Little Thing 319: The Practice of Play

I’ve been playing Bloons on Arcade. I used to play the old version back in my uni days; finished the whole thing, uninstalled it, and moved on without a second thought. That’s just how I’m wired: once the objective is achieved, the fire burns out. The pursuit is intoxicating, but the finish line dissolves the spell.

This newer Bloons, though, is built differently. Now there are:

• clan scoreboards that rank you and promise the next tier

• weekly battle challenges with timed rewards

• duels against either A.I. or random players

It’s addictive not because the game is "profound", but because it rewards intensity, and intensity is something I’ve always had trouble turning down. Kahkahkah, alasan. 

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Where the frustration begins:

During duels, I want to actually play. I want to think, to plan, to experiment with towers and timing and balance; defense, energy, income. But often, for some opponents, the match ends in fifteen seconds because the opponent rushes an attack immediately. No arc, no progression, no strategy; just a blunt, tactical sprint.

And I’m left there asking myself: What’s the point of a game you don’t actually play? Where’s the joy in a climax that never arrives? Where is the story? What's the fun in only winning in less than 15 seconds? Where is the anticipation? Where is the exploration in trying different strategy, different towers? Kan?

This is the part that has been sitting with me. There are players who only want the win. The game itself is just an instrument, not an experience. Meanwhile, I want immersion, tension, build-up, and story even in something as simple as a tower-defense match :D I’m disturbed not by losing, but by the emptiness of a game rushed to its end. They chase victory; I chase engagement. They want a finish; I want a story. I know it is a good game for me when we both strategized and defended our fields towards the end (sampai my ipad lags sebab heavy sgt). 

Not to say that they are wrong (the ones that prefer the 15 secs win), it is just that I'm turned off by this "duels". 

I will usually wait for the last 10 seconds and let them smirk and enjoy their win. Takpe lah, mesti laki kan, laki je yg esaited sorang2 sebab menang awal. Hahaaaa.

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The more I sit with it, the more I realize that play reveals orientation. Some treat life the way they treat games: as a sequence of goals to be cleared as efficiently as possible. Fast, optimized, ok next. But I don’t want to rush through my hours the way they rush through a match. I want to live inside the experience, where time stretches, curiosity breathes, and something unfolds. Maybe that’s the real lesson here: play is practice for life. And I’d rather live a life that is played deeply, not merely won quickly. I want to play the gameee.

I tried my best not to philosophize this, but I make it a habit of finding reasons why I get triggered by anything in this world and try to understand the pov behind it. And bloons, omygod, is now in my daily schedule and at least please, give me one good game before I continue with work. If I get one good game every morning, I can then smile and think of hundreds other things in my list. 

Tsk tsk. This doesn't sounds right.

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Note: My current fav heroes is Beetienne and Benjamin. The life-maker and the money-maker.  

Little Story 231 : The Game that Taught Me About Life

I started playing games on Apple Arcade last month (trial version).

While I was recovering, I tried Outlanders.

Basically Outlanders is a town-building simulation. You'll be the leader in a town, with your town people, resources and different goal for each level. Some leaders want to reach certain success, or population, etc. In the game, I am to decide which sector to focus on, to make sure the people are happy, enough foods and houses and also populating (as well as reaching the goal, of course). 

I am currently stuck at level 7 - Diana because it is so hard to meet the goal (which is to have at least 70 town people in less than 60 days with really limited resources. Tried it several times with different approaches and I am still failing).

I like the game and didn't like being stuck on level 7, so I decided to start sandbox level. Sandbox level is an isolated testing environment, you have no time constraints. 

I picked an island with lots of resources, started with limited population, and no goals. Just for the pure fun of playing a game.  

My island started nicely, resources were abundant, people are happy so they started populating. I had to spread my town people to collect more foods, and at the same time to cut more trees to make more houses and offer more jobs. Some people collect forest mushrooms, some people work at the mine, some people cut the trees and turn the logs into planks. At some point, I can't keep up with the increasing population, so forest foods are sometimes scarce, I had to cut more tree, turn the land into farms, collect veggies for foods and turn wheat into bread, for alternative food source. People aren't happy, so I built a tavern, and candy factory for the children. Population increases, babies are being born, people are dying from hunger and old age, a repetitive cycle. 

Everything is linked.

Forest mushrooms need tree to grow, human need tree to make houses. No houses mean people aren't happy, so they stop populating. Less trees means less food resources, so I need to build more farm for more foods. 

It never stop.

It was never enough.

My town people started from 4 people to more than 200 people. 

The once beautiful forest island turned into a busy town. 

No forest, no stones, no land. 

I felt sick.

This is what we are doing to the the world, isn't it.

We keep on wanting more, taking more from the earth's resources. 

More, more, more.

We are such a selfish beings. 

We don't give back to the earth, we don't take care of other creatures, animals lost their homes and foods, they are getting extinct, plants are dying, lands are limited. The climate change is real, and human, are still populating the earth, like we actually own it. 

I can't stop thinking about this since then.

Little Things 200 : AF and his Games

I often wondered how people can spend hours playing video games. 

Until I've come to know AF and we bought a PS4 as one of our wedding hantaran. I knew he's a big fan of digital games on consoles plus he's been watching Pewdiepie and Marki Plier for years. He even watches those youtubers almost everyday after work just to watch the game-play *I still can't process this =,=

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Since the PS4, I've been watching him playing those games during weekends especially since our monitors were put almost next to one another and I've been taking my full weekend off. I can't help but to see the development of his game plays. My favorite game-watching are from The Last of Us and Life is Strange :D 

I'm not a fan of any soccer play or Assasin's Creed though.

