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Week 1: What is Game Culture? (11 Sep)
Activity: Discuss course philosophy;
introduce ourselves to one
another;
syllabus review;
text review;
activity discussion;
sample writing
introduction to blogs;
Homework due: None.
Level 1: Game Text
Week 2: Introduction to semiotics (18 Sep)
Activity: Lecture: How do semiotics work?
(for more info, see Semiotics for Beginners.)
Semiotics exercise.
First discussion panel (Brendan!).
Semiotic Domains discussion
Choose games.
Assign discussion panels.
Homework due:
Read "Abstraction in the Video Game" by Mark Wolf
Read "Semiotic Domains" by James Gee
Sign up for a blog at imamp.colum.edu
Email Brendan
Blog a response to these two readings
Week 3: Examining Gender and Race in games (25 Sep)
Activity: Discuss readings.
How do
bodies work in games? How do we understand what bodies are, should be? Using semiotics to read bodies.
Fair Play breakout groups -- activity
Homework due:
Read "Fair Play: Violence, Gender, and Race in Video Games" by Christina Glaubke et al.
Read
"It's a Queer World After All: Studying The Sims and Sexuality" by
Mia Consalvo
Reading response: respond to these readings
Game Journal: first game journal entry.
GameCultureWatch: blog an entry about your assigned 'beat.'
Week 4: Reading Violence in games (2 Oct)
Activity: Discussion 1: Dibbel
Discuss readings. Explore issues of violence in media.
Game analysis project assigned.
Homework due:
Read "A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbel (or in OASIS Handouts)
Survey media articles
Personal blog: respond to these readings; second game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog another entry about your assigned 'beat.'
Week 5: "Reading" games using theory (9 Oct)
Activity: Discuss readings and ideas of "theory."
Discussion 2: Tews
Write about 'readings' and interpretation
Breakout groups: Psychology and Archetypes and Game Culture
Discussion: How to do a reading of a game
Grading rubric handed out.
Homework due:
Read "Introduction to CC Jung" by George Boeree and
"Archetypes on Acid" by Rebecca R. Tews (OASIS handouts)
Personal blog: respond to this reading; third game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog another entry about your assigned 'beat'
Level 2: Game Play
Week 6: Theory of the game (16 Oct)
Activity: Talk about theorizing games as structure and the
relationship to theorizing games as texts.
Discussion 3: McMahan
Space in the Video Game discussion
Homework due:
"Space in the Video Game" by Mark Wolf (OASIS handouts)
"Immersion, Engagement, and Presence" by Alison McMahan (VG Theory Reader)
Personal blog: respond to these readings; fourth game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog another entry about your asigned 'beat'
Game analysis outline due
Week 7: Ludology vs. Narratology (23 Oct)
Activity: Discuss this central split in game theory. How does it
affect the strategy of "reading" games?
Discussion 4: Perron
Werewolf!
Homework due:.
"From Gamers to Players" by Bernard Perron (VG Theory Reader)
"Simulation vs. Narrative" by Gonzalo Frasca (VG Theory Reader)
Personal blog: respond to these readings; fifth game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog your first entry about your new 'beat'
Game analysis rough draft due
Week 8: Learning (30 Oct)
Activity:
Discuss various ways of understanding how games work in our
brains. What's the relationship between medium and message? Short
Discussion 5: Johnson
McLuhan intro.
Short in-class writing
Homework due:
Everything Bad is Good For You (pages 1-62) by Stephen Johnson
Personal blog: respond to this reading; sixth game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog about your 'beat'
Game analysisan final draft due
Level 3: Game Worlds
Week 9: Embodiment (6 Nov)
Activity: How does being online change our notions of our own
identity?
Talk: panopticon
Discussion 6: Turkle
Multiple Selves activity
Homework due:
Sherry Turkle selections (OASIS Handouts)
Personal blog: respond to this reading; seventh game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog about your beat
Week 10: Identity (13 Nov)
Activity: Discuss embodiment in games. How does it work? What's the
relationship of player to game?
Discussion 7: Lanti
Body gaming
New beats assigned
Final project assigned, discussed
Homework due:
"As we become machines" by Martti Lahti (VG Theory Reader)
Personal blog: respond to this reading; eighth game journal entry
Game Culture Watch: blog about your 'beat'
Revisions of project one due
Level 4: Game Culture
Week 11: Social worlds (20 Nov)
Activity:
How do our interactions with one another change our
understanding of culture and the world? How do these worlds encroach
on us?
Discussion 8: Gee
Thanksgiving game
Show, discuss final project grading rubric
Homework due:
Game analysis revisions due
"The Social Mind" by James Gee (OASIS handouts
Personal blog: respond to this reading; ninth game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog about your beat
Week 12: What games are for us (27 Nov)
Activity:
General discussion of how games fit in our culture, what people think about them and what they are.
Discussion 9: Gee
Activity: Identifying cultural models
Homework due:
"Cultural Models" by James Gee (OASIS Handouts)
Game proposal outline or pre-proposal due.
Personal blog: respond to this reading; tenth game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog about your beat
Week 13: Making games (4 Dec)
Activity: A discussion of game design, ethics, and current events.
Discussion 10: Holland, Jenkins, and Squire
Extra credit presentations
Conversation about projects/progress
Course evaluations! Whoo!
Homework due:
"Theory by Design" by Holland, Jenkins, and Squire (OASIS handouts)
Game proposal rough draft due.
Personal blog: respond to this reading; eleventh game journal entry
GameCultureWatch: blog about your beat
Week 14: Final Class. (11 Dec)
Activity: Share game proposals; final discussion; course reflection
and chit-chat.
Homework:
Final Game Proposal Projects due.
Extra credit reading due: Read Part 2 of Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You and post a response to the reading on your blog as usual.
