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My obligatory response to any mention of Zynga games:

"Addicted to Fake Achievement" :
http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/awesome-by-proxy-addicted-to-fake.html

I was hooked on MafiaWars and Starfleet Commander for a spell. Quit cold turkey a few months back.
I do have a whole new understanding of my hamsters on their treadmills now.

Huh, I never really liked RPGs for the same reason quoted by subby... with enough grinding /anyone/ can W1N!

http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/awesome-by-proxy-addicted-to-fake.html

But yes, I do play the occasional RPG for the story. But mostly I stick to sims (flying / racing / construction puzzles / turret defense / maybe the occasional RTS / compelling FPS with compelling mechanics and/or non-twitch-based multiplayer dynamics).

The people who play these games are, as a blogger recently put it, addicted to fake achievement. They want to fill the bar over and over again, level up, and unlock the next item.

It's really not that baffling. People like winning. The actual value of the "win" is often unimportant.

I'd give him an "A" for trying something different but I don't agree with it being a good idea... at least, not without seeing more.

One thing is this interesting idea about "fake achievement". I would be concerned that this idea of leveling your grade might cause a bit of the same fake achievement mentality. Games like WoW are unique in that they really don't penalize you for failing. Older games did. You could loose XP, loose levels, and sometimes loose all the hard earned items you worked for. How does this system plan on addressing that? Or is this just a wolf in sheeps clothing kind of thing and the teacher is just simply dressing it up as an "XP" system to be cute about his course material but it's still just translatable to a grade score of 0-100 with 90-100 = A, 80-90 B, 70-80 C, 60-70 D,

Anyhow. MMO XP systems work on the idea of pass/fail. You either kill the mob (and get XP) or you fail (and die and possible loose XP). I suppose this course could simply run on a pass/fail premise as well, but it does sort of sound like you can "Grind" your grade out by simply doing as many "quests" (work assignments) as possible.

I like this article:
http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/awesome-by-proxy-addicted-to-fake.html

That said, I think an automated pat-on-the-back system would do wonders for motivation in education... but more from the perspective of unlocking the tech tree / curriculum, and showing what new abilities a student might have after mastering second-order differential equations or the Level IV history of Mesopotamia analytical text.

But it may just as well breed more precious coddled snowflakes that can't cope with actual mistakes and failures in life. But I guess it just depends on how well it's implemented.

But it's the only chance a lot of people would have (thus broadening their market)...

http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/awesome-by-proxy-addicted-to-fake.html

I've never understood the draw and allure that WoW provides, and why people get addicted to the point that they drop out of schools.

It could be that people are unsatisfied with their real life and aren't well-equipped to manage it. I know for sure I learned more than I'm happy to admit about life management (setting goals, working towards them) from David Allen and his Getting Things Done. Maybe I'm not the only one who'd do well to read some of his thoughts?

In any case, In contrast to a poorly managed real life, WoW gives you some very clear goals ("kill monster(s)" and "fetch item(s)" are popular, I hear; they worked in Diablo II), and, if Diablo II is anything to go by, a reasonably straightforward and easy way of accomplishing those goals if you just put in enough time.

So you have "complex, ambiguous, unsuccessful" versus "simple, well-defined, successful". What do you think wins?

See also someone else's take on this question at http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/awesome-by-proxy-addicted-to-fake.html