You knew this time would come, Visitor. The time for training, scouting, and skirmishing is over--this is the day you have prepared for your whole life!

You must take all you have learned and use it in battle against the other guild. As with all great adventures, success will be determined NOT by individual valor,  though there are certainly opportunities for heroes and each must do their part.

There will be four skirmishes, each centered around a single proposition; one that is best suited for Warriors, one for Mages, one for Monks, and one for Healers. Your spell studies and chosen character path have prepared you for these, but you will succeed only if all in your guild can lend their skills to make you stronger.

Accept this quest now to learn your path to victory, or defeat!

 

Behold--the four propositions that you will battle over are nigh!

Read each of these carefully, for while each is geared for a specific character class, you must ALL contribute to each one. Divide them up amongst your guild as you see fit. While there is one question per guild member, there are more mages and healers than monks, and no warriors!

During our Guild Wars, you will have five minutes as a GUILD to argue FOR or AGAINST each proposition. You may use those minutes as you see fit--read one well-reasoned response out loud, divide that response up amongst all of your guild, but EACH member MUST contribute on at least ONE question.

Decide now which of you will take FIRST lead at crafting the initial response/argument for or against each proposition below. Use the comments field on this page to discuss this. Once you have decided, take a screenshot of comment that shows which YOU will take the lead on and upload that here for credit:

Aggression & Games (Warriors)

• With all the violence in today’s society, many people are concerned about what kinds of messages our children are exposed to. The Columbine shooting was reportedly linked to gaming, as was the New Town, CT school shooting. And we hear about violent crime every day. Many games seem to be about nothing but killing and fighting, and games like Grand Theft Auto even encourage killing police and innocent bystanders in order to take what you want and get ahead.
• Proposition: There should be stronger limits and restrictions on violent games to prevent violence and aggression.
• Guild One AGAINST, Guild Two FOR

Bringing commercial games into the schools (Mages)

• Some researchers argue for the use of commercial games in school to teach a variety of subjects. But commercial games are not designed to teach, so they may get things wrong, leave things out. Even if this were not the case, it’s just not possible to use them to teach everything we need to teach in school, including math, science, writing, reading—killing monsters is not going to solve our STEM problem, and “having fun” is not a school subject.
• Proposition: Commercial games are impractical to use for learning because they don’t reflect what we have to teach in school.
• Guild One AGAINST, Guild Two FOR

Games and Individual Characteristics (Monks)

• People like Jane McGonigal argue that games can truly change the world, but this is hyperbole. Playing a game is an isolating, individual experience; playing it might change the game world, but not the “real” world. Wars in the middle east, mistrust of other religions and cultures, hunger, violence, and starvation in Darfur; these are real problems that happen to real people; a game is not going to change that. Add to this the fact that games actually involve killing and violence and we are more likely to add to the problems than to solve them.
• Proposition: Commercial games and serious games are digital, isolated experiences that have little bearing on “real” world problems such as starvation, violence, racism, and social injustice, and the violence they use may actually make these problems worse.
• Guild One FOR, Guild Two AGAINST

Games for Health (Healers)

• Some researchers have argued that games can promote health. But research shows that games promote sedentary behavior and poor eating habits (snacking) that in turn have been shown to increase the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Even “active” games like the Wii, Muve, and Kinect do not seem to promote weight loss or fitness.
• Proposition: Whether we are talking about individual health, population health, or health policy, games are more likely to be part of the problem than part of the solution.
• Guild One FOR, Guild Two AGAINST

 

Only one can lead at a time, Visitor, so you must now make your first attempt at a response. Once you feel it is your best work and is ready for the others, upload it here to move on to the next stage!

 

Now that you have shared your response, Visitor, you must now share it amongst the guild mates, that it may be strengthened, tested, and forged in the fires of your intellect!

Share your document with all in your group, as they will do with theirs. Make your changes, additions, suggestions, and comments, and upload the documents you have so edited and commented on for your credit for this stage of the quest. Once you have done so, send it on to the leader for that response, that they may consolidate and apply your contributions to the final response.

Hark! This is more than team building and cooperation--you have only earned 55% of the possible reward for this quest so far--the rest depends on your live performance!

If your guild wins a skirmish, you ALL earn up to 50 additional XP, depending on my evaluation of your battle skills, for a possible total of 200. If you LOSE, you will each instead earn up to 32.5 XP (again, based on my evaluation of your battle skills), for a possible total of 150.

The wars shall be a public event, with spectators involved. "Winning" shall be determined by the number of audience members who are persuaded by your argument. We will poll them as to whether they are "for" or "against" the proposition at the beginning and at the end. The guild that moves the most people toward their side of the proposition will be declared the winner. For example, if 80% are "for" and 20% are "against" the proposition at the beginning, and 75% are "for" and 25% are "against" the proposition after the skirmish, the team arguing "against" the proposition shall be declared the winner.

You have done all you can, Visitor; the rest is up to the fate and the gods. Go forth and do battle, and remember there is no shame in defeat, only in not doing your best! Still, it is a lot nicer to win. That WOULD be the best option of the two. There are no awards for second-best try-er!