and below is my first draft syllabus. I’m thinking I should expand the controversies and issues week to two or maybe even three… esp. given PAX proximity, being here in Seattle…

Week 1, Sep 26: Intro to course, Nerd Cubed Plays Kerbal Space Program [YouTube]

Week 2, Oct 1 and Oct 3: What is Game Studies? Definition of games, narratology v ludology, Magic Circle.

Materials:

• Mäyrä. Chapter 1.
• Salen, K., and Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of play: Game design fundamentals (pp. 1-27, 71-83). The MIT Press.

Optional:

• Murray, J. (2005). The last word on ludology v narratology in game studies. Keynote at Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) conference 2005.
• Rodriguez, H. (2006). The playful and the serious: An approximation of Huizinga’s Homo Ludens. Game Studies, 6(1).
• Zimmerman, E. (2012). Jerked around by the magic circle: Clearing the air ten years later. Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games (Feb. 7 2012).
• Browse Game Studies.

Activities:

• Select and play a game. Pay attention to game mechanics, how you feel while playing, etc.
• Create a Steam account.
• Introduce yourself, gaming history, and which game you played in the class forums.
• Start thinking about a game idea that addresses an area of interest for you. If you’re having a hard time thinking of something, you can either brainstorm the *craziest* idea or talk to me about it.

Week 3, Oct 8 and Oct 10: Gaming Culture: New Games Journalism, Let’s Plays, AARs, participatory culture

Materials:

• Mäyrä. Chapter 2.
• Chen, M. (2008). Moral ambiguity in The Witcher: A game review. E-Learning, 5(3), 358-365.
• always_black. Bow nigger.

Optional:

• Castronova, E. (2005). The Horde is evil. Terra Nova blog.
• Check out Rock Paper Shotgun, Killscreen, and Quarter to Three.

Activities:

• Play Terraria or whatever game we’ve chosen with others!
• Prepare a 1 or 2 minute pitch for your game idea to be delivered in class on Tuesday Oct 8. By Thursday, we’ll be divided up into teams to work on a game for the rest of the quarter.

Week 4, Oct 15 and Oct 17: Game Genres: History of digital and tabletop genres, alternate reality games, indie games, etc.

Materials:

• Mäyrä. Chapters 3 and 4.
• Browse Board Game Geek Advanced Search to see how they categorize games.
• How do they do it at Gamespot, IGN, etc?
• McGonigal. Gaming can make a better world. [TED Talk].

Optional:

• In the Shadow of Certain, Painful Doom: Crusader Kings 2 After Action Report

Activities:

• Explore Steam’s library. Install the game we decided to play and start playing.
• Select and play a tabletop game with family or friends (or go to a Meetup group). Pay attention to social dynamics, game mechanics and balance, etc.
• Check out InkleWriter, a tool for making choose-your-own adventure games and/or prototyping branching conditions in games.
• Write a 2-page game spec with your team using Google Docs and post the url to the course forums by Monday Oct 14.
• Pick a game to review and announce this on the forums to get it approved by Mark.

Week 5, Oct 22 and Oct 24: Game Design: The Game Design Document, lenses, and IDE cards.

Materials:

• Rogers, S. (2010). Level up! The guide to great video game design (pp. 57-82). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Kultima. IDE cards.

Optional:

• Dunnigan, J.F. (2011). Simulation game design. In G. Costikyan and D. Davidson (Eds.), Tabletop: Analog game design (pp. 27-31). ETC Press.
• Kuittinen, J., and Holopainen, J. (2009). Some notes on the nature of game design. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) conference 2009.
• Selinker, M. (2011). Kobold guide to board game design. Open Design LLC.

Activities:

• Play Terraria or whatever game we’ve chosen with others!
• Work on game and related documents with your team, working prototype and draft 10-page GDD (using Gdocs) due Nov 4.
• Work on game review (in Gdocs), first draft due Nov 18.

Week 6, Oct 29 and Oct 31 (Halloween!): Controversies and issues: Violence, addiction, gender, and sexuality

Materials:

• Cover, R. (2006). Gaming (ad)diction: Discourse, identity, time and play in the production of the gamer addiction myth. Game Studies, 6(1).
• Sarkeesian, A. (2013). Tropes vs Women. Feminist Frequency. .
• PBS Game/Show. (2013). Has League of Legends tamed trolls forever? [YouTube].
• Edidin, R. (2013). Why I’m never going back to Penny Arcade Expo. Wired (Sep. 5, 2013).

Optional:

• Flood, J. (2012). Playing Assassin’s Creed 3 on the Pine Ridge Rez. Killscreen (Nov. 28, 2012).

