Playing Games

Had my first History of Videogames class yesterday. Have a great class of 13 students. 1 to 13 are much better odds that 1 to 99 when it comes to one on one teaching. I really miss that in the big classes.

Here are some excerpts from their first assignment. I like to give assignments that force the student to analyze and think. Here I have the students judging a game on a number of scales: Realistic Environment to Cartoony Environment - Programmed Non Player Character Action to Artificial Indulgence NPC action. etc.



The final part of the assignment is a graph of player`s strength vs difficulty of play over the play the course of the game.


The idea is to have the student think about game play and what goes into an enjoyable gaming experience. The upside is that when these students start creating games I have a better change of enjoying the games they create. Enlightened Self-Interest is the name of the game.