Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=197https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1486The next hour I played 8vs 8 team-battles and my god was it a lot more fun. I cannot explain why but to me beating three people with one person (Raphael I own with him). I cannot describe what it is about eight vs. eight except that it is more skill than luck in it. By the second hours beginning, I was back in my game and that may have made this more fun because I began wining more often, which is always great. It frustrates me a little that you do not receive damage while blocking. It seems illogical that a person could block a giant sword swing with a hand and remain alive, and not only that but undamaged, I feel that some damage even if greatly reduced would have made it more fun because than you would not need to stop a combo in the middle and hit the other persons legs. Talking of hitting legs I really enjoy how a sword in the face will just hurt you but poke someone in the leg and they begin jumping around on one leg for a little bit, I find it funny. The combo system in the game again is extremely simple with no move being more than a few buttons pushed together and a direction, which is also, why new players can jump right in the game that said there are different combos that work better for different situations and it takes a very experienced player to figure it out. Fighting on ice wow so fun. That was my reaction to one of the arenas, which was fully on ice and made people slide around as they fought often resulting in people failing off the side because they get pushed when someone hits them. This map was very entertaining because in it no one ever died and everyone simply fell off usually.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:27:45 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1486&iddiary=3126https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1486Soul caliber 3 is a very fun addicting game to play together. I am typing up both reports on the game though I wrote them down separately earlier at my friends room in crown where we played the game. Game is simple you fight each other and you win or lose. This game is gore less likely so that the creators can capture a younger audience. This game unlike some of the new fighting games is not insanely difficult to master enough to begin enjoying it. Infect a good “button masher may beat a more experienced player once in a while. The fact that the game offers the choice of many characters makes it fun by creating many different battles and not only that but your hero is customizable as far as what weapons each person can use and the effects of those. I was less experienced than my friend was in soul caliber 3 but was very good in soul caliber 2. We played vs. constantly for about an hour and than I sat and wrote this up. I feel that this game was really just a tiny add-on to the previous one and it kind off annoyed me that some of the characters were not what I remembered them as. This whole thing seemed to be a good game all over due o the fact that it allowed me to exert violence without hurting anyone.Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:16:02 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1486&iddiary=3123https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=414DotA DMAREM is the custom map I played again. (game log 2 for assignment) Why do I play DotA? This time I am actually wondering this. DotA has no rules about behavior that must be followed. The problems in the game are often leavers, people who do not stay in the game and leave for their own reasons in mid game thus ruining the game for everyone. This has happened to me in the previous game. Lamers are the assholes that act like little kids cuss and talk excessively much shit; they are very annoying and sadly, other than banning them when one is found nothing can be done. The previous game I played had a lamer. Noobs are also a problem that is somewhat unavoidable. When a person comes in and dies repeatedly completely giving the other team the game it is annoying. It also ruins game play for the more experienced players. There are often special games for noobs only, which are also sadly ruined by more experienced players who come and annihilate everyone. Next problem that may arise is an “AFKer”. He is a person that simply leaves the computer for an undetermined period of time that is long, going to the bathroom is ok, while going out to dinner is usually not. This is actually sometimes worse than the leaver is because you do not get extra gold income nor can you use his items. A good sportsmanship rule is to let people share control of your hero so that they can use your items while you are away and your hero. All of the above are very common problems that often ruin a game completely for me. Luckily, I am an optimist and I understand that from a design perspective it is impossible to do anything. Many of these problems are existant in all online gamings and i just wish that gamers would follow sportsmanship rules more often and not leav/afk/feed(die giving other team exp and gold) on purpose or too many times.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:47:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=414&iddiary=2587https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=414DotA DMAREM is the custom map I played again. (game log 1 for asingment) Why do I play DotA? I have games with better graphics and a plotline. I have other warcraft3 maps that I like a lot and yet I play DotA repeatedly. The only motivation I have is to become better at the game as far as I see and obviously have my team win. I cannot imagine what went through the minds of the creators of this map which is a game in itself and even has it’s own gaming league separate from the warcraft3 one. I play because it immerses me in the magic circle amazingly well. I do not notice the passage of time at all while I am within a game. It has an objective of destroying the enemy team’s base or since this is death match kill 36 enemy heroes. It seems to give you somewhat of a Team vs. team battle that you are a participant in, you affect the outcome directly. If you die, either many times your team will lose or the other team will get a lot of money and experience and therefore beat your team. If you kill a lot, you will be stronger and will be able to help your team win. This is somewhat a concept of war, on the one hand you must do all you can to aid your team in killing the opponent and on the other hand you must not waste your live in vain. This is apparent especially in DM where dying means that you may get a new hero that is spell caster when you have a tank strategy on you. In DM, dying is that much worse. I lost the game and we were losing for about 15 minutes when I got techies a hero that sets defensive mines that hurt and mines that stun. My hero managed to hold them off and kill many of them directly and indirectly but in the end their final assault broke through my mines and my team was annihilated and we lost. This makes me want to play it again. I want to prove that I can do better and win next game with my team. This game has the ability to make a player wish to play again no matter what, you win you want to go ahead and win again showing those noobs who are worse than you how this game is played you lose you want to prove that you are not a noob to yourself and thus play again.