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Kies de Nederlandse taal
Course module: UCHUMMAP32
UCHUMMAP32
Game Studies: Understanding games and play in contemporary culture
Course info
Course codeUCHUMMAP32
EC7.5
Course goals
After completing this course students are able to:
  • Situate and understand video games and playful media within historical, aesthetic, socio-cultural, and political-economic context.
  • Critically analyze video games and playful media from various major theoretical perspectives within game studies.
  • Use medium-appropriate methods of analysis to study video games and playful media.
  • Understand the analytical potential of play as part of research methods.
  • Use both theories and methods from the field of game studies to critically investigate the ludic dimensions of contemporary media and culture.
Content
This course allows students to understand and critically engage with the medium of the video game, which over the past decades has grown into one the most prominent parts of contemporary media and culture. Students will be introduced to the interdisciplinary field of game studies to be able to explore the cultural position and meaning of video games. By assessing the major theoretical discussions in the field, students will be able to analyze games from historical, aesthetic, socio-cultural and political-economic perspectives. Broadening up the scope, students will also look beyond traditional games. In contemporary media and culture, play is no longer an activity limited to such games. Rather, it has become a key characteristic of the use of social media, apps, mobile technology, educational software and so on. Through their design, these media technologies invite, even urge, users to participate playfully. To understand play as an essential aspect of contemporary media culture practices, we will examine the phenomena of serious/applied games, pervasive games and gamification. This will allow students to understand how a ludification of media and culture leads to new modes and practices of playful participation and appropriation but also new strategies for consumer engagement and control.
 
Format
  • Lectures
  • Class presentations
  • Peer review sessions
  • Class discussions and debates on theory
  • Close readings of video games
  • Play-as-research assignments
  • Research-by-design assignments
  • Metagame debate sessions
  • Documentary screenings
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Kies de Nederlandse taal