Universität Wien

170998 UE Media Aesthetics in Everyday Use (2023W)

Introduction to Game Studies

9.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 17 - Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work

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Bitte wählen Sie bei der Eingabemaske auf u:space aus den möglichen Optionen "Erweiterungscurriculum" aus und lesen Sie die Informationen der SPL-Website durch, damit Ihre Anmeldung berücksichtigt werden kann:
https://spl-tfm.univie.ac.at/studium/studien/ec-medienaesthetik/

Wenn Sie nicht fürs EC "Medienästhetik" registriert sind, kann Ihre Anmeldung zur Prüfung nicht korrekt zugeordnet werden!

ANLEITUNG ZUR REGISTRIERUNG DES EC "A 171 Medienästhetik im Alltagseinsatz":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uUQBRJFGNQ
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Saturday 07.10. 10:00 - 15:00 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde
  • Saturday 21.10. 10:00 - 15:00 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde
  • Saturday 18.11. 10:00 - 15:00 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde
  • Saturday 09.12. 10:00 - 15:00 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde
  • Saturday 20.01. 10:00 - 15:00 Seminarraum 4 2H558 UZA II Rotunde

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

As games are one of the fastest-developing media today, academic research concerned with them is also developing rapidly. In this course, I’d like to introduce the students to the core ideas of game studies, giving them a solid and flexible base for designing their own game-related research projects.

The course will be divided in two parts – and I want it to be less of a lecture and the more of a discussion as we move further into the semester.

PART ONE
In the first part, I’ll introduce the key ideas and research areas of game studies. Following a classification by Frans Mäyrä, I’ll divide game studies research into research of games, their players, and their contexts. In each of those areas, I’ll focus on the humanistic approach to game studies, that is one that analyzes games as generating meanings and relating to, as well as influencing, wider cultural discourses. I’ll give a brief overview of the game studies’ history, with a special focus on fundaments set by Johann Huizinga and Roger Caillois, but I’ll focus on how did game studies expand and develop with the advent of modern video games.

To illustrate the concepts I present, I’ll also analyze a selection of classic games together with the students. I’ll give them a list of games for the next class in advance, asking them to play them or at least watch playthroughts of them, then moderate a discussion on them. I will lead those discussions, but also try to leave as much room for students’ observations and viewpoints as possible.

PART TWO
In part two, I’ll invite the students to take over the initiative. Each of them will have to choose a game for analysis, inform the rest of the group beforehand about the chosen game, and then present a short interpretation of the game in the classroom. The amount of time each student will get for their presentation depends on the size of the class; if many students enroll, I'll encourage the students to present as a group. To make this course more approachable for students new to gaming, I will also present an option of analyzing one of the games introduced in part one, as long as the student analyzes it with a different methodology to the one presented to me earlier.

Assessment and permitted materials

The final grade will be based on two partial grades:
-A short online test after the initial section (25% of the final grade - up to 5 points)
-The student’s presentation during Part Two (75% of the final grade - up to 15 points)

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 game studies concepts to case studies, not knowledge of the concepts themselves.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

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)

Examination topics

The short online test will concern all the topics introduced in Part One, while the presentation will require the student to apply the theories introduced in Part One to a game of their choice.

Reading list

-Caillois, Roger, Man, Play and Games, any edition (including other translations, the German title is Die Spiele und die Menschen)
-Gee, James Paul, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Revised and Updated Edition, palgrave macmillan 2007
-Huizinga, Johan, Homo Ludens. The Play Element of Culture, any edition (including other translations, the German title is Homo Ludens : Versuch einer Bestimmung des Spielelements der Kultur)
-Mäyrä, Frans, An Introduction to Game Studies, SAGE Publications Ltd 2008
-Newman, James, Videogames. 2nd Edition, Routledge 2013
-Schell, Jesse, The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Third Edition, A K Peters/CRC Press 2019
-Wolf, Mark J.P. (editor), Encyclopedia of video games : the culture, technology, and art of gaming, ABC-CLIO, LLC 2012

In addition, I’ll suggest a ludography – a selection of games corresponding to a given topic – before each meeting (except the first) via the Moodle platform.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 11.10.2023 19:27