Comm 496

Video Games: Content, industry, and policy

T, Th 3:30-4:50 p.m.

FLB G-48

Instructor: Dmitri Williams,

CRN 40138 (Graduate), 40137 (Undergraduate)

Office: Lincoln Hall 169

Office Hours: Before class or by appointment

Web links at https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/dcwill/www/gamepages.html

Overview

Video games are an increasingly important medium in terms of national use, cultural impact and profitability. With over $30 billion in worldwide sales last year (more than motion pictures) and a rapidly growing base of mainstream users, games are a medium that needs to be examined. However, this industry, its history and the cultural practices it engenders have been seriously neglected in comparison to television and other media.

The course has been designed as a broad introduction to the medium and history of video games. It draws from a wide variety of disciplines to examine video games as aesthetic products, cultural products, economic outputs, as a policy issue, as possible sources of effects and sites of community. Such a varying set of issues requires a highly interdisciplinary approach. As a result, the course will draw upon the fundamentals of business and economics, sociology, social psychology, history, policy analysis and cultural studies.

Students need not have prior experience in these areas but must demonstrate a willingness to learn several approaches. Students should also be aware that the interdisciplinary nature of the course will make it more challenging than most, but will in turn offer more to the student over the course of the semester. Students expecting an easy course consisting of playing and talking about games will be disappointed.

Sessions will consist of both lecture and discussion. Because a large part of the class will focus on discussion, informed class participation is a crucial part of each student’s grade.

Assignments

The main requirements are participation, readings, two midterms and short assignments leading to a major term project. Participation is an important component of the class.

Readings will be supplied in a course pack, available at Notes-n-Quotes. All of the readings in the syllabus are required, and supplemental readings may be added as the term progresses, depending on the interests of the students. The materials consist of book excerpts, research papers, and trade and popular press articles.

A series of short paper assignments will lay the groundwork for a larger, final project of the student’s choosing that will be developed by the student and approved by the instructor.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory, and is taken at the beginning of the class. You are allowed two absences without explanation. Anything else must be documented or will otherwise affect your grade significantly.

Don’t be late. Bad things happen to late students.

Other

All students are required to sign up for two email services:

1) Games Industry Biz update at

2) A customized email digest based on “video games” at

Grading

The papers for this class are graded on both content and format. Papers written unprofessionally will receive poor grades.

Exams are graded blind: names are removed before grading for anonymity.

Any queries about your grade on an assignment must be submitted to me in writing, no sooner than 24 hours after you get your grade. I will then review your work again and meet with you to discuss your grade.

Grade breakdown

Short assignments15%

Midterm 115%

Midterm 215%

Debate performance5%

Final Paper30%

Participation & Attendance20%

Final Paper

The final paper is a research paper on a topic of student’s choosing, approved by the instructor. Students will submit proposals and outlines during the term. The paper will be between 10 and 15 pages.

Week / Day / Topic /

Readings

/ Assignments
1 / Th, 8/24 / Intro, Hello
2 / T, 8/30 / Game Content: Genres/AI, Content Analysis, Popularity / Sellers, “Designing the Experience of Interactive Play”*
Th, 9/1 / Industry History: Origins / Levy, “Spacewar”
3 / T, 9/6 / Industry History: Atari / Kent, “Ultimate History” Ch. 3-5 (p. 27-58)
Th, 9/8 / Industry History: Nintendo to Now / Sheff, “Game Over” p. 1-11 & 349-389
4 / T, 9/13 / Making Games: Guest speaker? / GDC Handouts / Short paper: Game & company profile
Th, 9/15 / History, then Economics / Kline et al, “Digital Play” Ch. 7, p. 151-168
5 / T, 9/20 / Economics/IO model / Kline et al, “Digital Play” Ch. 8, p. 169-192
Th, 9/22 / Economics/IO model / Williams, “Structure and Competition in the U.S. Home Video Game Industry”
6 / T, 9/27 / Culture Wars: Left vs. Right vs. Players / Y Gasset, “The Coming of the Masses,”
Adorno and Horkheimer, “Culture Industry” excerpt / Reaction Paper
Th, 9/29 / Midterm 1
7 / T, 10/4 / Media Constructions/Social History / Glassner, “The Culture of Fear” p. 58-74, Herz “Joystick Nation” Ch. 4, p. 43-59
Th, 10/6 / Media Constructions/Social History / Williams, “A Brief Social History of Game Play”*
8 / T, 10/11 / Motivations to play,
player types / Raney et al, “Adolescents and the Appeal of Games”* / Player type exercise: Yee vs. Bartle
Th, 10/13 / Presence, Narrative & Interactivity / Lee et al, “Narrative and Interactivity in Computer Games,”* OR Crawford, “Interactive Storytelling”
9 / T, 10/18 / Ratings Systems / ESRB.com and psvratings.com / Ratings check assignment: evaluate evaluators
Th, 10/20 / Effects / Anderson & Bushman, “Effects of Violent Video Games,” and Freedman, “Evaluating the Research on Violent Video Games”
10 / T, 10/25 / Effects/Legal Cases / Jones, “Killing Monsters” Ch. 10
Th, 10/27 / Public Policy:
Debate & Debrief / Debate Packet: To be supplied / Group meetings: prepare for debate
11 / T, 11/1 / Midterm 2
Th, 11/3 / Gender, Sexuality in games / Bryce & Rutter, “Gendered Gaming in Gendered Space,” excerpts from King & Borland, “Dungeons and Dreamers” p. 143-147, and Kline et al “Digital Play” p. 258-268.
12 / T, 11/8 / Identity, Race in games / Nakamura, “Race In/For Cyberspace”
Th, 11/10 / Term Paper Workshop / Term paper topic + brief (1 page max) write up due
13 / T, 11/15 / Online Issues I: IP, Ultima, Role Play, Griefing / King & Borland, “Dungeons & Dreamers” p. 148-163, browse
OR read Herz, “Star Warriors” / Terra Nova Assignment
Th, 11/17 / Online Issues / Castronova Visit.
Read Dibble, “Unreal Estate Boom”
14 / 11/21-11/25, Thanksgiving Break
15 / T, 11/29 / Online Community: Guilds, Clans, Effects;
Case Study: Order of Light / Dibble, “A Rape in Cyberspace,” and Chiarella, “The Lost Boys”
Th, 12/1 / Alternative Game Nation: Indie games, Location-based games, Viral hybrids / Hall, “Future of Games: Mobile Gaming”
16 / T, 12/6 / Games for Education / Lieberman, “What Can We Learn From Playing Interactive Games?”
Th, 12/8 / Open
17 / T, 12/13 / Final Papers due in my box or office by 5 pm

*From Vorderer, P. and J. Bryant. (Eds.) Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses and Consequences. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum.