Game Design and Production (I3330) Starting Review

Well I have made it to my third year of Game Development and I have to say that it was a journey to get this far. With that said I am now looking at my first impression of Game Design and Production 2 and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about it. The course is structured like a game. You start out at level one and have to complete tasks to gain XP. Some of these tasks have to be completed in "guilds" or groups. This might sound new and exciting to some but I am skeptical of how this will actually turn out. As this class is structured as a game it should be viewed by the pros and cons.

The Pros:

1. The concept of the course as a game. This course is called "Game Design and Production" which is a class about coming up with and designing games. If the course is about designing games then why not make the course a game also. The basic idea makes sense and fits the class perfectly. Upon first inspection I did not see any inherent holes in the game's design. 
2. Group and solo events. I like the idea of joining a guild to go questing and fighting monsters. (assignments) With the guilds you can take on harder challenges and help you guild level up. The guild tasks are worth more than solo tasks but are split among the guild members.
3. Twitter. I have to say that it pained me first to use twitter in general but after using it for a year I have started to change my mind on the subject. Twitter is a great place to quickly and easily communicate with your professors and TA's. on this note I am still not convinced on submitting assignments on Twitter as I still and not comfortable doing so. 

The Cons (Questionable):

1. The overall game concept. Although I put this as a pro I am still not convinced about the idea. When we had our first lecture I was not impressed in the slightest and was rather disappointed about the way that the course was going. If you were to give me the choice to make the course a game or a standard course I would have to make it a standard course. At this moment in time I am disappointed in the direction that the course is going. I am taking this course because I want to learn about game design and not have to learn how to play a game to accomplish this. I also am a very particular learner and I find that this will not help my learning style. If there was a lecture and then that same lecture was posed online then I would learn that way. I learn from constant listening and repetition much like learning the lyrics to a song. In the perfect world there would be lectures in class and then the lecture would be posted online for me to repeat over and over again.
2. The XP balancing. I can already see that there will be balancing issue with it comes to XP and leveling up. One of these issues is with the difference between the levels and how it does not scale correctly. some of the early levels take 200 XP to level up while some of the later levels take much less than this. Some levels go as low as 50 XP. This can be frustrating as the amount of effort does not reflect the the payoff you receive
3. Gameplay. I can see that I am going to get board of the gameplay and not have the motivation to continue playing it. Gamers today have a very short attention span, if you don't capture them with fun and innovative gameplay then you are going to lose your audience.

So these are my thoughts on this course so far. My cons will be monitored closely to see if they are improved on at all throughout the course. Overall my impression of the course is below average. We will have to see where this course will go from here.