Mount & Blade MDA

Title: Mount & Blade

Developer: TaleWorlds Entertainment

Release Date: September 16, 2007

Mount & Blade is an open world tactical action role playing game for PC set in medieval times. The game has no story so play becomes completely what the player makes it. In the game, the player can side with certain factions, winning renown points. Over time the player can get their renown up enough to increase their reputation enough to become a marshall or lord, marry a royal, or maximize denars earned. But those aren’t the only goals for the player. Any combinations or no combinations of events can happen while in play, giving every play through a different experience. What is taught to the player through the mechanics is that every little thing you do in life will come at some sort of risk or reward and no matter how you plan, life will often throw you a curveball.

The mechanics, or rules, of the game are fundamentally centered on four basic things. The first is denars and those are the currency of Calradia. Second is renown points which will help determine which faction to fight towards or against. Thirdly, honor points, which are extremely difficult to balance if you want to maintain a neutral party. Finally, reputation is built through a combination of the other three mechanics and is the most challenging status to balance. The player has control over all of these mechanics as they define how their story will play out.

Collecting denars can be done in several different ways and is required in several dynamics of the game. The rules around earning denars are both operational and constitutive. The player can take on quests and earn denars or other rewards, collect taxes for their villages or another commander, raid towns, go to battle, and participate in tournaments. When the player attempts to collect denars, they’re taking a risk. If they can’t complete or fail a quest, not only will they not receive denars but they will lose honor. If a player takes command of a village, town, or castle and does not protect it, it can decrease that place’s prosperity. Doing that will decrease the number of denars the player can collect in taxes and, if left completely neglected, not only will the player collect 0 denars in taxes, another faction may concur that location in an attempt to increase the prosperity. If the player has to lay siege upon another faction and loses, they can be captured for days and stripped of all their worldly goods. The aesthetic of all of these dynamics are sensations of victory or accomplishment through reward or sensations of sadness or defeat as a result of losing denars along with some other penalty.

Using denars as an example, a flowchart of one scenario would be the following:

Renown, though not required if the player plans on taking on all factions on their own, is still a fundamental mechanic and is needed to increase victory in battle, allow the player to join factions at certain levels, lead armies, persuade in conversations, and increase the player’s overall reputation. One operational rule to renown is that is degrades over time. The higher the player gets in overall level, the more difficult renown becomes to accumulate. The player can earn renown by winning battles, winning tournaments, or successfully completing quests. Renown can also be lost by losing battles, losing tournaments, taking too long to complete a quest, or not completing a quest at all. Dynamics of these mechanics create more aesthetic experiences since they are player choice driven. The consequence of each mechanic is driven through the dynamics. The aesthetics that come as a result are challenge, expression, discovery, and fantasy.

Using renown as an example, a flowchart of one scenario would be the following:

I could continue on with the other two mechanics but the idea is there. The mechanics are foundational for the dynamics and the aesthetics give the player the desire to continue through playing the game. I hope you liked reading my post and if you haven’t already played Mount & Blade, I highly encourage it.

Thanks for reading!

-Nastassia

Sources:

Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M., & Zubek, R. (n.d.). MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. Retrieved from http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf

Mount&Blade. (2005). Retrieved from https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/MountAndBlade