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:30:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=414&iddiary=2565https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413I played two hours and a half today on my second section. It was much more fun for me. I still fought the same hard monsters at the beginning but than I began fighting a hunt boss. This hunt boss was a wyvern with huge wings that was not an aerial creature and it seemed to have steel armor and an insane amount of health points. I think fighting it was one of the longest single battles I fought. It took me nearly 45 minutes. It was amazingly fun. The design concept of an epic battle is very intriguing to me. On the one hand, it seemingly should get boring soon and yet during the whole time of the battle I was having fun. It is the switching of tactics in attempt to kill this beast. It is the barley staying alive and the suspense the battle that you feel ecstatic after winning. All of these elements are part of the epic battle. The epic battle is what you play to reach, though this was not a plot epic battle because the monster was so buff and I was not it was very difficult and unbelievably enjoyable battle. The fact that I constantly have to react to the screen, whether trying a new spell or swapping a different character in or using an item that I usually do not, epic battles are a large part of why RPG’s are fun. They make you strain the abilities you have as a player and the abilities of your characters to their outmost. Some people may dislike them for how hard they are but I truly believe that the majority of the people enjoy those kinds of fights a lot. How to incorporate this into a game. In my RPG, I would have to somehow balance the effect of an epic battle with strength of the heroes that is expected and stats of the thing they are fighting. If a creature is too difficult to defeat than people will simply quit the game and unless they are very hard headed they will not play the game an infinite amount of times if they believe there is no way to beat it. On the other hand making it very tricky to beat while keeping it possible is a great addition to the incorporation of an epic battle. Making the battle easy to beat is neccery in the first few epic battles, where the player has yet to master the game very well nor his abilities and so must be able to win easily while having a sort of a boss fight. Later on the bosses should be a much greater challenge and much more powerful as compared to the player and yet still not very unbeatable.Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:31:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413&iddiary=2053https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413I played an hour and a half today on my first section. I started in Balfur port and fought my way through the crested area. It was interesting because instead of making the enemies very strong they simply made them bosses that I fought before. This is probably to make it so that they do not have to have too many different sprites. It was difficult which made it fun for me. I made it all the way through to the hunter’s camp in phon beach. I than talked to a game master who gave me a “rare hunt test” it was amazingly exiting when I saw about twenty treasure chests in front of the boss which like about 5 others was a large turtle with chains in it’s legs. I found it as somewhat of an annoying experience when the same graphical sprite was used for five different creatures, and even more when they all were very similar just growing in strength and all are bosses. I think that it is a large pet peeve of mine when the game has the same graphical representation when the game graphics allow for much more. I think I will attempt to make different voices and pictures for all my characters in my game. The test of killing yet another giant turtle was easy and except the excitement of getting many treasure chests with half actually giving me something useful. I did enjoy challenging units on the map that I had to fight instead of units that died excessively fast and easily. In the end, if I would have to rank my game play of the hour and a half I would say it was ok but certainly not exceptional in any way.Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:45:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413&iddiary=2045https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413sorry i clicked enter before i wrote the log look above for the actual log (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:46:51.)Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:45:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413&iddiary=2044https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413My next session was only 2 hours. I went to Burjahba to complete another hunt. This one was fairly simple as though there were many bugs near the boss using aeroga quickly killed them all and than I finished off the boss without too much difficulty by using decoy/reverse combo on Basch while having one mage constantly casting it and Vaan and Basch attacking the boss. I than teleported to Arcadia and started collecting sandals for no apparent reason other than to get to a place that I cannot get to otherwise. I believe that this is part of the culture aspect of RPG’s. Like most experienced RPG players, I know that any place that you cannot reach without getting something done to get there means you want to get there. It took me an hour of simply running around and talking to people in Arcadia to get enough sandals so that I may go to central. In central, I had to run after a cockatrice and talk to it. I told it that there was another cockatrice in Arcadia, and it gave me a free weapon. That again is an RPG culture aspect. You are given weapons such as a hand grade by an oversized chicken and most RPG players question not where that chicken got that hand grenade from. Another aspect of RPG’s that is very popular is puzzles like the side quest I was doing to get my sandals that allow me entrance to central. I had to talk to people and match one person that tells me something with a person that would be interested in that information. This kind of side quests are a vital part of RPG’s. These side quests add an element of supposed freedom. It makes a person feel that they do not have to follow the actual plot but can just do whatever they wanted. In reality, these side quests add more realism to the game in a way that it makes you learn more about the game. After talking to all these people and having to match them with other people that may wish their information, 28 times I learned a lot more about the Arcadians in the way of their culture. Gore is vital to games. I was thinking of the balance that Final Fantasy tries to achieve. FF has always been