Discussion Questions 8
1) Creating mods (modifications) to existing games is a common practice, not just for computer games, but for any form of games. Does this imply that any game can be considered a game system? Why/why not?
Any game can be considered a game system because any game can be modified to make it different. However how different you can make it depends on the flexibilty of the game system... and this relates to the specificity of the game.
For example, in Halflife, you can enable the noclip mode and you can have a totally different game where you can fly around. But there are still many rules that you are still contrained with.
If you go to a deeper level (less specificity) and modify the game engine, you can come up with something quite different in terms of gameplay like Counterstrike. You can do this because at a deep level with less specificity, there is more flexibility.
If Halflife is to Blackjack, the Halflife game engine is to a deck of cards. (Am I sidetracking again?)
For a non-digital example, you can just remove the rule of "no-beating-up-the-other-players" and you can see a whole new ball game (the difference can be witnessed by comparing NBA games with the unofficial basketball games that are being played in certain districts)
Anyway, the point is this: Any game can be considered a game system because any game can be modified provided you can find something to modify that has not been tied down by its specificity.
2) Consider a game which you feel could be successfully modified. How could this game be generalized into a game system?
Warcraft 3 can be successfully modified. By changing the objectives and certain variables, new gametypes have emerged from the basic Warcraft 3 free-for-fall base fights. There are currently countless successful Warcraft 3 mods that play very differently from the original game.
How much of the unique character/flavour of the game can be retained?
The deepest the modders could go would be the game engine level so most of the visual feel of the game has to be retained.
How generic can you make the game system? How easy will it be to create new, unique games from the game system?
How generic a game system is or how many possibilities a game system has really depends on the modder himself. If you understand the game system well enough, you can use it to make just about anything you wish... (even though sometimes these things could be done much easier elsewhere. eg: you could use the Warcraft 3 game engine to do a cardgame by using different characters represent different cards. We can use the fog of war to simulate turned down cards. Cards that are not supposed to be revealed can be hidden in the fog of war. Of course not all cardgames can be played using this system but simple ones can...
This is possible but it is terribly stupid and a complete waste of time to make.)
3) Describe one new game designed on top of the game system you proposed in question 2.
I peeked at some other people's blogs and some wrote about how RTS games can never become FPS games. That isn't exactly true. For Warcraft 3, the game engine uses 3D objects. If you can view the game system from that level, you can see that this means the game engine can create anything 3D. Therefore a FPS could actually be possibly using the Warcraft 3 game engine. How?
You give the player only one Dwarfen Gunman (forgot his real name) unit. We mod the engine so that the camera goes so low that it is at the level of the gunman's height, then we point the camera almost parallel to the horizon. What we have here is a camera view of what the unit will see.
Now we fix the camera so that it always points in the direction that the unit is facing and that the origin of the camera is always positioned at the head of the unit. We've got ourself a first person thingie!
That's all the changes we need to be made to the game. The other parts of this mod can be implemented using the existing interface within Warcraft 3 itself!
By rightclicking on the minimap, we can move the unit around. First person walker!
By using the icons to switch between attack move, normal move, guard mode or stop mode, we can control when the unit will shoot. It's not exactly like Doom but at least we can use this method to control his shooting to a certain extent =P
Hurrah! First Person Shooter in Warcraft 3 engine! Is this possible? I haven't tried it but it sounds theoratically viable =D
Any game can be considered a game system because any game can be modified to make it different. However how different you can make it depends on the flexibilty of the game system... and this relates to the specificity of the game.
For example, in Halflife, you can enable the noclip mode and you can have a totally different game where you can fly around. But there are still many rules that you are still contrained with.
If you go to a deeper level (less specificity) and modify the game engine, you can come up with something quite different in terms of gameplay like Counterstrike. You can do this because at a deep level with less specificity, there is more flexibility.
If Halflife is to Blackjack, the Halflife game engine is to a deck of cards. (Am I sidetracking again?)
For a non-digital example, you can just remove the rule of "no-beating-up-the-other-players" and you can see a whole new ball game (the difference can be witnessed by comparing NBA games with the unofficial basketball games that are being played in certain districts)
Anyway, the point is this: Any game can be considered a game system because any game can be modified provided you can find something to modify that has not been tied down by its specificity.
2) Consider a game which you feel could be successfully modified. How could this game be generalized into a game system?
Warcraft 3 can be successfully modified. By changing the objectives and certain variables, new gametypes have emerged from the basic Warcraft 3 free-for-fall base fights. There are currently countless successful Warcraft 3 mods that play very differently from the original game.
How much of the unique character/flavour of the game can be retained?
The deepest the modders could go would be the game engine level so most of the visual feel of the game has to be retained.
How generic can you make the game system? How easy will it be to create new, unique games from the game system?
How generic a game system is or how many possibilities a game system has really depends on the modder himself. If you understand the game system well enough, you can use it to make just about anything you wish... (even though sometimes these things could be done much easier elsewhere. eg: you could use the Warcraft 3 game engine to do a cardgame by using different characters represent different cards. We can use the fog of war to simulate turned down cards. Cards that are not supposed to be revealed can be hidden in the fog of war. Of course not all cardgames can be played using this system but simple ones can...
This is possible but it is terribly stupid and a complete waste of time to make.)
3) Describe one new game designed on top of the game system you proposed in question 2.
I peeked at some other people's blogs and some wrote about how RTS games can never become FPS games. That isn't exactly true. For Warcraft 3, the game engine uses 3D objects. If you can view the game system from that level, you can see that this means the game engine can create anything 3D. Therefore a FPS could actually be possibly using the Warcraft 3 game engine. How?
You give the player only one Dwarfen Gunman (forgot his real name) unit. We mod the engine so that the camera goes so low that it is at the level of the gunman's height, then we point the camera almost parallel to the horizon. What we have here is a camera view of what the unit will see.
Now we fix the camera so that it always points in the direction that the unit is facing and that the origin of the camera is always positioned at the head of the unit. We've got ourself a first person thingie!
That's all the changes we need to be made to the game. The other parts of this mod can be implemented using the existing interface within Warcraft 3 itself!
By rightclicking on the minimap, we can move the unit around. First person walker!
By using the icons to switch between attack move, normal move, guard mode or stop mode, we can control when the unit will shoot. It's not exactly like Doom but at least we can use this method to control his shooting to a certain extent =P
Hurrah! First Person Shooter in Warcraft 3 engine! Is this possible? I haven't tried it but it sounds theoratically viable =D
posted by LUT! @ 7:35 PM
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