English 294: Game Studies Instructor: Michael Hancock email: [email protected] Lecture: T Th 2:30 – 3:50 ECH 1205 Office Hours: W 11:00-1:00 or by appointment Office: Hagey Hall 254

Course Description This course teaches critical perspectives on games and game culture. The video game industry is massively popular, selling millions of copies annually and outperforming film and television in terms of revenue. Given this immense influence on popular culture, it becomes imperative to investigate video games, games, and game culture critically, and the main objective of this course will be to discuss how games address matters of cultural significance. What are the major approaches towards studying games? This course will address these issues and others, while also push students to develop traditional English-based skills regarding critical analysis and essay composition.

Learning Objectives By the end of the course, students will have been introduced and be expected to successfully demonstrate some of the following skills: ñ To critically investigate and discuss major themes of games and game studies ñ To appreciate and apply some critical and theoretical approaches to games and their surrounding culture ñ To understand and communicate some of the history behind the design practices and industry that creates games ñ To recognize how game culture intersects with, perpetuates and embodies notions of race, gender, queerness ñ To propose and carry out a critical investigation of a well-ordered argument concerning a given research topic regarding games

Required Games With the exception of Sorcery! And Sorcery! 2, all games are free; the Sorcery! series games are $6.99 and available on Steam, iOS, or Android. Life is Strange Episode 1 is available for free on Steam (Mac, Linux, and Windows), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. All other games are browser-based, or available from Internet Archive.

Students are permitted to use whatever platform or version of these games that they may find.

Evaluation Game Analysis 25% Jun 22 5-7 pages, due in class Weekly Responses 15% 400 word minimum, due by Thursday of each week Final Essay 30% Jul 25 8 pages/4 pages due in class Final Exam 30% TBD

Readings & Lectures With a few exceptions, most classes will be a mix of lecture and readings, wherein we discuss the assigned readings for that day, as well as (especially for the Thursday class) the weekly assigned game. As such, students are expected to come class prepared for discussion, and having read or played whatever has been assigned. Usually, there will be an academic paper and one less formal piece of game criticism. This pairing is not incidental. We live in an age where meaningful, high quality pop culture criticism exists outside of the academy, and game criticism in particular is a deep, rich resource to drawn on. If you find any supplementary criticism that speaks to some topic we’ve discussed or will discuss in class, I encourage you to send it my way; I could add it to the course web page, or even replace one of our set readings. The purpose of these readings and the subsequent discussions is to develop critical analytical skills. Students are not only to respond to the content of the readings, but also to their structure, and how that structure supports (or fails to support) the larger piece. The readings will cover a wide variety of topics, sometimes controversial; if you feel uncomfortable discussing a particular topic in a classroom setting, please let me know, and we’ll come up with an alternative. Further, let’s try to keep the discussion in the classroom; some of these authors and creators have received real-life harassment for their works, and I’m sure no one here wants to add to that burden. Similarly, while contentious opinions are permitted and to an extent encouraged, students are instructed to remain civil, and to be aware that no hateful or abusive language will be tolerated.

Game Analysis. This essay will ask students to analyze a single game or game series. Notably, this assignment is meant to be argumentative, not descriptive—the student will make claims about the game, and provide evidence to support those claims. The game analysis is not a game review; you are not arguing whether it is good or bad, or right or wrong, but kind of structures unfold as you and others play the game, and what those structures may mean in light of the readings and discussions we’ve had thus far. Any of the games we are playing in the course are acceptable for the purpose of this analysis; you may also choose another game, but only after consulting with me. I will provide a more detailed description later in the term.

Weekly Responses. For each week, students must turn in a brief response (400 word minimum) on LEARN. Prior to each Thursday’s class (specifically, 11:30 am on the day in question) students are to submit a brief response to the work to the LEARN dropbox, in the appropriate folder. The emphasis will be on the Thursday readings and if you write on the Tuesday readings, I’ll expect you to incorporate the class discussion into your response. The goal of the response is to describe your personal thoughts on the assigned readings or games, and submit one discussion question that you would like to see the room as a whole discuss. I'll then use your questions in the Thursday lecture to lead the discussion for that work. (Hence the reason you submit them at 11:30 am, or earlier—I need time to go through them!) Remember to include at least one question, and remember that these are RESPONSES—I want your thoughts on the works, not a description of the works.

