The best courses allow room for changes to the readings and works studied according to the trajectory of our collective interests and curiousity. Therefore I may occasionally revise the syllabus, though the major assignments will remain the same and you will always have advance notice of the changes.
Part I :: Fun, Play, and Games
Tuesday, January 25
- What is fun? What is play? What are games? What are videogames?
- In Class: Cow Clicker
Thursday, January 27
- Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun, Forward, Prologue, and chapters 1-3
- In Class: A Thousand Blank White Cards
Tuesday, February 1
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
- Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, pp. 1-35 (Blackboard)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 4
- To Play: Pac Man and Flow
- Inquiry #1 on “Approaches to Game Studies” assigned
Thursday, February 3
- 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, Asteroids, and Combat (See the Instructions on using Stella in order to play Combat)
Tuesday, February 8 (Platform Studies)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
- Nick Montfort, “Combat in Context,” Game Studies 6.1 (2006)
- Excerpts from Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (Blackboard)
- To Play: The Arcade Pac-Man, the Atari Pac-Man, and the NES Pac-Man
- * Inquiry #1 due
Thursday, February 10 (Procedural Rhetoric and Critical Code Studies)
- Ian Bogost, “Persuasive Games: The Proceduralist Style” Gamasutra 21 Jan 2009
- To Play: Every Day the Same Dream
- In Class: A Slow Year and Code Studies using Micropolis and The Soul of the Sims code
Tuesday, February 15 (Ludology)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 5
- Espen Aarseth, “Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation,” from First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan
- Markuu Eskelinen, “The Gaming Situation,” Game Studies 1.1 (2001)
- To Play: Terry Cavanagh’s Don’t Look Back and Daniel Benmergui’s Storyteller (background) and I Wish I Were the Moon
- In class: First Person Tetris and Calabouço Tétrico
Thursday, February 17 (Hardcore Game Theory)
- Alexander Galloway, “Gamic Action, Four Moments,” from Gaming, pp. 1-38
- In class: 24: The Game (Cut Scenes), Metal Gear Solid, Eternal Darkness (and this), Shift
- Inquiry #2 Play Aloud Assigned
Part III :: Geneaologies and Forms
Tuesday, February 22 (Nintendo)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
- 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
Thursday, February 24 (Space and Time)
- Mark J.P. Wolf, “Inventing Space: Toward a Taxonomy of On- and Off-screen Space in Video Games.” Film Quarterly 51.1 (1997): 11-23, Available online, on-campus <tinyurl.com/yv5oac> and off-campus <tinyurl.com/ysyn4q>
- Jesper Juul, “Introduction to Game Time,” First Person, available online
<jesperjuul.net/text/timetoplay/> - In class: We Dare, Dead Island Trailer (and reverse edit)
Tuesday, March 1 (Sound and Music in Videogames)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
- Zack Whalen, “Play Along – an Approach to Videogame Music,” Game Studies 4.1 (2004), available online <gamestudies.org/0401/whalen>
-
Collins, Karen. “In the Loop: Creativity and Constraint in 8-bit Video Game Audio.” Twentieth-Century Music 4.02 (2008): 209-227. <http://www.journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1478572208000510>. (Also on Blackboard)
- To Play: The Crossing <ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/crossing.htm>
Thursday, March 3
- Inquiry #2 Due
Tuesday, March 8 (First Person Shooters)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
- Galloway, “Origins of the First-Person Shooter,” from Gaming, pp. 39-69
- To Play: BattleZone <www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareID=859> and Quake <www.quakelive.com/>
Thursday, March 10 (Casual Games and ARGs)
- Jesper Juul, A Casual Revolution, chapter 2 (Blackboard)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 7-8
- Frank Rose, “Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games,” Wired 20 December 2007, available online <bit.ly/79qSKj>
- In Class: Jane McGonigal TED Talk on Gaming Can Make a Better World
- To Play: Selection of casual games: Flow, You Have to Burn the Rope, Small Worlds, Torture Game 2 (Warning: Very Graphic and Disturbing!!!)
