HNRS 353:003 Course Guidelines
DESCRIPTION
In this course we will study the history and cultural impact of videogames from a critical perspective. As products of a complicated network of social, economic, and technological forces, videogames are dense cultural texts, deeply layered with multiple meanings. Whether we consider early arcade games like Pac-Man or the latest blockbusters for next-gen consoles, we find that videogames reveal much about our cultural values, hopes and anxieties, and assumptions about the world. We will examine a range of genres (interaction fiction, first person shooters, simulations, role playing games, and so on) as we strive to understand both the narrative and formal aspects of videogames. At the same time we will map connections between videogames and their broader social contexts-how games are designed, who plays them and where, and in what ways videogames can be more than entertainment.
READING
- Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford, and Greig De Peuter. Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing
. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.
- Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game
. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.
- Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders: Videogame Forms and Contexts
. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006.
PLAYING
In order to critically study videogames it is necessary of course to play them. We will occasionally “sample” games in class, and you will be responsible for playing games on your own outside of class. The specific titles I ask you to play may change, depending upon the direction of our class discussion.
In the interest of accessibility, the required games for the class are either playable online or downloadable and playable on personal computers through “emulators.” Stella is a program for Macs and PCs which plays old Atari 2600 games, while Nestopia plays Nintendo games. I urge you to install these emulators on your own computer. Students are also encouraged to play and study other videogames which they have access to, such as games for the Xbox or Playstation consoles.
WORKING
- Participation in the day’s discussion is essential. And of course, to get the most out of the discussion, you must have read and played the day’s assigned work, thoroughly and critically.
- Every student will keep a game journal: a set of responses to the videogames you encounter throughout the semester, posted to the class blog. You should post an entry to this collective game journal at least twelve times throughout the semester. Posts should run approximately 300 words and should strive to be thoughtful and nuanced, offering questions and insights rather than descriptions or summaries. Occasionally I will provide questions for you to respond to, and other times the posts will be more open-ended. You might begin with an aspect of the game that you don’t quite understand, and work out a tentative answer in your post. Or you might want to relate a specific game to a passage from the week’s reading. You may also want to respond to another student’s post by building upon it, disagreeing with it, or re-thinking it.
- There will be four inquiry papers this semester, each around 3-4 pages in length. These are not full-blown essays so much as they are structured engagements with very particular aspects of a game. For example, one inquiry assignment might ask you to reimagine a specific game from the viewpoint of another genre. Another assignment might require you to analyze the formal elements of short segment of gameplay.
- The final project for the class will be a 10-page analytical paper, which offers a critical interpretation of one or two videogames or of some phenomenon central to the social significance of videogames. This paper will require outside research, using sources from established academic journals or academic press books. Part of the grade for the final project will come from an in-class presentation in which you publicly outline the “problem” your project tackles.
GRADING
The final grade will be weighted and calculated in the following manner:
- Game Journal: 15%
- Inquiry Papers (15% each) : 60%
- Final Research Presentation and Paper : 25%
I evaluate the game journal entries on a scale of 0-4, while I give every other assignment a letter grade. In order to calculate your final grade, I convert the letter grades into a percentage. I weight the grades, and then convert the average back into a letter grade. I use the following standard grading scale:
A+ = 100% /A = 95% /A- = 90% / B+ = 88% /B = 85% /B- = 80%
C+ = 78% /C = 75% /C- = 70% / D = 65% /F = below 60%
Attendance is mandatory (excepting medical emergencies or observation of religious holidays). From the 2007-2008 University Catalog:
Students are expected to attend the class periods of the courses for which they register. In-class participation is important not only to the individual student, but to the class as a whole. Because class participation may be a factor in grading, instructors may use absence, tardiness, or early departure as de facto evidence of nonparticipation.
Late assignments will be lowered one letter grade for every weekday they are overdue, unless prior arrangements are made. Even if you are not in class the day an assignment is due, it is still due for you that day. Assignments more than a week late for any reason will simply not be accepted. Therefore, failure to hand in every assignment on time will make it extremely difficult to pass the course.
HONOR CODE
Students of George Mason University pledge not to cheat, plagiarize, steal, or lie in matters related to academic work. The English Department has issued a statement further clarifying what is meant by “plagiarize”:
Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving that person credit. Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or endnotes; a simple listing of books and articles is not sufficient. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in an academic setting.
Remember, it is perfectly acceptable to refer to and build upon others’ ideas, but you must always identify the source, even when paraphrasing. The university uses turnitin.com to detect plagiarized papers, and I may occasionally require students to submit their written work to turnitin.com’s database. If I suspect plagiarism or any other violation of the Honor Code, I will report the offender to the university Honor Committee, whose penalties range from an F for the course to expulsion from the university.
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 993-2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged through the DRC.
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