My course: "The Art, History, and Culture of Video Games"

[noiseredux]

You're not asking college students to purchase nearly FIFTY video games are you? Please tell me you're bringing the games to class for the students to play.

Would love to see the syllabus.

They will have to play, not purchase ~50 games.

I am trying to work it out so that they'll have to spend less than $30-$40 or so (if that) to access all these games. Since I am ok with them playing demos or using flash based animation for each title where that's an option, I think they should be ok.

I'd also think in some instances - say for the games as story section that there'd be no harm in watching youtube videos? I mean, I'd think that checking out 15 mins of MGS cut-scenes should highlight what you're talking about, no?

[isiolia]

Mass Effect (any), - no idea dude.
Dragon Age (any), - no idea guy.

Playing these for 15 minutes or something won't really do much for the sexuality angle. Maybe the female city elf origin story?

If it's the inclusion of same-sex relationships, offhand, I think you'd need to jump to DAII and ME3.

If it's just sex being included, I would suggest the Witcher instead as that's got a lot more of it, and it's there from the start (though its handling of it is certainly more juvenile than Bioware).

Leisure Suit Larry seems like a shoe-in for this too.

Is somewhat an odd smattering of games though, since the only game basically made as porn is Custer's Revenge, where there's certainly no shortage of modern examples (though they may not be carried as widely).

[noiseredux]

Leisure Suit Larry seems like a shoe-in for this too.

Oh! Good call! Yeah, you should def consider this Dave. And easily emulated for sure.

[dsheinem]

Mass Effect (any), - no idea dude.
Dragon Age (any), - no idea guy.

Playing these for 15 minutes or something won't really do much for the sexuality angle. Maybe the female city elf origin story?

If it's the inclusion of same-sex relationships, offhand, I think you'd need to jump to DAII and ME3.

If it's just sex being included, I would suggest the Witcher instead as that's got a lot more of it, and it's there from the start (though its handling of it is certainly more juvenile than Bioware).

Leisure Suit Larry seems like a shoe-in for this too.

Is somewhat an odd smattering of games though, since the only game basically made as porn is Custer's Revenge, where there's certainly no shortage of modern examples (though they may not be carried as widely).

For the recommended stuff I will encourage them to watch YouTube clips if they don't have access to the games.

I tried to choose games that caught public controversy for their depiction of sex/sexuality. The Witcher, as far as i recall, did not. Leisure Suit Larry would be a good addition to the recommended games (or DOA Volleyball, Guy Game, Playboy titles, etc.).

In other news, there's no way i can possibly include every representative/important game for each topic picked

[lisalover1]

this is awesome Dave!

I haven't read that Bogost book yet, but really should.

I'm reading through it right now; it's really fascinating, and he covers a lot of ground with relatively bite-sized chapters.

[dsheinem]

Here's the availability chart i am working on. "BOLT" means the game or demo will be on a course web resource: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... sp=sharing

[Erik_Twice]

Hey, if there's someone who I trust to do a good course on video games it's you, so I approve


Some thoughts:

Lecture: The History of Video Games, Part 2: 1984-1996 (8 and 16 bit)
Required Playing: Super Mario Bros game (8-bit or 16-bit), Sonic the Hedgehog game (16-bit), Samurai Shodown (any), Gradius (any)

Any particular reason to play Sonic? While great it's not as groundbreaking as other games from this period like, say, Doom, Simcity or Myst.

PD: Xevious FTW

Guest: Video Games and Identity
Required Reading: Voorhees
Required Playing: Civilization (any), Final Fantasy (any)
Suggested Additional Playing:

What is identity in this context? I'm curious

Thursday, October 3
Lecture: Gaming Internationally: Japan

There's a book about the arcade scene in Japan and how it evolved but I' haven't read it. It may interest you.



Lecture: Games as Interactive Fiction
Required Reading: Bogost, pp. 24-29 (“Reverence)
Required Playing: Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 2, Grim Fandango, Bioshock

Half-Life 1 starts very slow, it's half an hour before you do anything beyond looking at NPCs talk in your direction and the scripted events take a while to start after that.

Grim Fandango is a great choice.

It's kind of a shame you can only focus on video games since some kind of roleplaying game would be great here and you can probably find some suited for class enviroments. They aren't "games" though.

Video Games and Music
Required Reading: Bogost - pp 30-36 (“Music”)
Required Playing: Beat Hazard or Audiosurf, Bastion,
Suggested Additional Playing: Rez, Child of Eden, Guitar Hero (any), Rock Band (any), Rhythm Heaven (any), Chrono Trigger, Castlevania (any)

Note that you can easily play Dance Dance Revolution at any arcade or through the Stepmania simulator, which is free to download.



You can play Quake at Quakelive.com It's a free, slighty improved version of Quake III and it's very accessible to beginners.

[isiolia]

For the recommended stuff I will encourage them to watch YouTube clips if they don't have access to the games.

I tried to choose games that caught public controversy for their depiction of sex/sexuality. The Witcher, as far as i recall, did not. Leisure Suit Larry would be a good addition to the recommended games (or DOA Volleyball, Guy Game, Playboy titles, etc.).

In other news, there's no way i can possibly include every representative/important game for each topic picked

Ah, I just wasn't sure the angle you were looking at them in.

The Witcher did have the sexual content featured fairly prominently in the gaming press, though in part due to the nudity being censored in the original US release (and restored with the Director's Cut patch/Enhanced Edition).

Tera may be worth a mention for the censorship of the Elin outside of Asia.

Rapelay caused a bit of a controversy not too long ago, but I assume that one won't be on the list

[dsheinem]

Any particular reason to play Sonic? While great it's not as groundbreaking as other games from this period like, say, Doom, Simcity or Myst.

Those are all good picks. I may add one or two, but Sonic stays. Myst and Sim City are harder to just pick up and play and they will be reading about Doom - I may include it anyway...

What is identity in this context? I'm curious

Here's the two articles for that week: http://www.academia.edu/267000/I_Play_T ... the_Cogito and http://gamestudies.org/0902/articles/voorhees. Gerald is a grad school friend and I will likely have him Skype in to discuss...

There's a book about the arcade scene in Japan and how it evolved but I' haven't read it. It may interest you.

I know it, but will likely choose an article instead. I have a few in mind.


Thanks for the suggestions for free stuff, too. I'll have to look into the DDR one...

[J T]

Man, I've never thought about how time consuming a video game course would be. Games take too damn long and they don't let you skip chapters. To be an expert in this stuff you need to have been playing your whole life.

I think you need to share save states to relevant scenes or something like that. Playing God of War to talk about sex is mostly about the quick-time event where it happens, unless you talk about phallic imagery, in which case, that giant three headed Hydra battle just took on a new unpleasant meaning for me.