Waikato SMST319 Game Studies

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SMST319: Game Studies

 Games Education 

Course


Contents

Teachers

Instructors

  • Dr. Gareth Schott

Course Background Information

Location

The University of Waikato

Classification

See: Areas for classifing for your course.

Primary classification: Game Studies

Student background needed

Talk about what educational background students need, if any

Course prerequisites

(describe the course's prerequisites in terms of skills that students need to know)


Time periods

Describe how the class was spread out over time, for example:

  • Over what length of time was the course taught?
  • How often did the class meet and how long were the classes??

Course Structure

Course description

For some, the mention of game titles such as Pong, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario and many more, evoke a sense of nostalgia tied to the sound of the theme tune, the look of fonts or graphics and the sensations of playing, as players pounded buttons to stay alive and gain extra time and mileage from their coins on coin-operated arcade machines. Videogames are popularly perceived as an entertainment media that is shallow yet also harmful, dangerously addictive and time-consuming to the point that it ‘triggers’ the demise of social skills and brings about obesity, deviant and immoral behaviour. This paper asks if there is anything beyond the perception of videogames as a training simulation for mindless violence and out-dated attitudes to females? Indeed, is it possible to spend a whole semester celebrating the innovation of videogame technology, its aesthetics and the way in which it tells its stories? We will see...

Course learning objectives

By the end of the paper, your attendance at lectures plus your guided and independent study should give you:

  • A sufficient knowledge of the academic frameworks being

developed at the beginning of the history of ‘game studies’

  • Clearer understanding of the relationships between games and

other visual cultures and how games might be applied in other media contexts

  • Further understanding of the benefits, pleasures and motivation

attached to engagement with game texts

  • Insights into the skills required to develop a small interactive

game and/or large scale social game


Week by week topics

WEEK 1 Introduction: What are videogames and why study them? WEEK 2 Space and Place: Navigation and spatial typologies (Dr Bevin Yeatman) WEEK 3 Massively Multiplayer: Introducing online world practices (Mr Sean Castle) WEEK 4 Modding (Mr Bill Rogers) WEEK 5 Game Analysis: Sound in First Person Shooters (Mr Mark Grimshaw & Dr Bevin Yeatman) WEEK 6 Application of Game Technologies (Dr Robert Isler) WEEK 7 Teaching Recess WEEK 8 Teaching Recess WEEK 9 Breaking the ‘magic circle’: Pervasive gaming WEEK 10 Machinima: Documenting & archiving game culture WEEK 11 Gamers: Who is playing? WEEK 12 Screen-play: The relationship between games and film WEEK 13 Alternative Games: Politics & art. WEEK 14 Adult Oriented Themes (i.e. Sex) in games WEEK 17 Study Week Commences


Course Materials & Facilities Used

Here you can link to and/or describe books and other materials you used for this course. Feel free to create new pages for each item here if a page for it does not yet exist.

Books

A selection of readings has been assembled for this paper in order to get you started with the assignments. All the readings are available electronically and have been placed online at the Department’s web-site. This paper does recommend one key text that is available from Bennett’s Bookshop on campus (Carr, D., Buckingham, D., Burn, A. & Schott, G. (2006) Computer Games, London: Polity Press). To pass this paper, all assignments require evidence that you have engaged with relevant and appropriate literature. That is, all ideas and viewpoints that you develop during this paper and go on to express within the context of your assignment work should be presented in terms of its relationship to existing viewpoints and perspectives within game studies and game cultures.

Assessment

This paper is assessed internally. These are divided into parts and are described in detail below:

Part 1 – ANALYSING AND INTERPRETING THE ACT OF PLAYING

Assessment Deadline 4:00pm, Thursday, 17 August

Percentage of the Paper 35%

Would you take a paper in Film Studies or Literature and never expect to watch a film or read a book? Likewise with videogames, how are we expected to understand these as ‘texts’ unless we engage with them? What makes games difficult to study is that you cannot (in theory) fast forward to the end or open the book to the last page. In addition to this, games are experienced differently depending on the style of play, strategy, level of risk-taking and exploration employed by individual players. In order to experience the full breadth of a game, YOU need to initiate the text by acting on it, in order to progress in digital space, reveal new levels, characters, environments, dilemmas etc. In order to give you an idea of the size and scope of today’s games (if you haven’t experienced them before), this paper asks you to select a game and play it for the duration of the paper (games are available from the library and the Department of Screen & Media Studies). Ideally, you are asked to select something from a genre that can be played over the course of the paper. If you do play games ordinarily, select something you don’t know too well or wouldn’t ordinarily play.