I've become attached with the story lines of these 2 games like I was watching movies or maybe super-slow short series because I need to wait for AF to play those games to know what will happen next. I'm pretty sure their production team worked very hard to make every little details matter and their character & story developments are really-really great :F 

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It's been almost 3 months. Last weekend AF finished Life is Strange episode 4 with an abrupt shocking ending and now we are anticipating for the final episode that will released maaaybe in 2 months time. We, as in 'we' - AF as the player and I'm as a watcher. Ha. I even come to love Life is Strange's playlist on Spotify. Who would possibly created such a nice-nice playlist just for a game? Now I know I've been downgrading my level of expectancy on console games. 

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Yesterday AF finished playing The Last of Us, it has been a long emotional and thrilling ride *even as a watcher T^T It was so sad and so thrilling and so good, all in the same time. I hope I can continue watching AF game-play it for the next rumored Last of Us 2, just to see how it goes. Go and watch Pewdiepie's first gameplay if you want to know what I meant.

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Phewww. Terjebak. 

Game : Two Dots

I think I downloaded Two Dots several months back. Probably when I just started living alone. Perhaps to occupy my extra free time. I finished Fieldrunners and Fieldrunners 2, so I need a new challenging level-based with decent graphic game.

I found Dots before but I wasn't really hooked with the game because :

1. It's a repetitive

2. No level, it's not getting any harder

3. It's time-based, so there is a time to complete one game and that's it.

But I liked it. I remember telling Aja to try it because the app was really simple and nice-looking. And months later, I checked App Store and found Two Dots, seeing that I enjoyed playing Dots before + it was free, so I gave it a try.  

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I enjoyed the game very much. 

1. Only 5 lives are given for free every day, and a live will be given every 20 minutes or so - or you can just buy lives but I never do that. So I waited every day after work to play the game, it became sort of like a routine. 

2. The first time I downloaded, there were 150 levels, so we can scroll the game to see all these beautiful background and animation along the way. I even found the designer, Owen Davey. I thought about print-screen everything, but it is just too long. So the second & third time I updated the app, I got more, up until 235 levels. 

3. It gets harder and sometimes I took a week to finish up 1 level. It's like an annoying puzzle and I'll get annoyed being stuck there. Yeap, it is every day's adventure.

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Just yesterday, I finally finished all 235 levels and I feel relieved :D 

I am now waiting for more updates with new levels *I hope. 

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Apps : Young Kids & Mobile Apps

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Although I don't quite agree with kids under 12 to be engaged with game consoles and other devices, I am very much interested in how kids interact with those devices.

I got curious over how their brain processes it, how they familiarize certain patterns and steps, how they explore it. The fact that they can interact with those games even though they can't read, always fascinates me. 

Good mobile applications for kids don't even need instructions to explain the flow, because most kids don't read at a very young age and it is hard for them to focus on reading when they are too excited to play the game right away. *I remember skipping the conversation parts between players when I played Pokemon Red - teenage years. I bet that goes to everyone else too, except for curious-avid reader I suppose. 

I don't have a chance to be around young kids that much, so I suppose my finding's accuracy will be highly downgraded. At the lab, I usually watch Fayyadh explores my iPhone. I watch him trying games after games to meet his interest. Most of game apps are strategy or puzzle based so they are not quite suitable for a 5 year old. 

This writing is based on one of the good application I found interesting enough for young kids : Toca Doctor by TocaBoca & my humble observation. What I have in mind is a simple set of mini games to be completed that kids can relate to. I bought the app just because I was curious on how the full version will be, and how different each mini games will be - there is a lite version you can try, just type in "Toca Doctor Lite".

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Mobile Applications for Young Kids :

1. Interface.

Kids are attracted to simple, colourful interface.  I love the simplicity of it. It kind of reminds me of activity books I used to have when I was very young, back when there is no such thing as mobile application of course. 

2. Mini games

Kids are easily distracted, so a set of mini games might help them focus on each small task. In Toca Doctor, a player is required to examine a patient and solve simple fun puzzle. I played the whole set, it was super easy for me, but quite engaging. There are 21mini games to be completed.

eg : Broken bones need to be connected and bandaged or brush your teeth to kill the germs, clean up  wound and put a plaster and those simple stuffs. 

3. No instructions

The game is straight forward and simple. They point to each point that need to be inspected, and kids can solve it right away. I didn't even need to explain anything to him. 

4. Relate to real life

In this game, they ask you to be a doctor. In another game by tocaboca, called Toca House that let the player help 5 friends do chores at home : cleaning up, doing dishes, ironing, mowing the lawn in 19 mini games. It's easier for them to understand simple tasks when they can relate to it and much easier for us to explain.

eg : Why we need to clean the wound?
Because we need to avoid infection. 

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Ps :
Parents need to be aware of the type of games they let children play. Children are a bit like white canvas, parents are the artist with paints and brushes in their hand.

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It's amazing how technology is taking over the world.

I work as a conceptual designer for mobile application and during my free time, I explore the beautiful wonder of arts in current digital medium mainly in tablets and smart phones. One of my favorite topic is children's application. I'll share my finding here from time to time. Enjoy the geeky side of me ! :D - azreenchan