Too much work with teaching and playing lots of TF2 to be posting lately. I’ve got a couple posts I’m working on. Hopefully I’ll be able to get them up soon …ish
Category: general
Videogame Ethnography Class Syllabus
The semester here at IUK has started and, with the exception of food poisoning, things have been going pretty well. I thought I might as well post my syllabus for the gaming class I’m teaching in case any one care.
The class is actually in a computer lab which is nice so that we can play games. Because my diss is about FPS games we are going to be playing FPS games in class. Valve has a special educational program that seems to be designed for game design classes because it gives access to the editors but it also gives students access to all the Half-Life 2 games including CS and TF2.
Because it is ethnographic in focus each week the students have a journal due which is just a one to two page reflection on their playing. It is especially interesting to watch the students that have never played a computer FPS try to navigate through the game. Eventually I hope we will be able to play TF2 in class to get some comparison between single and multiplayer gaming.
So here’s the syllabus:
| topic | Assignments due that day | |
| Tues Aug 26 |
Class intro Will introduce course concepts and assignments. Topic: What is a game What is ethnography Begins an introduction of the concept of ethnography and the notion of participant observation. |
|
| Thurs Aug 28 |
Description In class exercise on thick description and observation. describing versus telling involving the senses in the writing self-reflection |
Horace Miner "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" Pat Hughes "The Sacred Rac" http://www.drabruzzi.com/sacred_rac.html Boellstorff, Tom. "A Ludicrous Discipline Ethnography and Game Studies." Games and Culture 1.1 (2006): 29-35. For a background on the games we will be playing, also read: Play Zork. available at http://www.inthe70s.com/games/adventure/zork.shtml |
| Tues Sep 2 | Thick Description |
Geertz, Thick Description Gamespot history of video games, read up until 1992 and skim the rest http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/hov/index.html Pong story main page, http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm William Higinbotham article http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp Play Spacewar http://spacewar.oversigma.com/ Videogame Explosion intro and part 1 pages xiii-28 |
| Thurs Sep 4 |
Videogame History Starting with the notion of "first" videogame we will examine the notions of building a canon of videogame landmarks. Who gets to be "first" and why We will also examine the notion of what is a game, and what is a videogame. |
Videogame Explosion part 2 p. 29-66, 75-80, 91-98, 103-106
Williams, Dmitri. "Why Game Studies Now Gamers Don’t Bowl Alone." Games and Culture 1.1 (2006): 13-16. |
| Tues Sep 9 |
Videogame history 2 Videogame advertising through the ages will be discussed as wil the notions of building of an audience. Comparisons between early games and current games will be made and the reasons behind the changes will be discussed. |
Game Over chapters 1-5 |
| Thur Sep 11 |
Tetris and Casual Games Play Tetris and go to games.yahoo.com and play a couple puzzle games. |
Videogame Explosion 107-126, 151-193, 203-228
Watch Tetris – From Russia With Love — available on course website or bring a blank dvd and I will copy it for you. |
| Tues Sep 16 |
Test 1 Test one will be designed not only to ensure that students have a basic grasp of the history of videogames, as well as an understanding of ethnography. Moreover, the test will be intended to see if students are able to interrogate the process of canon creation and why the technological developments are of significance. Test format will consist of ten short answer and three essay questions. |
|
| Thur Sep 18 |
Game Studies — preliminary concepts Now that we have established a common ground, we will move into the theories that make up game studies. Starting with Poole’s Trigger Happy, we will begin to explore soem of the fundamental concepts of videogame studies and explore issues of medium specificity. |
Poole, Steven. Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Arcade Pub., 2000. Chapters 1, 3, and 4. "Are Games Art" Kuro5hin.org. Sep 10, 2002 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/10/72851/0039 Young, Bryan-Mitchell. "Why Does it Matter If They are Art" http://popularculturegaming.com/archives/000023.html |
| Tues Sep 23 | Continuing introductory concepts | Poole, Steven. Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Arcade Pub., 2000. Chapters 5, 6, 8-10. |
| Thur Sep 25 |
Mods, Makers, and Movies Discussing fandom and modding. Looking at videogames as a participatory medium. What is the role of the player and how does the community play a role in the popularity of videogames |
Jenkins, Textual Poachers (selections).
