Game Studies / Exercises
29.8.2023 - 10.10.2023 (Week 1 - Week 7)
Loke Yan Ling / 0344602
Game Studies / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Exercises
Instructions
Exercise 1 - My favourite video game & what makes this game playful
Overcooked 2
Link to Youtube - https://youtu.be/ZcCM-Ypezkk
Exercise 2 - Non-digital to digital - Evolution and remediating this game
Selected Game: Mahjong
History
Mahjong, often spelled as "Mah Jong" or "Majiang," is a traditional Chinese tile-based game that has a rich history dating back several centuries. Its precise origin is a subject of debate among historians, but it is generally believed to have originated in China during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) (Wang, 2023).
Development from Non-digital to Digital
Ancient Origins
The exact origins of Mahjong are shrouded in mystery, but it is thought to have evolved from Chinese card games such as "Madiao" and "Ganjifa." Some theories suggest that the game may have been developed by Chinese military officers to pass the time during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century.
Western Exposure
Mahjong was introduced to the Western world in the 1920s, primarily through the efforts of Joseph Park Babcock, an American businessman who learned the game in Shanghai. He created a standardized version of the game for Western players, which included rulebooks and sets of tiles. This standardized version helped popularize Mahjong in the United States (Joseph Park Babcock, 2023). Mahjong experienced a peak in popularity in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. It was often played at social gatherings and was featured in newspapers, magazines, and even a movie.
Decline and Resurgence
The popularity of Mahjong in the West declined after World War II but experienced a resurgence in the late 20th century, partly due to cultural interest in Asian traditions and the availability of computerized versions of the game (Barr, n.d.).
Variations
Mahjong has many regional variations, and different countries and regions have their own rules and tile sets. The most commonly recognized version is often referred to as "Chinese Classical Mahjong."
Game Equipment
There are total of 144 tiles in one set of Mahjong with 2 dice. The tiles are split into three categories: suited, honors, and bonus tiles.
Fig 2.1 Set of Mahjong Tiles
Suited tiles are separated into three suits, with numbers ranging from 1 to 9. Bamboos, dots, and characters make up the suits. Each matched tile has four identical copies, for a total of 108 tiles.
Fig 2.2 Suited
Honours tiles come in two varieties: winds and dragons. The winds are east, south, west, and north, begin with east. The dragons have three colours: red, green, and white. In chinese , we call the red "zhong", green "fa" and white dragon as "bai ban". The face of the white dragon is framed in blue or black, or it is completely blank in some sets. These tiles, unlike the suited tiles, have no numerical sequence. Each honours tile, like the suited tiles, has four identical duplicates, for a total of 28 honours tiles.
Fig 2.3 Honors
Varieties' of bonus tiles: flowers and seasons. The flower and season tiles each play a distinct function in the game's dynamics. When a bonus tile is drawn, it is not added to a player's hand, but is instead set aside and maintained alongside the player's other tiles for scoring purposes if the player is won, and an extra tile is drawn in replacement of the bonus tile.
Fig 2.4 Bonus Tiles
Gameplay
The 4 players will sit in a square table and shuffle all the tiles about 1 minute. Then each player stacks a row of 18 tiles, two tiles high in front of them (for a total of 36 tiles). Players then push each side of their stack together to form a square wall. The person who sit at the side of east is the dealer will be the person who starts the turn, the dealer will pass to next person according the image below if the player does not win.
Fig 2.5 Take turns of the game
The dealer will throw the two dices in the square wall and sums up the total. Then, the number is count in anticlockwise and the player's quarter of the wall is chosen. The selected player need to throw the dice again to determines the location where the 'deck' of tiles is cut. Starting from the left of the stacks counted, the dealer draws four tiles for himself, and players in anti-clockwise order draw blocks of four tiles until all players have 12 tiles. Each player then draws one last tile to make a 13-tile, only the dealer (east) will getting 14-tile. The tile to be drawn is always the topmost tile left of the cut.
Fig 2.6 Ways to draw the one last tiles
Gamerules
Each player in turn, in counterclockwise direction, draws a tile from the wall; as long as the tile drawn is not one of the bonus tiles, the player proceeds to discard a tile to maintain a hand of 13. The discarded tile is thrown into the centre and, the player announces out loud what the piece is which excites the game.
If player draw bonus tiles they need top redraw again at the opposite sides and stack it up. The bonus tiles will set aside and not counted as one of tiles (13-tile).
