Theory and Practice of Game Design Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 33

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Theory and Practice of
Game Design Class

Ballantine Hall is the tallest building on the Indiana University, Bloomington
campus, and upon its completion in 1959, it was the largest academic building in
the world. Because of its initial high cost, $6,242,422, air conditioning was not
added to the building until 1977.

The geography of an MMO world involves several critical decisions. Designers
can choose where a bridge crosses a river to funnel players to a particularly
crucial location. We can design dungeons with dark, twisty passages to heighten
the suspense of exploration, and to create nooks and crannies where nasty orcs
can lurk, waiting to pounce on unwary adventurers. In the multiplayer class-
room, however, we want to use the physical space we re given to its best

advantage. It may seem like a limitation. It certainly can be a challenge. But the
multiplayer class should not be designed to force huge changes in teachers

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classrooms. It should instead encourage us to look at these spaces differently.
How can they be used imaginatively, without time-consuming alteration?

Room 209 in Ballantine is an average-sized classroom with multimedia equip-
ment and genuine blackboards. The most useful feature of Room 209, however,
for the game designer looking to create a game world was its furniture. The
student desks were chair desks: substantial metal chairs with l-shaped writing
areas made of something vaguely resembling wood attached, as shown in
Figure 4.1.