Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=651https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3197Gameplay: The more I play the easier it is to set up strategies. Each level is going to be different every time you play it because the symbols are doled out randomly, but there is still a comforting repetitiveness in having a general strategy. After having played it for about two hours I am still really enjoying the game. The emergence style of the game makes it easy to stay involved in. The music actually adds a lot to my enjoyment of the game (for the first hour anyway). It is surprisingly unwhiny and very stimulating. The motivational chords make a nice addition to an already adequate game. Design: An interesting aspect of the game is the ranking you get according to your score. As you accumulate more points you go from an apprentice to a hedge wizard to a grand wizard. This tiny detail actually adds a lot to the background of the game. As you play and go up in ranking you get this mental picture of gaining knowledge and power and becoming a master alchemist. The game itself doesn’t really have a story as much as a background, but adding the ranking next to the score adds the possibility for player creativity with respect to their view of the game. In this game players will very rarely experience any kind of exhaustion. While there are many levels the draw in this game comes from self-competition. Once a player has beaten all the levels, he or she can go back and improve their time and accuracy for lack of a better term. It is a never-ending puzzle of entertainment.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:59:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3197&iddiary=6013https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3197Summary: Alchemy is a single player puzzle game. The idea of the game is to turn all of the stones to gold by placing symbols over them. Only symbols of matching shape or color can go next to each other and once you complete a row the symbols disappear leaving gold stones. The less symbols you have left over in the end and the shorter time in which you complete the puzzle the higher your score is. Finally, there is also a “circle of lava” on the side in which you can discard unwanted symbols before you place them, however if you discard more than three in a row you loose the game. Gameplay: One of the things I liked about Alchemy is that it wasn’t a high intensity game. It didn’t get my adrenaline pumping like fighting or timed games. It was a low stress way to relax or an intriguing brain exercise when I was bored. In this way it is a lot like solitaire, the only prize is one of glory, and it’s all about strategy. I found the social interactions with this game to be low. It isn’t a hot topic of discussion, it doesn’t have real world applications and there is little room for multi-player activity. This is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of times I feel too overwhelmed by the faster pace that comes with other players.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:58:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3197&iddiary=6012https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2907Gameplay: After playing Wii Sports a second time I found that the main attention getter, like in most multi player games, is the real world competition that goes on between the players. Without it the game gets a little repetitive and ultimately is capable of inducing a mild coma (whether because you have forgotten to wear your wrist strap or the unvarying gameplay). Fortunately, the level of interaction/competition increases with the amount of gameplay. When the game begins the players are just getting the feel of the game and their opponents, however as the game progresses the competitive remarks are tossed around, taunting rains upon the unfortunate and multiple rematches ensue. Design: The exceptional aspect of Wii Sports is that it combats the downside of videogames everywhere, player lethargy. Players stay physically active which keeps their adrenaline pumping. This works in the games favor. The energy that a person gets from activity makes the player feel good and keeps them from becoming bored or prematurely tired. Because the games are real world games, they inherently hold a social context for the players. One player may be attracted to baseball because it holds memories of family trips to games in earlier days. This player may find this game comforting and will immediately have an affinity for it. These games promote social interaction because of their multi-player capability and familiar context.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:34:36 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2907&iddiary=5465https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2907Summary: Wii Sports is a single or multi-player game in which opponents use Wii motes, which allow them to compete physically against on another in games such as bowling and tennis. Gameplay: The characters in this game are unique in that they are reflections of the person playing the game. The range of choice for the characters appearance is very wide and because they are an expression of the player they extremely easy to identify with. In fact, before I created my Mii I was enjoying playing Wii sports, but it wasn’t until after I made my Mii that I became emotionally invested in the game. Once I made my Mii I found myself making comments like, “That’s it! You goin’ DOWN B&*$%.” Needless to say I was rather emotionally tied to the outcome…namely to seeing the other players cry. The tension was especially high during tennis (because lets face it bowling, though an awesome game that requires lots of skill and practice) is kind of a buzz kill. We got to swinging the Wii motes all over the room and cursing like sailors when the little angry sign appears above our characters.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:34:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2907&iddiary=5464https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2571Gameplay: The more that I play this game the more addicted I become. Instead of becoming bored of it as I might with a single or possible even multi level multi player game, I can’t put the Wii mote down. This feeling is created for me by simplicity of the game as a whole. It is difficult to not fall off of the edge, but there isn’t a bunch of different combos to memorize or buttons to push. All you have to do is tilt your hand. The simplicity of the actions made by the player also helps create a sense of flow to the game. As you tilt your hand to the side the little panda glides across the screen in a sometimes ethereal way making cute little grunts. After you have had to repeat a level several times going through the level is like driving in a hover car. You anticipate turns and your marble doesn’t deviate from the center and inch. It feels like flying and makes passing the level smooth. The levels steadily progress in difficulty, which makes each new challenge less daunting. Design: One of the things that I particularly liked about this game was that it was a game of precision, not timing. I was disappointed when I got further along in the game and there were rotating lights that if you touched would send you back to the start. The game was adequate without this added challenge that in my opinion was overdoing a good thing. This game is very much single player oriented and doesn’t leave a large amount for discussion. In this way it is more an exercise of dexterity and a brainteaser than a possibility for social interaction. The interesting part of this game is that though it is a game of progression, there is no hint of a choice in the path that the player must take. It is made very clear that there is only one, often narrow way towards the goal. This path is also deceivingly simple. The challenges aren’t always easy to see as in fighting games (i.e. punch a minion three times and it dies).Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:35:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2571&iddiary=4894https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2571Summary: Marble Mania is a game based on old-fashioned marble tilt game. The point of the game is to guide a marble through an obstacle course and collect all the red jewels and make it into the goal. Gameplay: While playing this game my adrenaline began to pump. I favored the slow and steady approach to the game so my hands started to shake a little when I was concentrating more thoroughly on what I was doing. This increased as the levels progressed. This game seemed more serious to me than fighting games because it was about precision and it was completely unforgiving. This aspect made me more eager to dedicate myself to it and I found it addicting. Some of the marbles were actually animals that made cute noises as they rolled around the maze. This is the closest that this particular game comes to characters. This was very aesthetically pleasing as were the different backgrounds, some more than others. The first scenes were set in a forest area and were very calm and low pressure. The next levels were set in a candy land kitchen. This was nice as it put the player into a sugared frenzy and the cute factor was high. This higher levels of the one’s that I got to were set in a city and they were my least favorite. The animation was good but the setting was dull and it made me feel all the pressure with less of the tension cutting cuteness.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:27:59 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2571&iddiary=4848https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2278Summary: Katamari is a single player puzzle like game. It is very unique in that it has an adventurous feeling but is more of a puzzle in that there is very little conflict. The goal is to roll the katamari around the level in order to reach a certain size. In the higher levels there is a time limit. The player can only pick up objects based on relative size. Gameplay: I was very annoyed with Katamari. Very Very annoyed. It was too easy to get stuck and not be able to fix the mistake in time. The player needs to feel like it’s still possible to win up until the very end otherwise there is less incentive to play. I also found the music annoying. It was a nice score but the addition of words to the music made it seem that much more repetitive. Were there no lyrics I would have really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the story a lot. The actual storyline wasn’t extraordinary, though it was original. What I really enjoyed about it was the dialogue. There was a lot of it and I’m sure that after a couple times playing this game it would start to wear on me, but it was funny and held my interest long enough to read all of it. This definitely deserves applause as most gamers, myself included are in the game for the action, not the introduction. I liked the animation in the game because it was simple. The characters were mainly shapes without a lot of intricate detail. Their movements were basic and predictable. Sometimes in-depth animation can be very visually aesthetic however it can get in the way of playing the game. In Katamari the characters were simple but very cute, helping the player to identify with them, but not become overwhelmed by them. Gameplay: I was much less frustrated this time as I played my way through a few levels. I definitely mastered the controls more and was able to steer more accurately as a result. However, now that finishing a level was actually a dim possibility it was more frustrating when I didn’t make it. The story was less involving this time and I became more aware of the puzzle aspect of the game. In that way everything looked less foreign but also less intriguing. I still enjoyed the game but it felt as if I could have been playing any other puzzle game and it wouldn’t have made me miss Katamari. Design: The game has a very simple concept by design. The makers therefore made the navigation of the game easier and the actual completion of the game harder. This is a quality of a puzzle game. The effort is more mental. Remembering where certain objects are and how big you have to be to pick them up. In this way the game is more systematic than challenge requiring mastery of difficult skills very quickly and randomly. This is a very effective game design because it makes it playable for all levels of gamers. They don’t have to spend a lot of time training after which they lose interest in the game itself. Instead they can jump straight into the game and let the levels improve their skills. What’s interesting about the game world is that like most videogames it gives the illusion of many choices and lots of open space. However they very carefully control your movement by only letting you pick up objects relatively smaller than you. So at first you spend your time in the area with the small objects and then move progressively into the areas with the bigger objects. Without even realizing it the makers are guiding you through the game. They very effectively simulated a choice for the player. My main objection to this game is the view at which you sometimes see the game. When going under a table of behind a pole you lose sight of the katamari and the character. I know that this creates more of a challenge but I see this as unnecessary. By keeping the character and katamari in sight at all times the game makers would cut out a lot of the frustration that first time players could become discouraged by. If this were cut out it would not change the difficulty of the game drastically but it would lessen feelings of ill will by players just trying to make it through the lower levels. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:12:02.)Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:09:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2278&iddiary=4367https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1938Summary: Super Smash Brothers is a multi-player game for up to four people that combines many Nintendo icons with the objective of setting them against each other in various environments. The game can be set to a time limit or a battle to the death. Gameplay: Super Smash Brothers hooked me really quickly and brought me to a higher emotional state than I have previously experienced in a game. I found myself shouting at the game and the other player, all in good fun of course, and I became very tied to the outcome of the match. My opponent was a friend of mine who quickly became my mentor in the game, as he is much better than I am. I found that as a beginner I needed to play as characters that were moderately fast and therefore moderately powerful. If I chose characters that were too fast I would fall off the edge of the playing field. However if I chose characters that were too slow I didn’t have enough time to evade attacks nor was I experienced enough to execute the careful planning that all slower attacks require. The best part about this game is the combination of many of the Nintendo characters. For people like me whose gaming experience is limited to what little I have played in college, this game is like an overview of all of the characters. Players can learn how to use different characters all in one game. It is also interesting because it very directly pits characters that would not normally fight against each other, providing as a direct means of measuring strengths and weaknesses. ∗∗∗ Summary: The second time I played Super Smash I realized that there is also an option that is a single player fighting game that becomes increasingly difficult with each level. Going through the levels is what allows the owner of the game to get new character and win trophies. This is as important a part of the game as the multi-player fighting. Design: The graphics in this game are very advanced. I watched some of the older games being played and there is a very noticeable difference between both the graphics and the music. Mario was in color but was only 2D and the music is more melodic than a series of mechanical beeps. The conflict is more automatic because it is a multi-player game as opposed to a single level based game. The players create as much conflict as their competitiveness will allow. As a beginner I found it difficult to master even basic moves in an immediately combative situation. There is a training mode but the game is most commonly played in melee mode which doesn’t allow for much learning through experience.Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:51:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1938&iddiary=3778