Calendar

Part I: Fun, Play, and Games

Tuesday, January 24 (Week 1)

  • What is fun? What is play? What are games? What are videogames?

Thursday, January 26

  • Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, pp. 1-35 (Blackboard)

Tuesday, January 31 (Week 2)

Thursday, February 2

Part II :: Histories and Archaeologies

Tuesday, February 7  (Week 3)

  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Team 2); In-Class Hosts (Team 3); Respondents (Team 4); Seekers (Team 5)
  • Stephen Kline et al., “Origins of an Industry,” from Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing, pp. 84-108 (Blackboard)
  • To Play: Space Invaders and Asteroids

Thursday, February 9

Tuesday, February 14 (Week 4)

Thursday, February 16

  • Stephen Kline et al., “Electronic Frontiers,” from Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing, pp. 109-127 (Blackboard)
  • To Play: Super Mario Bros 3

Part III :: Game Forms

Tuesday, February 21 (Week 5)

Thursday, February 23

  • Live tweeting Exercises in Style
  • * Platform Studies Inquiry Due on Blackboard

Tuesday, February 28 (Week 6)

  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Team 4); In-Class Hosts (Team 5); Respondents (Team 1); Seekers (Team 2)
  • Zack Whalen, “Play Along – an Approach to Videogame Music,” Game Studies 4.1 (2004)
  • Karen Collins, excerpt from Game Sound, MIT Press, 2008 (Blackboard)

Thursday, March 1

  • Galloway, “Origins of the First-Person Shooter,” from Gaming, pp. 39-69
  • To Play: BattleZone and Quake

Tuesday, March 6 (Week 7)

  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Team 5); In-Class Hosts (Team 1); Respondents (Team 2); Seekers (Team 3)
  • Jesper Juul, A Casual Revolution, chapter 2 (Blackboard)
  • To Play: Selection of casual games: Flow, You Have to Burn the Rope, Small Worlds, Torture Game 2 (Warning: Very Graphic and Disturbing!!!)

Thursday, March 8

  • Galloway, “Social Realism” from Gaming, pp. 70-84

March 13/15 (spring break) (Week 8)

Part IV :: Doing Things

Tuesday, March 20 (Week 9)

Thursday, March 22

Tuesday, March 27 (Week 10)

  • Week 10 roles Roles: First Readers (Team 2); In-Class Hosts (Team 3); Respondents (Team 4); Seekers (Team 5)
  • Bogost, How to Do Things with Videogames, chapters 11-15, pp. 77-109
  • To Play: Rainmaker, It Takes Two, Cloud, Flow, September 12th

Thursday, March 29

  • Bogost, How to Do Things with Videogames, chapters 16-20 and Conclusion, pp. 110-154

Tuesday, April 3 (Week 11)

  • Week 11 Roles: First Readers (Team 3); In-Class Hosts (Team 4); Respondents (Team 5); Seekers (Team 1)
  • Gonzalo Frasco, “Videogames of the Oppressed,” from First Person, available online <electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/Boalian>
  • Joost Raessens, “Reality Play: Documentary Computer Games Beyond Fact and Fiction,” Popular Communication 4.3 (2006): 213-224. <bit.ly/4C6roQ>
  • To Play: Flight to Freedom
  • In class: Columbine RPG and JFK Reloaded

Thursday, April 5

  • Galloway, “Countergaming,” from Gaming, pp. 107-126
  • See the Detailed Instructions for the day’s playing

Tuesday, April 10 (Week 12)

  • Portal (Available on Steam for $9.99 for Macs and PCs)

Thursday, April 12

  • More Portal
  • How to Do Things with Videogames Missing Chapter Due

Tuesday, April 17 (Week 13)

Thursday, April 19

Part V :: Designing Games

Tuesday, April 24 (Week 14)

Thursday, April 26

  • Game Design Tools

Tuesday, May 1 (Week 15)

  • Game Design Demos

Thursday, May 3

  • Game Design Demos

Saturday, May 5

  • Final Projects Due