Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Becoming a Critic 2

Hearthstone



Last time I did a Becoming a Critic blog I negatively critiqued the game to the point where I was getting lots of negative feedback from my peers so today I will be looking at a game I actually enjoy playing. With that being said, I will still be critical with this game about the way the designers put together this new game which are still beta testing. I will also keep in mind the fact that the contents of the game are still in beta and subject to change when the game releases. For now, I will be doing my analysis on the game as if this is the gold version and not the beta in case nothing is changed from now until release day. Remember I will be analyzing this based on the elements of games from my second blog. If you still haven't read that one I highly recommend you go and do that first. With that being said, let us begin.

Player

When the game first runs it throws the player right into the tutorial. Now this game is a trading card game and each deck you can play with has a hero, this is to help fit each player's play style. I appreciate that the designers made the decision for the new players to play as the mage hero but I think it would've been better to explain the heroes and let the player decide right away so they are more comfortable when they start the game. Aside from that one minor flaw I see in players, I actually really like the amount of choice for heroes that can be used by the player. Each one is unique and fun to use. On top of the heroes, there are also unique cards to each hero. Below is an example of the starter hero in the tutorial and the unique spell the hero can use next to her. There is also a fireblast card which is an example of a hero or class specific card to further make the player's deck more unique to their play style.

Objective

Now they made the objective of this game very simple. Your goal is to drop the other heroes health to 0 before your health reaches 0. Now this is a good objective but I feel that the game needs more than one objective. If we look at the objective types, the designers only really implemented Solution and Outwit. You could also say race since it does feel like a race to who would get the other's health to 0 first. Having few objectives can be positive since it makes the game simple and easier for new players. It also give the experienced players a chance to focus more on certain strategies that don't need to encompass so many goals. However I think they should add some other forms of objectives such as construction where you can build cards from putting together other stronger cards. An example of another card game which made this a construction objective in their game is in yu gi oh where the player constructed the forbidden one to win the game.

Procedure

The way how this game plays out is that it's a turn based game. Every card has a certain amount of mana to play and each turn the player gets their maximum mana increases by 1. I like what the designers did with this because it keeps the game progressing in a linear fashion. What I mean by this is that the game doesn't skip any early or mid gameplay and plays right into the late game cards. I would've like to see that designers do something a little more out of the box with the turn based mechanic so they could stand out from being just another card game. It would need lots of attention to detail on how that mechanic is changed since it would affect the entire game flow and how it plays. I feel like the designers at Blizzard could make it work.

Rules

There are other rules on top of how the game plays. The most frustrating rule I have encountered from my couple days of play has been the limited emote chat system they have made for the game. It looks like this:

I can't even laugh at my opponent! All I can do is click on the cheesy threaten quotes they have for the heroes. Sometimes i want to talk to them about how over powering some cards or combos are in the game too, but I'm very restricted to simply saying hi, thanks, and sorry. They thankfully have at least a "gg" emote which is called "well played" in there. They should allow for a full chat system since it is completely possible. The game is able to chat with other players who are your friends and the other blizzard games like StarCraft allow you to talk to your opponent. There is no reason why I am not allowed to casually talk to my opponents.  

Resources

There are lots of resources in this game and the designers did a great job of making them easy to understand and manage throughout the game. To list the resources I have found in this game, they would be: mana, health, minions, spells, weapons, and time. The way how I find time as a resource is when I play as a hunter hero in the game, my time window to be effective with the hero is early game since lots of my minions are low mana cost. This means I will be weak in the late game and have to use the time in the early game to win the game.

Conflict

The conflict in the game is pretty straight forward. So you have an opponent that you need to defeat. The game also has obstacles from having you complete your goal where some minions have taunt which means you need to attack that minion before attacking another enemy minion or hero. Some dilemmas I face when I play the game is as a hunter class the late game has barely any cards to play since they are all low cost and get played early in the game. There is a good balance of conflict in the game which isn't too frustrating or too boring for the player. 

Boundaries

Some boundaries I have noticed in the game is that you have a certain number of minions you can play on the board. There is only a maximum of 7 allowed which is fine for just about every race except for hunters class. Since the hunter's build is all about lots of small minions it restricts their play style to not be as effective as possible due to their boundaries. I think the designers shouldn't have put a boundary in the game in terms of how many minions could be played. The only reason I can see that they would need this boundary is for visuals since the board is pretty tight once there are 7 minions on the board. 

