Game Design as a Cultural Practice / Fall 2002
Dr. Janet H. Murray  LCC 4400 / LCC 6215  Tuesdays  3-6  Skiles 349  
requirements | schedule | texts | temporary CoWeb | final CoWeb  

Week
Date

Topic

Play/View

Read

1

8/20

Intro

powerpoints:

Culture

Predation and other game themes

 

(In Class, review afterwards):

Homer, Cyclops Episode from the Odyssey  Chapter 9

 

The Riddle of the Sphinx Apollodorus,

------

Matthew Southern, "The Cultural Study of Games"

 

2

8/27

Taxonomies of Play and Games

Board Games and Dice Games

Taxonomies

Games of Fate

Board Game of your choice and/or

 

Solitaire or other fate-based game

***

Senet, ancient Egyptian board game

S-S, ch 1,4

*Partlett, ch 1-2  (reserve)

*Rouse, ch 1, 7 (reserve)

*Callois, ch 1-3, 8 (reserve)

*In Search of Bobby Fischer

3

9/3

Arcade Games:

Mastery and Addiction

SpaceWar!

Arcade Games

(Shockwave Arcade), such as PacMan,

Centipede, Tetris(Shockwave),

(or download Tetris))

or current student center selection

S-S, ch  2-3

Graetz, "The Origin of Spacewar!,"

*Rouse, ch 4,,8(Centripede, Tetris)

:*Partlett, chapter 10 [re: Tetris]

*Loftus&Loftus, Ch 2 (why fun)

*Turkle Ch 2 (holding power)

4

9/10

Adventure Mazes and Riddles

Crowther and Woods: Adventure

or as download

Lebling, Blank, Anderson, Zork

Rick Adams, The Origins of Adventure  (undated)

Anderson's 3 part History of Zork  (1985)

Lebling, Blank, Anderson, "Zork  (1979)

Rumplestiltskin (~1815)

5

9/17

Prelim

Topic

Due

Quests

Super Mario Brothers

Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in Salon

*Murray HoH, ch 5 (reserve)

*Jenkins, Complete Freedom of Movement:

Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces. 

*other Miyamoto interviews

6

9/24

Contests and Gore

Mortal Kombat

S-S, ch  5

*Barthes, Wrestling

*Goldstein, Senate Testimony

*Articles on www.game-culture.com

**Gladiator (film)

7

10/1

Affiliation and Identity

Everquest or other networked

team games (optional)

S-S, ch  6-7

Baseball coverage on TV

*A League of One's Own (film)

8

10/8

Topic

w/ bibliog

due

Antisocial Patterns

Grand Theft Auto OR

Doom or similar shooter OR

Deus Ex  or similar shooter/adventure

S-S chapters 8-9

*Ender 's Game

*Ender 'Shadow

Henry Jenkins on Donahue

9

10/15

 

no class

no class

(start on simulations for two weeks from now)

10

10/22

 

Special Class:

Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford, "The Art of Computer Game Design." (1982). Available here: http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html or in PDF here: http://www.erasmatazz.com/free/AoCGD.pdf

11

10/29

Conf

 

Simulations and Society

Simulation and Culture

Sid Meier, Civilization

OR

Will Wright, Sim City

John Conway's Game of Life,

    (cellular automata)

 

 

 

Sim City / The Sims

Project conferences this week!

S-S chapters 10-11

*Rouse, chapter 2

*  Lenoir All But War Is Simulation 

* Dunnigon,  Wargames Handbook (ch 6,7)

 

*Ted Friedman, The Semiotics of Sim City, 

*Turkle, Life on the Screen, pp.  (66-73) (reserve)

+Starr, Seductions of Sim

* Martin Gardner on Conway's Game  (1970)

*Rouse, chapters 20, 22

* Interview with W.Wright

http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/pearce/

12

11/5

Simulation and Makebelieve

The Sims

 *Murray, chapters 6-8

13

11/12

 

Can play bring change?

The Sims

S-S chapter 12

14

11/19

Briefs

Due

Project/Report
Brief presentation of
all reports/projects

 

15

11/26

Full

Due

 
Individual Full Seminar
Reports

16

12/3

Full

Due

 

 
Individual Full Seminar Reports

Final hard copy due

5pm Fri 12/6