Finding of the week #102

Veröffentlicht am 28. Februar 2015 von Sebbi

Enjoying the Nature

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the similar demands for exploring a virtual and a real forest.

Exploring the nature is one of my favorite hobbies. I like to hike through forests and to reach the peaks of mountains and hills in order to find amazing vantage points. Over time, I have developed a certain situational awareness and visual attention which help me to spot interesting features others might not notice.

After the sun has set.

The desire to explore the nature has also drawn my attention to „The Long Dark“, a survival computer game that takes place in the Canadian wilderness during the winter. During the gameplay, the players can explore vast regions by walking through forests, climbing on top of mountains and crossing frozen lakes. However, apart from enjoying and exploring the winter landscape, the players also have to survive in this harsh environment. The players are required to find some food, to sleep and to protect their virtual bodies from the freezing temperatures. These survival mechanisms are the core elements of the game and challenge the players to pay attention while they are exploring the environment. This is especially necessary during the first days of the gameplay as the players are only wearing thin clothes and are not prepared to stay outdoors in the freezing temperatures. Discovering a shelter in time can make the difference between dying and surviving.

Enjoying the view.

As I was playing the game for the very first time, I was impressed how realistic it felt to walk through the virtual forests. The graphics of the game are a bit abstract, but I had all the time the impression to be out in the nature while I was seeking a shelter to survive the first night. This impression was mostly caused by the colors, the lighting and the sounds of the game. These three elements are also the most noticeable things while being out in the nature. For example, while walking through a forest, most of the trees are just „trees“ and we are not really paying attention to their shape. However, the bright colors of a clearing are easy to spot, hence they draw our attention.

Animals of the forest

As I explored the virtual nature, I also noticed that I moved through this terrain the same way as I do when I hike through the real nature: I analyzed the environment for unnatural anomalies to spot interesting things. My trained situational awareness helped me to successfully play the game, as I was able to transfer some of knowledge from the real world to the game world because the exploration of the virtual nature has similar demands to the exploration of the real nature. This leads to the hypothesis, that the game can be used to train the situational awareness of players who are not used to walk through the nature and have difficulties to spot interesting features in the environment. If this hypothesis is true, then the game can be used in order to help the players to develop a situational awareness which helps them to recognize more interesting features while walking through the nature.

Finding of the week #101

Veröffentlicht am 21. Februar 2015 von Sebbi

Garrison – Conclusion

This week: This time, I think about the core game mechanics of a new feature added to World of Warcraft with the expansion pack Warlords of Draenor: the Garrison.

The analysis of the Garrison has identified three main segments: buildings, followers and quests. Moreover, the analysis has identified all the game mechanics which are used in order to realize these segments.

Buildings: The player can construct several buildings in order to gain access to unique boni. Moreover, the player can upgrade the own buildings to increase their capacity and to gain access to more advanced boni. Finally, he can place work orders in order to transmute materials or resources. However, the player can not place an endless amount of buildings: the Garrison provides only a limited amount of building slots thus requiring the player to choose between all the different buildings. Utilizing these game mechanics challenges the decision-making and strategic-planning skills of the player.

Followers: A follower is a special NPCs who joined the player during his explorations of the WoD regions or who was hired by the player in one of the Garrison buildings. Each follower is characterized by his abilities, his traits and his equipment. The skills allow the follower to perform special tasks and the equipment determines the follower’s performance. A follower can be assigned to work in one of the Garrison buildings or to fight in one of the special follower missions. Planning such a follower mission challenges the player to analyze the requirements of the mission in order to assign the right followers to it. Utilizing the follower game mechanics challenges the player’s problem-solving and decision-making abilities.

Quests: The player can complete three different types of Garrison quests. At first, the player has to visualize the problem of the quest and need to decide what actions he has to take in order to complete the quest. Subsequently, the player has to execute his plan of attack. Mostly, this involves defeating enemies, collecting items or scoring points. In general, solving a quest demands the visualization, decision-making and problem-solving skills of the user. Executing the combat game mechanics of WoW demands the reaction time, the hand-eye-coordination, the decision-making and the spatial navigation abililties of the player.