Outcome

The outcome of completing the objective results in rewards. These rewards are in the form of in game currency which can be spent on entering into the arena to win prizes for the game or buying card packs. The outcome of winning can also be used to complete daily challenges such as winning 5 times with a specific race for a lot of in game currency. Plus if you reach the outcome of winning a match three times you get extra in game currency. The outcome will always result in rewards that in the end better your game.
I really like this design idea since it gives that satisfying resolution of winning to earn good cards for your decks. The strategy involved in the game to beat another player also gives the player maximum emotional investment to win from the satisfaction of being a more strategic player.

In conclusion, this is a really well done game with simple to learn mechanics that are addictive to play. The amount of various play styles adds to the amount of fun every player can get out of this game. They did a really great job on all of the art with their 3D renderings of the board and cards with numerous particles to make the game juicier. The design of the games mechanics were really well thought out and flow nicely. I would definitely recommend this game.  

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Design Your Game Item 2

In my last post about designing my own game item I created the gruesome Gears of War weapon, the Wrapper. This week I want to keep up the high intensity game items. To keep this item as awesome and bad ass as the last I will be designing this next item for the class Dead Rising series. With a game like this, it gives me the freedom to develop something that will fit the theme easily while having the space to still change and improve the gameplay experience. Dead Rising 2 introduced combo weapons, ones that the player can combine two items in the world to make a better item. My item will also be a combo item that can be put together from Dead Rising 2.

Now for the item I will need to first make a weapon that doesn't exist in the game. The other part of this combo card I will use the cement saw that is in the game already, usually found in construction areas. So the new weapon I will need is called Chain. This is a standard, long, set of chain links. This weapon when used on its own would swing around the player and do large area of effect damage but it has a short life span as it will wear out easily. The other attack option that comes with it is when you hold the attack button near a zombie, the character will rap the chain around the zombies neck and then kick the body tearing the head off. The weapon is not a two handed weapon so it can fit in the player's inventory. That's all the detail about that weapon.

For the item that will change the gameplay and add a new mechanic to the game. So, when the cement saw and the chain are duct taped together, it will create the Hookshot. This is crazy, I know you're probably thinking, how does some duct tape turn those two into a hookshot? Well you can ask how one chainsaw turns into two or how the flamethrower doesn't catch itself on fire. My theory on how the chain and cement saw would become the hookshot is the blade from the saw is turned into a nice spear tip somehow and its taped to the chain, really well. Then the chain is wrapped around the rotor of the saw blade and the other end is taped to the rotor, and again, really well. Finally when the saw is started, the hookshot would launch. 

This hookshot will open up all kinds of new game mechanics and tons of fun gameplay moments. The way how this item changes and improves gameplay without making the game broken is it's ability to interact with the environment. Once it hits something it would pull it in if it's dynamic, and if it's static wood, the player's character would be pulled toward that position. Any other type of static material being metal or brick etc. the hookshot will not pull they player.

So with this game changing mechanic, the player can escape danger easily if there is nearby wood platforms around. These can be found a lot where the item can actually be crafted in the game. The scaffolds in the construction areas where the parts for the hookshot are found are made of wood which leaves open lots of game mechanic use. This item can also grab items that are not within reach.

Time for the fun part, how the hookshot kills zombies.   The primary attack for this item launches the hook forward skewering all zombies up to a max of eight. If you hold the attack button to use the special attack, that is when you  pull objects and zombies towards you or you pull yourself towards what you attacked. It helps to aim for the special attack because you have the choice as to what you pull. If you free aim there's a high chance you will pull a zombie towards you. You can't throw the hookshot since it is a ranged weapon.

The amount of times I wished I had a weapon like this during my times of play. It would have made the game a lot more dynamic and interesting. 


Friday, 11 October 2013

Emotional Contagion 2

My last emotional contagion went over the compelling love story between two characters and their adventures together in the StarCraft universe. Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan had an amazing story put together for them by some talented story writers. I have found another great set of story writers in yet another great game series. The release of this new series was on July 11, 2007, and had many emotional scenes. The one that gave me the most emotional response to was in the end of the series released September 20, 2011. This was not a relationship between lovers like my last one, but instead a relationship between best friends. If you haven't guessed which game this is yet, it's Gears of War 3. The scene I have chosen contains spoilers and will be disclosed after the spoilers line.

