Author Archives: lix86

Game of the Week Blog Reflection 12: Free Play

This week is a free play week, and I played Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege with my classmate Leon, this game is a 5 vs 5 FPS game, there are offense side and defense side, and there are lots of characters with unique skills on each side, each player can choose which character they want to use for this round before the game begin. Leon was very good at this game; his rank was at least at Diamond. During the class time, we played two games and he carried our team a lot, so we win both two games.

I think I like this game very much, because my favorite game CSGO is also a 5 vs 5 FPS game, so there are many similar parts between these 2 games, they are both competitive and required a lot of communications. However, the map in R6 is much more different than in CSGO. In CSGO, the buildings are not destroyable which means that enemies cannot make a hole on the wall and watch your team’s moving direction. In R6, you can even destroy a whole wall make the map totally different. So, I think the hardest point is the same as playing CSGO, it needs a long time to learn, otherwise, you will never be a good player in R6.

For the leadership part of R6, I think it is very important to communicate with each other. If at team has no communication, but the other team has, then the game will be like 1 vs 5 but not 5 vs 5, which means the team without communication would have a very high probability to lose. So, I think communication is the most important thing in this game, it will make 5 players a team, but not five individual players.

I think all of my friends who play CSGO with me will also like this game, because they are very similar games except the map.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection Week 10: D&D Week 2

This week, we played the game D&D, and this is my first game of D&D since I missed last week’s class, and I never played this game before, but I knew this is a very famous board game. So, I was very excited to play this game during the class session. During the class session, the DM helped me to insert my character, which is a monk, and I began my first adventure on D&D. We adopted three wolves to against the big Goblin, and we killed the big Goblin by one of ours ultimate.

I think the hardest point during I play this game is there are so many choices, and I do not know which I should choose. As a rookie to D&D, I think others’ experience might not be that good if they play with me, so I think this might be a part I dislike the game. However, for the game itself, I think it is very interesting, I can build my own character and I can create my own adventure story when I am playing the game.

For the leadership part of this game, I think it is most about the decision making. There are so many choices in the game and as a leader, you must think which one is best for your team. A good leader will always make the right choice for the team based on all the information the leader has. For example, in this D&D game, a leader can choose to fight with the boss directly or use some tricks to give the team advantages during the fight. If the team is under a good situation, then a leader might choose to fight with the boss directly, but if the team is not under a good situation, then the leader should think about what to do to make sure the tam can win the fight.

I think my roommate Steven will like the game, because he always like to make decisions and he did a good job on making right decisions in the past.

What Type of Gamer Am I?

After I took the quiz from Quantic Foundery, I think the result is very accurate. This result of the quiz shows that I have high conflict score, which means more competitive and enjoy games where players can attack each other. I think the reason is that I often play FPS games and Battle Royal games, such as CSGO, APEX, PUBG and so on. I enjoy playing against other players a lot. And it might be the same for me on board games, for example I enjoy playing Incan gold a lot since it can play against with each other. So, I think this high conflict score is quite accurate.

About the Social Manipulation, I think why the score is also higher than others is influenced by the game I always play, too. Because in the game like CSGO, Valorant or Rainbow Six, players need to guess what your opponents will do for this round based on some information. For example, the economic situation on CSGO can determined whether a team could buy guns or not. If players guess their opponents will Eco for this round, which means do not buy good guns for that round to get good economic situation, then players can play more aggressive since they have the adventure on good guns. I think this is the reason of why I enjoy playing psychological mind games and why I get a high score on social manipulation.

About the score on social fun, I also think it is very accurate. Since I do not play board games a lot, which is once per week during the class time, I think the most important thing for me  to play board game is to gain some happiness because I know I am not good at board games. So, I enjoy the game which has simple rules and easy to play with. And this might also be the reason of my low score on needs to win and cooperation, because I just want to have fun during playing board games, so I do not care about the teamwork and win or lose. However, I know these things are very important in all kinds of games. For example, if in the game like CSGO, players do not care about the teamwork, they will have a very low chance to win. I think this is also true for some competitive board games.

For the low score on Aesthetics, I think it is also very accurate because I almost do not care about how beauty the game is, I think a good game can attract more players based on the content itself and the company’s later operation. Personally, I think the aesthetic can make a game being better, but it is not a big adventure.