Tuesday, March 15 & Thursday, March 17
- Spring Break
Part IV :: Issues in Videogames
Tuesday, March 22 (Interactive Fiction and Subjectivity)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
- Nick Montfort’s video introduction to Interactive Fiction
- Nick Montfort, “Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction,” available online at <nickm.com/if/toward.html>
- Interactive Fiction Instructions <jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/help.html>
- To Play: Aisle, Bronze, and Shade
- In Class: Eliza, Adventure (and Adventure code and data file), Pac-Txt, and Varicella
Thursday, March 24 (Subjectivity in Games)
- Spend at least one hour continuing to play Varicella (solo or with other students in HNRS 353)
- In Class: The Baron
Tuesday, March 29 (Power and Gender in Games)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 6
- Anne-Marie Schleiner, “Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games,” Leonardo 34.3 (2001): 221-226. (e-journal)
- In Class: Survey on Games and Gender
- To Play: Façade
Thursday, March 31 (Games and Realism)
- Galloway, “Social Realism” from Gaming, pp. 70-84
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 9-10
- In class: World Class Leaderboard (C64), Tiger Woods PGA Tour (360), Wii Sports (Wii)
- In class: The Uncanny Valley Explained and on 30 Rock
- In class: Heavy Rain (PS3)
- In class: America’s Army, Dead in Iraq
- In class: Ayiti: Cost of Life
Part V :: The Limits of games
Tuesday, April 5 (Games and History)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
- Simon Penny, “Representation, Enaction, and the Ethics of Simulation,” First Person, available online <electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/machanimate>
- Joost Raessens, “Reality Play: Documentary Computer Games Beyond Fact and Fiction,” Popular Communication 4.3 (2006): 213-224. <bit.ly/4C6roQ>
- To Play: Columbine RPG <www.columbinegame.com/> and JFK Reloaded
Thursday, April 7 (Socially Conscious Games)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 11-12 plus Epilogue
- Gonzalo Frasco, “Videogames of the Oppressed,” from First Person, available online <electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/Boalian>
- In Class: Darfur is Dying <www.darfurisdying.com/> and Stop Disasters (from the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) <stopdisastersgame.org/en/>
- The work of Jason Rohrer
Tuesday, April 12 (Countergames)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
- Galloway, “Countergaming,” from Gaming, pp. 107-126
- See the Detailed Instructions for the day’s playing.
Thursday, April 14 (Antigames)
Part VI :: Portal Case Study
Tuesday, April 19 (The Videogame Canon)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
- Chaplin, Heather. “Is That Just Some Game? No, It’s a Cultural Artifact.” The New York Times 12 Mar. 2007. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/arts/design/12vide.html>.
Thursday, April 21
- Building the Portal Exhibit
Tuesday, April 26
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
- Reading TBA
Thursday, April 28
- Working on the Portal Exhibit
Tuesday, May 3
- Working on the Portal Exhibit
Thursday, May 5
- Unveiling the Portal Exhibit
Thursday, May 12
Tuesday, May 17
- * Final Paper Due
Part I :: Fun, Play, and Games
Tuesday, January 25
What is fun? What is play? What are games[MLS1] ? What are videogames?
In Class: Cow Clicker
Thursday, January 27
Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun, Forward, Prologue, and chapters 1-3
In Class: A Thousand Blank White Cards
Tuesday, February 1
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, pp. 1-35 (Blackboard)
Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 4
To Play: Pac Man <www.freepacman.org> and Flow <intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing>
Inquiry #1 on “Approaches to Game Studies” assigned
Thursday, February 3
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 <www.goriya.com/flash/invaders/invaders.shtml>, Asteroids <www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/asteroid.htm>, and Combat <www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareID=935>
Part II :: Approaches to Game studies
Tuesday, February 8 (Platform Studies)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
Nick Montfort, “Combat in Context,” Game Studies 6.1 (2006), available online <gamestudies.org/0601/articles/montfort>
Excerpts from Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (Blackboard)
To Play: The Arcade Pac-Man <www.freepacman.org/>, the Atari Pac-Man <www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=342>, and the NES Pac-Man< www.virtualnes.com/play/?id=NES-PQ&s=1>
* Inquiry #1 due
Thursday, February 10 (Procedural Rhetoric and Critical Code Studies)
Ian Bogost, “Persuasive Games: The Proceduralist Style” Gamesutra 21 Jan 2009, <bit.ly/73fMIV>
To Play: Every Day the Same Dream <bit.ly/7OhkHW>
In Class: A Slow Year and Code Studies using Micropolis and The Soul of the Sims code
Tuesday, February 15 (Ludology)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 5
Espen Aarseth, “Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation,” from First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, available online <bit.ly/6pYBrJ>
Markuu Eskelinen, “The Gaming Situation,” Game Studies 1.1 (2001), available online <gamestudies.org/0101/eskelinen/>.
