Defining games: Caillois' terminology

A Paidia game is where the user/player plays for fun and where random things happen which where made by the user/player for doing actions corrected by them self such as things being destroyed, glitching and exploring. My first example of this is 'Dead rising 3' made by Capcom Vancouver. Published by Microsoft studios (2013). This game allows the players to do what they please in a zombie outbreak giving the players choices to do random events or continue doing what they please. By these features it puts this game in the alea categories.

My seconded example is 'sunset overdrive' made by Insomnica games. Published by Microsoft studios (2014). This game is slimier to my first example where it allows the player to choice what they choice to do without any consequence, Sunset Overdrive takes place in sunset city in the year 2024 witch is now being controlled by a virus that started over a energy drink. By these features it puts this game in the alea and ilinx categories.

A Ludus game is where the user/player plays by a set of rules and the game only goes one way which the designer choose for it. My first example is 'Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2' made by Treyarch. Published by Activision (2012). This first person shooter game has a set story line which players have no choice but to go by, the only choices players get to make is the way they approach missions only giving them one outcome. By these features it put this game in the mimicry and agon categories.

My second example is 'Halo 4' made by 343 Industries. Published by Microsoft studios (2012). This game is also a first person shooter which has a set story for players to follow not giving them choices to change the outcome, The game does have little side things to do A.K.A Easter eggs but doesn't change anything to the game its self making it a Ludus game. By these features it put this game in the mimicry and agon categories.

Games Britannia: "Dicing with Destiny"

Watching this hour long documentary by Benjamin Woolley as he spoke about games which go back to the Victorian era I found that there wasn't much differences between game then and now. Each one had it's own form of competitiveness from fun to winning, by this I mean each game had it's unique way of making the players want to win either if it's a friendly game such as 'Chest' which makes you think hard about your next choice even making you choose to sacrifice a certain piece to gain more control over the game.

I find games which know how to control the behavior of the player can have an effort on people to make them want to play the game them self which make videogame's today popular on 'YouTube'. Either tho games today are digital they still have the same effect as bored games or any other type of games which can draw the player in to want more.

Woolley spoke about the game 'Snakes and ladders' which is a well known kids game and how it changed the world on how games are played. Snakes and ladders have nothing to do with each other but some how works when put into a game which made it into many family homes and can be played by any age which games today can lake on.

I watched the episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p90d8

Changing Battleships rules

The rules for 'Battleship' work very well and can provide hours of fun but what can happen when you change some game mechanics such as adding new rules which can change the style of the game.

Playing Battleship with new rules gave a different feel to which most people have played are used to.  The new rules which we added to the game where every 3 turns the player has they get to use a different attack which allows them to hit 3 spaces on their opponents side unless their 5 space ship is destroyed. An other rule which was added gave the player the ability to move their 2 space ship by 1 space every 5 turns it wasn't hit (this rule didn't apply once it got hit once).

I found that these new rules went well with the game and didn't change to much keeping the main mechanics of the game working well which was the main goal of the task.

Blibliography

Nick, F. The strange case of the casual gamer. Page, 143-163. In Isbister, Katherine. Schafer, Noah. (2008). Game usability. Burlington, USA: Morgan kaufmann



Geoff, K. Die hard/try harder: narrative, spectacle and beyond, from hollywood to videogame. Page, 50-64. in King, Geoff. Krzywinska, Tanya. (2002). Screenplay:cinema/videogames/interfaces. London, U.K.:Wallflower Press