Final Essay. This essay is the student’s chance to demonstrate what has been learned over the course of the class. A list of possible essay topics will be distributed beforehand, though students will be permitted to pursue other topics if the instructor approves. Students also have the option of instead creating a games-related project, which then be presented on the last day of classes (or week, depending on the number of projects). Those who choose the project option will write a four page description of the their project and how it critically addresses some aspect of game studies; projects may be done in groups of two or three, but students will still have to write the accompanying paper individually. Potential projects include critical Let’s Plays, designing your own game, or other game- like engagements. Students will receive a detailed description of this assignment along with possible essay topics well in advance of the due date.

Final Exam. Questions will be designed to test your knowledge of the readings, and concepts discussed in class. The test will consist of four parts: explaining key concepts, contextualizing quotations, answering short answer questions, and writing an essay-length response to one of a set of questions.

Course Outline

Date Read/Watch Play Topic May 2nd none Watch someone play Introduction May 4th Ebert. “Games Can Never Be Art.” Games and the Media Shaw. “What is Video Game Culture?”. May 9th Caillois. “The Definition of Play” and Monopoly What are Games? “The Classification of Games.”

May 11th Gee. “Semiotic Domains.” Pilon. “The secret history of Monopoly.” May 16th Salen Zimmerman. “Meaningful Play.” Cookie Clicker Game Designs Greg Costikyan. “Analyzing Play.” May 18th Flanagan Nissenbaum Lantz. “Game Elements: The Language of Values”

May 23rd No class Alter Ego No Class May 25th Bogost. “Video Games Are Better Narratology v. Without Story.” Ludology Juul. “Rules and Fiction.” May 30th Jenkins. “Game Design as Narrative Life is Strange Architecture.” episode 1 Hollis. “Moral Incentives and Story Structure.” Sztajer. “The Half-Cinderella.” June 1st Screening: gaming doc TBD June 6th Murray. “Toward a Cultural Theory of Kingdom of Loathing Reasons for Play Gaming.” Boyle et al. “Engagement in Digital Entertainment Games.” June 8th Castronova. “The Horde is Evil.” Mäyrä. “Monstrous Pleasures in Lord of the Rings Online.” June 13th Leonard. “Young, Black (& Brown) and Lim + Passage Marginal Spaces in Don’t Give a Fuck.” Games Gibbons. “Autis(i)m and Representation.” June 15th Galloway. “Social Realism in Gaming.” Penabella. “Opened World: Queerness & Movement.” June 20th Altice. “The Playing Card Platform.” play a boardgame Analog games Chang. “Cards Against Humanity is _____.” June 22nd Begy. “Board Games and the Construction of Cultural Memory.” Smith. “Board Gaming’s Golden Age.”

June 27th Game Design Workshop Twine Games June 29th Twine Workshop Anthropy. “Love, Twine, and the End of the World.” July 4th Shaw. “A Future Free of Dickwolves.” Sorcery! Gender, Race, & Yang. “A letter to a letter.” Sexuality July 6th “The Dangerous Game.” Ideas. Gray. “Collective Organizing, Individual Resistance, or Asshole Griefers?”. July 11th Bogost. “The Rhetoric of Video Sorcery! 2 Game rhetoric Games.” Ashwell. “Crusader Kings: Patriarchy Adventures.” July 13th Consalvo. “Unintended Travel.” Global Games & Fan Schreier. “How Three Kids With No Labour Experience Beat Square.” July 18th Phillips. “Shooting to Kill.” Oregon Trail Guns & Game Coberly. “Guns vs Real Life.” Violence July 20th Wrap-Up Part 1 July 25th Wrap-Up Part 2

List of Readings (readings and/or links available on LEARN)