Finding of the week #100

Veröffentlicht am 14. Februar 2015 von Sebbi

Unbelievable! This is the 100th article of my weekly series about game based learning, game research, computer games and science in general. I can not believe that I am doing this now for almost two years without running out of content! I am really looking forward continuing this series–science and scientific results are just amazing topics.

Garrison – Quests

This week: This time, I think about the core game mechanics of a new feature added to World of Warcraft with the expansion pack Warlords of Draenor: the Garrison.

The last three articles analyzed all the game mechanics being used to realize the feature of the Garrison in WoW. However, the presentation of the Garrison is also linked with two core features of WoW: completing quests and defeating evil creatures. The quests are connecting the Garrison to the campaign of WoD and are helping to increase the immersive effect of being part of something big.

After upgrading the Garrison to level 3, the players gain access to the „Strategic Assault Choice“ (SAC). This feature is basically a quest that can be accepted and completed on a daily basis. Activating the SAC menu allows the players to choose between two different tasks, sending the players to different regions of WoD with the task to attack a certain enemy. This can be mostly done by just killing enough enemies until the progress bar reaches 100%. Apart from just killing evil creatures, the players can also work towards the completion of the quest by destroying or collecting specific items or freeing captured NPCs.

Strategic Assault Choice

The players are challenged to visualize the problem of the quest and need to decide what actions they need to take in order to complete the quest. This is mostly demanding the visualization, decision-making and problem-solving skills of the players. While fighting against the evil creatures, the players have to react to special attacks and threatening environmental conditions (e.g. fire on the ground). Moreover, the players have to analyze the area, spot potential targets and control the actions of their avatars via keyboard and mouse inputs. This is demanding the reaction time, the hand-eye-coordination, the decision-making and the spatial navigation abililties of the players.

Completing these SAC quests can also unlock a Garrison Invasion. This invasion is a special event that takes place inside the player’s Garrison. After having unlocked such an invasion, the players can talk to one of the NPCs standing around in the Garrison and start this special event. Throughout the progression of this invasion, the players get constantly attacked by evil creatures. The presentation of this invasion is also enhanced by the fact that the Garrison guards participate in this battle creating the impression that a huge attack is conducted against the own fortress.

Prepare to battle

During the battle, the players are also able to score some points. The final score of the invasion determines the player’s reward: reaching more than 300 points rewards the players with a first reward, scoring more 600 points results in a better reward and scoring more than 1000 points rewards the players with the best possible reward. Scoring these points is mostly done by killing the attackers. Apart from regular enemies, the Garrison is also attacked by special creatures which are granting more points after being defeated. This challenges the players to keep always an eye on these special events and requires them to focus their attacks on these particular creatures to score well during the invasion. Moreover, the players receive additional points for keeping their Garrisons intact. This challenges the player to also keep an eye on potential enemies who can damage the buildings.

The Garrison Invasion is in progress.

The Garrison Invasion is demanding the same human skills as solving a quest. The players have to identify and locate enemies and pay attention to special attacks. The game mechanic of scoring points results in an increased demand for decision making and reaction time: the players have to react to the occurance of special enemies and have to defeat them in time before the invasion is finished or some damage is caused to a building of the Garrison.

The last quest related feature of the Garrison is the so-called „Garrison Campaign“. The Garrison Campaign unlocks over time a series of quests, providing some more background information about all the events of the WoD expansion pack and the presence of the players in the regions of WoD. The demands for solving these quests are exactly the same demands as mentioned in the SAC part. Solving a quest requires the players to visualize and solve a problem. This is then mostly done by defeating enemies which is demanding the identified human abilities.

Working towards the completion of a quest.

Finally, the Garrison Invasion and all the Garrison related quests can also be completed in a group with other players. In case of forming a group, the game mechanics are also demanding the collaboration and team work skills of the players. Depending on the class of the avatar, the players can sustain more damage, cause more damage or heal other players. This stone-paper-scissors approach is challenging the collaboration skills of the players. Moreover, the player’s Garrison gets attacked from multiple sites and defending it together with other players offers the opportunity to work together and assign one player per front line resulting in a better defense of the Garrison. This is then also demanding a task distribution ability.

