Game Elements: Agon, Alea, Ilinx and Mimicry

The below 4 elements have been adapted from Huizinga by Caillois. I will use them to describe two of my favourite games, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Super Smash Bros Brawl. I will also point out where each element is used.

Agon: competition

Alea: chance/randomness

Ilinx: movement

Mimicry: simulation, make believe, role-play

Unreal Tournament 2004 (Agon and Ilinx)

Intro

Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004) is a fast paced FPS that comes packaged with a variety of maps (too many to name), game modes (deathmatch, team deathmatch capture the flag, assault, bombing run and domination), and of course, weapons; Shield Gun, Link Gun, Mini-gun, Rocket Launcher and Flak Cannon to name a few.

Ilinx

The Unreal series is unusual compared to many FPS' since it gives players the ability to dodge incoming projectiles via several different types of jump. The player has both the standard jump (space) and double jump (space once in mid-air) but they can also execute a fast dodging manoeuvre by double tapping any of the 4 directional keys. These jump types can be chained together to create the 'dodge-jump', which is a useful technique that allows the player to move around the map quickly and easily.

When these jumps are applied to a combat situation it becomes apparent that the simple movement tools the game gives the player are versatile enough to make combat interesting and engaging. A typical 1v1 fight in UT2004 goes something like this; Player A has ambushed player B and fired a volley of rockets along a narrow corridor. Player B reacts by jumping over and around the rockets whilst aiming the long range Lightning Gun at player A. Player B fires the Lightning Gun and scores a direct hit to the torso causing major damage to player A, who then retreats along the corridor and around a corner. Player B realises the fight is going his way so he switches to the Mini-gun and dodge jumps along the corridor after player A... Directly into player A's direct Flak Cannon blast. Victory for player A. This example shows both that; there is quite a lot of depth to the combat and movement systems within the game, and that ilinx (movement) is a big part of how UT2004 plays.

Agon

The agon in the game is provided by both the AI opponents within the game and human players when the game is played online. The AI in UT games is traditionally accurate and uncompromising and UT2004 is no exception. Thankfully UT2004 comes with 8 different difficulty setting ranging from 'Novice' for players new to FPS games all the way up to the incredibly challenging 'Godlike setting, which can effortless dodge the majority of player projectiles, whilst somehow managing to be incredibly accurate with any weapon at the same time.

The online mode is a welcome change of pace from the offline battles against computer bots. In the online section of the game a player can play against thousands of players all of whom have varying skill levels. Sometimes the player will join a server when everyone playing is very experienced at the game, whereas other times they will join a server full of people who have never played the game online before.

Technically this is an element of randomness, of alea, but this doesn't effect how the game mechanics work, only the skill of those you'll play against.

Super Smash Bros Brawl (agon, alea and ilinx)

Intro

Super Smash Bros Brawl (SSBB) is a 4 player 2D beat-em-up game where the player can control a large variety of Nintendo characters. The character list ranges from the obvious inclusions of Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Pikachu, Kirby and Fox, to third party characters like Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog) and Snake (Metal Gear Solid) series'. In total the character list comes to a staggering 35 playable characters.

In SSBB players have two attacks buttons, A and B, one jump button Y, L&R buttons to shield, plus directions on the control stick to move. On paper this set up sounds extremely limiting but in-game this movement set opens up a lot of strategy for each character. Each character has 4 ground moves, 4 mid-air moves, 4 smash attacks, and 4 special moves.

The aim of SSBB is to knock your opponent or opponents off of the stage (KO) whilst staying on yourself. Each time your knock a player to their doom you'll receive a point (Time Mode), or the player will lose a life (Stock Mode). Every time you attack a player a number representing his or her 'damage count' will rise below the screen. The more damage a character has accumulated the lighter they are when attacked, and thus the easier they are to KO.

Agon

The agon (competition) in SSBB comes in two forms; the AI within the game, and human players. The AI has 9 different settings ranging from, 'weak' the easiest to 'tough'; the most difficult. This allows the player to learn the controls and mechanics by playing against the easier settings, and then ramping up the difficulty when they want a challenge. The 'tough' AI for example will attack you when your vulnerable and defend themselves effectively when you try to attack them. The player must gain a good grasp of their chosen characters move-set in order to defeat a 'tough' computer especially in a 1v1 stock battle.

The challenge when playing against a human or group of people depends entirely on how much the person has played the game. Someone new to the series is unlikely to stand a chance in a stock match against a veteran, since the new player will not know the move-set of their opponents chosen character and thus not understand how to counter and effectively dodge the moves.

Alea

The Super Smash series has a noticeable element of alea (randomness) if items are enabled in the game options. When items are enabled, crates, barrels, swords, poke-balls, Ray Gun, the SuperScope and the Smash Ball to name a few, will spawn onto to the map at random locations. The way these items change the fight depends on the item, some items such as the Ray Gun give one player a slight advantage, since they can keep a player back using the ranged lasers it fires. Other items such as the Smash Ball can completely change the flow of a fight, since once broken open, it will allow the player that destroyed it to use their ultimate 'Final Smash' attack, which varies from character to character. This attack when used correctly will often instant KO whoever it hits.

Ilinx

Unlike many fighting games mastering the movement options in SSBB is absolutely fundamental should you hope to achieve victory. Every character in the game can jump and double jump, but many characters can also use their 'up' special move ('up+B') to recover longer distances. Some characters such as Kirby can execute multiple jumps in mid-air while others like Charizard and Pit have the ability to glide.

Recovering (getting back to the stage after being knocked off) is a huge part of the game. If a player doesn't understand how to recover then fights in SSBB can be over in seconds. Ilinx (movement) also takes the form of different types of dodges that can be executed by holding down either of the two shield buttons (L or R), in conjunction with a direction. If left or right is pressed, the player will roll in that direction, passing through any opponents as if they were not there. The speed and nature of the roll will vary from character to character. If down is pressed the player will temporarily step out of the foreground and into the background of the stage for a second, just long enough to dodge an enemy attack when timed correctly. As you can see, learning to dodge and move correctly in brawl is a essential skill the player must learn in order to stand a chance vs. the game's challenging AI.

I enjoyed writing this blog entry about two of my favourite games.

Thanks for reading. :)