I’m teaching Intro to Game Studies this quarter at UW Bothell!

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:

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:

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:

Optional:

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:

Optional:

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:

Optional:

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:

Optional:

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:

Optional:

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:

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:

Optional:

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!

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