Donovan’s book moves us through the history of videogames in a pretty linear fashion. However, we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that the medium has evolved in any way but through a messy, somewhat chaotic, and entirely contingent process. For this course, I’ve attempted to keep things organized with an eye to Donovan’s historical account while also exploring themes as they come up. The result is that we’ll sometimes jump around in time, some “eras” of videogame history are condensed or combined with others, and others may be only briefly mentioned at all.
The history of videogames is rich and deep. My hope is that this course sparks a curiosity in you to dig deeper and provides a solid foundation for you to build upon.
