Part I :: Fun, Play, and Games
Tuesday, January 19
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
- What is fun? What is play? What are games? What are videogames?
Thursday, January 21
- Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun, Forward, Prologue, and chapters 1-3
- A Thousand Blank White Cards
Tuesday, January 26
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 4
- Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, pp. 1-35 (Blackboard)
- To Play: Pac Man and Flow
Thursday, January 28
- 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
- In Class: Classic Atari Commercial
- Inquiry #1 on “Videogame Studies” assigned
Part II :: Approaches to Game Studies
Tuesday, February 2 (Platform Studies)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
- Nick Montfort, “Combat in Context,” Game Studies 6.1 (2006)
- Excerpt from Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost, Racing the Beam (Blackboard)
- Instructions on Using Stella
- In Class PiratePad: Montfort’s Model for Game Analysis, Atari VCS Specifications and Limitations, Noteworthy Miscellany
- To Play: The Arcade Pac-Man, the Atari Pac-Man, and the NES Pac-Man
Thursday, February 4 (Procedural Rhetoric and Critical Code Studies)
- Ian Bogost, “Persuasive Games: The Proceduralist Style” Gamasutra 21 Jan 2009
- To Play: Every Day the Same Dream and SimCity Classic
- Code Studies using Micropolis
- * Inquiry #1 due
Tuesday, February 9 & Thursday, February 11
- GMU Closed for Snowpocalypse
Tuesday, February 16 (Ludology)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
- 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: Calabouço Tétrico
Thursday, February 18 (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 on Mapping/Modeling assigned
Part III :: Genealogies and Forms
Tuesday, February 23 (Nintendo)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
- 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 25 (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
- Jesper Juul, “Introduction to Game Time,” First Person
- To Play: Pitfall
Tuesday, March 2 (Sound and Music in Videogames)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
- Zack Whalen, “Play Along – an Approach to Videogame Music,” Game Studies 4.1 (2004)
- To Play: The Crossing
- In class: Video Computer System music video by Golden Shower, Disney’s The Gallopin’ Gaucho and The Skeleton Dance, and The Crossing
- Inquiry #2 Due
Thursday, March 4 (RPGs)
- Guest Speaker Professor Eyman on World of Warcraft
- To Play: WTF?! and Kingdom of Loathing
Tuesday, March 9 & Thursday, March 11
- Spring Break
Part IV :: Issues in Videogames
Tuesday, March 16 (Interactive Fiction and Subjectivity)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
- Nick Montfort, “Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction“
- Nick Montfort’s Video Introduction to IF
- Interactive Fiction Instructions
- To Play: Aisle and Lost Pig
- In Class: Eliza, Adventure (and Adventure code and data file) and Pac-Txt
Thursday, March 18 (Subjectivity and Agency)
Tuesday, March 23 (First Person Shooters)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
- Galloway, “Origins of the First-Person Shooter,” from Gaming, pp. 39-69
- To Play: BattleZone and Quake
- In Class: Mirror’s Edge (and in the 3rd person)
Thursday, March 25 (Agency Continued)
- To Play: Façade
Tuesday, March 30 (Power and Gender in Games)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); Seekers (Group 3)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapter 6
- Janet Murray, “From Game-Story to Cyberdrama,” from First Person
- Anne-Marie Schleiner, “Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games,” Leonardo 34.3 (2001): 221-226
- Carrie Heeter et al., “Alien Games: Do Girls Prefer Games Designed by Girls?” Games and Culture 4.1 (2009): 74-100
- In Class: [polldaddy survey=”3486FCC66DE5E531″ link_text=”Games and Gender Survey”]
Thursday, April 1 (Games and Realism)
- Galloway, “Social Realism” from Gaming, pp. 70-84
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 9-10
- In class: The Uncanny Valley Explained and on 30 Rock
- In class: America’s Army, Dead in Iraq
- In class: World Class Leaderboard (C64), Tiger Woods PGA Tour (360), Wii Sports (Wii)
- In class: Ayiti: Cost of Life
Part V :: The Limits of Games
Tuesday, April 6 (Games and History)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); Seekers (Group 4)
- Simon Penny, “Representation, Enaction, and the Ethics of Simulation,” First Person
- Joost Raessens, “Reality Play: Documentary Computer Games Beyond Fact and Fiction,” Popular Communication 4.3 (2006): 213-224
- To Play: Super Columbine RPG and JFK Reloaded
Thursday, April 8 (Countergaming)
- Galloway, “Countergaming,” from Gaming, pp. 107-126
- Inquiry #3 on “Counter-Games” assigned
- In Class: PiratePad on Danny Ledonne’s Artist’s Statement, PiratePad on Danny Ledonne’s Virginia Tech Shooting Statement
Tuesday, April 13 (Countergames)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); Seekers (Group 1)
- To Play: I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies, Game, Game, Game, and Again Game, This Is How You Will Die, and Evidence of Everything Exploding
- In Class: Tetris Hell and Upgrade Complete
- * Inquiry #3 Due
Thursday, April 15 (Socially Conscious Games)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 11-12 plus Epilogue
- Gonzalo Frasco, “Videogames of the Oppressed,” from First Person
- To Play: Darfur is Dying and Stop Disasters (from the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction)
- In Class: The work of Jason Rohrer
Tuesday, April 20 (Casual Games)
- Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 1); Seekers (Group 2)
- Koster, A Theory of Fun, chapters 7-8
- Jesper Juul, A Casual Revolution, chapter 2 (Blackboard)
- To Play: Selection of casual games: Flow, The Crossing, You Have to Burn the Rope, Upgrade Complete!, Small Worlds, Torture Game 2 (Warning: Very Graphic and Disturbing!!!)
Thursday, April 22 (Alternate Reality Games)
- Frank Rose, “Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games,” Wired 20 December 2007
- Interview with Jane McGonigal
- Jane McGonigal on Gaming Can Make a Better World
- Jane McGonigal, ARGs
- In class: Supplemental Evaluation Questions
Tuesday, April 27 (Pecha Kucha)
Thursday, April 29
- Presentations
Tuesday, May 4
- Presentations
Thursday, May 6
- Presentations
Tuesday, May 11