All in all, I think the quiz has a very high accuracy.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection 8: Ladies & Gentlemen

This week, we played the board game which is called Ladies & Gentlemen. We played this game during the class time online by using tabletop simulator. In this game, every two people will get into a group, one played as the lady and one played as the gentlemen. And the rules for being a lady and being a gentleman are totally different.

During the class time, there were 8 people including me played this game, and I was playing the on gentlemen side. We only got to the week 2 because one of the classmates had the internet issue and because of the complexity of the game. But we had a great time.

I think the hardest point for playing this game is to estimate your partner’s situation and making proper choice for the team. For example, my partner played as lady, and he decided to go to visit a place. However, two other teams also wanted to visit to that place, but only one of them can visit that place. Since I got the coin of 1, which means our group can go first, me and my partner can go to that place and the other two teams cannot, so they wasted this chance. So, I think this is the hardest point, because if you make a bad choice or make a wrong guess, your team will lose for this round.

I think the leadership in this game is to make good decisions. For example, if I did not get the coin of 1 and my partner chose to visit the same place as the other two teams, our team will waste that chance so that we will fall behind in this game. So, I think in a team, the leader should have the ability to make good decisions because good decisions can make the team better.

I think I do not like this game because I think the rule is a little bit complex.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Incan Gold and Can’t Stop

This week, we played two games during the class session. They are called Incan Gold and Can’t stop. For the Incan Gold, the whole round has five small rounds, for each small round, players will decide to continue their adventure to gain more golds or quit to make sure they do not lose their golds for this small round. After these five small rounds, the player who owns the most golds win the game. For the Can’t stop, players had to roll four dices and add each two of them up as they want. Players will move their pawns based on the numbers (sum) they get, each number has a column and the player who reaches the top of any three number’s columns will win the game.

During the class session, our group first played the game Incan Gold. I think the hardest point of playing Incan Gold is you need to think whether to take risks to gain more golds or quite to maintain your golds, and you also need to think what other players will do. For example, in the second small round, one of our group members decided to quit when we met the first hurdle, because the rule is if you met the same hurdle twice, you will die and you will lose all the golds you gain during this small round. Me and another player decided to continue until we met the second hurdle, but this is not the same as the first hurdle. So, another group member decided to quit because we already met two different hurdles, and the risk of continuing becomes double. However, I am a person who likes to take risks, so I chose to continue, fortunately I gained 11 more golds in the next scene, since I was the only player left, I got all the 11 golds. However, on the fourth round, I lost all my golds for the round because I took the risks.

For the game Can’t stop, I think the hardest point is also to make a good strategy of taking risks. In this game, there are some short columns like 2 and 12 which only have 3 or 4 steps to win, but 2 and 12 are very difficult to get. There are also some long columns like 6,7, and 8, which need 8,9 or 10 steps to win. So, making a good strategy about the combination of high-risk columns and low-risk columns are very important. One of our group members did a great job on this, he chose the columns of 4, 8, and 12, which included high-risk column (12), low-risk column (8) and the middle-risk column (4), and he won this game during the session.

I think these two games went very well in our group. We all had a great time during the class sessions. As the same of other classmates said, I also think that Incan gold might be a little bit more interesting than Can’t stop since it has a sense adventure but not just count the sum of two dices.

I think the leadership aspects of these two games are the ability to keep calm thought and the courage to take risks. As a leader, you must keep a calm thought when you make choices because your decisions will influence not only you but the people around you. Leaders should always make the choices based on the situation they are in, so it is important to keep calm when you make choices. A leader also needs to have the courage to take risks when it is necessary, because leaders should always take the responsibility of failure.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Fiasco Week 3

This week, we finished the final step of Fiasco which is called the “aftermath”. When we created the scene, we got the dice in two different colors which are black and white from other group members, and the difference between black and white dice is other group members ‘opinions of how your scene goes, if they think your character will be in a better situation, they will give you a white dice, if they think your character will be in a worse situation, they will give you a black dice. I am not good at creating the scene, so I got more black dice than white dice, thus the aftermath end for me was not good, I lost almost everything. I lost my boss which was dead in the final part; I lost my job since the whole police office was on fire and my clinic was in the police office. So, I decided to leave this city and find my new life.