a teen rated game because a large amount of parents actually listens to the censorship advice on games. The question than is how much more people will play the game because their parents or religious beliefs allow them to play a teen rated game as comparison to the obviously more fun gory game. I am certain that had FFXII had more gore than it would be much more fun. When you currently kill a monster, it simply vanishes into a spirit/ghost. If instead you would have battlegrounds full of bloody bodies of monsters and have monsters bleed to death it would be much more popular among the more adult population as seen by games such as Dead Rising and Halo(1&2) which are rated mature. These games are though prohibited for many teenagers, kids, and people of religions like Mormons and in countries like Germany who do not allow gore. The question that I think must be the deciding factor in allowing or not allowing gore is worth it by the target people that this game is aimed towards. FFXII is ingenious in that regard for it is such an old saga that older gamers will play it without gore being present because FF saga is generally one of the best in RPG’s, and they get a large amount of people that cannot play these games otherwise play these games and therefore get a much larger audience. As game designers that may not be, designing a game as known as a FF I think the question still remains to calculate whether gore will increase the audience of a game more than not having it. Designers in the end are simply people that make a product that people want and they must figure out what would give them a greater audience.Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:48:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413&iddiary=1504https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413TRICKSTER HUNT IS POSIBLE! I started my first 3-hour session with a positive outlook as I have now vanquished three level 5 monsters and was ready for the next one the Trickster. It took me half an hour of searching for the trickster until I figured out how to get him to come out and I will not spoil trying to do this for others. Once I started fighting the Trickster, I used my usual strategy of having Vaan equipped with reflect armor and my mage that has an equipped item to pass through reflect spells constantly cast decoy/reverse. I took trickster to less than a quarter HP and than the nightmare began. If I have ever felt like your enemy was invincible, it was than. It was immune to all physical damage most spells heal it instead of damage it and once you finally figure out what can hurt it, the Trickster changes it weaknesses. To add to this it is also doing an attack that drops huge rocks on my whole team. Though my tank is healed by this because it has reverse on it, it forces my mages to have to heal each other and as they heal each other, they cannot continue to cast reverse and decoy on Vaan nor try spells to figure out weaknesses of the Trickster. Quickenings are useless against it for they are considered physical damage. After an hour and a half, I died thrice and tried again but with a different strategy. This time I tried to use my Espers, which failed badly as even though one of them took Trickster down to a quarter of it health once Trickster became immune to physical attacks my Espers healed it to almost half-life. I restarted at crystal. This time I planned to try to take it down with quickenings it failed. I took it down to 1/10 of his health and it went immune. I continued to attempt to take it down in this way. It took about five tries, but on the fifth try, I managed to land a 16 quickenings 32465 HP attacks that killed it before it could go immune. It is a very interesting idea that FFXII is trying to toy with, a unit that is immune to most spells, all physical damage and changes weaknesses. It seems as if the only way to kill it is get lucky, figure out what spell is not going to heal it quickly, and have all your characters cast that type of spell many times before it changes weakness. I do not believe that the makers expected someone to manage to kill it the way that I did with an insanely strong quickening that took it down a third of its life point. This side quest was way too hard to finish as far as I am concerned. When my 13 quickenings in a row took, it down to critical HP and it went immune and with Critical HP, it still managed to not die but heal as I was trying different magic spells to try to harm it. It made me want to quit this side quest and just go to fight some monster that actually can be killed. I think that if the Trickster was immune to Physical damage I should at least know what spell can hurt it I think that as a creator they should not make someone too powerful. If such a creature exists on a side quest, the player will usually quit that side quest, if it is part of a main story tale they may quit the game. This happened to me when I was playing finial fantasy X and Sin was simply too powerful so I had to quit the game and I consider that a very bad thing. Maybe making the Trickster with just a physical immunity and an immunity to spells is fine, but having it change weaknesses is simply too much for it means that you must constantly try to figure out what is its weaknesses are.Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:16:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=413&iddiary=1500https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=414Second game of DOTA this time it was an AP. All pick is another kind of fun. Every person chooses one hero that they will forever be using and they need to make it as strong as possible. I enjoyed playing Zeus and did amazingly well getting 10 kills and only 2 deaths the whole 2-hour game. I really enjoyed the collaboration sniper and I had. I used my magic to weaken he used his ultimate to kill or nearly kill and than I used my ultimate to kill. I noticed that it is much more fun when you collaborate. We won the game. I like that Zeus has a power that does a certain amount of damage to every enemy hero on the map. Also the second time through the game I noticed that AP has it’s own fun because it means a longer game and though a two hour nonstop game may seem long it is amazingly short. I think the reason that I can play this game repeatedly for hours on end is because of the speed of the game. This game is fast you have to always keep moving whether forward to attack or backwards to not die. With my character, I had an advantage that the enemy could not run as well because I could hit it without even knowing where he is. I find that this game is one of many where I do not notice the passage of time because I am so engrossed in the game that I do not even have time to spare a thought on anything else. A game must have constant action in it and it is actually the most fun part though it may tell of no plot it still is as fun. It is the reason pong is fun, because you have quick instant reactions. Therefore, I believe a quick-paced game is important so that you have funFri, 12 Jan 2007 06:36:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=414&iddiary=1377