Raessens, “Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture.” In: J. Raessens and J. Goldstein (eds). Handbook of Computer Game Studies. Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press Olli Sotamaa, "Computer Game Modding, Intermediality and Participatory Culture." http://old.imv.au.dk/eng/academic/pdf_files/Sotamaa.pdf Morris, S. (2003). WADs, Bots and Mods: Multiplayer FPS Games as Co-creative Media. Level Up Conference Proceedings. Utrecht, University of Utrecht. |
| Tues Sep 30 |
Defining Games, Defining Fun Today we will discuss exactly what a game is and what fun is. We will attempt to gain an understanding of the concepts and develop a way of talking about these concepts in a scholarly fashion. |
Pearce, C. (2004). Towards a game Theory of Game. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 143-153.
Juul, J. (2003). The game, the player, the world: looking for a heart of gameness. Level Up Conference Proceedings, Utrecht, University of Utrecht. |
| Thur Oct 2 |
Defining Games, Defining Game Studies Continuing the defining of games. Begins to think about the foundational issues of game studies such as ludology vs. narratology. |
Understanding Videogames chapter 6, 7
Eskelinen, M. (2004). Towards Computer Game Studies. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 36-44. |
| Tues Oct 7 | Ludology vs. Narratology |
Frasca, G. (2003). Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place. Level Up Conference Proceedings. Utrecht, University of Utrecht.
King, G. and T. Krzywinska (2002). Computer Games / Cinema / Interfaces. Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings. Tampere, Tampere University Press. |
| Thur Oct 9 | Ludology vs. Narratology 2 |
Moulthrop, S. (2004). From Work to Play: Molecular Culture in the Time of Deadly Games. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 56-69.
Zimmerman, E. (2004). Narrative, Interactivity, Play, and Games: Four Naughty Concepts in Need of Discipline. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 154-164. |
| Tues Oct 14 |
Gender Today’s class will focus on depictions of men and women within videogames. |
Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Female-Bobs arrive at Dusk." http://www.opensorcery.net/Femalebob2.html
Henry Jenkins, "’Complete Freedom of Movement’: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces." Available here: http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/pub/complete.html. |
| Thur Oct 16 |
Lara Croft Today we will discuss the phenomenon of Tomb Raider and the appeals of the Lara Croft character. Is she a feminist Or is she just a doll for men to control (Or can she be both) |
Schleiner, Anne-Marie "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." Leonardo – Volume 34, Number 3, June 2001, pp. 221-226 ( available at http://www.opensorcery.net/lara2.html or www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002409401750286976)
Kennedy, Helen W. " Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo: On the Limits of Textual Analysis." Game Studies. 2(2): 2002. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/ Thompson, Clive. "How Lara Croft Steals Hearts." Wired. April 24, 2006. May 18 |
| Tues Oct 21 |
Women –"Girl Games" Last class discussed gender within games. Today will will begin to discuss the gender of those who actually play the gamesdiscuss games that attempt to market themselves towards women and some possible explanations why few women play videogames.. |
Rebecca L. Eisenberg, "Girl Games: Adventures in Lip Gloss." Orig. published in Ms. Magazine (Jan. 1998). Available here: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19980213/girl_games.htm
Pinckard, Jane. "Genderplay: Successes and Failures in Character Designs for Videogames." GameGirlAdvance. April 16, 2003 http://is.gd/1Mr4 |
| Thur Oct 23 | Women Gaming Girls |
Case, Stevie. "Women in Gaming." Microsoft.com. January 12, 2004. May 18, 2006 . http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/womeningames.mspx Jenson, J., & de Castell, S. (June, 2005). Carr, D. (June, 2005). Contexts, pleasures and preferences: girls playing computer games. Paper presented at DIGRA 2005, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Available at http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/viewabstract.phpid=50 |
| Tues Oct 28 |
Men Moving on to the men who play videogames |
Krotoski, Aleks. "Masculinity and online gaming." Guardian Games Blog. March 29 2006. May 19, 2006 . http://is.gd/1Mrq Pay special attention to the comments at the end. Christensen, Natasha Chen. " Geeks at Play: Doing Masculinity in an Online Gaming Site." Reconstruction 6.1 (Winter 2006). My article about masculinity in FPS games. |
| Thur Oct 30 | Race |
Leonard, David. “Live in your World, Play in Ours”: Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other.” Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education 3.4 (2003). http://www.utpjournals.com/jour.ihtmllp=simile/issue12/leonardX1.html
Dymek, M., & Lennerfors, T. (June, 2005). Among pasta-loving Mafiosos, drug-selling Columbians and noodle-eating Triads – Race, humour and interactive ethics in Grand Theft Auto III. Paper presented at DIGRA 2005, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Available at http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/viewabstract.phpid=85 |
| Tues Nov 4 |
Nationhood Is videogames a way of expressing nationhood Is there a reason why certain games are more popular in the USA and others in Japan or Europe |
Budra, Paul Vincent. "American Justice and the First-Person Shooter" Canadian Review of American Studies. 34.1 (2004): 1-12.
