Concerns about roles, teams, and HP
I'm considering the premuim version of Classcraft as an LMS to support self-paced, blended instruction and differentiation in my 6th grade math classes next year.
I love the quest map interface for curating resources and presenting assignment options to students. I think they would enjoy developing avatars and training pets. I can envision using XP to reward engagement/participation in quest activities and Gold to reward demonstration of our school values and learner qualities.
However, I have concerns about some other aspects of the game, especially character roles, team dynamics, and the use of HP and sentences. I won't go into detail on each of these, but I'm worried that it would be difficult to align this model with our campus-wide initiatives. I also fear that the whole system is entirely too complicated for my students and may distract from the content at hand. Finally, I live in a very religously conservative community and anticipate that some parents may object to certain aspects of the game, especially if they were emphasized too much.
Is it possible to primarily utilize the quest and analytics features of the platform while minimizing or entirely eliminating all the powers, player roles, and AP/HP aspects of the game? (I would never feel comfortable inflicting or allowing other to inflict "damage" on a child in my classroom, even though I understand that it is meant to be playful and fun.)
Can I customize the game so that all players start with the same stats - allowing them to choose warrior, healer, and mage for aesthetic reasons rather than having to discern between all their attributes (and later decide they'd like to switch their character types)?
I think the big picture of the game is cool, and there are some aspects of gamification that I think will enhance my class, but overall, I feel that the details of the game are too complex for my age group, too difficult to explain to parents/administrators, and potentially too involved to be feasible in my math classroom.
Is it possible to create a "Classcraft Lite" - an interface that is more engaging than Google classroom but without so much RPG-ness?
Thanks!