IAT 210 Digital Game Analysis (15%)

For this paper, you will analyze a video game that you have recently played. Choose the game carefully – you will need to play for at least an hour. You should keep notes from your gameplay session (like the journal from Risk). These notes will help you to cite specific examples from the game to use in your paper. The writing should show clear thinking in complete sentences and the purpose is to inform, explain, and describe. In general, the length of the paper should range from 900 – 1200 words, single spaced. (To be read more easily on screen)

Your paper should address the following questions:
1. Provide the title of the game, year published and publisher. If it is an online game, also provide the URL where it can be played.
2. Choose your favorite definition of a game from a leading game theorist and demonstrate how it applies to this game.
3. What are the game’s essential mechanics? Describe the most important objects, their attributes, and the repeatable actions in the game.
4. What is the winning condition of the game? What tasks must be accomplished to win?
5. Discuss the device or platform of the game you played. Is it well suited to the requirements of the game?
6. Who would be the ideal player of this game? Describe the details of a player persona that would be appropriate for this game.
7. Identify and discuss the genre of your game. In what ways does the genre align with the ideal player persona described in the previous question?
8. What is a gameplay gestalt that you have observed in the game? Why is it effective?
9. Describe the operational rules of the game.
10. Briefly describe the events of the game’s story. Remember that even the most basic games have a story that can be inferred.
For this assignment, it is best to format your paper as numbered responses to the questions, and remember to write your answers in clear, complete sentences. Each question should have one or more paragraphs as part of the response.

Please upload your text file as a Word .doc, pdf or .txt file.