Syllabus
The detailed syllabus for Winter 2020 is available HERE. Topics:
1. Introduction
2. Game studies as an academic discipline
3. Historiography of digital games and its critique
4. Game structures and ontologies
5. How to read games?
6. Games, regions, and postcolonialism
7. Activist and persuasive games
8. Player avatars
9. Player communities
10. Gender issues in and around digital games
11. Game industry as a cultural industry
12. Game labor
Annotation
This graduate-level course follows current discussions within the scholarship of digital and non-digital games, or game studies. It focuses on the formal properties of games as a medium, on gaming cultures and communities, and on controversial issues surrounding digital games.
The course does not require prior knowledge of game studies, but does require reading assigned literature. The final assignment is an essay on a topic in game studies.