Jeffords, Susan. Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1994. Chapters 1 and 2. |
| Thur Nov 6 |
Test 2 This test will be designed to make sure that we have a handle on videogame theory as a field and the issues within it. The format will be the same as the first test |
|
| Tues Nov 11 | Culture Wars |
Adorno and Horkheimer, “Culture Industry” excerpt
Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Bourdieu, Pierre. “Distinction and The Aristocracy of Culture.” Reprinted in John Stony, ed., Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, 2nd edition, Pp. 431-441. University of Georgia Press, 1998. |
| Thur Nov 13 |
Media Effects Are videogames TEH EVAL! |
Underwood, Mick. "Mass Media Effects: Introduction." June 21, 2003. May 21, 2005 . Read through all the different theories. http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/effects.html Media violence statistics. http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/petersikt/Media_stuff/TVThing.html Understanding Videogames ch. 10 |
| Tues Nov 18 |
Violence Grrrrrr |
From Videogames: At Issue:
Violence in Video Games May Harm Children9 The Problem of Video Game Violence Is Exaggerated 18 Video Games Rated Appropriate for Children May Contain Violence27 The Video Game Industry Regulates Itself Effectively35 Irvine, Ian. "A History of Videogame Violence." Gamers With Jobs. http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/24510 |
| Thur Nov 20 |
Moral Panics Won’t someone think of the children! |
Thompson, Kenneth. Moral Panics. New York: Routledge, 1998. Chapters 1 and 3.
Grossman, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill (Chapter 4). |
| Tues Nov 25 |
Addiction Can you become addicted to videogames |
Scheeres, Julia. "The Quest to End Game Addiction." Wired. Dec, 05, 2001. http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,48479,00.html
Watch the documentary First-Person Shooter on the course website. |
| Tues Dec 2 |
Film Games and Game Films What does it mean for a game to be "cinematic" Why do nearly all the films based on videogames fail Why do so many videogames based on films also fail |
Howells, Sacha A.. "Watching a Game, Playing a Movie: When Media Collide." Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. London and New York: Wallflower, 2002. 110-21.
King, Geoff. "Die Hard/Try Harder: Narrative, Spectacle and Beyond, from Hollywood to Videogame." Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. London and New York: Wallflower, 2002. 50-65. Grieb, Margit. "Run Lola, Run." Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. London and New York: Wallflower, 2002. 157-171. |
| Thur Dec 4 |
Games to Teach Can games teach us |
Squire, K.D. (2005). Changing the game: What happens when videogames enter the classroom. Innovate 1(6).
Squire, K. (2003). Video games in education. International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming (2) 1. http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/IJIS.doc Marc, Prensky. "Digital Game-Based Learning." Comput. Entertain. 1.1 (2003): 21-21. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/950566.950596 |
| Tues Dec 9 |
Videogame Advertising What about those ads |
Young, Bryan-Mitchell. “The Appearance, Disappearance, and Reapearance in Videogame Advertising.” |
| Thur Dec 11 | Paper discussion and review | PAPER DUE |
| Final During Scheduled time | ||
Tetris From Russia and First-Person Shooter Documentary
As part of the class on videogames I’m teaching I am going to have my students watch a couple videogame documentaries. Instead of converting them myself I thought I would search for them online.
The first one, Tetris: From Russia With Love has been split into several parts and put on youtube. Because it is on youtube I’m not sure how long it will be before they take it down.