The players sit next to it have an opportunity to seize (eat) the discarded tile; if no one takes it, the turn continues to the next player. The seize only available for suites tiles. For instance, the third player having bamboo 5 and 7, and the second player put out bamboo 6, then the player can seize the tiles and put aside with the bonus tiles (if they have). Other than that, that also ways to get the tiles when from the other players hand without following the turns:
- "pong" having two identical tiles and want to form it in three as a complete
- "gang" having three identical tiles and have to draw one more tiles from the place to draw tiles when having a bonus tiles.
- Going mahjong (declaring a winning hand)
If there is two player want to rob the same tiles, always the way that describe above have the priority. For instance, the first player put out character 8, the second player want to seize (eat) it while the fourth player want to "pong" or " gang", the fourth player will get the tiles and the first will get turn again (skipping the second and third player).
Winning
Play continues this way until one player has a legal winning hand and calls out the win. When the tile is from other player, then the call out is call "hu"; if the tile is drawn, then the call out is call " zi mo", that means you get the tile by yourself and win.
So, the aiming of this game is who is the first person who arrange the tiles complete then who is the winner. The classical arrangement is one eye (two identicals tiles) following with 3 related suites tiles or 3 identical tiles.
Fig 2.7 Example of arrangement to win the game
Digital
In digital era, internet has become more popular and transform many things into digital, Mahjong also one of it. It can be found on online gaming platforms and mobile apps. In digital, there is two variations, one is Solitaire and Classic Mahjong.
Solitaire Mahjong is a single player based game. The aims of the game is matching two identicals tiles until clear. The solitaire Mahjong can be place in different shape such as turtle, mountain and so on. Mostly, solitaire mahjong is played when you are looking for something to spend your time.
The digital classic Mahjong still having the same gameplay rules with the non-digital one. The advantages is making the classic mahjong in single player base. There is an application on app store (ios device) call "Mahjong 13 tiles" remaining the similar gameplay rules with the non digital Mahjong.
The remediate they made is making the game more with personal experience. The games starts with the minimum score to win the games and sum up the total score for you at the end of the game. I'm not familiar with all the skills in Mahjong , so sometimes I need to google search what I score about. Then there also have best record and summarization of all game you have played. However, there is a situation I keep facing is nobody wins. Although I have faced this situation in real world, but not that often. The essence of this game gain from the real world is fast, fasten the moods and the game process, but the main interesting parts of this game is about psychology and luck. The digital classic Mahjong has made this become a possibility game and losing some of the playful experience.
To have a better playing experience, there should be a guide to how to get scores and how to play the games and allow to invites other player play together to feel connection.
Fig 2.8 Decide the scores as the minimum limits
Fig 2.9 The total score you gain at this game
Fig 2.10 The best record
Fig 2.11 The record of the results
Fig 2.12 Unexpected cause
Vid 2 Video Presentation Exercise 2
Reflections
About the gaming experiences for both exercises based on the iterative process with playful experiences:
- As a designer/creator and the player, how does the review of the gaming experiences helped you made aware of the different aspects of playful experiences?
- How does the exercises helped your group to come up with the idea of your project?
Everyone will get different gaming experience when playing the same game. Therefore, the goals of designing a game is how to keep the player having the eager to play the games again. In video games, they uses rewards and achievement to maintain the player loyalty such as daily rewards. The playful experience, social also need to be consider, because human is living in clusters, the social features enable them to connect with others. The differences of Mahjong and Overcooked 2 is one is about fellowship and one is about competition, to makes other not getting the tiles they desire or winning the game first. Before designing the game, we have to make the objectives clear. The challenge makes people feel challenge and want to overcome it but when the level is set too hard, then people will feel overwhelmed and don't want to play this game. Thus, the players must felt they can control the game to the way of succeed.
Both of the exercises keeps me thinking of how to remain the positive playful experience to the idea of the project. First, sense of team player can be included to bond the player together but also make it competitive to achieving the final objective of the game. By combining both of this playful experience, we have to give the players to control the flow of the game as suggested from Ms Anis from the first week of playtest. This will make the player believe that there is a way to win the game and it's not all about luck. The most important thing is the timing, and Overcooked 2 does a great job of keeping players on their toes when it comes to time constraints. Giving too much of time to the players will let some of the player feel borings.
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