Paidea vs Ludus

Whilst discussing Paidea and ludus we decided to use resident evil and the sims as examples.

Resident Evil - Ludus: Resident Evil is a game in which you have to progress through stages using weapons (guns, knives, bombs etc) no matter how resident evil is played it will always have the same outcome making it more limited (that doesnt mean less fun) as an open and free game like the sims. There are rules that you have play by in order to progress through the game, and if you try to play the game in any other way it simply wont work. In a game like resident evil once you've reached a certain level of skill theres not really any way of getting better, where as in a game like the sims players are given the option of playing however they want too and there really isnt any skill involved.

The Sims - Paidea: The sims is basically about creating family and living there lives for them. You can get jobs to buy neew things, have children to extend your family tree and have plenty of fun along the way. Its a very easy game to get into, as i said before it doesnt really take any skill so you can just pick it up and play it giving it a much broader target audience. In recent editions to the sims you are able to venture out and explore the whole city rather than be stuck to the constraints of your own household like in the previous sims.

Agon, Alea, Ilinux, Mimiery - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Agon - In Elder Scrolls you don't have any direct competition, but players can set themselves tasks so it becomes  a personal competition. From my experience of playing Oblivion, I set myself mini tasks of getting to certain places within in a time limit without usig fast travel. Completing the game itself is also a major competition with yourself, as it took me one hundred and sixty hours to finish just the main story alone... its a test of whether you can be bothered to stick at it and get to the end.

Alea - Elders Scrolls IV is such a massive game and is full of randomness. You never really know whats waiting for you round the corner, even after playing for such a long period its too hard to predict what will happen next. When you've played the game for a while you begin to notice that there are alot of caves and buildings that have the exact same layout, but they keep you on your toes by throwing in different sets of enemies. Some caves/builings wont have any villians at all and then some will have a massive selection, I remember one cave in particular that at first seemed just like the other caves when you first walk in, but had a variety of enemies that were to be seen nowhere else in the entire game, such as the Giant MudCrap. In my opinion this is a great way of keeping the player interested.

Ilinux - The Elder Scrolls IV is an RPG so theres tonnes of movement, the whole game is just one big exploration. For me, its the best part of the game. You can travel anywhere you want (obviously it has to be on the map) at any time and something new and interesting will always happen. An example from when I played the game; I decided to travel from one side of the map to the other on foot so that my character could level up. Along the route I was approached by a strange man that asked me whether I wanted to join his guild, and that I would have to complete a small mission if I wanted to, I decided to take him up on his offer (not knowing that I had to kill an innocent man in order to complete it). Then,  half way through my journey my character  levelled up but you need to sleep in order to adjust his skills, so I fell asleep on a near by roll out bed and when I woke up I had been infected wih vampirism. Theres only one way to get rid of this pesky virus and thats a whole other mission.

Mimiery - Though theres a massive variety in the Elder Scrolls there is still a main plot, and I think thats probably the funnest part of the game. Knowing that you've created a character that will eventually save the world keeps the player playing. All the other side quests and mini games are all there to help you build your character up to the final mission, and the fact that you can do it all at your own pace makes this game too good.