Arghz, wrong potion used!

Ok, so I did not answer question 3 correctly the first time round. But hope I have enough credits for a continue. So here is another attempt at question 3, using maple story as the game in question.


Following Doug Church’s approach, try to extract the abstract design concepts that constitute the gameplay. Can these be transferred to a different type of game? Why/why not?

And so I began playing Maple more intensively for the past hour (or 2, or 3... darn time passed so fast while you're playing!) Went to the various maps maple and take note of the activities there. Paid close attention to the level design and what FADTs can be abtracted out. Here are my findings.

Also on FADT: http://www.ludism.org/gamedesign/Formal_20Abstract_20Design_20Tools
Basically another way of saying Patterns.
The name, however, makes some interesting points:
Formal: Objective; we should be able to say that the concept definitely is or is not present in a game. This should be able to be reproduced with near perfect accuracy no matter how many people you ask.
Abstract: The core concept behind something, not just one particular, concrete, instance.
Design: The task at hand.
Tool: The concept should be useful for creating games, not simply talking about existing ones, or some other purpose. Above all, our goal is to create better games. To do that, we try to create better tools.

1. Free market economy: This to me is an intentional formal design of the "marketplace" in maple. In certain towns, besides the usual Non-playable Character Item/Weapon shops found in most games, there's a 'free market' mostly inhabitated by players to do trading of items. The free market allows ease of virtual transactions and make aquisition for certain rare items feasible for players who can afford. The free market works hand in hand with the forums and even other sources like irc, where players can arrange to meet at this particular trading place via these mediums. Traditionally for single player games, there's no need for a place or design of a marketplace for players to interact with each other. But for MMORPGs it seems to be a must have.

So hence most MMORPGs would have this free market economies.

2. Emoticons: This seemingly useless feature is now needed in almost every online game! Press F2 for smily face, F3 for 'duh?' face, F4 for crying face. Apparently these buttons add a 'human' touch to your character. Notice that every other side scroll face you play, your character will have pre-scripted expressions on their face? Now you can show your 'true' feelings online with these buttons. And certain a design feature that can be used in all online games. In fact similarly expressions are used as a form of 'taunting' for 1st person shooters. In unreal tornament, certain buttons make u do the 'pelvis thrust' or fake death, can be used strategically to make other people react!

3. 'Hotkey' interface: I'm not sure if it's FADT here, but it seems like with the likes of Diablo 2, most RPGs have the habit of putting certain hotkey items in front so that players can keep track of how much potions, or other important inventories they have.

Yup.. so far spotted these, still abit hazy on FADT though, so perhaps gotta read it more to know the whole idea of FADT