Introduction to Game Design Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 116

I noticed something almost immediately that was the same at both IU and RPI.
Class attendance was outstanding. In fact, it was no longer necessary to pass
around a paper for those present to sign. I could take attendance by looking at the
classroom. On only one day when several students were attending a conference did
I have more than one person absent. Total absences for the entire semester were 10.
Of those, only two did not inform me in advance that they would not be able to
attend. Out of 700 possible absences (25 students

28 class stations), there were

only 10 absences — including the winter. In upstate New York. In neck-deep snow.

I believe there are two reasons for this. The first is the nature of the multiplayer
classroom. Students do not know what to expect, either from the instructor or
their peers. They had a great time learning, as the photographs in this chapter
will confirm. The second is the simple flip from telling them they would be
graded down, if they missed a class, to telling them they would get XP just for
attending. What a simple change. What a gratifying result!

Crafting began again with Senet . Other crafted reports were on an analog game
(board game, card game, etc.) of the player s choice and a digital (video) game.

Players brought in analog games they had reported on for the rest of the class to play.

'

Finally, quest presentations took on a life of their own. During the postmortem
last spring, my students had suggested I not only suggest

avoidance of bulleted PowerPoints, but I give some examples of successful
presentations. I used their class as an example, mentioning the So You Want to
Be a Millionaire? game, the scripted performance, and more. This semester

“ Game Design �

' s

class took those examples to heart.

Quest presentations featured lots of audience participation; several games; mods
of several video games from Super Mario to Subversion ; a website that could
supposedly identify a real or fictional person from a few scant clues (it failed to
identify the Game Master of this topic, however ); examples within the

wonderful award-winning Minecraft ; an expert demonstration of close-up
magic; and an original epic poem.

...

Mod

Mod is short for modification. It means an experience that is not stand-alone software, but built
from the assets and programming of another game. Today many commercial games include the
ability to easily create mods.