More Questions About ExoTerra?

Many FAQs specific to students or interested instructors are answered on the Student Info Page, the Instructor Info Page, and the Volunteers Info Page, but here are answers to some more general questions, and more will be added over the course of the program. With questions not covered here, please contact us

What Software Will ExoTerra Use? (Discord)

Short answer: Discord.

Exo-Terra focuses on role-playing, not fancy graphics, so it doesn’t use any software beyond simple communication tools. Discord is a free program similar to Slack, which runs on both computers and smartphones. Discord provides an invitation-only, integrated group online space (called a “Discord Server”) where text-based discussion, group audio calls, and group video calls can all happen via the same program, effectively combining the discussion post options of Canvas with the videoconferencing abilities of Zoom. The ExoTerra Discord forum will host text-based role-playing as well as voice and video role-playing, and will provide both public discussion areas and private discussion areas specific to different committees, groups, or parts of the crew. In Discord, players can talk to each other and to non-player-characters, and can share and discuss their ideas for elements of the new world. ExoTerra staff will moderate the Discord forums, and offer training sessions for participants. You can learn more about Discord here.

Will We Use Any Other Software?

Not as heavily, but yes. Some group video discussions, especially those organized within classes, will use Zoom.  Additionally there may be a Minecraft server that some players will use to build mockups of cities and building designs, and some other software programs may be used to generate maps and graphics, or to solve particular puzzles.

Can Students Who Aren’t Undergraduates Participate?

Yes. While ExoTerra is funded by the University of Chicago’s Undergraduate College, the project aims to foster connections and community across all levels, so graduate students, and students in other associated branches of the university are welcome to participate. We hope especially to help create peer mentorship connections, connecting undergraduates with people a few steps further along the career paths they are considering. A few of the ExoTerra support services, notably ExoTerra-funded Course Assistants, will not be available to courses which don’t have undergraduates involved, but the overall system is open to the whole university.

Is There Any Way Alums Can Participate? (Yes!)

Yes, we encourage interested U Chicago alums to contact us about volunteering, since there are lots of ways you can help, especially recently-graduated alums who would like to maintain your ties to friends here, and more advanced alums with technical and professional knowledge who would like to offer your expertise to the game and/or offer career mentoring conversations to participating undergrads. The Volunteering page has details.

Can Faculty, Postdocs etc. Participate In Ways Other Than Using ExoTerra in Our Courses?

Yes. While ExoTerra is funded by the University of Chicago’s Undergraduate College, the project aims to foster connections and community across all levels, so graduate students, and students in other associated branches of the university are welcome to participate. We hope especially to help create peer mentorship connections, connecting undergraduates with people a few steps further along the career paths they are considering. A few of the ExoTerra support services, notably ExoTerra-funded Course Assistants, will not be available to courses which don’t have undergraduates involved, but the overall system is open to the whole university.

I’m Not at U Chicago but I’m Interested in Learning about Educational Games

Great! Please get in touch. This is a large and ambitious implementation of gamified learning, and the team is eager to share the process with others interested in how games can teach, connect, and generate knowledge. Please get in touch with the principal organizer Ada Palmer at adapalmer@uchicago.edu to talk about what materials we have to share, and opportunities to interview participating students.

Why ExoTerra During a Pandemic?

The pandemic and related crises have created what many have recognized as a World Mental Health Epidemic, caused by ongoing, chronic exposure to fear, anxiety, and social separation.  ExoTerra is designed to help.  The game world is space to collaborate, create, and to explore ethical, social, scientific, and political issues, while the ongoing science fiction plot twists offer stimulating challenges and a break from the daily crises of 2020.  Science fiction and other genre literatures are sometimes dismissed as “escapist,” but ExoTerra draws on a genre fiction movement called speculative resistance. The idea is that imagining other ways societies could work helps us broaden our perspectives and explore alternatives, generating hope, new plans, and momentum for change. The goal of science fiction is not to predict what will happen, but to challenge us to consider many versions of what could happen, previewing ethical challenges before we get to them, and dismantling the illusion that our present institutions are immutable, or that there is only one path forward.  As Ursula K. LeGuin expressed it, “Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom, poets, visionaries, realists of a larger reality…. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art; very often in our art, the art of words.”  In ExoTerra you will have in your hands a world that can become almost anything, and shape it step by step, exploring and rejecting many possibilities as you narrow down, debate, and compromise to choose the one path to make real—perfect practice for what we must do here on Earth.

Is This Like those O-Week ARG Events, Parasyte and Terrarium?

Somewhat. ExoTerra is a Role-Playing Game (RPG), which is similar to an Augmented Reality Game (ARG), but in an ARG, participants play as themselves, i.e. as a student at U Chicago, same name, same home, same year, but with game elements layered on top of their lived reality (a secret society, a magic machine).  In an RPG, participants create a characters who are not their everyday selves.  In ExoTerra, your character will have a name, skills, and a backstory different from your own, partly pre-designed by the orchestrators but fleshed out as you yourself decide your character’s views and actions. Additionally, the ARGs made use of campus, while ExoTerra will be wholly online.

How Do I Sign Up, or Learn More about ExoTerra?

Please fill out the mailing list survey form, to tell us about your year, major and interests. This will help us determine how much demand there is for particular types of courses. We will also put you on a list to receive updates by email. If you have more specific questions, you can contact the head orchestrator, Professor Ada Palmer (adapalmer@uchicago.edu), though many questions will not have answers until September.

Can I Help Run ExoTerra?

Want to help run ExoTerra? We need volunteers with many kinds of experience, especially people who could help create graphics, provide technical expertise, and people with RPG experience to help as moderators or orchestrators, administering the game and online forum and working with the writing team on puzzles and game documents.  See our page on Volunteering for more detail, and if interested, contact Orchestrator Ada Palmer (adapalmer@uchicago.edu) or Assistant Orchestrator Ben Indeglia (benindeglia@gmail.com)