Medieval warfare is all fun and games or is it?

AGE OF EMPIRES II

One of my favorite games for the DS was Age of empires II: The age of kings  a  turn based strategy game that allows you to take command of  5 heroes/nations Joan of Arc( Franks ), King Richard I( Britons ) , Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Japanese) , Genghis Khan (Mongols) and Saladin (Saracens) The goal of the player is to either win via a skirmish  which allows the player to chose their difficulty their hero and map or via campaign where the player have to complete objectives for the various nations based on actual historical events.

So what can the game play be classed as?

Personally I would class this game play as Ludus as the only way to win is to fill in certain objectives such as make sure your general doesn't die or destroy all opponents units or win in a certain amount of days. However it is only this strict in the campaign mode where your objectives are based on the actual historical documents of the various heroes. But in the skirmish mode where you control most of the variables such as Map layout opponent AI & Difficulty toggle Fog of war Etc. This is also Ludus( meaning to play by objectives) because the only way to win is by destroying their opponent however it is not as strict as the campaign as it allows for the player to develop their own strategy and it is also dependent on what AI they picked and what difficulty level it is set to.

So what type of play is it

The most prominent  type of play is Agon (competition) as you are essentially fighting for your own units survival as well as be the first to find  and build on all the gold and food resources  be the first to rise though the ages and to research new technologies. The sole purpose of the game to defeat your opponent be it the AI or human player via the hot seating multiplayer option. So what other types of play does this game contain? Well I would say it contains elements of mimicry(simulation as you are essentially serving as the leader of the army or are you?  I say this because the game takes place in God view which means you are the overseer of the whole map (or the parts your nation has explored if you have fog of war on) and you control multiple units albeit one at a time but the turn doesn't end until you decide. So how does this show simulation? well instead of playing one role you can play multiple roles within the role of overseer for example you can either act as the fearless general leading your troops into battle or play as the general who values is town by staying on the town center using his/her skills to help benefit research or increase gold/food yield or decrease the cost of buildings. What I trying to say is that even if the player cant be physically represented in the game and depending on their own sense of imagination they themselves can take on the roles of these heroes and change them slightly to suit their own personal style.

Bibliography

the bibliography for  patterns in game design:

Bjork S & Holopainen J (2005) Patterns in games design Hingam MA: Charles River Media INC.

the bibliography for the games design reader a rules of play Anthology 

Huizinga.J (1955) "Nature and significance of play as a cultural phenomenon"
Salen.K & Zimmermen.E (ed.) Games design reader a rule of play anthology Cambridge MA: MIT press(Pp.96-122)

Journal bibliography 
Kyser. J & Texas A&M university & Sander.P  (2014)  Proceedings of the 18th meeting of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games Mechanics and characters (undated) Pages 7-14

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

Well now the greeting is done I guess I should tell you a little about my self. My name is George Davis and I am an aspiring games designer. (Although I haven't actually made a game yet...) I have spent the time studying  and now starting a games design course at University campus Suffolk. I have experience using  Maya and Photoshop now learning to use Unity and 3D studio max.

As part of this blogging assignment we had to interview each other so here are my answers to the 8 questions we were ask...

What is the title of the most recent fictional book you have read?

My most recently read book was NYPD RED 2  by James Patterson & Marshal Karp the book was the sequel to the previous NYPD RED (which i have also read). The book is about a special branch of the NYPD which focuses on solving high profile cases involving celebrities  politicians etc. This one is particularly interesting as the plot revolves around vigilante styled justice and makes you question whether it is right to take another person life just because they are evil. Or as the book puts it Do you think Hitler was evil in high school?

What is the title of the most recent non fictional book you have read?

The most recent non fiction book I've read is the computer design course book written by Jim Thompson Barnaby Berbank-Green and Nic Cusworth. This book is about  game design and core mechanics of  making a game and deciding what type of game you want to make. This is shown through out the book as it explains core mechanics such as difficulty curves, what defines a specific genre etc. This book also offers exercises which allows for practice such as drawing characters and level designs.(acts like a mini brief).

What is the last live music/theater/dance have you seen?

the answer to this one is short I haven't seen anything live because I am not interested in this type of thing .

what was the most recent film you have seen?

 The most recent film I saw was the guardians of the galaxy the film is about a a group of unlikely people who help save the world  the group consists of a human who is  a known criminal goes by the nickname star lord . A talking genetically altered raccoon known as rocket, a tree like alien called Groot and a bio weapon who is relate

How often do you read the newspaper ?

I read 2 papers form time to time mainly the Sun however I do like to read the metro as it is free in London and makes  commuting a little easier. The thing I like about the metro is that they have interesting articles and regular game reviews. however recently I haven't been reading newspapers .

When was the last time you went to a museum? 

The last time I remember going to a museum was the the natural history museum  to see the Charles Darwin exhibition. It was interesting to  see various creatures and how they differed form modern animals. 

How long do spend playing video games? 

If this question was asked before I moved to the hall of residents I would have said 20-24 hrs weekly but now I find that i haven't got the time or that i am bored of video games at the moment so now it more like 7-14 hrs per week if that. (however that might change when I get a copy of Super Smash
brother 4 3ds)

How long do you spend playing non digital games 

admittedly i should spend more time playing board games and card games as these are vital to a games designer as it allows for better understanding for game mechanics and interactions So i will say around 0-2 hrs weekly however the most recent non digital game I played was a card game called grave robbers which is set in the Victorian times where you decide whether to rob graves or not based on the objective cards you are given.

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