DePaul: GAM 206: History of Games
International Game Developers Association
Contents |
DePaul: GAM 206: History of Games
| Games Education |
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| Course |
Teachers
Instructors
Course Background Information
Location
Classification
Primary classification: Game History
Student background needed
None
Course prerequisites
None
Time periods
Taught over 10 weeks, two days per week, 1.5 hours per class. (Thus, 30 hours of class time total.)
Course Structure
Course description
From "The Royal Game of Ur" (2500+ BCE) to "World of Warcraft" (2004) and beyond, games have been a constant in human history. The forms of games, their experiential qualities, and their cultural significance have varied enormously from era to era and place to place. This class will examine particular games and game genres in their historical context using a case study format. We will focus on "indoor" games, those of chance and skill, as opposed to physical games and sports. The examples will be chosen (i) to have global scope and historic diversity, (ii) to relate to games that students will find familiar, and (iii) to raise particular issues in historical interpretation, the use of primary sources and changing concepts of leisure activity.
Course learning objectives
1. Students will learn some elementary aspects of game analysis. They should be familiar with terms like positive and negative feedback, information economies and so forth.
2. Students will learn about the craft of history: how historians approach sources (primary and secondary) and different schools of historical interpretation.
3. Students will learn about the different roles and significance of games in different cultures at different times in history and different places.
Week by week topics
Introduction
- Introduction to the Class.
- History and Games.
- Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. Chapter 3 "Meaningful Play," and Chapter 7 “Defining Games,” in Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals.
- Parlett, D. Chapter 1 “Welcome Aboard,” in The Oxford History of Board Games.
Unit 1: Death and Religion in Ancient Egypt
- Context: Ancient Egypt.
- Game Play: Senet.
- Parlett, D. Chapter 4 “The Tables Turned."
- Discussion: Senet and Egyptian Religion.
- Piccione, Peter A. “In Search of the Meaning of Senet”
- Race Games.
Unit 2: Royalty and Society in Medieval Europe
- Context: Society and Culture in the Late Middle Ages.
- Yalom, M. Chapter 7 “Chess and the Cult of the Virgin Mary,” and Chapter 8 “Chess and the Cult of Love,” in Birth of the Chess Queen.
- Game Play: Medieval Chess.
- Eales, R. Chapter 2 “The Symbolic Game of the Middle Ages,” in Chess: The History of a Game.
- Discussion: The Transformation of Chess.
- Yalom, Chapter 11 “New Chess and Isabella of Castile,” and Chapter 12 “The Rise of ‘Queen's Chess.’ ”
- Strategy Games
- Eales, R. Chapter 3 “The New Chess and its Patrons.”
Unit 3: The Family Game in 19th Century America
- Context: Family, Children and the Domestic Sphere in 19th Century America.
- Game Play: The Checkered Game of Life.
- Discussion: Family and Social Games
- Mintz, S. Chapter 4 "Inventing the Middle-Class Child" in Huck's Raft: A History of Childhood in America.
- Family Games
Unit 4: Children’s Games as Global Mass Culture
- Context: The Globalization of Japanese Culture
- Game Play: Pokemon Trading Card Game
- Tobin, J. Chapter 13 “The Rise and Fall of the Pokemon Empire” in Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon.
- Discussion: Games and Meta-Games
- Allison, A. Chapter 7 “Pokemon: Getting Monsters and Communicating Capitalism” in Millennial Monsters.
- Gamer culture
Conclusion: Video Games and the Future of Play
- Video Games. Continuity and discontinuity in the concept of game.
- Hertz, J. C. Chapter 2 “A Natural History of Video Games” in Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds.
- Game Play: Video Games. Class meets in the Console Gaming Lab (CTI 721).
Course Materials & Facilities Used
Books
No required textbook. I was fortunate enough to make a deal with David Parlett to have the use of his "Oxford History of Card Games" and "Oxford History of Board Games" in electronic form. Other books were placed on reserve such as "Asian Games: The Art of Conquest", and "Board and Table Games of Many Civilizations." Background readings on each historical era were cribbed from various world history textbooks. Other readings -- mostly works of history are noted in the weekly schedule.
Other materials
Games
I was fortunate to receive a small grant from the University that funded the purchase of game boards and materials for a small game library. These games were mostly chosen for historical interest, such as Alquerques and Tablut, geographical diversity, such as Shogi and Hanafuda, and as modern examples, such as Settlers of Catan. I have three generations of "The Game of Life": 1860, 1960, and 2000.
Syllabus
The course web site contains information about the course schedule and the Powerpoint slides. http://josquin.cs.depaul.edu/~rburke/courses/f06/gam206/index.html
Assessment materials
There were quizzes associated with each unit. These were designed to ensure that students had done the reading and been present at the game play sessions.
Each student was also required to be a game play leader, which meant teaching the others in their small groups how to play one of the games.
The major item was a historical research paper. For this project, they had to write a short analysis paper based on their experience playing the game, and they had to locate at least three primary sources. The final paper was 5-7 pages.
Analysis of learning methods
What worked
Playing games in class. Each unit was centered around a particular game. We looked at its historical context, and then we played the game and discussed its relevance. Having students play games on their own would not have been nearly as effective. (This did require that I have enough chess sets, etc. for everyone to play.)
Having gameplay leaders was good (when the students did their job.) It would have been difficult for me to teach everyone how to play each game.
What didn't work
I wanted the gameplay leaders to get together outside of class to work with each other to learn each game. This turned out to be a major difficulty as so many students have jobs and other commitments. I would still like to figure out a way to get this to work.
I also had hoped to use Kai-Awase, a Japanese matching game (think "Concentration", but much harder), from the Heian period. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the necessary materials (clam shells with "hinge" structures intact), and I stuck in Pokemon at the last minute. I don't want to use Go since we already were doing a strategy game and Go isn't something you can really learn in an hour.
