So after over 250 downloads in 9 days, only a few people have uncovered the link to the easter egg in the free 10 Chapter version of The Disruptive Game. For the curious, I have concealed one in the ebook that links you to a brand new section. No hints, here, however.
Curiously, in-game easter eggs have been around for a long time with Warren Robinett (the Atari 2600 game Adventure) often credited as the first to program one. Game Radar has assembled their top 100. Some of my recent favourites include the giant rat in Mirror’s Edge, Sergeant Johnson hugging a Covenant Elite in Halo: Combat Evolved in Legendary mode, before everything explodes and Gears of War 2 on Insane and a carefully played chapter 3. As Salen and Zimmerman claim in their book Rules of Play “easter eggs break a game’s rules because they violate the otherwise internally consistent world of a game. Part of the pleasure of finding an Easter egg is a sense of transgressive discovery”. The mechanic of curiosity is a pervasive one in The Disruptive Game.
The idea of planting easter eggs within The Disruptive Game may be in part to violate the consistent world of the ebook, but it is more similar to the often tried narrative concept of the never-ending story. Recently Bungie’s Destiny attempted this approach. My ‘endless-story’ goal is to document and share teaching strategies in the form of an ever-evolving world that I’m calling The Disruptive Game, since for me the act of teaching is continuous, its interaction design iterative, and the learning ongoing. The ebook is only one manifestation of The Disruptive Game. More will appear in various media both live and virtual this year.