To Play: Terry Cavanagh’s Don’t Look Back and Daniel Benmergui’s Storyteller (background) and I Wish I Were the Moon
Thursday, February 17 (Hardcore Game Theory)
Alexander Galloway, “Gamic Action, Four Moments,” from Gaming, pp. 1-38
Inquiry #2 on Annotated Gameplay Assigned
Part III :: Geneaologies and formS
Tuesday, February 22 (Nintendo)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
Stephen Kline et al., “Electronic Frontiers,” from Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing, pp. 109-127 (e-reserve)
To Play: Super Mario Bros 3
Thursday, February 24 (Space and Time)
Mark J.P. Wolf, “Inventing Space: Toward a Taxonomy of On- and Off-screen Space in Video Games.” Film Quarterly 51.1 (1997): 11-23, Available online, on-campus <tinyurl.com/yv5oac> and off-campus <tinyurl.com/ysyn4q>
Jesper Juul, “Introduction to Game Time,” First Person, available online
<jesperjuul.net/text/timetoplay/>
To Play: Pitfall <rom-world.com/file.php?id=830>
Tuesday, March 1 (Sound and Music in Videogames)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
Zack Whalen, “Play Along – an Approach to Videogame Music,” Game Studies 4.1 (2004), available online <gamestudies.org/0401/whalen>
To Play: The Crossing <ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/crossing.htm>
Thursday, March 3
Inquiry #2 Due
Tuesday, March 8 (First Person Shooters)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
Galloway, “Origins of the First-Person Shooter,” from Gaming, pp. 39-69
To Play: BattleZone <www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareID=859>
and Quake <www.quakelive.com/>
Thursday, March 10 (Casual Games and ARGs)
Jesper Juul, A Casual Revolution, chapter 2 (Blackboard)
Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 7-8
Frank Rose, “Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games,” Wired 20 December 2007, available online <bit.ly/79qSKj>
In Class: Jane McGonigal TED Talk on Gaming Can Make a Better World
To Play: Selection of casual games TBA
Tuesday, March 15 & Thursday, March 17
Spring Break
Part Iv :: Issues in Videogames
Tuesday, March 22 (Interactive Fiction and Subjectivity)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
Nick Montfort, “Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction,” available online at <nickm.com/if/toward.html>
Interactive Fiction Instructions <jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/help.html>
To Play: Aisle, Bronze, and Shade
Thursday, March 24 (Subjectivity in Games)
To Play: The Baron, Fate, or Vespers
Tuesday, March 29 (Power and Gender in Games)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 6
Janet Murray, “From Game-Story to Cyberdrama,” from First Person, available online <electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/autodramatic>
Anne-Marie Schleiner, “Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games,” Leonardo 34.3 (2001): 221-226. <dx.doi.org/10.1162/002409401750286976>
To Play: Façade
Thursday, March 31 (Games and Realism)
Galloway, “Social Realism” from Gaming, pp. 70-84
Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 9-10
Part V :: The Limits of games
Tuesday, April 5 (Games and History)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
Simon Penny, “Representation, Enaction, and the Ethics of Simulation,” First Person, available online <electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/machanimate>
Joost Raessens, “Reality Play: Documentary Computer Games Beyond Fact and Fiction,” Popular Communication 4.3 (2006): 213-224. <bit.ly/4C6roQ>
To Play: Columbine RPG <www.columbinegame.com/> and JFK Reloaded
Thursday, April 7 (Socially Conscious Games)
Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 11-12 plus Epilogue
Gonzalo Frasco, “Videogames of the Oppressed,” from First Person, available online <electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/Boalian>
In Class: Darfur is Dying <www.darfurisdying.com/> and Stop Disasters (from the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) <stopdisastersgame.org/en/>
The work of Jason Rohrer
Tuesday, April 12 (Countergames)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
Galloway, “Countergaming,” from Gaming, pp. 107-126
To Play: Game, Game, Game, and Again Game; This Is How You Will Die; i made this. you play this. we are enemies; and Evidence of Everything Exploding
Thursday, April 14 (Antigames)
Part VI :: Portal Case Study
Tuesday, April 19 (The Videogame Canon)
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
Chaplin, Heather. “Is That Just Some Game? No, It’s a Cultural Artifact.” The New York Times 12 Mar. 2007. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/arts/design/12vide.html>.
Thursday, April 21
Building the Portal Exhibit
Tuesday, April 26
Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
Reading TBA
Thursday, April 28
Working on the Portal Exhibit
Tuesday, May 3
Working on the Portal Exhibit
Thursday, May 5
Unveiling the Portal Exhibit
Thursday, May 12
* Final Project Due
[MLS1]Use tetris example in class. Play tetris. Different things the game means?