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The scene chosen was when Dom makes the ultimate sacrifice to save his squad from imminent death of the lambert and locust and kills himself as well as the enemies enclosing Delta squad. Here is the scene from the game.



The way how the designers and story tellers had constructed this scene to be so emotional is to bring back as much from the past as possible to stimulate more emotion to the viewer. For example, the most obvious part was when Dom brings up his wife Sofia. He has gone through a lot in the second installment of the gears series looking for his wife. This search results in finding his wife did not make it. Again, in the initial trailer of Gears of War 1 they released it with the song Mad World playing in the background. This became something like a theme song to the first Gears game because of that trailer. They later made it an easter egg in the third game when you played on a certain multiplayer map Gridlock. So to hear this song playing in the background of the scene brings back all the memories of Marcus and Dom together. These memories will further grow the emotion of the viewer for this scene.

During the scene they show that everyone is affected by the death of Dom but Marcus is the one who is most affected. This is because the designers wanted to focus all of the emotional feedback and response to the player. Likewise in my last blog, they put the focus of the emotions on Kerrigan because during that scene, they had you playing as her and it will impact you greater if the player you are controlling is going through these emotions.

The sacrifice Dom made for his best man and his squad could really emotionally impact those who have served in the military before and went through a similar scenario. I could only imagine the flashbacks of a soldier having their best friend saving their life. I can see that a friends sacrifice wouldn't even be necessary since it would be such an emotional topic to begin with. But to have lost a best friend so you could live on would really get to the viewer deep.

I think this scene is the most emotional cutscene in any game, more emotional than the loss of Cortana or the loss of Tycus. This game is about war and sacrifice. There are many more scenes of loss that Marcus and other people in the Cog army have experienced loss.

If you are interested in viewing the full cutscenes of this game to understand how this one scene can be so emotional to players, I will leave a link below.

Sunday, 6 October 2013

Digital Prototyping

Welcome back to the blog posts relating to the course material of Game Design and Productions 2. The last few posts have been side tracked to help boost the experience of your favorite avatar TwoLock. Anyways, continuing with this weeks lecture. This week in class we discussed digital prototyping as well as a few other smaller topics. There are four areas of digital prototyping: game mechanics, aesthetics, kinesthetics, and technology. I will also go over designing control schemes, selecting viewpoints, effective interface design, and go over some prototyping tools.

Game Mechanics

When it comes to the mechanics of a game you want to make sure that the mechanics are simple. This doesn't necessarily need to be a standalone progrm. The mechanics of a game are focused on a particular design question. So when designing you would start with your core mechanics. Mechanics may sometimes have a spreadsheet filled out with questions embedding the complex game logic.

Aesthetics


When creating the aesthetics of a digital prototype, you need to keep the mindset of juice it or lose it. This means that you need to make your prototype juciy. If you don't know what that is, well I'd recommend you watch this video.

This can be done for storyboards, concept art, interface, and even audio.

Kinesthetics

Now kinesthetics is talking about the feel of the game. So for example, how responsive the interface is as well as how the controls feel. This would also involve the type of controls available to the player. It is good to have a compelling control scheme.

Technology

When developing the tech for your prototype, you want to make sure you cover these key points. These would include: Graphics, AI, Physics, Production Pipeline, etc. During the tech development you also want to validate your ideas are good and to refute the bad ideas. Make sure that when rapid prototyping, you design something small, and can be completed quickly.

Designing Control Schemes

For the design of a control scheme for whichever choice of input, whether it be mouse and keyboard or a gaming controller, the controls need to be good and intuitive. Allow for mulitple controller types because not everyone is going to want to use the same type of controller. Understand the capabilities of your controller and know how your game can make optimal use of the controller you've chosen. Having a list of procedures that the player can do helps with designing the control scheme for your game. Procedures tied to game states is another way to approach the design of the controls. When testing the controls, remember to keep in mind that effortlessness is key.
Viewpoints

The viewpoints in the prototype will be of your game environment and it's not your visual display of the game's status. There options of viewpoints can either be: Overhead view, Side view, Isometric view, First- person, or Third person view. When choosing one you want to think about what degree of access you want to give the player of the game world. Also keep in mind the relationship of the player to the game objects around them.

