The Warrior's Sword & Shield

S’abonner

What happened to the Warrior's sword and shield?  Unlocking the new cool looking weapons was always one of the highlights for my warrior students.  Now it seems all the warriors have various types of glowing punch-fists, and their shields have a translucent look to them.

Personally, I don't like the graphics change at all.  Please change it back.

Additionally, if this is some sort of move away from weapons due to sensitivities that can come in school cultures, lets keep in mind that this is a fantasy setting.  Warriors are their group's protectors, and they need powerful weapons and shields (that aren't see-through) to fulfill that role.  Is someone thinking that having cool swords in Classcraft is encouraging students to bring swords to school to have sword fights, or thinking stabbing each other is cool?  I say no way.  Along those lines, how is a glowing power-fist any different.  Won't those encourage students to be power-punching each other?

If this is somehow supposed to be an improvement for Warriors, then it's a step in the wrong direction.  Warriors aren't magic-punching battle-mages;  they're warriors, and they're equipment should reflect that.

The graphics change on the logo was also a step downhill.  The old logo ways way better looking.

44 commentaires
Date Votes

I just added a comment under game feedback how they "New Coked" the product.

I fully support and agree with you guys, it is a terrible change. They either need to make it optional, or keep the energy shield and allow weapons or if weapons are unacceptable, then at least just leave a solid no energy shield, looks more like magic than a warrior, but I doubt classcraft will listen to us regardless of how many people comment on this post, they don't really listen to our requests so much.

Classcraft, You've satiated the educator community for the time being by saying,

Please know that we are taking your opinions to heart. There are plenty of discussions taking place around this issue. Your comments are being heard. Classcraft's Official Facebook

Now, it just remains to be seen whether or not you'll actually do anything about or whether you'll dig your heels in and plug your ears until, as Scott Beiter said a developer somewhere, looking at making another fantasy gamification platform develops something with "features that this Platform doesn't such as different weapons to equip and highly customizable boss battles and avatars... Teachers will quickly jump platforms". 

Also, Jeff Battle, this!!! That was a brilliant summary of how I think we're all feeling.

I’m just here to join the sadness about lack of weapons for the warrior class. The scout doesn’t even make sense anymore? No bow and arrows?

The entire engagement of this system is how it ties into students loving actual video games. No middle school student is playing a Fantasy RPG video game without swords, bows and other medieval weapons. It definitely should be an option. I can’t think of a single parent , admin. or colleague who was ever offended. The coolest class was the warrior!

I feel like the large majority of Game Masters are big time gamers themselves. I don’t really believe this was a feedback from consumers debate that was commented in the blog. “It was a heated debate from both sides”. I have to believe that the large majority of educators buying into this game love fantasy and gaming.

I just wish for more options with premium. Instead you take out cool features, and add features that don’t drive motivation in the class as much. Cool weapons gear =motivates students. Cool storylines = supplementary and I already have my own quest lines that need changing based on these changes. SMH...

So now I am to understand you are even removing the shield, changing the name of Warriors to Guardians, changing any pictures of powers including swords. All this time spent on this and not the myriad of things I have seen teachers requesting.

So no time being spent on new features, adding new team crests, adding Game Master avatars, (maybe even updating healers since I my kids complain their costumes are meh), allowing more power customisation, allow random event customisation: like choosing if random events are challenge that can be won or lost, adding new types of creatures for boss battles, etc. Nope all of that ignored, rather you are going to redesign all the warriors (again) just to removes swords and now shields. That is why none of the other features you promised your develops would look at will ever happen, just re-designing all the warriors again!

So, here we are. It's nearly February. There has been no movement to bring back warrior weapons, even as an option. Meanwhile, a whole new level of hurdles has been added to setting one's class up. My 8th graders no longer are interested. They're frustrated with the changes. I tried to set up my new Seventh Grade Classes and distribute class codes last week, and couldn't get to that screen without clicking through EVERY SINGLE SET UP option, despite having carried it all over from a previous class (none of which were the ability to give warriors weapons btw). This is where development and design dollars are being spent... Not on what we want. Pretty sure they don't care. 

I am slowly feeling my love of Classcraft go the way of the Warrior's weapons.

We have asked for new features and we get no traction. Where is the option for me to include these weapons or not? I teach high school juniors and seniors and they prefer those looks.

Classcraft, you're deathly silent on this. Please don't give in to all of this "PC" behavior.

We are constantly held in the dark and then bam! We get Kudos. My students have YET to submit a single kudos. My kids are veteran Classcraft participants as most are with me for the second time. I realize the fear of something new and I won't fully comprehend it until I actually see one in action.

Why is it we get one new feature like this and then.... nothing. I realize there is a lot of back-end maintenance that a non-programmer like myself doesn't fully comprehend that constantly needs updating, fixing and preventing from breaking.

I... I... I just don't have the words. I don't know that I can continue on anymore. The fire is gone; the passion lost. From swords to plowshares.

This brings up a interesting debate on content/context in the face of modern societal trends.

I can completely understand the need for remaining sensitive to the social/emotional lives of students (especially younger ones), but as stated in one of the MANY responses to the original post, context is important to consider. Classcraft is a FANTASY based program, and in such a world weapons are part of its identity. 

Just because swords are weapons you don’t adapt the story to say King Arthur was given a foam pool noodle by the Lady of the Lake.

You don’t teach that all World Wars were fought only with naughty language.

