"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

History is fun! Especially history lessons on fun taught by Major Fun! Seriously! How can you not salute Major Fun!?

Before one can understand Big Game, one must understand that which came before the Big Game.

The Big Game was the final project in the class referred to in the less fun texts as CTIN 534. Most of us involved in the project know it as...

The fun class.

...and it was indeed a fun class.

Co-teacher Tracy Fullerton is, of course, a FUN teacher. A teacher of FUN, if you will. And, of course...

MAJOR FUN HIMSELF.

Not that it was all fun and games. Prior to our final project, the class went through a number of assignments and exercises, from improvising atop a traditional game to exquisite corpse style narrative games to rapid-fire riffing on larger gaming concepts.

After going through all those individual and small group projects, we were now ready to tackle the project that would define this class: the final design project. From the syllabus:

Students will design, produce and run a massively multiplayer offline game to be played within the boundaries of the USC campus. All students in the class must participate in the playtest in some way ? specific roles to be determined by the game design, of course. The design of the game should take into account the space and mindset of the potential on-campus players; striving for a sense of relevance to both location and people involved, and inclusion for players and non-players alike.

Arriving at The Big Game from this point was a challenge for all of us, with our disparate intersts, design goals, and aesthetic senses clashing against each other for a solid couple of weeks before the hallelujah moment came:

"Giant playing cards!"

For that utterance we have Tracy Fullerton to thank. With that phrase, people came out from under their shields of wiring and budget, web tech and digital imaging, mazes and PVC piping, and went full force into this giant endeavor. (After another week and a bit of prodding from fedora-sporting Bernie...thanks Bernie!)

For more on the actual creation of The Big Game, check out the Conception and Construction section!