Finding of the week #99

Veröffentlicht am 7. Februar 2015 von Sebbi

Garrison – Buildings

This week: This time, I think about the core game mechanics of a new feature added to World of Warcraft with the expansion pack Warlords of Draenor: the Garrison.

Apart from the followers, the buildings are the second core feature of the Garrison. These buildings are mostly changing the visual appearance of the own Garrison over time and are distinguishing the own Garrison from other players‘ Garrisons. Based on the Garrison’s level, the players have access to a certain amount of different building types. A level one Garrison grants access to a large and a small building slot, a level two Garrison provides one large, one medium and two small slots and a third level Garrison finally offers two large, two medium and three small construction sides. Each building can be upgraded two times increasing its capacity and granting more advanced boni or features. Upgrading a building is also changing its visual appearance

Overview about the construction slots, available buildings and current buildings

The amount of construction slots limits the access to the available boni for each building size. For example, the large buildings offer the following boni: waygates to certain regions of WoD (Mage Tower), increased amount of followers and an NPC bodyguard (Barracks), items to change the visual appearance of the character and a free bonus loot roll per week (Dwarven Bunker), special engineering tools with different functions and a powerful siege engine (Gnomish Gearworks) and a 20% increased mount speed (Stables). The players then have to choose two of these boni by constructing the buildings.

The small and the medium buildings are working the same way. The small buildings are mostly granting benefits for the professions of the players or are enabling the players to craft items without having the specific profession. The medium buildings are mostly providing ways of generating certain resources the players need to expand the own Garrison or to enhance their equipment.

Three third level small buildings.

As a short summary, all these different buildings allow the players to adjust the functionality of the Garrison to support their own playstyle. A player who has a focus on sending the Garrison followers on missions will probably build the Barracks in order to increase the amount of available followers. A player who travels a lot on a mount through the regions of WoD will probably build the Stables.

The buildings also offer a function to transmute one resource into a different resource. For example, the small profession buildings can transmute raw materials into crafting reagents thus helping the players to accumulate enough reagents to craft a new item. Other buildings are transmuting materials into Garrison resources which are needed to start follower missions, to construct new buildings or to buy other items.

Placing a work order.

The game mechanics of constructing and upgrading buildings is challenging the decision-making and the strategic-planning skills of the players. The players have to analyze their own playstyle and the impact of each bonus on it. Then, the players are able to select and construct the buildings based on this analysis. Moreover, the players are required to plan ahead, because gaining access to the highest building level by upgrading it requires a lot of resources.

Finding of the week #98

Veröffentlicht am 31. Januar 2015 von Sebbi

Garrison – Followers

This week: This time, I think about the core game mechanics of a new feature added to World of Warcraft with the expansion pack Warlords of Draenor: the Garrison.

Apart from managing the Garrison and constructing new buildings, one of the core elements of the Garrison is the management of the own followers. A follower is a special Non-Player Character (NPC) who joined the player during his explorations of the WoD world. Each follower has an unique set of at least one ability and one trait which allows them to perform special tasks. The amount of available abilities depends on the qualification of a follower: uncommon (1 ability, 1 trait), rare (1 ability, 2 traits) or epic (2 abilities, 3 traits).

Standing around with two followers.

The abilities are needed to successfully complete the special follower missions. During such a mission, the followers have to defeat certain enemies who are attacking with an unique sets of skills. These attacks can be countered by assigning a follower with the right set of skills to this mission. This rock-paper-scissors concept challenges the players to analyze the skills of the enemies in order to assign the followers who have the right set of skills to counter the attacks and to complete this mission.

Planning a Garrison mission.

The traits of the followers fall into three different categories. The first category gives the followers a certain advantage during a mission. This can be an increased success chance when the follower is fighting together with a certain race (e.g. „Humanist“ increases the chance of success when the follower is on a mission with a human), in a certain region (e.g. „Cold-Blooded“ increases the success chance when the follower is fighting in the snow) or against a certain enemy (e.g. „Ogreslayer“ increases the success chance when the follower is fighting ogres). Furthermore, the followers can also increase the success chance based on the duration of the mission (e.g. „High Stamina“ increases the success chance when the duration is longer than 7 hours and „Burts of Power“ increases the success chance when the duration is shorter than 7 hours).
The second category is boosting the reward for successfully completing a mission. This can be an increase of the gained resources or of the gained experience.
The third category allows the players to assign the followers to work in one of the different building the players can construct in their Garrisons (e.g. „Blacksmithing“ enables the follower to work in a forge). Some followers even have a special „Bodyguard“ trait which enables them to accompany the players and to support them while they are fighting against some monsters.

