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Adam's Warcraft III -- Frozen Throne (PC)
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| [February 7, 2008 08:05:12 PM]
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Gamelog entry #1:
SUMMARY
In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne the player picks from one of four races. The object of this game is to create units and advance your technology to gain upgrades. You race to gain upgrades against your opponent, either the computer or a friend, and try and get superior units so that you can defeat them. This game also requires a lot of strategy, you cannot just get a bunch of one unit, you need to balance your force and have some close combat and some ranged units, for example.
GAMEPLAY
During the game you find yourself speeding through possibilities of what you could do and who you can use/control. One can call this multi-tasking but in the game the players refer to it as micro-managing since you are in control of many units.
All the races (characters) in this game have specific strengths. So where one race might be really strong and able to take a lot of hits they might not be able to do much damage where as another race might be really weak on the survival scale but can do more damage. This makes the game much more complicated and interactive when playing with friends on a team.
Warcraft III is a very fun game. It can get aggravating when you play someone WAY better than you and totally get stomped but for the most part it is quite fun. I feel that the main reason this game is fun is because of all the different possibilities of play. On a grand scale the game really only has one way to play; upgrade, attack, kill, and defeat your enemy. But the different ways and races you can do that with make it very versatile. For example you can use the Orc race and within that one race there are a good ten different ways, at least, to combine units and defeat your enemy.
The game holds your interest for many of the same reasons above. There is one primary interest holding aspect that was not mentioned above and that is simply increasing your skill. As you play more and more people you become more familiarized with each race and their strengths/weaknesses. As you start to know the game better you can identify the strategy your opponent will use and counter them. Then you have become the person stomping everyone and that is really fun!
The social aspect of this game is not as big as that of Pong or game like that but it is very prevalent. During the game, if you are play on a team, you must interact with your team members and coordinate strategic movements such as attacks/defense. There is little communication with the other team, at the most maybe “gg” will be said at the end of the game for “Good Game.” But usually there is no interaction and if there is it will most likely be trash-talk.
I believe I experienced the intended flow of the game. Some of the games you play with multiple players on a team can last for a couple hours. During this time you have one mindset and that is the mindset of the game and how to win. This game effectively sucks you into its world. I would recommend it to anyone who likes real time strategy games.
Gamelog entry #2:
GAMEPLAY
Having come back and played Warcraft III for a second day I find myself much better at the game. There are many timing aspects of the game. You must gather minerals and build units and keep your rations high enough to support your units etc. This timing of creating/funding units can be exacted into its own science. As you start to play more and more one on one games you will find yourself losing because of one or two seconds of being idle. The game comes down to who can micro-manage better and who knows more about the game.
I played the game with one of my roommates who has the game and hadn’t played in for some time and continually stomped him. The only time he won was when we set a large time-limit before either one of us was allowed to attack the other. This game revolves around time and micro-managing. When a time limit is set the dynamics of the game are changed.
DESIGN
I think one of the most innovative elements of the game is their race and hero system. The races are balanced but they have different strengths, as well as do the heroes, and I feel that this gives the player some sense of individuality and allows his to “customize and tweak” his gameplay style.
This game shares a lot of the elements that make a good real-time-strategy game. But as mentioned above I feel that the most stand-out aspect of the game that makes this game good is the race/hero selection.
The level design of this game is creative but the selection is rather limited. Different maps/levels are primarily based on how many people you will be playing with. Some are more ground heavy where as others may be more air unit heavy. All the levels are rather similar because they must be balanced in order to accommodate all play styles. But another outstanding add-on that comes with the game is the campaign editor. This allows you to make your own levels and customize what style of play options are given to the players.
The main challenge of this game is the timing aspect. Seeing how quickly you can build units. The part of the game that keeps this interesting is competing with other players and testing your skills to see if you are better than them.
This game creates conflict by forcing you to compete with someone, either the computer (AI) or another person. The game keeps the player interested in the same way it creates conflict, the players goal is to get good enough that they win most of the time.
The space within the maps/levels of the game world is set. The map is a certain size and the players must stay on the map. You can travel over the map by walking your units around or by using transport vehicles.
The tone of this game is overall a competitive one. Any social interaction that springs from it usually is not polite and results in even more trash-talk.
The game is well balanced. I would not change anything about this game. If when playing multiplayer there is a ranking system to ensure that a new player does not get pitted against a pro.
Overall I feel this is a good strong game. I would highly recommend it.
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Adam's Warcraft III -- Frozen Throne (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 7 February, 2008
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