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Thursday 21 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
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After continueing to play this game further this time by myself, I encountered the aspects of the gameplay without social interaction with other live people. Without other people its still fun but the game really tends to have a drag effect. That is it seems like the game goes on forever and never ends. It was like playing monopoly with people who don't say a thing. That made the game fun in the first few turns then it became extremely boring to play. That in my opinion is a very bad aspect of the game. It seems to have a requirement for other actual players in order to experience an enjoyable game.
I also found that without the social interaction, motivation for trying hard at the challenges really wasn't there. Because of not the best AI programming, occasionally with challenges, especially if its a team battle you will find it impossible to win with an AI team-mate. This starts to turn the anticipation of playing the challenges in between turns to a dread of them. I find it astounding how different the gameplay experience is without other people playing it with you. Even just having one person is helpful because then you can laugh if they end up with all of the AIs as their team mates.
DESIGN
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Innovative Ideas in Mario Party:
Mario Party really is one of the major innovations in games in all history. It took the idea of a board game and took it into the video game world and altered it have extra twists. It also unlike most board games made a virtual board game that required a fair amount of strategizing on the player's part. This strategy requirement was put into place with the placement of stars and the many different paths to get to that space.
Level Design:
Level design in the game is a major part of the game and is very well thought out. The levels are very individual and the placement of stars vary from each one. Also the levels differ by the special events each level/board has. One small problem I found with the levels and the viewing of them is the difference between playing mario party and playing a board game outside a computer. Outside a computer you are used to being able to view the entire board at all times. In Mario Party it is possible to do that but you have to switch to that view mode everytime you want to and adds a bit of a hassle to the play.
Conflict Creation and Social Interaction:
The level of conflict in this game is extremely dependent on the social interaction and the number of live players in a certain game. With no other live players conflict is still there and created with being able to view your opponents star and coin count and in the mini-games however they lack enthusiasm. When you have multiple other real life players involved the conflict from the same events becomes more personal and I find myself having an intense drive to out smart my opponents. The social interaction in this game really stems from its deep roots in board games. Board games bring people together in a friendly competition and just like its base so does Mario Party. Its hard to completely describe the allure of board games in general but I believe everyone has a competitive side but doesn't want to hurt others in satisfying it. Board games in general provide a non-hurtful way of satisfying that competitive need in all of us.
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