Multiplayer Game Design Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 72

Producer, Writer, Art Lead, and Tech Lead. I added Customer Service to all
since MMOs are much more of an ongoing service than stand-alone video
games. I left the seventh position up to the discretion of the four larger guilds.
They chose Audio Lead.

This process of balancing the guilds is one of the most difficult tasks I faced,
although I

d had the same challenge in the iterations of the classes before they
became multiplayer. Whether you ask them to list three or seven games or roles,
the key is to try and give everyone either his or her top first or second choice.
Only a couple of students ended up with a lower choice in one category. I made
certain that they received their number one choice in the other. So, if I had to
give them their last choice of game, I saw to it that they had their first choice of
role. A few also received second choices in both. After some initial shrugs and
scowls, this system was accepted, and no complaints were heard or excuses made
later about what they were assigned. Table 6.1 lists the guild names they chose
and the titles of the MMOs they would design.

'

I confess I cannot find a list of avatar names for this class in my files. If any
students from the class read this topic, please publish your avatar names in the
forums attached to the “ Gaming the Classroom � blog at http://gamingtheclass-

room.wordpress.com/. If there ' '

s a new printing of this topic, I ll include them!

Table 6.1 Guilds and Virtual Worlds

Guild Virtual World

Kings of Cosmos Cosmos

The Posse CrimeWorld

Stomping Puppies Infestation

Guild-a-Bear Musique

Beast Knees Reign of Beast

WTF Triad

MMOs and Community
Several interesting ideas for MMOs emerged in this class. Musique was a hybrid
of a rhythm-based music game like Rock Band and Guitar Hero and a story-
driven, massively multiplayer role-playing game. Cosmos was a Facebook game