Game Culture

Teacher: T.L. Taylor (tltaylor@itu.dk) (office: 2D18, phone: 7218 5035).

Description: This course will examine computer games from a cultural and sociological perspective. Rather than focusing on tasks like level construction, it will explore the ways culture, socialization, and values are a part of gaming. Using a variety of theoretical & methodological approaches (drawn from the humanities and social sciences) a range of topics will be discussed in an attempt to understand not only the internal workings and social dynamics of computer games, but their place in the broader culture. Topics include: social processes and interaction; games as communication spaces and virtual worlds; intellectual property and commodification in games, players as producers of game content, political/ideological analysis of games; gender and race in gaming; and design & values.

Format and Grading: Lectures, discussion, groupwork, classroom exercises. Final project including synopsis (solo or group) with oral examination. The language for the course is English (including all written materials).

Literature: The course compendium should be purchased from the ITU Bookstore.

Software: All students must particpate in some multiplayer space (an MMOG, XBoxLive, Second Life, etc.).

Course plan:

Jan 31 - Introduction

Feb 7 - Technology & Culture

Bijker and Law, "General Introduction"
Winner, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?"
Crawford and Rutter, "Digital Games and Cultural Studies"

Feb 14 - Embodied Play

Read the first two articles then pick 2 of the remaining 3

Dovey & Kennedy, "Bodies and Machines"
Latour, "Where are the Missing Masses?"
Lahti, "As We Become Machines"
Taylor, L. "Platform Dependent"
Bayliss, "Notes Toward a Sense of Embodied Gameplay"

Feb 21 - Constructing a Project: Problem Statements, Methods, Lit Reviews, and Writing (Guest lecturer Jessica Enevold)

Booth, Chapters 3 & 4 from The Craft of Research

Prep for class assignment sheet

Exercise period: Game Lecture Series, Jette Lauridsen @ 16:15

Feb 28 - Avatars and Identity

Turkle, "Aspects of the Self"
Taylor, "Living Digitally"
Haraway, excerpt from "A Cyborg Manifesto"

March 6 - Gender & Gaming

Bornstein, "Naming all the Parts"
Hargreaves, "Femininity or 'Musculinity': Changing Images of Female Sports"
Kerr, "Women Just Want to Have Fun"
Jenkins, "Complete Freedom of Movement"

March 13 - Game Community?

Jakobsson & Taylor, "Sopranos Meets EQ"
Wellman & Gulia, "Virtual Communities As Communities"
Lockard, "Progressive Politics, Electronic Individualism and the Myth of Virtual Community"

March 20 - No class, Spring holiday

March 27 - Emergent & Distributed Culture

Steinkuehler, "The Mangle of Play"
Jakobsson, "Playing with the Rules"

April 3 - Player Producers & Co-creation

Jenkins, "Interactive Audiences?"
Postigo, "From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-Industrial Transitions from Leisure to Work"
Dovey & Kennedy, "Interventions and Recuperations?"

April 10 - Regulating Culture & IP

Hunter & Lawstowka, "The Laws of Virtual Worlds"
Lessig, "Cyberspaces"

Exercise period: Game Lecture Series, Shawn Lawson @ 16:15

April 17 - Managing Play

Koster, "Declaring the Rights of Players"
Castronova, "The Right to Play
Grossberg, "Power and Daily Life"

April 24 - Professional (Computer) Gaming

Rambusch, et.al., "Exploring eSports"
Wagner, "On the Scientific Relevance of eSports"

May 1 - Prep for presentations of work next week

May 8 - Final class: Presentations of work

Exercise period: Game Lecture Series, Torill Mortensen @ 16:15

May 21, 15:00 - Project synopsis (3 copies) due in exam office.

June 11-13 - Exams