Welcome, investigator, to EN 307!
This course, as you now know, is structured as an adventure game—and you are invited to ‘play the course’ much like you would any other designed, rule-based experience. In order to succeed in this game, you’ll need to know the rules and components, and this guide will help you!
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How is this a game?
This is something we’ll start with early: what makes a game at all? For one, this course is a simulated environment (missing an assignment isn’t going to ruin your career, for example) based on carefully constructed rules (this syllabus & guide). Within this ‘arena of play,’ we are all participating by playing different roles (even me, your ‘teacher’) and we are ultimately receiving a score that is based on our performance within the game (you, a grade — me, in evaluations). Now you might be thinking—if this is all it takes, aren’t all courses games?
Well, technically yes. All courses are games. But as Sarah Smith-Robbins said in 2010:
School is already a game.
Sarah smith-Robbins, quoted in Hodgson (2013), p. 46.
It’s just a really bad one.
This course hopes to break that mold. By recognizing itself for the game that it is, we will use the course as a way of walking the talk of games and writing. For this class, you will re-invent yourself as a character that will progress through a game-world. You will learn skills by earning Notable Agent Points (NAPS) and completing Quests. You will join up with a crew of other adventurers, and together you will unveil mysteries, battle monsters, and learn a good deal about writing and games along the way.