Response to Gee: Metalevel Thinking

One part of chapter two that I found very interesting was the discussion of the Semiotic Domain, but specifically dealing with the "metalevel thinking." Not only is this process important to a game, but it is necessary for a game to be able to survive over a long period of time and games that successfully meet the "meta" flourish and continue to get played.  I will talk about a couple different games that have done this successfully. One big game that a lot people may be familiar with is League of Legends. This game is constantly changing its meta game due to a couple of different elements. The game is constantly getting updated with new champions, champion balances, item balances, and environmental balances. I use balance in terms of they change something that has been either overpowered or underpowered in the eyes of the community and developers. With this in mind, players have to adapt to these changes at such a constant rate it could potentially make or break the game. I have had a couple champions(characters) in the game that have been "nerfed" so hard that they lose playability, well at least at first. One example of this was when they changed one of my favorite character's scaling that he wasn't as strong as he use to be. I was unable to perform or play him well at all, so I stopped playing him. After about 2 months, I picked him back up again and found that I had an easier time then before. The difference was that when I was playing him, I knew my limitations, and then they changed them drastically. After forgetting those limits, to a point, relearning what I could and couldn't get away with allowed me to play this character once again and have fun with it. Another big thing that has changed League of Legends "Meta" is the team compositions. Now this can be argued as being my opinion and wrong, but I feel as though there are a lot of people who can agree with this. Since the game has been out, the strategy of the "lanes" in the game has changed overtime. For anyone who doesn't know what this game entails, I'll do my best to explain the basics. There are 2 teams of 5 who battle on a map with 3 main "lanes." The change in the meta comes in when we discuss what kind of characters, along with how many go to each lane. For the most part, the middle lane has always been a solo lane and occupied by a ranged caster type champion (oh and just for the record, if anyone would like me to explain this more in depth in person, feel free to ask or comment). Top and bottom lane are the two that have changed a lot. At the beginning, and still sometimes today, top would consist of two champions. More recently, top has become a solo lane, while the other player goes into what is called the "jungle" and levels up by killing the creatures in the jungle rather then leveling up in the lane. The jungler also has the task of performing sneak attacks called "ganks" on opponents in the 3 lanes of his/her choosing to help out the team and the players in the specific lane. Bottom, for the most part, has been also a duo lane. The change in the meta comes into play when dealing with the kinds of characters that go there. At least in my experience, players would just go any champion they would want and have a 2v2 battle lane down bottom. More recently, the lanes now consist of a ranged champion and a support champion. This is followed by the strategy of the ranged champion becoming "fed" off of all the monster kills that yield more gold as the support champion focuses on healing and protecting it's ranged partner. With all this changes, the game has proved to be successful in continuing to adapt to new champions they add along with user feedback to make the game more balanced for all players. Another game I would like to point out that has kept the meta game balanced is Team Fortress 2. With all the content updates that come into a game that still is played by it's core gameplay, it continually keeps up with balancing new items and new game modes. The game still consists of its 9 classes from launch and have given each class a variety of tools to make each player somewhat unique over another playing the same class. They have introduced many new game types, weapons, cosmetic items, and has gone free to play along with being available to play on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It just goes to show that if you can update your game to meet the needs of the ever changing market, you'll continue to have a prosperous journey for both the players and the developers.

Response to Reality Is Broken: Music Gaming

I wanted to do my response on the section of chapter 4 dealing with how failure in gaming helps with optimism and the details surrounding music based games. I have been very influenced by games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and they have shaped my gaming experience in a big way. I want to take this time to point out some ideas that were mentioned in the book in regards to what music based games do to us as players. The one part that I found most interesting was the part that brought up the fact that very few players partake in playing games like Rock Band alone. I am one of those players who has spent the majority of my time playing these games on my own. I can say with full certainty that I cannot live without my iPod and my music at all points of the day and I think that has part to do with how I experienced music based games. I am the oldest of 3 brothers who also play video games, but I found myself playing the first Guitar Hero in my basement alone then either with or in the company of my brothers. It wasn't really until Rock Band came out that my time playing that game at first was within a group of my friends. That also may had to do with the fact that I didn't own the game or my own drum set at that point and could only play it at my friend's house. Once I got my own plastic drum set, I would play the campaign of the game on my own for hours on end trying to get better at the drums. Now one could argue that I practiced as much as I did because I wanted to impress my friends and to excel when I play in public. I won't deny that was what is was at first, but things changed with Rock Band 2. In Rock Band, to get the band related achievements, you needed to play in a band of no less then 2 people. Rock Band 2 gave you the option to play through all the features and access to most of the achievements in single player. I'm not against playing games with multiple people, it was just frustrating for me that I am missing so many Rock Band 1 achievements because my brothers and friends wouldn't play the game as extensively as I did. Along with Rock Band 2 being able to play the whole game alone, also was paired with me getting an ION Drum Rocker. It is a higher quality drum set that with the right module can be used as an electric drum set. I had the 4 drums, 3 cymbals, and drum pedal. The only module I had was strictly for Rock Band, and that began my serious obsession. I would play, no lie, at least 3 hours a day after school replaying a lot of the same songs trying to improve my score. As they started to release DLC, I would buy songs of my favorite bands each week they would release content. My library is over 600 songs to this date. This was what I would do from sophomore year until senior year in high school. After coming to SHIP, I didn't play it much. I wasn't able to bring my set to school and I slowly lost my obsession. It wasn't until sophomore year of college that I met my friend Andrew who to this day is the only other person I know that has as many Rock Band songs as I do (and more). He had all the instruments, in plastic form, and my obsession was sparked once again. Everyday, Andrew, our friend Jayson, and I would have what we called "Band Practice" and we would cycle through a couple of the same songs along with throwing in different ones. We enjoyed playing each day and it was probably the best times I have had at college. It is something that I miss very dearly as Jayson now lives in Texas and Andrew transferred schools. This game provided me with thousands upon thousands of hours of entertainment in both a single and multiplayer atmosphere. I have acquired a real drum module and have begun to really try and play my set in the "real" sense. I have been told by a bunch of people that I am at a skill level in rock band that could mimic actual drum skills that I could use in real life. It is one of very few games that will have replay value for me on an endless state, as many games I play I only go through once and I get my fill of it. It has been a very big influence on my gaming experience and how I experience music in my everyday life. I listen to music and picture how I would play the drum parts in rock band on my set and with the skills that I have, I can go out and experiment with that.