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Videogames: Theory and History
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A note on the organization/chronology of the course
Donovan’s book moves us through the history of videogames in a pretty linear fashion. However, we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking...
ryannhouse
Aug 31, 20211 min read
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Week 1 - Aug 27th (Play... and Beyond!)
Readings: Miguel Sicart - "Play Is" (Perusall) Frans Maya - "A (Very) Short History of Game Studies" (Perusall) Syllabus (Basecamp)...
ryannhouse
Aug 30, 20211 min read
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Week 2 - Sept 3 (The Secret* Origin of Videogames) *not so secret
Read: Fernandez-Vara (1-54) Donovan (3-47) Ryan House - "Life on the Battlefield: Reframing the Domestic Experience of War in This War...
ryannhouse
Aug 17, 20211 min read
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Week 3 Sept 10 (By the Glowing Light of the Arcade)
Read: Donovan 49-93 Fernandez-Vara Ch. 4 (86-116) Fernandez-Vara Ch 6 (173-216) (Not all of this will be applicable to the first...
ryannhouse
Aug 17, 20211 min read
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Week 4 - Sept 17 (Game Over?)
Read: Donovan 94-109, 139-151 (skip chs. 9 & 10) Watch: The Video Game Crash (~2 mins) IBM PC - The First Games 1981 (~15 mins) Play...
ryannhouse
Aug 16, 20211 min read
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Week 5 - Sept 24 - (The Return of the Videogame)
Read: Fernandez-Vara - Ch 3 (55-85) Donovan - 153-198 Watch: “Nuts for Nintendo,” ABC News (1988) (~10 mins) Jerry Lawson Changed the...
ryannhouse
Aug 15, 20211 min read
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Week 6 - Oct 1 (Videogames in the Hot Seat)
Read: Donovan - 213-263 Carley A. Kocurek, "Night Trap: Moral Panic" Watch: Early 90s News Story on Videogame Violence (~2 mins) The...
ryannhouse
Aug 14, 20211 min read
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Week 7 - Oct 8 (Enter, the Net)
Read: Donovan (265-319) Shira Chess, “Introduction to Ready Player Two” Watch: The Evolution of Online Gaming (~11 mins) Video Games for...
ryannhouse
Aug 14, 20211 min read
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Week 8 - Oct 15 (Rated E For Everyone!)
Read: Donovan (321-355) Jesper Juul, "What is Casual?" Bo Ruberg, "Playing to Lose: Burnout and the Queer Art of Failing at Videogames"...
ryannhouse
Aug 13, 20211 min read
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Week 9 - Due Oct 22 (The Birth of "Indie Games")
Read: Donovan (357-369) C. Thi Nguyen, "Agency as Art" Juul, Introduction to Handmade Pixels Course Document: Project 2 directions Watch:...
ryannhouse
Aug 11, 20211 min read
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Week 10 - Due Oct 29
Read: Fernandez-Vara - Ch 5 - (117-172) Zubek, "Elements" Erik Zimmerman, "Manifesto for a Ludic Century" Watch: 1. NYU Game Center...
ryannhouse
Aug 10, 20211 min read
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Week 11 - Due Nov 5 (Discussing Videogames)
Read: Luke Plunkett, Kotaku, "Firewatch: The Kotaku Review" Melissa Kagen, "Walking, Talking, and Playing with Masculinities in...
ryannhouse
Aug 9, 20211 min read
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Week 12 - Nov 12
Read: Brandan Keogh, "Across Worlds and Bodies" Steve Swink, "Defining Game Feel" Watch: Secrets of Game Feel and Juice - GameMaker's...
ryannhouse
Aug 8, 20211 min read
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Week 13 - Nov 19 - Serious Games
Read: Paolo Pedercini (Molleindustria), “Videogames and the Spirit of Capitalism” Play: Cart Life – Richard Hofmeier (2010) September...
ryannhouse
Aug 7, 20211 min read
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Week 14 - "We Shape Our Tools...."
"...and afterwards our tools shape us." -Marshall McLuhan Thanksgiving break - No Class Meeting To do: 1. Choose the "no-code" platform...
ryannhouse
Aug 5, 20211 min read
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Week 15 - Doing Things with Videogames
Read: Ian Bogost - "Media Microecology" & "The End of Gamers," from How to Do Things with Videogames (~15 pages) Watch: GameMaker's...
ryannhouse
Nov 28, 20211 min read
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