can anticipate for but at the same time not knowing what they will get. The big boss will also randomly appear in some levels, adding on to the surprise as well, as players have to frantically fight it off.
• Graphics-wise, there is also an element of surprise when players use the new power ups or plants and watch how they are used to kill the zombies. The overall effects in the game (e.g. plants exploding zombies, burning zombies that suddenly appear, etc) are also pleasurable surprises to the player’s eyes, hence making the game more engaging to players.

#3 – The Lens of Goals

The ultimate goal of the game is to prevent the zombies from eating your brains, when they managed to walk to the end point. This goal is clear to the players, and is told to players at the very start of the game during the tutorial. The goal is generally achievable for the players, and if in any case the goal cannot be reached, the player is allowed to replay the level at no cost, hence there is no demotivation involved if a player loses the game.

Some small goals are introduced randomly throughout the game as well, which makes the game a little more challenging and different, such as using only a specific number of plants to complete the level, or to protect three plants from being destroyed by the zombies.

#4 – The Lens of Time

Each level in the game takes roughly 4 minutes to complete. It’s an adrenaline rush during the entire level as the waves of zombies appear, and the player has to fully concentrate during the game to defeat them. Although 4 minutes doesn’t seem very long, this is definitely one of the bad point for Plants vs. Zombies 2. In this version, it is specifically catered to the mobile platform hence the game play seems a bit too long especially for people who play this game when they travel. Looking away from the screen just for a while can be damaging, hence this is a game that requires absolute attention and should be played when you have ample alone time when nobody is there to disturb you. In this case, each level can be shorter or the waves of zombies can appear within a longer time interval, to give players more time to react.

#5 – The Lens of Beauty

The graphics definitely suits the image of the game that is being portrayed, not too cute and not too mature; it is a game for everyone. The maps, characters, zombies, plants, power-ups and upgrades are all nicely designed and serve their purpose well. Animations and in game effects are appropriate and not too cluttered, which makes the game a pleasure to play. The graphics certainly supplements the game play, which is the main pull factor (especially for me) to play the game, and make it more interesting and engaging for the players.

Counter-strike : Global Offensive (CS:GO) is an online first-person shooter that is the latest installation from the Counterstrike franchise. It is a team-based, objective-based multiplayer game. Each player joins either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist team and attempts to complete objectives or eliminate the enemy team. There are many different game modes that revolve around this theme, but the main one we will take reference from will be Classic Competitive. Each team will have 5 players, and it will least a maximum of 30 rounds. At the start of each round, players purchase weapons and gear with money earned from various actions, from getting kills to completing objectives. Objectives differ depending on the map, one requires the Counter-Terrorist to extract hostages, and the other requiring the Terrorist to detonate a bomb. For both types, a round ends when the objective is complete, the time has expired before the objective was met, or a whole team is eliminated.

Game website : http://blog.counter-strike.net/

Gameplay example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KslmylFCWLc

The first lens I will be using to analyse CS:GO is (7) The Elemental Tetrad, which comprises of Aesthetics, Technology, Mechanics and Story. The Aesthetics of the game has definitely improved leaps and bounds since the last one, and it definitely looks, sounds and feels more immersive, especially with much more attention paid to details. An example would be like the inclusion of a helicopter for the Counter-Terrorist team’s insertion into the mission location, which previous would just spawn the players at a location. These tiny additions make the game feel much fuller. Technology would be quite straightforward, because the basic keyboard and mouse can be used, with even the possibility of playing with a game controller. As for Mechanics, it follows basic FPS conventions, and yet it has the “buying” component that opens that dimension of strategizing how to work in a team to spend money most optimally to ensure a win. As for Story, there is no overarching story, but rather each match is a small narrative of a battle between Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. It would have been more interesting if there was an embedded storyline, somewhat like a previous installation Condition Zero. Looking at CS:GO in an overview, we can see that it has all elements in it, and these elements work together to build and reinforce the game’s theme. The story is better brought out thanks to the improved aesthetics, and these makes the game more immersive into the mechanics put in place for players.

The next lens I will be using is (25) Goals. Looking at the goals within CS:GO, it can be said that they are appropriate and well-balanced. The simplest would be having a common goal for all players – the elimination of the other team. On top of that, there is also your team specific goal, which is either to plant/prevent the planting of a bomb, or to rescue/prevent the rescue of hostages. These are actually all there is to CS:GO’s Classic Competitive mode, which are simple to understand and grasp. Yet, one small issue is that this is not clearly spelt out to players at the beginning of the match; rather it is explained through the tutorial game, which players might miss out (because it is not mandatory). But other than that, players can still communicate with their teammates, so there are other possibilities for them to find out about their goals.

The next lens is (36) Competition, which appeals to our competitive nature. For this there is the ranking system, which ranks players according to their game stats, promoting or demoting them accordingly. This ranking system spurs players to want to win and climb up the ranks. And these ranks are also used to match-make players of similar ranks to play against one another, so as to provide an environment of fair competition where players of different skill levels can compete. This is a robust system as it also does not give new players any advantage over more expert players, rather it just puts all the new players into the same game, instead of making it harder for expert players to kill new players. However, accurate as it may be, latency, hardware differences and hacking can still cause “unfair” measurements of player skill, damaging the game’s mechanics to create fair competition.

(A list of the ranks available in Classic Competitive)

Another lens I will be using is (37) Cooperation, since it is an essential aspect of CS:GO. There is currently text and voice chat available, and also some fixed commands players can issue, but communications could further be improved if these fixed commands could be freely configurable by players to set custom controls for them. As for working together as a team, this can consists of friends and/or strangers, and there is a short warm-up time before each match, thus giving a team of strangers to warm-up and learn about one another’s playing style or exchange strategies. With regards to synergy or antergy, it really depends on how the team plays together. For example, having teammates to watch your back and cover you is synergy, but having teammates friendly fire you is antergy. As for roles within the game, there are no designated roles, but these can be set internally. For example, a team of 5 snipers would definitely be unwise, so players would have to communicate to assign roles for carrying different weapons, like sniper rifles, assault rifles, sub-machine gun, etc. Another way to designate roles would be in a Bomb Defusal game, where the Counter-Terrorist team splits up to guard different bomb sites.

Lastly, the final lens is (75) Avatar. Looking at the avatars used in its predecessors, CS:GO has done a really good job in creating multiple avatars, not only a set for Terrorists and a set for Counter-Terrorists, but even different avatars for of these characters in different settings. For example, one map is at a sugar plantation factory, and the Terrorists avatars are specifically fitting for the setting, as they are African men, who are shown to be locals. Even the hands holding the weapon by players in the first-person view shows a gold chain around the terrorist’s wrist. On top of that, there is even voice-acting in an African accent, saying things like “we will chase them off this island”. All these adds to the immersion of players into taking on the identity of the avatar and really play as a terrorist.