Designing Interactive Characters Syllabus - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 147

Figure 9.1
Spring 2011 syllabus.

You from the previous

courses. This course had been taught by several people before I inherited it. The
bullet points were only slightly edited from previous syllabi.

' ll notice the section “ Objectives � replaces “ Description �

The section introduces the new game. Not only would the class create

avatars, but those avatars would also for the first time be instrumental to the
game. Students would create detailed back stories for their avatars and choose
specific professions for them. And these would be woven into the story of the
game. Gone were the classes that represented game development team roles.
These professions were part of their characters within the world of the game.

“ Format �

The movement from zone to zone would now represent that journey within the
classroom. They would make this journey across a fantasy world that would also
require them to move beyond the classroom into the unknown. I planned to
make ARG-like puzzles that would send them out of the classroom, even out of
the building.

Guilds would not only choose their names, but they would also each be given the
name of their starting zone (a town in a land called Valeria ) and a brief
description of its primary feature. We will introduce these on Level 10. They