The followers are also characterized by their experience. Like the players, the followers can gain some experience points during their missions and reach higher levels. The lowest follower level is 90 and the maximum follower level is 100. After reaching the maximum level, the followers can continue gaining experience points in order to raise their qualification. This approach allows the players to boost an uncommon level 90 follower to an epic level 100 follower. By doing so, the follower also gains new abilities and new traits which makes him more powerful.
Reaching level 100 enables the follower also to wear some equipment to increase their so-called item-level. The item-level is needed to enable the followers to participate in some prestigious missions. If the follower is not fulfilling the item-level requirement of these Garrison-„endgame“-missions, then he can not increase the overall success chance and the mission might end in a failure.

The description of a follower.

All these examined game mechanics are challening the player’s problem solving and decision making abilities. The players have to analyze the requirements of a mission in order to assign the right followers to it. Moreover, the players have to analyze the traits of their followers to recognize if the follower might be useful for other tasks than just participating in some missions. Finally, the players have to distribute special follower items in order to boost their item-levels.

to be continued …

Finding of the week #97

Veröffentlicht am 24. Januar 2015 von Sebbi

Garrison

This week: This time, I think about the core game mechanics of a new feature added to World of Warcraft with the expansion pack Warlords of Draenor: the Garrison.

One of the new features that were added to World of Warcraft (WoW) with the release of the expansion pack „Warlords of Draenor“ (WoD) is the Garrison. The Garrison allows the players to construct buildings, to transmute materials and to manage followers. In this new article series, I will analyze the major game mechanics which are used to realize this new part of WoW.

The Garrison itself is an instanced area which blends into one of the regions of WoD. Depending on the faction the players belong to, they will have their Garrision in Shadowmoon Valley (Alliance) or Frostfire Ridge (Horde). The region around the Garrison is shared among all the other players playing on the same realm. However, as soon as the player is approaching the location of the own Garrison, he changes from the shared environment to the instanced area of the Garrison. This gives the players the impression to be in charge of their own Garrisons and to be able to create something unique in the predefined world of WoW. Of course, the players are allowed to invite other players to visit and explore their Garrisons, but in general the players are alone as long as they are inside their Garrisons.

The Garrison itself consists of the main administration building and a certain amount of building plots where the player can construct three different types of buildings: small, medium and large ones. During the player’s progression through the content of WoD, the player is able to improve the own Garrison and transform it from a small outpost to a small castle. The player gains access to the first stage of the Garrison after he finished the first initial quests of WoD. The story automatically leads the player to the point where he needs to construct a small protected outpost in order to advance in the narration.

Garrison – Stage 2

The first stage of the Garrison comes with a large and a small building plot and is used to introduce the players to the basic management functions of the Garrison. The player learns how to begin the construction process of a building and how to send the own followers on a mission. This first stage lasts only for a short amount of time, because as soon as the player completes a certain quest or reaches level 92, he will be able to upgrade the own Garrison to the second stage.
At this point, the Garrison receives the appearance of a small fort and the administration interfaces of the Garrison move from a small shack to the inside of a townhall-like building. Furthermore, the Garrison then features a large, a medium and two small building plots, a mine, a herb garden and a fishing shack at a small lake. This allows the player to construct two additional buildings which should help him to get through the level phase until the player reaches the maximum level of WoD.
After reaching level 100, the player is able to upgrade the Garrison to the third stage which looks like a castle and offers several options to customize it. Moreover, the final tier of the Garrison provides two large, two medium and three small building plots and gives the player the option to add a monument after reaching a certain milestone in the game.

