Carroll University Fall 2011 Cultural Seminar The Culture and Theory of Videogames • Section G: MTRF 11-11:50 a.m.—Maxon 305 Contact Information Instructor: B.J. Best Orientation Mentor: Corey Vande Voort Office Location: MacAllister 208 / Phone: 920-840-2843 Pioneer Writing Lab 203 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 262/951-3071 E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: MTRF 12-12:50 p.m. Course Description The Cultural Seminar is an academic course for all freshmen on the study of culture. All sections will ask students to explore their own culture and a culture different than their own and demonstrate understanding of a global issue from multiple perspectives. While all courses are on culture, each section uses a different topic through which students will study culture. Students will work on reading and oral communication skills, on information fluency skills, and they will also be assisted by Orientation Mentors to help with their transition to college. The course will have several common elements: a common reading, common learning outcomes, a common oral exam and culminating assignment, and orientation and convocation experiences. The Cultural Seminar serves as a foundation course for four other cross-cultural courses in the General Education Program. Specifically, for our course: In their short history, videogames have often been written off as brain-rotting ephemera. However, as an industry with revenues of more than $20 billion annually in the U.S., videogames have become a permanent fixture of our cultural landscape, and the academy is increasingly attending to the messages coded within these games. In this course, we will analyze two primary aspects of the culture of videogames: 1.) the culture represented within those games, considering issues of entertainment, narrative, art, and ethics, as well as larger issues of society, family, class, religion, self, gender, and others; 2.) the contemporary and historic cultures that allow these games to be produced and played, and how the games influence the cultures and vice-versa. Students will play many videogames, classic and contemporary. Supplemented by substantial traditional readings, we will "read" these games by analyzing their forms and functions. The course will culminate in a case study of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, in which the violent first-person shooter Doom was claimed by some critics as an important motivation for the killers. Guiding Questions of the Course 1.) How do we analyze a videogame for its cultural content? 2.) How do cultures impact videogames and their players, and vice-versa? CCS 100 (Best) Fall 2012 Page 1 General Education Student Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of the Cultural Seminar, students will be able to: 1. Demonstrate understanding of similarities and differences between the student's own culture and a different culture. 2. Demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives of a global issue through the summer common reading. 3. Be able to express orally and in writing, with supporting materials, an understanding of student’s own culture and a different culture. 4. Demonstrate information fluency by gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing information using emerging technologies and traditional media (which supports Learning Outcome #7). Students will address the following: a. Demonstrate the ability to gather and integrate information from a variety of sources. b. Demonstrate the abilities to assess the credibility and to weigh the value of information from different sources. c. Communicate knowledge using emerging technologies. 5. Demonstrate familiarity with Carroll University policies, procedures and support services which help to facilitate academic success through participation in the following required course components (which supports Learning Outcomes #1 and #7): a. Orientation Component: ITS/Library Introduction Session b. Library Sessions: i. Two library sessions conducted by Librarians and Career Counselors ii. One on-line library session. c. Check-in Meeting, scheduled during regular faculty office hours. d. Short in-class presentation by Director of Student Success. Course-specific Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of our section of Cultural Seminar, students will be able to: 6. Analyze and discuss a videogame in terms of its theoretical, aesthetic, and narrative elements. Expectations of Students I expect students to act in a professional and respectful manner in class at all times. The catalog calls upon students, in the Carroll University Compact, to strive to live according to certain values as a member of the Carroll community. This class has these expectations as well. In line with this compact are these specific expectations: a.) We will be discussing ideas that are controversial and may be challenging to what students value and think. It is important to focus on the discussion of the ideas and not the personal attacks on other people. b.) I expect students to have an opportunity to share their ideas but not to monopolize the conversation. c.) I expect you to pay full attention in each class—it creates the best environment for both you and your peers to learn. CCS 100 (Best) Fall 2012 Page 2 d.) I expect you to not use a cell phone (this includes texting), MP3 player, or any other device that might cause a distraction during class without explicit permission. Repeated violations of this expectation will result in a decreased semester grade. Required Texts: • Monaghan and Just. Social & Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction. • Nielsen, Smith, and Tosca. Understanding Video Games. Required Supplies: • Pen, paper, notebook, folder, etc. • Personal computer running Windows (XP, Vista, or 7) with Internet access Course Activities: • Readings and gameplay • Class blog • Midterm oral exam • Final oral exam • Midterm videogame exam • Culminating assignment • Conferences • Library tutorials • Class participation and attendance Please note that for many of these activities, specifics will be distributed in class. Readings and gameplay: We will be reading almost all of Understanding for our class. Not only will you be expected to have read all the material that was assigned for a particular day, you are also expected to come to class with intelligent questions, ideas, and opinions on that material. This means I expect you to take notes, mark your reading, and engage in any other activities that will help you achieve this goal. We will also frequently be playing games to discuss based on the frameworks provided by our two texts. To encourage you to think critically about these games, you are asked to maintain and respond to a class blog throughout the semester, as described below. Class blog: It’s all too easy to play a videogame without thinking much about its constructs, meanings, or cultural positions. In order to begin analyzing these games, you will be asked to post and respond to a blog for many of the games we play, as well as for other cultural questions and assignments. Midterm oral exam: To evaluate your success in analyzing cultural issues, each Cultural Seminar section will conduct one-on-one oral exams. The exam will cover cultural ideas drawn from Social & Cultural Anthropology. Final oral exam: As a cumulative assessment of the course, you will be asked to participate in an oral exam that will ask you to evaluate and comment upon the cultural and videogame elements at work in Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. CCS 100 (Best) Fall 2012 Page 3 Midterm videogame exam: At the end of our unit on videogames and videogame theory, you will complete an in-class exam to evaluate your mastery of the fundamental terms, concepts, and theories we discuss. Culminating assignment: At the end of the course, you will be asked to write an essay analyzing how your thinking about culture has changed since the beginning of the course. Conferences: You will meet with me one-on-one once during the semester. The meeting will be a developmental conference—to simply chat about how your college experience is going. This conference will be informal and open-ended. Of course, you are welcome to meet with me at any time during my office hours (or another time by appointment). You will also meet with the OM once during the semester. Library tutorials: All sections in Cultural Seminar participate in library tutorials to help students understand how to access the library’s resources. On tutorial days, we will meet in the library classroom rather than in our usual classroom. Attendance at the tutorials is mandatory. Class participation and attendance: Quite simply, plan on attending class and participating in it. Your thoughtful discussion of the reading and gaming we will do is imperative to understanding and analyzing the games and their impacts. As in any college course, your attendance is crucial—we will constantly be talking about new ideas and applying them to new games. More than four absences will adversely impact your grade for course; anyone absent for more than eight classes will fail the course (or be asked to withdraw, if possible), regardless of circumstances. If you are not present within the first ten minutes of class, you will be considered absent. Excessive tardiness may also adversely affect your final grade. If you are absent, remember that it is your responsibility to catch up. This includes reviewing the material that was discussed, completing work that was done in class, obtaining any handouts, and receiving any assignments. If you will be absent, please let me know via e-mail. (As an aside, should you be absent in this or any other class, upon your return never ask the professor: “Did I miss anything?” Given that there was class that day, you certainly missed something.) Copyright issues, emulators, etc.: To the best of my knowledge, we will be playing each assigned game in this course legally, honoring the copyrights and trademarks of the games’ creators. There are numerous ways to play these games illegally on the Internet, primarily through the use of emulators and (illegally) downloaded ROMs of games.