After we finished our Fiasco, we went back to the main room and learned about some skills of leadership such as values, morals, and ethics. I think the tolerance is also a part of the leadership. As I said in the previous week’s blog, we missed one group member last week, so we decided to wait for her but not finished the game without her. This week this person came back, we told her what we done last week and help her to adapt our story, and we really had a good time with finishing this story. One thing that the professor taught me during the class session was having integrity is a good thing, but there are still some disadvantages.

During this week’s class session, I think the hardest part is still to create your own scene that can make the whole story interesting and logical, but I think a make a great progress since I got a white dice (which means my group member think the scene I created was good, and in the last week I got all my scene black dice.) this week. The class session went very well, we discussed a lot during the session about the scene so that we make our Fiasco story ended interesting, and we all like this end.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Fiasco Week 2

This week, we continued playing the role player game which is called Fiasco. Last week, our group just finished the setup, so this week we begin to create several scenes, and we just get to the tilt.

During the class session, we have only 4 players which we normally have 5. So, we decided to skip the person’s role who is not here. And we started to make scenes, which I think is the hardest part for me, because in this part, you need to be creative so that the whole story can be interesting and making sense. However, I am not a very creativity person and English is not my first language, so this part is the hardest for me. After we finished this part, we decided to stop because we want to wait for the person who was not here to caught up.

For the leadership during this week, I think it is about tolerance and being helpful. For example, when I could not figure out what should I say to create my scene, my group members helped me a lot, they give me some good advice. And we decided not to end the game because we want to wait the last member who was not here. And I think this is relevant to the leadership.

After this week’s class session, I think I dislike this game a little bit, because there are some parts that make me feel awkward. Hopefully the situation will be changed next week!

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Fiasco Week 1

This week, we played another game called Fiasco, which is also a roll player game. In this game, we need to create and define our own relationships, needs, objects, locations and so on. And we need to make all of these into a story, which is fun. However, the hardest part for me is also to make a story by this information, I am not a very creative person, so it was very difficult for me to put all this information together and make up a story that worked.

I think for the leadership in this game, the most important is every player should actively communicate their ideas, because every choice they make affects not just them but everyone else, and every decision affects the direction of our own story. I think me and my roommates might be able to enjoy this game because we always play other games together, so it is easy and comfortable for us to communicate our ideas.

During the session, there were 4 group members besides me. After we all connected in, we chose Boomtown and set the boundaries which we did not remove anything actually, and we just finished chose and defined our relationships, needs, locations and objects. The session went pretty good since all my group members actively communicated our ideas. I like this game because I never played this kind of game before, it requires people to exchange their ideas to others so that they can make their own story which is cool. Since I am not a creative person, my personal value in this game is to take note so that things will no mess up which is also very important. Because if people do not remember what they chose, they will waste time to redo it, and it will cause us to fall behind schedule.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Roll Player

       This week, we played roll player game during the class. It was a fun game to me because I never played this kind of game before. The roll player game asks players to create their own characters and the standard of winning is which player gets the highest score at the end. Players can earn scores like achieving their attribute goals, using skills or equipment which were bought from the store by coins and so on.

       During the class time, I played roll player with other 2 group members, but there was a disconnection issue all the time, one of these two group members kept reconnecting so that our group cannot get into the final part which is counting who has the highest score. However, the other group member who was more familiar with roll player helped us a lot, she told us what to do next and explaining the rules which we did not understand very well. I think that is what leadership is about.

       About the game itself, I think the hardest part is to make a long-term strategy, which can lead me to win. For example, when you buy equipment or skills from the store, you should not only think about which one you want, but also think about which one the other players want, if that player gets the equipment, he/she wants and that player will get a huge advantage, you cannot let that player get the skill/ equipment. This is just a general example of making a good long-term strategy, I think people can only practice a lot to (play a lot) get this making good strategy.

       I think for the roll player game, people who has a long-term view should be good at this game. Thus, I think my friend Steven might enjoy this game, because he always has a long-term view.

       All in all, I think roll player game is very interesting, and I might play it with my friends if I had a chance.