Learning Mathematics in a Commercially Successful "Massively Multiplayer Online" Game

Learning mathematics in a commercially successful MMO – can it be done? Keith Devlin, Stanford University The MMO genre of videogame came of age with the hugely successful World of Warcraft, which currently has over 12 million active players, mostly adults. Is it possible to develop a commercial MMO that young teens want to play (in their own time, for fun), that their parents are willing to pay for, and which improves their mathematical ability on all five strands of the “interwoven braid” of mathematics learning goals as stipulated by the National Research Council in their 2000 mathematics curriculum volume Adding It Up? What are the mathematical, educational, game-design, and commercial challenges faced with building such a game.