This assignment will take the form of a 1,500 - 2,000 word essay in which you will complete an analysis (or reading) of your chosen game focusing on two areas of the game-playing experience. It is intended that you will utilise your game-playing experience as:

  1. A case example to illustrate your arguments and points concerning how games operate
  2. A point of comparison against what is being said within game studies literature.

The five areas of game-experience from which you are expected to select two to focus on are:

  • Games Narrative
    • Schut, K. (2003) Technology Tells a Tale: Digital games as narrative, in M. Copier & J. Raessens, Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht: University of Utrecht Press.
    • Frasca, G. (2003) Ludologists Love Stories Too: Notes from the debate that never took place, in M. Copier & J. Raessens, Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht: University of Utrecht Press.
    • Konzack, L. (2002) Computer Game Criticism: A Method for Computer Game Analysis, Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings.
  • Exploring Gamescapes
    • King, G. & Krzywinska, T. (2003) Gamescapes: Exploration and virtual presence in game worlds, in M. Copier & J. Raessens, Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht: University of Utrecht Press.
  • Character or avatar? Being/watching the hero
    • Lankoski, P. (2005) Building and Reconstructing Character. A Case Study of Silent Hill 3, Changing Views: Worlds in play, Digital Game Research Conference Proceedings DVD.
    • Løvlie, A.S. (2005) End of story? Quest, narrative and enactment in computer games, Changing Views: Worlds in play, Digital Game Research Conference Proceedings DVD.
  • Sense of Control and Agency
    • Klastrup, L. (2002) Interaction Forms, Agents and Tellable Events in EverQuest, Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings.
    • Roudavski, S. & Penz, F. (2003) Space, Agency, Meaning and Drama in Navigable Real-time Virtual Environments, in M. Copier & J. Raessens, Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht: University of Utrecht Press.
    • Schott, G. (2005) Agency in and Around Play, in Carr, D., Buckingham, D., Burn, A. & Schott, G. Computer Games: Narrative, text and play, London: Polity Press.
  • Cheats, walkthrough & game-tips
    • Consalvo, M. (2005) Gaining Advantage: How videogame players define and negotiate cheating, Changing Views: Worlds in play, Digital Game Research Conference Proceedings DVD.

Part 2 – PERVASIVE GAME DESIGN

Assessment Date 4:00pm, Thursday, 19 October

Percentage of the Paper 30%

For this assignment you will be asked to work in groups (maximum 5 members) to construct a game concept for a real-world game that is structured and mediated through the use of mobile technology called ‘pervasive gaming’. For this assignment you are asked to consider how Hamilton city centre can be turned into a game space.

Here are some references to spark your enthusiasm:

ekeepers.html

You will be required to write out a report to accompany your design. This will include:

  • A synopsis of the proposed game concept
  • How it intends incorporate or utilise Hamilton landmarks and people
  • How people will be recruited to play the game and organised during the game
  • What mobile technologies will be required and how will they be used

Grades for this assignment will be assigned from a combination of individual and group assessment. The different sections of the report can be divided up and assigned to individuals for individual assessment (15%), whilst the overall cohesiveness of the report and presentation will constitute the group grade (15%).

READING:

  • Olli, S. (2002) All The World's A Botfighter Stage: Notes on Location-based Multi-User Gaming, Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings.

Part 3 – CREATIVE PRACTICE

Assessment Deadline 4:00pm, Thursday, 19 October

Percentage of the Paper 35%

For this final assignment you may work individually or in groups (a different group from the second assignment) in order to produce a piece of creative practice that incorporates what you have learnt about the definition of games and game play. This assignment will be supported by your lab sessions with Sean Castle.

For this assignment you may complete any of the following:

  • machinima film
  • gamic
  • game modification (check your idea with Gareth or Sean first before completing this kind of project)

Analysis of learning methods

What worked

Please discuss what techniques worked well


What didn't work

Please discuss what techniques didn’t work as well as you had hoped


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