Activities:

• A Closed World, Dys4ia, Depression Quest, Lim, etc. Escher Girls.
• Work on game and related documents with your team, working prototype and draft 10-page GDD (using Gdocs) due Nov 4.
• Work on game review (in Gdocs), first draft due Nov 18.

Week 7, Nov 5 and Nov 7: Players: Engagement, player types

Materials:

• Chen, M., Kolko, B.E., Cuddihy, E., and Medina, E. (2011). Modeling but NOT measuring engagement in computer games. Proceedings from the Games Learning Society (GLS) conference 2011 (pp. 63-71). ETC Press.
• Yee, N. (2005). A model of player motivations. The Daedalus Project.

Optional:

• A TableTop episode, like this one on Pandemic [YouTube].

Activities:

• Check out the modding scene: ModDB, Skyrim Nexus, and the Steam Workshop.
• Working prototype and draft 10-page GDD due this week! Post the url for the GDD to the course forums. Bring the working prototype game to class on Tuesday, Nov 4.
• Work on game review (in Gdocs), first draft due Nov 18.

Week 8, Nov 12 and Nov 14: Playtesting

Materials:

• Fullerton, T. (2008). Game design workshop: A playcentric approach (pp. 248-276). Elsevier.
• Leone, M. (2012). Data entry, risk management, and tacos: Inside Halo 4’s playtest labs. Polygon (October 24, 2012).

Optional:

• Falstein, N. (2012). Evolution of storytelling. [slides]
• Morningstar, C., and Farmer, F.R. (1990). The lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat. In M. Benedikt (Ed.), Cyberspace: First Steps. The MIT Press.

Activities:

• Play stuff! Find cool games and share! Suggested game: FTL: Faster Than Light.
• Make sure game is ready to playtest by class on Tuesday, Nov 12!
• Work on game review (in Gdocs), first draft due Nov 18.

Week 9, Nov 19 and Nov 21: Gaming Research: Ecology of gaming, cyborgs, WoW stuff

Materials:

• Stevens, R., Satwicz, T., and McCarthy, L. (2008). In-game, in-room, in-world: Reconnecting video game play to the rest of kids’ lives. In K. Salen (Ed.), The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning.
• Check out Elitist Jerks and WoWWiki.
• Browse Games and Culture.

Optional:

• Schell. The art of game design: A deck of lenses. [app].

Activities:

• Play stuff! Find cool games and share! Suggested game: The Walking Dead.
• Write-up playtest notes, iterate on the game, iterate on the GDD, and write reflection notes. Final game and all related materials due Friday, Dec 13!
• First draft game review due Monday, Nov 18.

Week 10, Nov 26: Persuasive Games: Embodied action, analogy, games for health, iCivics, games for change

Materials:

• Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., and Evans, C. (2008). The civic potential of video games. Civic Engagement Research Group, Mills College.
• Bogost, I. (2011). Gamification is bullshit. Kotaku (Aug. 10, 2011).
• Galloway, A. (2006). Allegories of control. In Gaming: Essays on algorithmic culture (pp. 85-106). University of Minnesota Press.

Optional:

• Davidson, D. (Ed.). Well Played series. ETC Press. Volumes 1, 2, and 3.

Activities:

• Check out Games for Change and iCivics.
• Write-up playtest notes, iterate on the game, iterate on the GDD, and write reflection notes. Final game and all related materials due Fri, Dec 13!
• Provide feedback on two game reviews by Mon, Nov 25. Do this by commenting on their Gdoc and sign your name in the comments.

Week 11, Dec 3 and Dec 5: Games for Learning: Gamification vs. gameful play, critical thinking, systems thinking, subversion

Materials:

• Chen, M. (2013). A statement on games and expert gaming and the tl;dr version. Mark Danger Chen: Sporadic ramblings of a gamer in academia.
• Floyd, D. (2008). Video games and learning. [YouTube].

Optional:

• Chen, M. (2012). Leet noobs: The life and death of an expert player group in World of Warcraft (pp. 1-10). Peter Lang.
• Consalvo, M. (2008). Cheating can be good for you: Educational games and multiple play styles. In D. Davidson (Ed.), Beyond fun: Serious games and media (pp. 72-29). ETC Press.
• Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Groff, J., and Haas, J. (2009). Using the technology of today, in the classroom today: The instructional power of digital games, social networking, simulations and how teachers can leverage them. MIT: The Education Arcade.

Activities:

• Check out Refraction, Pox: Save the People, BrainPOP, and Filament Games.
• Work on game review revisions.
• Play stuff! Find cool games and share! Suggested game: Digital: A Love Story.
• Write-up playtest notes, iterate on the game, iterate on the GDD, and write reflection notes. Final game and all related materials due Fri, Dec 13!
• Final game reviews due Mon, Dec 9!