Garrison – Stage 3

The game mechanic of the upgradeable Garrison helps the players to get used to the new feature of WoW. The first stage introduces the player to the core mechanics and allows them to develop an understanding of the control interfaces. The second stage is an interim stage and allows the players to start the process of the Garrison development which leads to the uprade to the third and final stage. At this point, the players have learnt how to manage their Garrisons and are now able to take advantage of the performance of all the different buildings. Moreover, certain buildings are mostly useful for the endgame of WoD and would only distract the players during their level phase.
Finally, the process of expanding the Garrison is also increasing the immersive effect of WoW. The Garrison is improving together with the player. At the beginning of the WoD campaign, the players are completely new in the regions of WoD. As they progress through the level campaign, they start to get used to the new environment and are able to foster their base. Finally, after reaching level 100, the players are settled in the regions of WoD and hence are able to establish a fortified settlement.

to be continued …

Finding of the week #96

Veröffentlicht am 17. Januar 2015 von Sebbi

Factorio

This week: This time, I think about the training effects of playing Factorio–a game in which the player is building huge factories.

Over the last one and a half months, I was occasionally playing Factorio[1]. The story of the game is quite simple: the player lands on the surface of an unknown planet and is in charge of preparing the arrival and the landing of other space ships by researching and building a „Rocket defense“.

The gameplay itself evolves around this research project. The player has to mine and process resources in order to research technologies or to build more advanced buildings. At first, the player can choose only between a few buildings in order to produce the materials needed for the first research project. Over time, he gets access to more advanced buildings which can assemble more complex items on a much faster rate. Moreover, the player is then able to automate the production by linking up production buildings with conveyor belts. In the end, the player is able to set up production cycles in order to automate the research process: the player is building a giant factory.

The most interesting thing about the game is the way of automating assembly processes. Each item in the game is assembled out of a certain amount of different materials. For example, assembling an „Electronic Circuit“ needs one „Iron Plate“ and three „Copper Cables“. An „Iron Plate“ is produced by smelting some „Iron Ore“ which is a mineable resource. Two „Copper Cables“ are produced by processing one „Copper Plate“. A „Copper Plate“ is produced by smelting some „Copper Ore“ which is a mineable resource.
In order to automate the production of „Electronic Circuits“, the player needs to begin the production cycle by setting up some mining drills. These buildings start to produce some ore which has to be transported to furnaces in order to transform it into iron or copper plates. The iron plate can be transported directly to the assembly machine for the electronic circuits. The copper plate however needs to be transported to another assembly machine which is producing the needed copper cables. Finally, all the needed materials are produced and the assembly machine can start producing „Electronic Circuits“.

Assembly machines and conveyor belts in Factorio

The described production cycle is just one of many other complex production cycles in Factorio. The player is challenged to link up the different machines in the right order to finally produce all the items which are needed to advance a research project. Furthermore, the player needs to make sure that enough materials are mined in order to keep the production running. Moreover, it is also important to have a focus on the ratio of needed materials for each production process. The abovementioned production of electronic circuits needs more copper than iron. The player has to keep this in mind while he is setting up the production cycle.

The gameplay of Factorio is challenging the player to understand and analyze complex production cycles. On the one hand, the player needs to analyze the ratio of needed materials to prevent bottlenecks in the production. On the other hand, the player needs to be able to analyze the own infrastructure in order to improve less efficient parts of the giant factory.

In the end, my assumption is that Factorio is mostly challenging and training the problem solving ability of the users. Moreover, the game is training the cognitive ability to analyze complex processes and to realize these processes in form of a giant factory.

Finding of the week #95

Veröffentlicht am 10. Januar 2015 von Sebbi

Nostalgia

This week: This time, I think about the way how World of Warcraft has created a completely new dimension of gaming nostalgia.

The unprecedented success of World of Warcraft (WoW) is also resulting in a new dimension of gaming memories. Normally, playing a computer game is like reading a novel. It is very interesting and exciting to dive into a different world and to experience a new story. However, the attachment to the virtual world and the own avatar lasts only several hours until the narrative of the game is exhausted.

