W

Date

Topic

Play/View

Read

1

8/19

Intro

 Watch the Olympics

Rumplestiltskin (~1815)

Apollodorus, Riddle of the Sphinx,

Homer, Odyssey, Cyclops episode

2

8/26

Taxonomies of Play and Games

Board Games and Dice Games

Board Game of your choice

Solitaire or other fate-based game

Senet, ancient Egyptian board game

AMBIG, ch 1, 4 ; RULES 3-10

Partlett, ch 1-2 (reserve)

Rouse, ch 1, 7 (reserve)

Callois, ch 1-3, 8 (reserve)

3

9/2

Arcade Games:

Mastery and Addiction

SpaceWar! (readme), Tetris, PacMan, Centipede,

Arcade classics or similar at

Shockwave action games), Yahoo games

or current student center selection

AMBIG, ch 2,3 (kids, animals)

Graetz, "The Origin of Spacewar!"

Rouse, ch 4,8(Centipede, Tetris)

Partlett, chapter 10 [re: Tetris]

Loftus&Loftus, Ch 2 (why fun)

Turkle Ch 2 (holding power)

4

9/9

Adventure Mazes and Riddles

Preliminary Topic Due

Crowther and Woods: Adventure downloads (or in EGL)

Lebling, Blank, Anderson, Zork

RULES, ch 11-13 (rule systems);

Rick Adams, The Origins of Adventure (undated)

Anderson's 3 part History of Zork (1985)

Lebling, Blank, Anderson, Zork (1979)

Montfort, Twisty Little Passages (selections)

5

9/16

Quests

Super Mario Brothers (in EGL)

RULES ch 13-21 (rule systems)

Jenkins, Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces

Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in Salon

Murray HoH, ch 5 (reserve)

6

9/23

hurricane catch up week

hurricane catch up week

7

9/30

Contests and Gore /

Affiliation and Identity

TOPIC w/ bibliog. Due!

Mortal Kombat (in EGL)

(omit Everquest assignment)

AMBIG, ch 5 (Power), RULES 22-28

Barthes, Wrestling article (on reserve)

AMBIG, ch 6-7 (Identity)

8

10/7

Lab week

Continue weekly postings

9

10/14 

Lab week

Continue weekly postings

10

10/21

Anti social Game Patterns

Grand Theft Auto OR

Doom or similar shooter OR

Deus Ex or similar shooter/adventure

AMBIG, ch 8, 9

Henry Jenkins on Donahue

Goldstein, Senate Testimony

Articles on www.game-culture.com

Ender 's Game (optional)

Ender 'Shadow (optional)

11

10/28

Games as Interactive Systems

John Conway's Game of Life, (cellular automata)

Sid Meier, Civilization

AMBIG chapters 10-12,

Rouse, chapter 2

Martin Gardner on Conway's Game(1970)

12

11/4

PRELIMINARY PROJECT

PRESENTATIONS

Use ppts or web pages to summarize

Survey research

Focus design decisions

Be prepared for in-class critique

Hand in report on web

13

11/11

Simulations and Society

Simulation and Culture

(plus extra class at 11 am:

Henry Jenkins on games)

Will Wright, Sim City

Ted Friedman, The Semiotics of Sim City

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

Starr, Seductions of Sim

Rouse, chapters 20, 22

Interview with W.Wright

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

14

11/18

Simulation and Makebelieve:

Can Play bring change?

The Sims

AMBIG chapter 12

RULES ch 29-33

15

11/25

THANKSGIVING (no class)

16

12/2

FINAL PROJECT

PRESENTATIONS

Individual Full Seminar Reports

PPTs and posters

Final hard copy due no later than

5pm Monday 12/6

Demo Day December 8th

Posters and game demos of successful projects

and papers (optional)