Nathan Altice. “The Playing Card Platform.” Analog Game Studies. 2014. Sam Kabo Ashwell. “Crusader Kings: patriarchy adventures.” These Heterogenous Tasks. July 28, 2009. Jason Begy. “Board Games and the Construction of Cultural Memory.” Games and Culture 2015. 1-21. Ian Bogost. “The Rhetoric of Video Games.” The Ecology of Games. The MIT Press, 2008. 117-140. Ian Bogost. “Video Games Are Better Without Stories.” The Atlantic. April 25, 2017. E. A. Boyle, T. M. Connolly, T. Hainey, and J. M. Boyle, “Engagement in digital entertainment games: A systematic review.” Computers in Human Behavior 20.3 May 2012. 771-780. Roger Caillois. “The Definition of Play” and “the Classification of Games.” Man, Play, and Games. (33 pages) Edward Castronova. “The Horde is Evil.” Terra Nova: Simulation + Society + Play. December 24, 2005. Edmond Chang. “Cards Against Humanity Is ______: Playing Up and Playing Difference in Games.” First Person Scholar. William Coberly. “Guns Vs. Real Life.” Gamasutra Blogs. December 16, 2012. Mia Consalvo. “Unintended Travel: ROM Hackers and Fan Translations of Japanese Video Games.” Atari to Zelda: Japan’s Videogames in Global Contexts. MIT Press, 2016. 41-65. Greg Costikyan. “Analyzing Games.” Uncertainty in Games. The MIT Press, 2013.17-70. Roger Ebert. “Video Games Can Never Be Art.” Roger Ebert’s Journal. April 16, 2010. Mary Flanagan, Helen Nissenbaum, and Frank Lantz. “Game Elements: The Language of Values.” Values at Play in Digital Games. The MIT Press, 2014. 15-32. Alexander R. Galloway. “Social Realism in Gaming.” Game Studies: The international journal of computer game research 4.1. November, 2004. James Gee. “Semiotic Domains: Is Playing Video Games a ‘Waste of Time?’. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. St. Martins P, 2006. 228-267. Sarah Gibbons. “Autis(i)m & Representation: Auti-Sim, Disability Simulation Games, & Neurodiversity.” First Person Scholar. May 1, 2013. Kishonna Gray. “Collective Organizing, Individual Resistance, or Asshole Griefers? An Ethnographic Analysis of Women of Color in Xbox Life.” Ada: Gender New Media & Technology 2. Line Hollis. “Moral Incentives and Story Structure.” Line Hollis. October 12, 2011. Henry Jenkins. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. The MIT Press, 2004. Jesper Juul. “Rules and Fiction.” Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. The MIT Press, 2005. 163-196. David Leonard. “Young, Black (& Brown) and Don't Give a Fuck: Virtual Gangstas in the Era of State Violence.” Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies 9.2. 2009. 248-272. Frans Mäyrä. “From the Demonic Tradition to Art-Evil in Digital Games: Monstrous Pleasures in Lord of the Rings Online.” Ringbearers: The Lord of the Rings Online as Intertextual Narrative. Manchester UP, 2011. 1-21. Janet H. Murray. “Toward a Cultural Theory of Gaming: Digital Games and the Co-Evolution of Media, Mind, and Culture.” Popular Communication 4.3. 2006. 185-202. Miguel Penabella. “Opened World: Queerness & Movement.” Haywire Magazine. September 18, 2016. Amanda Phillips. “Shooting to Kill: Headshots, Twitch Reflexes, and the Mechropolitics of Video Games.” Games and Culture 2015. 1-17. Mary Pilon. “The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s leftwing origins.” The Guardian. April 11, 2015. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. “Chapter 3: Meaningful Play.” Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. (6 pages) Jason Schreier. “How Three Kids With No Experience Beat Square and Translated Final Fantasy V Into English.” Kotaku. April 25, 2017. Adrienne Shaw. “Conclusion: A Future Free of Dickwolves.” Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture. U Minnesota P, 2014. (34 pages) Adrienne Shaw. “What is Video Game Culture? Cultural Studies and Game Studies.” Games and Culture 5.4. 2010, 403-424. Quinn Smith. “Shut Up & Sit Down Presents: Board Gaming’s Golden Age.” Shut Up & Sit Down. March 22, 2013. Paul Sztajer. “The Half-Cinderella: Why Gameplay never leaves the Ball.” Gamasutra. August 5, 2011. “The Dangerous Game: Gamergate and the ‘alt-right.’” Ideas with Paul Kennedy. CBC Radio. November 30, 2016. Robert Yang. “A letter to a letter.” Radiator Design Blog. April 10, 2013.

List of Games

Alter Ego. Activision. 1986. The Internet Archive. 2014. Cookie Clicker. The Kingdom of Loathing. Asymmetric Publications. 2003. Browser game. Life is Strange. Dontnod Entertainment. Square Enix. 2015. Lim. Merritt Kopas. 2012. Browser game. Monopoly. Hasbro. Any edition. Passage. Jason Rohrer. 2007. PC, Mac. Sorcery!: The Shamutanti Hills. inkle. 2013. Any platform. Sorcery! 2: Kharé: Cityport of Traps. inkle. 2013. Any platform. The Oregon Trail. MECC. Brøderbund. 1990. The Internet Archive. 2014.

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