In contrast to a regular computer game, the story of WoW is a vast narrative and runs now for more than 10 years. During this huge amount of game time, the players were able to develop a strong attachement to the own avatar and the virtual world. Moreover, the story of WoW is not an endless stream of new events. Instead, the WoW story is segmented into smaller chapters which are added to the game over time. Each chapter lasted for several months and the players were able to gain unique experiences during their exploration of each chapter.

In most of the cases, the story of each chapter evolves around a particular raiding instance. Vested players were running into these instances until the next instance was made available. By now, more than 30 raid instances are available in WoW and the players have made unique memories during their exploration of each instance. Depending on the own experiences and the own preferences, each player has its own favorite instance and is comparing the current content with the ‚good old times‘.

This gaming nostalgia is a completely new dimension of gameplay and is only possible due to the fact that the memories were made in the exact same virtual world. Moreover, the players of WoW are even able to relive a certain content because the instances remained in the game and can be visited by the players. During such a nostalgic instance run, the players are often talking about their memories of the particular instance.

The unprecedented success of WoW has not only caused a new dimension of gaming nostalgia, it even has found a way to keep the memories and history active by allowing the players to revisit a location where they have spent a certain amount of their WoW playtime.

Finding of the week #94

Veröffentlicht am 3. Januar 2015 von Sebbi

Disadvantages of playing an early access game

This week: This time, I think about a few disadvantages of playing an early access game. New functionalities implemented to the game could require the players to redo their current progress thus reducing their enjoyment of playing the game.

I already wrote an article about the fun of playing a computer game which is still under development and receives a lot of updates and changes within a short amount of time[1]. The way of selling an early access version has become more and more popular among computer game developers. Especially indie game developers can benefit from the early sales of their products[2]. However, early access releases can also require more management in order to sell the product over a longer period of time compared to a fixed release date[3].

As a gamer, I really like the opportunity to play an unfinished game and to experience the new features as they get implemented. Sometimes, it is even like playing a completely new game which still has the same interesting setting, but offers more ways to interact with the environment or has a better accessibility.

However, the approach of playing early access games has also a few disadvantages:

The developers could deploy a new version of the game which is no longer compatible with the old save games. Suddenly, the current progress through the game world is lost and the player has to start over again.
The game receives a new functionality which challenges the player to visit certain locations or to achieve certain goals. Players who have already completed these tasks need to redo them in order to take advantage of the new functionality.

These issues are not a real problem and they are just a side effect of the regular game development process, but they can reduce a bit the overall enjoyment of the game. On the other hand, by playing an early access game, the player accepts the risk of experiencing these issues during the gameplay.

I have played several early access games during the last year and I noticed that these issues are more problematic with certain game types / game mechanics. In most cases, I noticed these issues with open world and exploration games.

Losing the progress of an open world game can be quite annoying because it is also the loss of a lot of unique experiences and achievements[4]. Moreover, the players of open world games are also more likely to be affected by the implementation of a new functionality which requires a certain accomplishment in the game world than the players of computer games with episodic content. The players could have already completed the tasks and would need to redo it. Depending on the game, this would not feel right. On the other hand, begining a completely new game could be also disappointing because it would result in the loss of the old progress.

The players of exploration games can experience the exact same issues. The exploration of a virtual world works only once. The enjoyment of discovering a beautiful spot in the game world is an unique experience. Often the players need to find the right way and need to overcome several obstacles in order to reach a certain spot. However, after the players have achieved this, they probably will not be experiencing the same level of excitement if they need to achieve it a second time.
Losing the progress of a save game or taking advantage of a freshly implemented tracking functionality would require the players to explore the world again. Unfortunately, the players are already aware of all the shortcuts at this point.

Although the players could take advantage of new functionalities, it would seem redundant to the players because the new features are just an enhancement of the core game mechanics.

Peel banana first, eat second.

Veröffentlicht am 24. März 2012 von Sebbi

There isn’t much to say – so I decided to present some pictures of my recent MoP Beta experience instead!
At first, I had a closer look at the new talent system and tried some skills on a dummy. Btw, the „fun“ glyphs are really fun! I like this new concept.
After this I switched to my Pandaren Monk and explored the starting zone. I really enjoyed the story in this area. The only thing I missed: There isn’t a quest related to the brewmaster skills of the Pandaren.