Imagine thousands of player-controlled
robots interacting in real time in a futuristic landscape. In front of you, you see a handful of small robots attempting to climb a hill in order to place objects at the top. In the far off distance, you see a team of robots building a bridge across a deep chasm. Somewhere else, teams of robots compete in basketball and soccer tournaments. Dozens of robots meander about the world, chatting, exploring, creating, and competing. All designed by AP level students; all done with simple desktop computers.

Welcome to Hephaestus. The Earth's days are numbered. Ecological and political disasters have rendered the earth inhospitable for human life. Now, humans are preparing to colonize Haphaestus, a lonely, heavily volcanic planet orbiting Rigel Kentaurus in the Alpha Centauri system. Everyone who could afford to go ahead for the trip to colonize Hephaestus has. Unfortunately, when players arrived at Hephaestus, they found the planet too volcanic for colonization. Lava flows need to be diverted, structures (bridges and buildings) need to be built, minerals need to be mined, and energy needs to be gathered via solar and wind collectors to prepare the planet for colonization. Now, players are circling Hephaestus in a space ship, controlling their robots via radio control.

Still, questions remain. Will players work together to prepare the planet for human colonization? Will they replay the mistakes of the past and destroy this planet much as they have the Earth? Will players work together, or work against each other preparing for new life on Hephaestus? The future of Hephaestus, and indeed the human race is in players' hands.

Hephaestus is a first-person, persistent multi-player where players interact with thousands of other robots on a planet in the Alpha Centauri System. Hephaestus is geologically much like Earth, but heavily volcanic - providing both opportunities for rewards in the form of plentiful mineral resources and risks, such as falling into the manifold lava flows. Building on the pedagogical successes of the FIRST Competition, Hephaestus allows players to learn by doing. Players face many critical decisions in the design of their robots. What sized battery should I use? What kinds of wheels? What materials should the chassis be constructed from? Players will wrestle with these design decisions as they design their robots down to the gear.

Astute players will quickly learn that no one robot can survive on Hephaestus alone. Players will need to scout Hephaestus' expansive terrain, which demands light, fast, fuel-efficient robots. Players will also need to divert lava, move soil, and crush boulders, which demands a sturdier robot with more torque. Every element of the world provides an opportunity for players to also master an elementary Physics concepts. Players learn about friction by designing robots that can traverse hilly terrain. Center of gravity becomes a useful concept for exploring the limits of robot design.

In Hephaestus, players learn physics to solve design problems that gain meaning through instantiation in an online community of players. In order to survive on Hephaestus, players must form alliances, forcing them to collaborate, critique designs, and share design knowledge. This approach to instruction -- collaborative constructionist learning communities, is an effective pedagogical model that has proven to be engaging and effective for supporting learning in other contexts.

Copyright 2002, MIT.