This course is a companion course to 15-491 Videogame Creation and Design.

Schedule

• Week 1 Introductions / Definitions / History
  • Jan 13th
  • Readings: Joystick Nation – Up to chapter 9
  • Handout – The Vision of Virtual Reality
  • Handout – A Short Guide to Writing about Film
• Week 2 Introduction to Media Analysis
  • Jan 20th
  • Viewing: The Battleship Potempkin
  • Readings: Joystick Nation – Finish
  • Computers as Theatre – Forward, Chapter 1
  • Handout – Dramatic Structure
  • Handout – Notes on Plot, Character, Conflict, Acting
  • Handout – Are Games Interactive?
• Week 3 Introduction to Dramatic Structure
  • Jan 27th
  • Lecture: Don Marinelli, Prof. of Drama, Co-Director of ETC.
  • Readings: Computers as Theatre – Chapters 2,3
  • Handout – The CD-ROM novel Myst and McLuhan’s fourth law of media
  • Assignment: Paper on a commercial. Due Feb. 5^th 5pm under my office door, BH 145E.
• Week 4 Media Analysis of Videogames
  • Feb 3rd
  • Viewing: Gauntlet, Super Bomberman, Chronotrigger
  • Readings: Computers as Theatre – Chapters 4, 7
  • Poetics
  • Handout – Communication within virtual reality
  • Handout – Mondo 2000 interview with Brenda Laurel
• Week 5 Introduction to Communication / Dramatic Structure Discussion
  • Feb 10th
  • Readings: Handout – young and older adult's views of telephone talk (gone over in class)
  • Handout – what have we learned about online gaming?
  • Handout – approaches to managing deviant behavior in virtual communities Handout – making friends in cyberspace
  • Handout – multiple media literacies
  • Handout – visual aspects of media literacy
  • Handout – making MOOsic (should be read after "making friends in cyberspace")
  • Handout – finding one's own in cyberspace
  • Handout – contexts and cues in cyberspace
• Week 6 Games as Academically Viable / Cybersociety and Multiplayer Games
  • Feb 17th
  • Readings: Wired Women –
  • A thousand aunts with modems by Elizable Weise
  • Come in CQ by Ellen Ullman
  • Closure was never a goal in this piece by Judy Malloy and Cathy Marshall
  • We are geeks and we are not guys by L. Jean Camp
  • The price of admission by Stephanie Brail
  • Sex, Fear and Condescension on Campus by Donna M. Riley
  • "So Please Stop, Thank you" by Michele Evard
  • Coming apart at the seams by Shannon McRae
  • Asssignment: Game Paper I: Due 1^st weekend in March .
• Week 7 The Realities of a Diverse Online Environment / Introduction to Gender
  • Feb 24^th
  • Viewing: Starcraft
  • Readings: From Barbie to Mortal Kombat -
  • Chapters 1-3
  • Chapters 5,6 (you can skim the trivial bits)
• Week 8 Women as Gamers
  • March 3rd
  • Viewing: Barbie Fashion Designer
  • Readings: From Barbie to Mortal Kombat – Chapters 11,14
  • Handout - Children's Perceptions of Gender Differences
  • Handout - Mediated Messages
  • Handout - Fabricating the Female Body (important)
• Week 9 The object of my attention: An examination of representation in videogames
  • March 10th
  • Viewing: The Last Express
  • Readings: From Barbie to Mortal Kombat - Chapters 12,13
  • Handout - The kids are allright
  • Handout - Virtual idols and digital girls
  • Handout - Interview with toby gard
  • Handout - Action figures have sex on our computers
  • Handout - An examination of violence and gender role portrayals
  • Handout - Developmental aspects of gender role flexibility and traditionality
  • Handout – Playing violent video and computer games
  • Assignment: Game Paper II: Due Friday, April 9th
• Week 10 Sex, violence, and all that other fun stuff
  • March 17^th
  • Readings: Virtualities - Part One (chapters 1,2) (important)
  • Handout - Adolescents and video games
  • Handout - Computer game playing in early adolescence
  • Handout - Self disclosure on computer forms
• Week 11 Won’t somebody please think of the children?
  • March 31^st
  • Viewing: Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Readings: Virtualities - Chapter 1 (re-read)
  • Handout - Allucquere Rosanne Stone interview for Mondo 2000
  • Handout - Identity, Paranoia, Technology
  • Handout - That's me in the middle
• Week 12 Who is the I in me?
  • April 7^th
  • Viewing: Half-Life, Ultima 4
  • Readings: Virtualities – Part Two (chapters 3,4,5)
  • Handout – The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism
  • Assignment: Final Project: Due Friday, May 7th
• Week 13 Societal Structure - Cause or Effect / Art’s place in the cyberworld
  • April 14th
  • Viewing: Alpha Centauri
  • Readings: Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia –
  • Introduction, Chapter 1, Part 2 (Chapters 5-8)
• Week 14 The medium as the agent of change
  • April 21st
  • Readings: Handout – A Post-Modernist Moment
  • Handout – Operation Desert Storm as "Wargames"
  • Handout – Rating Electronic Games
  • Handout – Headrush
  • Assignment: Come up with one question you’d like the group to answer next week
• Week 15 Wrap - Up
  • April 28th