Theory and Practice of Game Design Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 36

PvP was introduced later in the semester, as we ll see. We rearranged the chair

desks to create a space in the middle of the classroom where two guilds could
face one another in two lines like opposing armies. The other guilds were
arrayed in a circle around them like the walls of an arena.

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On the first day of class, as planned, I greeted them with the statement that they
all had F

s. But I quickly segued into the explanation of how the class would be
run as a multiplayer game. They were the players. I was the Game Master.

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Game Master (GM)

A Game Master is in charge of the gameplay in a multiplayer game, organizing game sessions,
enforcing rules, and arbitrating disputes. Sounds a lot like a teacher, doesn ' t it?

Avatars
We went through the syllabus. Players were to think up avatar names for
themselves; come up with a premise for a game they might like to design in class;
and learn the rules to Senet, which I had posted online (see Figure 4.2). We
would be playing and discussing this ancient Egyptian game, one of the earliest
examples of a board game, during the following class session.

Figure 4.2
Senet, Egyptian game circa 3100 BC.

One week from that first day they introduced their avatars with pictures
representing themselves. The portraits of the avatars could be drawn by the
students or simply be images they had found online or elsewhere. It ' s worth