Week 5 (3/7 – 3/13)
Reflections:
Git and github were a major focus of this week. Github is a site I've used probably much less than I should, as I've only used it beforehand in 275 and 475 where it was a requirement. As such, I understand the general git and basic utilities of github, but there are still constantly moments where I feel as if I'm doing something wrong with any part of git
It's the kind of resource where it feels as though a single click on the wrong branch or a push with a bad line can cause a major hurdle to be formed that would require an excess amount of fixing. I can speak from experience and say that in my prior endeavors with github, there
HW8:
If there's anything I can say about this assignment, it's that Much like the assignment from the first week, I for some reason went out of my way to try and list a unique game for each question and section of a question, despite it not really mattering. It's just one of those things that felt right to do.
Read Chapter 3 of the Fullerton textbook. Use the chapter reading to help you answer the following questions.
Players: Fullerton describes 7 interaction patterns. For each interaction pattern, create a list of at least 2 games in each pattern.
Single player versus game (Mega Man, Jak and Daxter)
Multiple individual players versus game (Dark Souls, Pokemon Legends Arceus)
Player vs Player (Street Fighter, King of Fighters)
Unilateral competition (Nintendo Land, King of the Hill)
Multilateral competition (Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart)
Cooperative play (A Hat in Time, It Takes Two)
Team competition (Splatoon, Halo)
Goals/Objectives: A number of game scholars have made attempts to categorize games by their objectives.
Fullerton describes 10 categories. List 10 of your favorite games, or just choose 10 games and name the objective category for each game. Look for similarities and then describe the type or types of games that appeal to you, based on objectives.
Dragon Quest IX (Exploration)
Sonic Generations (Rescue or escape)
Persona 4 (Chase)
A Hat in Time (Rescue or escape)
Kingdom Hearts 2 (Exploration)
Pikmin 3 (Exploration)
Splatoon 2 (Capture)
Devil May Cry 3 (Chase)
Puyo Puyo Tetris (Solution)
Kid Icarus Uprising (Rescue or escape)
Most of the ones I listed and the ones I tend to enjoy fall under the categories that involve a lot of action. While I’m not entirely sure all of these are expressly in these categories, I tend in general to enjoy games that focus heavily around fun moment to moment gameplay experiences with clear core objectives.
Procedures: Most games tend to have several types of procedures: starting action, progression of action, special action, and resolving actions. Choose a game that you know and describe the procedures for each of these types.
Street Fighter
Starting action - Selecting a character
Progression of action - Pressing the attack buttons during the fight
Special actions - Characters have specific inputs that do different special moves
Resolving actions - Depleting the opponent’s health bar
Rules: There are main types of rules that restrict action. Pick 2 games and describe what rules of those games restrict player actions and how?
In Dragon Quest, characters have specific weapon types they can use and they cannot use weapons outside of the ones available to them. The mage class can use a staff, but they cannot use a sword.
In Checkers, a piece cannot move backwards unless they are a king.
Resources: What are the resources in one of your favorite games? How are they useful for players? How are they made scarce by the game system? Fullerton describes 9 different kinds of resource types. For each resource type, name at least one game that uses that particular type of resource.
Lives (Super Mario Galaxy)
Units (Xcom)
Health (Tekken)
Currency (Kingdom Hearts)
Actions (Mario Party)
Power-ups (Mega Man)
Inventory (Resident Evil 4)
Special Terrain (Disgaea)
Time (Pikmin)
Conflict: Consider tetris and solitaire. Explain how conflict is created in these games. Does the conflict come from obstacles, opponents, dilemmas, or a combination?
Solitaire’s conflict mainly comes from dilemmas, such as ones regarding the cards you get and the order in which you get them, needing to put them in the right piles. There are no opponents or obstacles that aren’t found in the resources you’re given.
With Tetris, the conflict can heavily depend. In the basic form of Tetris, the conflict is a simple matter of dilemma, as the random order of the blocks you’re given can make lining up the pieces easier or harder. However, there have been so many versions of Tetris realized that switch up the gameplay and add other elements of conflict. In versions such as Tetris 99 or Puyo Puyo Tetris, there is an added conflict of opponents who you want to beat, and these players can send obstacles in the form of trash rows when they clear their rows.
Boundaries: Boundaries can be physical or conceptual. Without using any of the examples in the book, give an example of a game with physical boundaries, a game with conceptual boundaries, and one with very little to no boundaries.
Physical boundaries - The court line in basketball
Conceptual boundaries - Minecraft, as if a player doesn’t have ideas on what to build, they have nothing to do in the game
No boundaries - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Outcome: Using examples not given in the book, name two zero-sum games and two non-zero-sum games. What is the main difference in the outcome of these games? How does this affect gameplay?
Zero-sum: Skullgirls, Blazblue
Non-zero-sum: Metal Slug, River City Girls
The main difference in these sets of games is how in one there’s a clear winner and loser, and in the other there’s only all winners or all losers. It’s the difference between competitive multiplayer games and cooperative multiplayer games. While both kinds of games can be equally as engaging, the competitive aspect changes mostly the mindset of the player, as they then play with not just the game, but in and around the head of their opponent.