Interface Design

Really briefly, the effective interface design would include: player information design, form follows fumction, metaphors, visualization, grouping features, consistency, and feedback.

Tools

When making the prototype, keep in mind that the design of the experience comes first and that tech is second. Now, when it comes to different tools that are great for this would be game engines such as CryTek Engine or level editors like Unity, UDK, WarCraft 3, StarCraft 2, and even Portal. Or of course you can program it yourself using C++ or your language of choice.


Friday, 4 October 2013

Becoming a Critic

Outlast

So in the hour I spent watching someone else play this game, because there is so much wrong with it, I refuse to play. Allow me to go in detail about these key points in which made this, a bad game. I apologize in advance for those who found this a good game. I have this set up to go over each of the topics from my second blog about the elements of games. This is how I will break it down plus I need to say some things about graphics after. Alright, here we go..

Player

To start, this character you play really shouldn't have forgotten their inhaler, they have such a hard time breathing this whole game. Aside from that annoyance in your ear every two seconds, the design for the player is very primitive. There is no back story or really any game story describing the character. It's a single player game which right there is a big turn off for most people since they want to play games with friends. I can see how this can be played with friends, you have one person walk through the game while everyone watches since realistically the only gameplay feature is jump scares. The designers might have set the player up like this to make it more relative to the people playing and more immersive.  

Objective

The player's objective is a linear progression and very poorly marked during my experience with the game. When I watched the hour of gameplay, the goals were as followed: explore asylum, access security room, escape asylum, turn power back on, turn on gas pumps and breaker, and then at this point I wasn't sure what the next goal was. So there was a total of three objective types: Escape, Exploration, and Solution. Not very fun when there isn't many objective types such as GTA5 where they incorporate many objective types. The designer should have added at least construction to this horror game like Dead Rising has.  

Procedure

So basically for the procedure of this game, you can't fight back, all you can do is run and hide. I can't say much about the controls and how they feel since I didn't actually play the game myself but from what I saw it looked like they were pretty generic. Throughout the game there is minimal interaction between anything other than the environment. If the designer's were going to do that, they should have made it more like Assassin's Creed, where the environment is a challenge. Instead they just had tables you can hurdle, doors you can interact with, and tight vertical spaces to squeeze through.

Rules

With the rules in this game, you had to follow the instructions provided at the bottom of the screen to win the game. While doing this you need to avoid hostile NPC's. However, they don't make it clear which NPC's are hostile or neutral in the game. This was quite frustrating in some parts since you would be under the impression you can't get through a section of the level because of what looks to be a group of hostile NPC's who are just hanging out watching snow on the TV. There were also batteries in the game you needed if you didn't want to play the game with your monitor on full brightness.

Resources

Moving from rules, the only resource you had, aside from the tolerance level of a god to play this game, was the batteries. You had additional pickups like security key cards and such but they weren't really a resource you collected for supplies to aid you in the continuation of the game. I think they added batteries for the video camera, rather than just always having battery, was to add an additional level of fear. Fortunately when I watched the game it seemed there was an abundance of full AA batteries just laying around this nut house. I'm pleased the designers did that or else I probably couldn't handle an hour of watching a black screen.

Conflict

The conflict in this game was minimal. There was no conflict for the first 35 minutes of gameplay. Then there was finally one guy who shows up when you're in the security room. Later there is one guy who wants you dead down in the basement where the power is. It was almost as boring as Slenderman. When there was conflict, the game had you running from it and hiding in a locker or under a bed. Even if you caught you simply got a slap on the wrists and then you're free to continue wondering this asylum. The designers made the game too easy with a very shallow learning curve. This causes the game to be very boring, even if the purpose of the game is to be scary. Gears of War 1 was a scary game with a great learning curve, conflict, etc.

Boundaries

These limits in this game very extremely limiting. There was not very much play space in this asylum. This can come from poor design of the level. There were even boundaries for visibility which is no fun. However, they designed it like this for the player to build anxiety and a level of fear while playing this game.

Outcome

There is so much uncertainty in this game it drove me crazy just watching. Why it drove me crazy? Because it was for what I needed to do! It wasn't for when they were going to try and jump scare me. In fact, it was quite the opposite! You'd see a door with a trail of blood going into it, door slightly open, the level is designed so it's the only way you can go, so if I was playing, I would just sit there and go, "NOPE! not going in there, too spooky." and uninstall the game. When I completed objectives for the game I felt little satisfaction.

