Universität Wien

170543 UE Games as social critique (2024W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 17 - Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Moodle
Sa 14.12. 10:00-14:15 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 30 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

  • Samstag 19.10. 10:00 - 14:45 Seminarraum 1 2H316 UZA II Rotunde
  • Sonntag 20.10. 10:00 - 14:45 Seminarraum 1 2H316 UZA II Rotunde
  • Samstag 16.11. 10:00 - 14:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Sonntag 17.11. 10:00 - 14:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Sonntag 15.12. 10:00 - 14:20 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

Games are often seen as a largely conservative product of a corporate industry, rife with colonial overtones and toxic masculinity. While this is in fact the case with many games, there is also a huge number of ones that defy this stereotype – and this course will be devoted to analyzing, researching, and, of course, playing them!

The course will be divided in a few parts, with only the introductory part being set in stone and unchangeable:

Part One: Social Critique
An introduction to the most important aspects of social critique and critical theory.

Right after this initial part, I’ll conduct a survey among students, asking which aspects of social critique in gaming are most important to them. Having the results of this survey, I will design further classes with their preferences in mind. The list of topic will include the following, with a non-exhaustive list of sample games worth analyzing for each:

Feminism: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, #Feminism nanolarp anthology, Bluebeard’s Bride
Ecology: Frostpunk, Final Fantasy VII, Werewolf: Heart of the Forest, Pokémon, Edelweiss
Pacifism: This War of Mine, Undertale, Age of Empires (and strategy games in general)
Colonialism: Age of Empires, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Heaven's Vault
Inequality and capitalism: Monopoly, Cyberpunk 2077, An Inner Darkness, Comrades: A Revolutionary RPG
Queerness: Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Monsterhearts II, Life Is Strange, Hades, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Goals
The goal of this course is to make the students familiar with the potential of games as social critique. It will also deepen their knowledge of various branches of critical theory in general. Additionally, as many of the games I plan to use as examples are released on open licenses and relatively easy to modify, this course can be a gateway into creating socially-minded games.

Methods
The initial part will be a lecture, while further classes will combine lecture elements with discussions, starting with me presenting tools and concepts useful in analyzing given games, and then inviting the students to discuss the application of those concepts to the games they’ve acquainted themselves with.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

The final grade will be based on three partial grades:

-a short online test after the introductory part (20% of the final grade - up to 4 points)
-two grades given to each student for their activity during the discussions (40% each - up to 8 points each)

The students will be able to use any materials and resources they wish to use during the test, as it will test their ability to apply critical theory concepts to case studies, not knowledge of the concepts themselves.

If a student misses any classes due to an illness or other important reason, I will ask them to present additional opinions on the given class' topic via a mail.

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

The final grade will depend on the percentage of points earned by the student during both partial assessments, as follows:

20-19 points: 1
18-16 points: 2
15-13 points: 3
12-10 points: 4
9 or less points: 5 (negative assessment)

Prüfungsstoff

The short online test will concern all the topics introduced in Part One and in the most important items on the reading list (pointed out to students during the October meetings), while the activity during the following parts will require the students to be able to use key terms and ideas introduced in Part One.

Literatur

-Buchanan, Ian, A dictionary of critical theory, Oxford University Press 2010
-Feenberg, Andrew, Transforming technology: a critical theory revisited, Oxford University Press 2002
-Kowert, Rachel and Thorsten Quandt (editors), The Video Game Debate 2: Revisiting the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games, Routledge 2020
-Mäyrä, Frans, An Introduction to Game Studies, SAGE Publications Ltd 2008
-Rich, Jennifer and Mark Addis, An Introduction to Critical Theory, Humanities-Ebooks, LLP 2007
-Rush, Fred (editor), The Cambridge companion to critical theory, Cambridge University Press 2004

Further reading, and gaming, will be suggested for each topic after the students' vote.

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Letzte Änderung: So 20.10.2024 09:46