Multiplayer Game Design Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 77

progressed. And one person attempting to memorize became problematic when
faced with answers requiring multiple elements.
The player with the topic would begin confidently, start to stumble, and end up
looking sheepish when trying to instantly memorize a list of up to eight items,
each composed of a sentence or two. (I did reduce the elements required in an
answer to two or three on the actual exam. I believe I

' ve already stated I ' m not

quite that sadistic.)

How did the guilds cope? One guild divided up the elements among their guild
mates. So the one with the topic would find it, show it quickly to each member
in turn, and they would shout out their zone name. Then each member, in turn,
would answer with the one item she or he had memorized.

So pretty soon all of the guilds were dividing up the elements, one person taking
only one. A couple of the guilds were better at this than the others. So the guilds
that weren

' t winning were forced to find a new tactic.

Finally, one guild realized that writing down the answers, or at least enough to
aid memory, was faster than swinging the topic around, showing members the
answer in the topic, making sure they had it, and then moving to the next. That
guild dominated only a couple of times before the others caught on and
duplicated their technique.

Three or four of the guilds were now neck-and-neck. It would take yet another
inspiration from one to finally triumph.

At last, a member of the winning guild took out a cell phone and photographed
the page found by the member who had done the most reading. The other
guilds called foul! That was cheating! But I pointed out that the rules said
nothing about using cell phones. So, for the last few questions all guilds were
using cell phones to simply photograph the needed page and then read from the
photos.

I then pointed out to them that changing their strategies and tactics was exactly
how guilds learn to defeat mobs in their boss raids, learning from their wipes,
modifying their approach, until at last they bring down the beast.

This was the best class that semester. They had a great time competing and trash
talking. I had a great time watching the essential core of the multiplayer