In conclusion, the design of the game could have had some more time put into it for certain aspects where they were weak, such as conflict, and outcome. They really need to add more interactions with the hostile NPC's. The game's design would also be improved if the objectives were more clear and the jump scares were less obvious.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Design Your Game Item

In our game design and productions class we have been assigned to create a new item for one of our favorite games. I also will explain how the new item changes the game's mechanics and gameplay. Warning, the game I've chosen is rated M and the item is very gruesome. 

The Wrapper is the new weapon I have designed for the new Gears of War Judgement installment of the Gears of War series. In the Gears games they had many retro versions of the classic weapons from the beginning of the series. I have created the retro version of the Torque Bow. The Wrapper is an explosive launcher that launches two explosive charges on either side of a steel cable from a crossbow shaped firing mechanism. This weapon has 1 round per magazine and the player can hold a maximum of 8 magazines after starting with 4 total magazines. It is not a starting weapon and can only be picked up in an explosive weapon spawn location, similar to the Torque Bow (rounds will cycle between these two weapons like the boomer and digger do). The perfect active reload for this weapon is near the end of the reload cycle. In order to kill an enemy they either need to be near the charges when they explode, since there is a slight delay once they're on the floor, or if it is a head shot the cable wraps around the player's neck, choking them and then detonating. The weapon takes a few seconds to charge to increase the range similarly like the Torque Bow. The perks to a perfect active reload on this weapon is the charge to increase the range is faster similar to the Torque Bow, plus if you get a headshot with the perfect active reload, you will decapitate the first enemy and carry on behind the headless enemy. The execution for this weapon is to wrap a steel cable charge around the enemy's throat and pull on both charges until the head pops off.

I think this weapon matches the dark theme of gore and violence and will be an enjoyable weapon for players to use in their game experience. It comes with all the features of any other Gears weapon, including reload details, weapon type, execution, and ammo count. These features are also balanced in terms of the timing, skill and luck for each feature.

This weapon will be a great ring clearer in the objective modes. With the delay it should give balance so that the other players can evacuate the explosion radius. The low ammunition will keep the weapon balanced in the deathmatch styled game modes. 

In the campaign it will be introduced during an early mission since the gruesome capabilities of this weapon will be very satisfying for the player. For gameplay in the campaign, the dual explosive shots will be great for clearing lots of weaker enemies of taking down one big baddy. 

Regarding gameplay and game mechanics, this particular weapon with the ability to shoot two charges next to each other at the same time, it can actually destroy certain barriers that normal bullets can't. This changes the gameplay since more of the map becomes dynamic. Certain paths and covers the players get use to can change and make the flow on the online play change mid way through the game. Now the Gears series has done a good job of doing this, but it has been very scripted and only some things could be controlled by the player. For game mechanics, it wouldn't add a new mechanic but it will definitely improve the destructible environment mechanic and the dynamic maps mechanic they provide in the game.   

Emotional Contagion

My favorite game had me so emotionally gripped to the story when I played it over the summer. There was action, love, betrayal, and many emotional scenes. This game development company has been known for having some of the best storytelling in the industry. They have come out with many triple A titles and they are in my opinion, one of the best overall companies in the industry. This game has had it fame since the 90's and it was given a stunning new installment to the game's series just recently in the last few years. It is the dominant national sport in Southern Korea. If you haven't guessed it by now, I'm referring to Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft 2.

Now they didn't win the award for best story (Mass Effect 2 snatched it up), StarCraft 2 has from my experience, the most amazing story ever created. This includes their expansion of Heart of the Swarm, where the story goes from great, to phenomenal. Now I am going to spoil the story after this point so if you are interested in playing this for the story do not read on.