The other one is one called First Person Shooter that I don’t think ever aired anywhere besides Canada. I had a Canadian friend’s parents record it for me when it was on. Luckilly, it has been posted on video.google.ca. Unlike fellow Google site youtube, this video seems to have been up there for a couple years (so I’m not breaking any new ground here) so it doesn’t seem to be in as much danger of going away.
Regardless, I thought I would go ahead and post the links for them here so that others (besides my students) can watch them
Big Lots > Gamestop
I’m a lover of Big Lots which, despite its slogan, “Brand Name. Closeout Prices.” basically sells crap that other stores couldn’t sell. One of my most prized possessions is a can of Steven Segal Energy Drink that I got for 50ยข.
I am moving so I need to make sure that all the lightbulbs in my old apartment work so that I don’t get charged for them. I figured that Big Lots would be a good place for cheap highly inefficient light bulbs. Well, I didn’t find light bulbs but I did find some sweet computer games. I got City of Villains for $4 and some random FPS game for $4 too. I also got the Species Trilogy for $7.
Gamestop and EB Games are dead to me. Big Lots is my videogame store now.
Moving Means Less Time for Blog Posts
I’m moving out of Bloomington and up to Kokomo in August so I’ve been pretty busy packing things, selling books I don’t want to move and generally recycling and throwing out things I don’t want. So I haven’t had much time to blog lately. I’ve been playing TF2 and a couple other things but nothing spectacular.
More posts in a couple weeks…
Spore is the new Black & White
I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t really get Spore but I have serious doubts as to whether or not this game is going to be any good. I fell fo rthe hype with Black & White but it was a better idea than a game. I’m not making the same mistake twice. I’m guessing that Spore is a better idea than game. I guess it will appeal to the same people who like the Sims but don’t see what is so great about it.
Once you create your creature then what? You set it loose and…? That is not my idea of a good time, baby…
Who says movie-based videogames are forgettable?
Is it wrong that while rewatching the original Jurassic Park movie I kept thinking about the Sega Genesis version of the game and not the first time I actually saw the movie?
There are different kinds of mods. Do we need more precise terms?
There are mods and then there are mods. Sure the general definition, say the wikipedia one, of the term mod fits a lot of them out there. Whether it is something like Counter-Strike which started off as a mod and introduces new gameplay styles or something like Minerva which is a single player mod for Half-Life 2 that could fairly easily fit into the world of Half-Life. Then there are unofficial patches like those for Vampire The Masquerade – Bloodlines. One one hand we have the creation of new content and on the other we have the fixing of content.
Recently, however, I ran into something that is somewhere in between. I bought Resident Evil 4 for PC a few months ago but only started playing it recently. I took so long to play it because I had heard that it was an inferior port from the console versions. However, then I ran across a website for Resident Evil 4 mods.
Now they call them mods but are they really? What I downloaded was a texture pack with textures from the Gamecube version but also a few newly made textures. Is it fixing the game like an unofficial patch? Is it creating new content? I don’t know.
I’m also curious as to why they go to this trouble. I’m glad they do so I can get a better experience playing the game but I’m just not sure what is in it for them?
I would write some more about it but I’ve got to go play some more…
Updated wordpress
I just went through the (at least for me) scary process of updating wordpress to the latest version. Luckily it worked pretty flawlessly. I’m hoping to get around to redesigning the template at some point in the next month or two. If anything seems wonky let me know.
Old Videogame Magazines are interesting
As part of my gaming research I’ve started looking at older gaming magazines. I always heard about how great Next Generation magazine was but I never read it. So I got some on ebay and I’ve only gone through 5-6 issues and already found some really interesting things.
One of those interesting things was in issue 48. In that issue they interview Gabe Newell and on page 143 of that issue they ask Newell about things he wanted in Half-Life that didn’t make it in and he mentioned something about Half-Life that I never heard before. Newell said,
“Probably the biggest aspect from a story perspective was Gordon’s wife. She actually was a co-worker who was in the lab with Gordon when everything starts to go to hell. Unfortunately, she didn’t work with some other parts of the game, and Marc Laidlaw had to convince me that leaving her out would make the rest of the story stronger.”
So Gordan Freeman originally had a wife! I wonder if they plan on bringing that story element back in a future installment of Half-Life? Unfounded speculation might guess ask if perhaps we have already met her but she doesn’t work for Black Mesa?