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Thursday 14 February, 2008
GAMELOG #2
GAMEPLAY
Playing the game the second time, I played the other two games, baseball, and tennis. Baseball and tennis were both similar in their game play. Beginning baseball, I tried to hold the remote just as you would hold the baseball bat, to create a better effect, but I found that just holding the remote in my hand produced the same effect. Again I went online and played with baseball cheats, I learned to do a special submarine pitch, a screw ball, and a splitter pitch, all greatly affected my game play. By this time, I had a better understanding of the remote. I was had greater control on the flicking of my wrist, and understood that’s what’s really created the positive effect.
Tennis is rumored to be the best game, so I was excited to play this one. Tennis was a lot of flicking my wrists, and sadly there wasn't many cheats online. I really enjoyed tennis though; I found it to be very lifelike and realistic. I thought in tennis especially that there was good linkage between cause and effect. When I flicked my wrist appropriately, my player responded accordingly, and again this allowed for great interaction with my friends, and effort on my part.
DESIGN
The Wii is a great design. The players are realistic, meaning the cause and effect, the game was exciting, had a great social atmosphere, an ease yet, a degree of learning required, this game had distinct rules, there was variable outcomes, with the player invested in those outcomes, and there was no real life consequences. By Juuls definition, this is definitely a game, a great one at that.
First let me comment on the social atmosphere, which I kind of peeked to in my game play descriptions. Whether you’re playing the game, or watching the game, you’re into it. I was talking to the TV as if my players could here me, I was taunting my opponent, and I took extreme pride in my victories. Even while watching, I was cheering and taunting like at a live football game. Considering the magic circle concept, I would definitely say that even people not playing at the time, were apart of it. Even when we took a break to go eat, we were still discussing it, talking as if we were members of real teams that had just come out victorious, it was really interesting.
Aside from the social interaction brought by the game, there was the general ease of the game, and the learning capability. When starting the game, you pick up the remote, and just start swinging it. I am sure a lot of people like I did, tested out whether or not actually swinging the baseball bat, like a baseball bat was more effective then just holding the remote. You easily learn though how to hold the remote, which buttons you hold down to, with to let go to, and its not a frustrating learning experience either. Usually, playing competitive games like madden, by the time you use all the buttons and features right, your already losing without the possibility of beating your opponent, but in playing the Wii, even if you lose one game, its such a light, social atmosphere, its just like a simple, aww man, well now I got it. I definitely enjoyed that.
Rules, by Juuls definition, a game requires distinct rules, and again Wii definitely had it. In playing all the games, there was a clear understanding of what you had to do to win, what you were capable of doing and what you couldn’t. And since the games were realistic, common games, the rules were obvious and understandable, and coincided with the design rules.
The other element I commented on, and thoroughly enjoyed was the game environment, and how though you were playing a game, and you were invested in the outcome, once you leave the game space, you leave the game space. Your game play experience bears no weight on your finances, or relationship status, maybe some slight taunting here and there, but nothing serious. Through this though, there is still different possibilities, and your invested in their outcomes, you have to options, either win the game, or lose the game, but within, there is so many options, no one game experience would be the same. No one boxing match, baseball game, or any of the other games, is gonna be the same, even if you tried. Overall I thought this game was very well designed, and I really enjoyed it.
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