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Now this blog is focusing on the emotional aspect of story. More specifically the relationship between Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor. Now these two have been through some rough times together. They met back in the first StarCraft as they were both working for the Dominion under the direct command of General Mengsk. Kerrigan was a ghost operative and Raynor was the marshall of the colonies on the planet Mar Sara. Mengsk was doing some tests on a new item, the psi emitter, which attracts an aggressive alien race called the Zerg. Now ghosts are born into their role as a ghost operative because they have psionic energy which is a very special type of energy in the future. The Zerg are attracted to ghost's energy so when Kerrigan was sent to drop off a psi emitter at one of the Dominion's enemy's, Mengsk called the order to leave her behind. She was swarmed by the Zerg and the Swarm infested her. She becomes the Queen of Blades and the leader of the Zerg. Raynor didn't like how Mengsk left Kerrigan behind and leaves the Dominion and forms his own group called Raynor's Raiders. Their goal from then on was to take down the Dominion. Kerrigan at this point has the goal to destroy everything in her path. Raynor has his own personal plans aside from Raynor's Raiders goals. He wants to bring Kerrigan back to her original state of being a human again. He fights hard and travels throughout the galaxy to gather what he needs to bring her back and he successfully manages to do this. He did this because he loves Sarah. She also liked Jim but it wasn't until after the transformation back that she fell for him.

At this point the game in now into the Heart of the Swarm expansion. Kerrigan is dedicated to getting revenge on Mengsk and nothing will stop her on this path of vengeance. In order to have what she needs to take him down she transforms herself back into the Queen of Blades after assuming Raynor has died based on information given through Mengsk's media. This gives her power to control the Swarm again and be able to take down Mengsk. As she grows stronger she finds that Raynor is not dead and is being held captive on a Dominion flying maximum security prison. She goes and breaks him out of prison. The cutscene that follows this mission was one of the most emotional cutscenes that words cannot explain so I will leave a link for you to watch.



The development of the character's relationships between one another throughout the series is what made this such an emotionally successful scene in the game. Each character's struggle for the other, along with what lays ahead causes the emotion between each person in the scene.

Here is also a link to all the cutscenes of the expansion pack of Heart of the Swarm incase you were interested in seeing all of the scenes where the two interact and show their relationship grow and struggle.


System Dynamics

Welcome back,

Just recently in class we went over system dynamics and today I would like to go over the topic and what I took from the subject material. The class opens up with explaining games as systems. There are basic system principles to control, interaction quality, system growth, and change of systems over time. Systems have complex and dynamic behaviors emerge with discrete formal elements. Some examples of this are mechanical, biological and social behaviors that could emerge as a game system. I briefly went over basic system principles, the basic system elements are objects, properties, behaviors, relationships, and economics. When a system is in motion the elements guide the interaction quality. Systems are also possibility spaces, where the sense of possibility presented to players at any given time. 

Objects

A game has objects. The basic system building blocks are physical, abstract, and a combination of both. Some example of game objects would be game pieces, in game concepts, players, player representation, and areas or terrain. These can be defined by properties, behaviors, and relationships with other objects. 

Properties

A game also has properties. Now these properties have qualities or attributes defining aspects of objects which can be either physical or conceptual. They also have sets of values. The properties determine the object's interactions with other objects in the game. 

Behaviors

There are different behaviors within a game. These behaviors are potential actions in a given state. The more behaviors the less predictable the game is. When it comes to the complexity of these behaviors, you don't want too much complexity as it can make the player's experience less enjoyable. An example of different behaviors in a game of checkers would be that the pieces move diagonally one space and the other behavior would be that they can jump diagonally as well to capture a piece. These behaviors are restricted by certain rules such as how your pieces can only move toward your opponent or if it can jump a piece it must do so.

Relationships

These are essential for a system of a game. These relationships are expressed as locations on a game board, and numerical sequence of cards. Relationships can be fixed or changing during gameplay. Loose object relations have interactions based on proximity for example. Relation can change based on player choice or chance. Combat algorithms can be a type of relationship in a game's system.

Economies

The economic system in the game creates great gameplay in my opinion. An economy system is the exchange of resources that are tied to a certain value either being a utility to the player or scarcity of the world. The economy must exchange items, such as resources, agents, like players or bank, and methods, for example markets. There also needs to be trade facilitators such as a currency. Prices in a economy can be free, fixed, or a mixture of market controls. An economy needs trading opportunities. These can be dictated by either complete freedom or controlled through rules of the price, timing, partners, or amount. Bartering in a game's economic system can either be simple like the game Pit, or complex like the game Settlers of Catan. A simple market example would be Monopoly where you can buy, sell, rent, and improve real estate. A complex market would be found in an MMORPG styled game where you can do all the simple market things plus find, make, p2p and p2e trading of either items or labor.

Game Systems that are set in motion require lots of play time. This is because the game's system needs to be balanced. These systems need to be internally complete, fair and balanced, and fun and challenging to play.