Prompt 3: Describe an interesting moment of interplay.
In Ping Pong, the core verbs assigned to the sprites were to move up and down in order to create a collision with the ball traveling across the field of play, preventing a goal from being scored by the other player. In terms of how the world itself changes as the player moves up and down, there really isn’t any change. However, the most interesting aspect of the game is a sprite that isn’t controlled by either character: the ball’s movement speed. The ball’s movement speed is relatively fast, which provides a shorter reaction window for the defending player to position their paddle correctly in order to prevent a goal. And, even if a goal is prevented, the player is possibly still in danger because of their exposed positioning. For example, say the ball is heading towards Player A, and in order to prevent a goal, Player A must move their paddle all the way to the top of the play area. The ball flies away in the other direction, where the ball is now in Player B’s court. If Player A doesn’t reposition themselves towards the center of the play area while Player B is trying to prevent a goal, then the bottom of the play area is completely exposed in the case of a return shot, since Player A won’t have enough time to get from the top to the bottom of the play area before the ball crosses the goal plane. If the player wishes to anticipate the next shot on goal, then they must be in the correct position in order to give themselves a proper reaction window.