Theory and Practice of Game Design Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 42

I managed to light a fire under some of the later presenters by encouraging the
use of other resources like YouTube, but it would have been wiser to have given
them up-front examples of especially inventive presentations. TED talks are a
great resource! And for my current class, I ve divided the grade into two parts:

clarity of the presentation and the inventiveness of its delivery.

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Other than calling the midterm exam a Boss Mob , the most powerful mob in a
level or dungeon, it was an ordinary exam. But I tried something different with
reading quizzes later in the semester.

I d always had an extra credit final question on the reading quizzes. For the last

two quizzes, I added six more extra credit questions that players could earn in
PvP Guild vs. Guild combat. I didn

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t change the seating for these two events. I
wanted something similar to the buzzer game show contestants hit on TV, but I
had no technology. So I settled on giving each guild their own word to shout out,
if they wanted to take a shot at the answer. The words were: laugh, groan, yell,
cough, burp, and cry.

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Anyone on a guild could provide the answer, whether they shouted first or not.
So, after a brief consultation among themselves, the guilds could collaboratively come
up with the answer. This worked well. Everybody had a good time. Trash-talking
between guilds was inspired. And everyone had a chance to share in the fiero.

Trash Talking

Trash talking is boastful, taunting chat, at times laced with l33t speak and profanity, that is meant
to assert authority before, during, or after a contest.

l33t Speak

l33t speak is a pseudo-language that began on bulletin boards in the 1980s, often simply a product
of misspellings; then it prospered as a means to get around language filters in multiplayer gaming
and social networks. Elements of l33t speak are now in general usage, particularly in texting and
tweeting. Examples include

“ c � instead of “ see, �“ u � instead of “ you, �“ teh � instead of “ the, �

“ pwned � instead of “ owned. � Replacing vowels with numbers and characters is also common as

in “ l33t � itself, derived from “ elite. �

The success of these two events was to give me an idea for a new, much more
gamelike, approach to preparing for the midterm.