Multiplayer Game Design Syllabi - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 62

Have a listen to trash talking and l33t speak, and you might think gamers would
seem to be a peer group at odds with civil conduct in the classroom. Yet guild
cultures are built from the top down. The leadership of a guild has the power to
regulate the boundaries of discourse, and they do. Many of the largest guilds in
MMOs have in their memberships gamers drawn from the widest possible
spectrum of political, social, racial, cultural, and geographical groups.
The best leaders acknowledge that what may be proper language for American
teenage boys may not be appropriate for senior citizens from Japan. So they lay
down rules for both behavior and discourse. Players want rules, and the rules
must be clear and concise.

An article in Time magazine prompted by the end of Hosni Mubarak ' s 30-year

reign in Egypt, �

highlights the work of biological anthropologist Chris Boehm at the University
of Southern California:

“ What Was Mubarak Thinking? Inside the Mind of a Dictator,

[Boehm] studies the human revolutionary impulse and
has been struck in particular by how it plays to a unique tension in the
psychology of our species. On the one hand, humans are extremely hierarchical
primates, readily picking leaders and assenting to their authority for the larger
good of the community. On the other hand, our hunter-gatherer ancestors were
a very egalitarian bunch, doing best when the group operated collectively, with
dominance asserted only subtly.

“

�

Good guilds survive and prosper because it is human nature to seek out leaders,
but members want to feel that their voices are heard. Bad guilds fail when their
leaders become totalitarian. Because guilds are made up of members who,
whatever their backgrounds, seek a common success and style of play, they
routinely allow themselves to be led. And they self-police. This style of play is
right at home in the multiplayer classroom.

One final thought: Guild leaders have the power to discipline and even remove
members. Schools have the same power. But everyone uses these measures as a
last resort. To gamers, self-policing and a willingness to follow the rules are
second nature.

One of the features of the multiplayer classroom is that the students engage in
collaborative, as well as competitive, activities. Students are not focused entirely
on their individual grades. They are given opportunities to help their guild mates