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Monday 11 February, 2008
Gamelog #4
Entry #2
Gameplay:
My second time around with Gradius was slightly better than the first. Instead of trying to advance through the playing field, I set up my own goals. I selected a two player game (even though I was the only one playing) and compared my score results through several rounds with player one only able to shoot and player two able to shoot and maneuver. To my surprise, and probably no one else’s, maneuvering does help. However, when I play it does not help that much. On average, my scores were so close that the difference is most likely negligible. On multiple occasions, I actually did better when I did not try to maneuver. I cannot even imagine the volume that speaks about how poor my skill level is.
I lost interest in comparing my own scores fairly quickly since they were relatively consistent. After that, I was able to convince my roommate to play with me. She and I are at very similar skill levels; she only has a little more experience with video games than I do. Although neither of us did very well (with very little improvement), it was nice playing with someone just as bad as I was. There is no way I would have been able to stand playing with our other housemate. She is just too good; it would have been a futile effort on my part.
For the most part, Gradius was much better the second time around. Unfortunately for the creators, this is not a game I would ever by for myself.
Design:
My score comparisons reinforce my previous point of needing different levels of difficulty. I know other games have this feature, but I think all games need it. Games may have plenty of the first seduction, the design of desire, but if they do not have enough of the second seduction, the design of pleasure, then the players are never going to continue to play. If a player dies three times within the first five minutes of playing a game, there is not enough design of pleasure. Players will become discouraged and will not be willing to reenter the magic circle. I believe that with difficulty levels, players will not be discouraged when they start out, and when they progress to a higher level of difficulty the pleasure of being successful will be all the greater.
A downside of using an old system like this is that when I finally did want to play with my roommate we were actually just comparing scores after we had each taken our turns. Two players do not actually get to play at the same time in a team (like in the class demo for the PS2) or against each other. This greatly limits the kinds of interactions players can have with the system, which I assume is why later systems changed this. In the few games I have played, I always enjoyed them more when my friends and I could team up against the game. I much preferred fighting a common enemy than fighting each other. This version of Gradius does not allow that type of play, a very disappointing feature.
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