Designing Interactive Characters Syllabus - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 143

Walkthrough

A walkthrough is a step-by-step guide to every obstacle, every puzzle, every boss in a video
game

— and how to triumph over them.

We who design multiplayer classrooms are already blurring lines between game
and reality. We shouldn t be surprised if game-savvy, problem-solving players

apply their skills to gaming our designs, if we allow it. And sometimes we
should!

'

Good students in the very first multiplayer classroom, “ Theory and Practice of

Game Design, would figure out how much XP they needed to receive a grade

they wanted. If they were doing well accumulating XP, they knew they could
afford to miss a class and still have enough XP so that it wouldn

�

t affect their
grade. Since this only works for students who are already doing well in class, I
have no problem with it. To me, this is in keeping with the benign cheats gamers
are familiar with.

'

However, allowing students to gain an advantage over the game I designed and
to therefore achieve a higher final grade, falls squarely into that other kind of
malicious cheating. It would be the same as finding out test answers before the
test. I was compelled to change those elements of each game that could be
hacked, like reading quizzes and exams, so the new crop of students wouldn

' tbe

able to learn answers to questions from an earlier class.

The other issue, if students take a second or third class from me — and many will do

so over the course of their studies an entirely new type of game is required each

time. To do less would be to duplicate the experience enough students have had
already, similar to teachers who recycle the same tired syllabus over and over again.

—

A New Syllabus for a New Game
Happily,

“ Designing Interactive Characters � has given me the opportunity to

strike out into new territory, literally. I ve taken lessons learned from designing

alternate reality games that take place in an even larger swatch of the physical
world than a classroom to move us out of that single room. Let

'

' s have a look at

the syllabus in Figure 9.1.