The document discusses having students try the online game League of Legends to experience being part of a large online gaming community. It notes that League of Legends has over 70 million players and discusses features like cosplay and the Tribunal moderation system. Students are asked to play the game in class and consider questions about why the game is popular, whether it is a good game, and how it engages players through rewards while being a free game.

2. TODAY
1. Another of those check-ins
2. This week’s play experience: League of
Legends
3. The Tribunal
4. Cosplay
5. Now then, let’s play
6. Homework/reminder

3. I tried to get some comments to each group
about your game design documents, but this
weekend ended up being “dodge various
catastrophes” weekend, so I didn’t get to do the
level of grading I wanted to. I’ll be caught up
soon (by the weekend, for sure), but in the
meantime, are there any pressing questions? Do
you all have a sense of where you’re going?

4. League of
Legends
This week I want you to fall down the rabbit hole
that is League of Legends. We’re going to play in
a bit. But first, some things to consider.

5. I want us to consider a few things about
League of Legends before we start playing.
One is that it’s HUGELY popular.
How popular, you might ask…

7. Of course the
real test,
I’d venture…
… is how devoted your fans are, Riot Games!
I happen to know someone who does this, but
the next slide is my measure of what I’ll call
the “geek saturation” of a game.

8. COSPLAY!

9. And the
Tribunal
Also interesting in League of Legends is a
feature called “The Tribunal.” Considered by
many to be highly experimental, the Tribunal
is an attempt to make players their own police
(well, in this case their own jury), determining
punishments as needed for violations of the
game’s social contract.

11. So for this
week…
… I want you to play at least part of your time
in League of Legends with your team. To
facilitate that, I want you to start playing here,
today, in class.
With the time we have left you can register
and start playing. As you play, think on these
things:

12. What does it mean to
be part of a gaming
community of 70
million virtual
people?

13. Why do all those
people like this
game?

14. Do YOU like this
game?

15. Would Schell, or
Juul, or Gee, or
anyone we’ve read
think this was a
good game? Why?

16. Is this a good game?
Could it possibly
NOT be?
Does the sheer
number of players
dictate that it MUST
be a good game?

17. Think about the
psychology stuff we
discussed last week.

18. Can you get your
violence and
rudeness quotient?

19. Is there sweet,
sweet loot and
reward for playing
deeper?

20. This game is free.
But nothing is free.
What’s the deal?

21. For Thursday
We’re going to talk about paper/physical
prototyping. Please read the articles linked on
the website.
Come in with questions about your game design
docs. We’ll talk for about 45 minutes, then we’ll
have some work time and I’ll answer questions.
Play LoL, and think about how advantageous
that acronym is.