I will openly admit that I have a set of Laser pistols in my desk at school that I use for Random Event’s, and the odd Nerf gun or two, but i do not use them to actively/passively promote the use of weapons. Even the language of “Boss BATTLE” could be construed as violent or negative . . . But in the context of the game that’s what it is: a conflict against a opponent using acquired skill. 

if Classcraft was Instead a Grand Theft Auto style game (Grand Class Auto) where students gained XP by running over the avatars of their classmates. . . THEN we’d have a real issue. But it’s not that way. Classcraft has even stated that student head-to-head battles (boss battle style) will never be a thing. I do think it would add an interesting dynamic to the game, but I support their decision. Staying with boss battles, every time a student or team takes damage, there is the scratch animation. I have never had a student say it felt too scary or violent,  it rather that it ADDED to the fun tension of the activity,

The weapons in Classcraft are not meant to be representations of violence, but artefacts of the type of world it is trying to build, And clearly, it is the efforts in world building that have made the platform so popular with students and educators.

I will ALWAYS support any action taken towards building and promoting a more tolerant and understanding society, and not glorifying violence or weapon-culture. But as always it is important to consider the context, and be critical of our own intentions and decisions before we act.

I've supported Classcraft since I did my undergrad thesis on gamification in the classroom because it's something I've always believed in way before research was prevalent.

  I loved Classcraft so much that I talked with one of the guys running it to see how the game might be made more accessible.  I am blind, and I'd love to be able to use the platform to it's fullest potential.

  Despite it's inaccessibility to me, I recruited a few people in using the game.

  I regret all of that now.  For the talk on how they're making Classcraft more accessible with a ;) emoji, I still haven't seen it. No pun intended.  Instead, I find this thread which has completely turned me off of the game.

  Since Classcraft hasn't responded, I can only guess they were given quite a sum of money to make these changes because clearly they don't care about their market.

  I guess it's back to plan B ... creating my own gamification app for the classroom.  

  PS: I'd speak more about while I feel this way, but the fine teachers' comments before mine are much more eloquent.

Hi Valerie!

Thank you for taking the time to write your feedback, we appreciate it a lot, and we take all feedback seriously.

We have been answering on this forum thread, and we have tried multiple times to explain why this decision was taken.

It was not an easy decision and it has nothing to do with money. We believe in Classcraft so much that we want it to be accessible to everyone. Now, imagine a teacher who cannot use Classcraft because of the weapons in the game. Empathy is something that we want to teach students, but we first have to start with us. Taking this decision really saddened us but it was the right thing to do to make sure that everyone can use Classcraft. Removing the weapons does not prevent you from using the platform but having weapons in the game could have prevented another teacher from making a difference with Classcraft.

With that being said, we can also understand that it affected our loyal teachers, and we swear that it affected us too. We hope that if you believe in Classcraft and you trust the platform, you will also trust us and try to understand why this decision was taken, even though it was extremely difficult.

Have a very good day and stay safe!

Jenny,

I appreciate having some direct response from Classcraft personnel. I will be honest it does not make any sense. Given that we allow and promote our students reading urban fantasy and high fantasy that contains weapons and violence at a wide variety of levels, it seems as though there is little justification for removing the weapons from a fantasy game. I am not aware of ANY school that would keep their teachers from using the platform because of cartoon weapons. I teach middle school and a lot of my kids are fans of the Harry Potter series in which violence and magic play a central role. During the course of the books and the movies many of the principal characters die violently. They can also read J.R.R. Tolkien's series and many other YA fiction which contains violence, and weapons. 

These very elements are what gives the  books and movies, as well as the video games they play the interest they have in them. Removing what is ultimately an innocuous element from the platform only lessens its attraction to our students. If you are speaking of elementary children then it should have been a simple matter to create a secondary set of art for the younger set, and leave the warriors as they were for middle and high schooler. 

Could you provide some examples or instances in which an overwhelming number of teachers have advocated for the removal of the weapons and shields from the warriors? I can tell you for a certainty that both here, and in other platforms online where this discussion comes up I have yet to see even one instance of a teacher who agrees that this was necessary or productive for integrity and continuity of the platform. 

What exactly does Classcraft think they have accomplished in this move. It has lessened the usability of the platform as a whole and seriously threatens the interest level of our students. When we started in again this year and my students saw that the warriors were now guardians (read retired bank guards who give our hard candy to good children) rather than the tough adventurers they had envisioned, even sans shields now for some unaccountable reason, I had to work VERY hard to get any kids to play that class. I had to promise to write some fun stuff for them to overcome their initial reactions..."wow, they are LAME!"

Hi Jeff!

We have explained over and over again why this decision was taken and it seems that the point is still being missed.

We are able to understand that the situation might be different for you and that it does not make sense to you but we cannot be more transparent than this. Just because you did not come across teachers that agreed with the removal of weapons does not mean that it was not an overwhelming reality that we had to act on. Please trust us when we say we had a valid reason to remove the weapons.

Classcraft has SO much more to offer than the weapons of one character, and I'm sure that if we don't emphasize that the weapons have been removed, students will be able to fall in love with the Guardians!

We are happy to leave this forum post open and you are more than welcome to reply politely but Classcraft will not be commenting further.

Have a good day!

What I meant regarding accessibility had nothing to do with the weapons. It has to to do with the fact that Classcraft doesn't use Web accessibility  standards in it's practice.

 

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/

 

So the comment I saw on the post about the weapon change (how Classcraft wants to make itself accessible) is false advertising.  I'd mentioned this to Classcraft about 2 or 3 years ago and was told that Classcraft is small and basically has to take cost into consideration.  Normally I'd let it go.  I can appreciate the time it might take to make the website accessible to screen readers when you've already laid  out the framework of your code.

  But...Then you make this change and talk about accessibility? No thank you.

  I'm sorry class craft has come to this. Looks like I'll be gaming elsewhere.

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