The Rhetoric of Gaming in Scandinavia
Fall 2015Copenhagen
3 Credits
Major Disciplines: Communication, Computer Science, Rhetoric
Faculty Member: Iben Schandel, [email protected]
Program Director: Helle Rytkønen, Vestergade 7.38, [email protected]
Assistant Program Director: Dorte Mari Aggergaard, Vestergade 7.37, [email protected]
Program Assistant: Kelsey Keegan, Vestergade 7.37, [email protected]
Mondays and Thursdays, 11.40-13.00, F24-403
Description of course:
Chances are that you - or someone you know - just played a game online, on your computer or on your cell phone. The gaming industry is booming with both fun and serious games - from World of War Craft, (Icelandic produced) EVE Online, (Swedish produced) Minecraft, SIMS City and League of Legends played on gaming consoles or computers to Bejeweled and Candy Crush played on your mobile phone. We play games to relax, but games are also sites of community building, social activism, bullying and education. Studies furthermore suggest that games reflect, shape and/or challenge our cultural and gender identities.
Scandinavia is a special place to study the culture, as well as threats and potentials of games. In four years the number of Danish gaming start-ups has doubled and the export increased with 64% during the same period. Danish game producers like KnapNok deliberately design games that challenge the philosophy of games like Wii, emphasizing that games should not be designed to be “safe” but can be used to challenge and negotiate social boundaries. And Danish game developer Serious Games Interactive is Europe’s leading developer of games-based learning.
Drawing on communication theories and cultural studies, we will analyze games in a variety of genres (arcade-style; first person shooter; multiplayer role playing; educational; open and virtual world experiences) and explore Scandinavian gaming trends that challenge cultural norms, experiment with how we play games, and/or use games for educational purposes.
You will meet innovative and creative companies and also get feedback on your own final project. The course is non-technical and no gaming experience or interest is required, though you will of course also enjoy this class if you are a gamer. Together, we develop a vocabulary for discussing and analyzing games, and the potentials and challenges of gaming through hands-on experience from field trips and discussions with special guests in class.
At the end of the course you are able to:
Critically analyze games from a cultural, societal, and communication perspective
Reflect on the relationship between the player and the game(s)
Explore and understand the expressive potential of games
Have a deeper understanding of game mechanics and core fundamentals of game design
Field study visits may include: Copenhagen Game Collective
Workshop at the Danish IT University’s game design and game developer department
Spilhuset i Pilestræde // CPH Game Collective
Aalborg University
Serious Games
Assignments and Grading:
Participation active participation, presentation plus peer review 25%
Game Design create your own game based on previous lectures 25%
Game Analysis Paper 2-3 page analysis of a game of your own choice – you may include different media such as a visual scrapbook or voxpop/interviews 20%
Final Project Create a game design document and pitch a game of your own choice, revise an existing game, or create a storyboard of a new game with audience and purpose in mind (must include a reflection paper) 30%
Participation:
Attendance in all classes and field studies
Involvement in class and group discussions
Level of preparation and ability to answer questions asked in class
Active participation in field studies
Participation in in-class exercises and class presentations
Classroom Policies:
Students are expected to be on time for class and attend all scheduled classes. If one misses multiple classes the Director of Teaching and Learning as well as the Director of Student Affairs will be notified and they will follow up with you to assure that all is well. Absences may jeopardize your grade. Allowances will be made in case of illness, but in the case of multiple illnesses you will need to provide a doctor’s note.
Laptops may be used for note-taking. Please wait until after the class to check email, Facebook, and check and send messages. If surfing the internet or text messages become a problem laptops and cell phones will be banned from the classroom.
Food and drink is allowed during the lecture in the regular classroom as long as it is not a bother to others in the room.
COURSE SCHEDULE
1. Thursday, August 20th – First day of class
A history of games – the meaning of games in cultures?
Students will receive an introduction to the course, processes and learning objectives as well as a brief history of games and examples of the diversity of games and their cultural impact. At the end of the class we will take a trip down to introduce you to our very own gaming lounge!
In –class activity: We will play The Danish Clapping Game to get to know each other:
http://www.habgames.com/games/danish-clapping/ Required readings/preparations:
Reflect on a memorable game experience and prepare a short description of it.
What is a game and how do we analyze it
2. Monday, August 24th – What is a game really?
How do we define games? What do games consist of and what is gameplay?
What are games? The concept of games have been subject to various definitions. We will discuss some of these and go over the core elements of a game.
In-class activity: We will discuss the various definitions in accordance with games, new and old, and see how they fit with today’s games.
Required readings:
Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Meaningful Play (pages 31 - 37) and Defining Games (pages 71 - 83) Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design: Games and Video Games (pages 2 – 14)
3. Thursday, August 27th - Games as formal systems We will discuss games as formal systems.
In-class activity: Each group will get a simple but broken game as a starting point. Groups will identify what is broken about their game, and make modifications to create a more meaningful experience for players.
Required readings:
Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Chapter 4: Design (pages 38 – 47), Chapter 5: Systems (pages 49 - 55) & Chapter 6: Interactivity (pages 57 - 69)
4. Monday, August 31st - Game Analysis
In this class we will focus on key theoretical moments in game studies. We will attempt to define games, both as an area of study and as an expressive medium.
In-class activity: We will meet at the DIS reception desk at 11:40 sharp and go to Bastard Café (a café with lots of board games). Here the class will be divided into groups and must choose a game to play and analyze in accordance with the read material and the definition of games as discussed in earlier classes. Required readings:
Zagal et al. (2007): Towards an Ontological Language for Game Analysis (12 pages)
Wednesday, September 2
nd8:30-12:30 – Field trip – Mystery Games
5. Thursday, September 3rd – When Games Go Digital
We will look at how the computer changes games as they go from analog to digital. In-class activity: We will discuss the experience in the Mystery Rooms and more. Required readings:
Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play, Ch: 8 (Defining Digital Games, pages 85-91)
Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design, pages 15-18 (Conventional Games Versus Video Games)
Monday, September 7 – No Class, Core Course Week
Thursday, September 10 – No Class, Core Course Week
How do we play, use and understand games
6. Monday, September 14th – Social Games – Cooperation and Collaboration
In traditional game theory, games fall into two basic categories: competitive or cooperative. A third category has been increasingly popular in recent years - collaborative games. Collaboration as a team differs from cooperation among individuals in that cooperative players may have different goals and payoffs, where collaborative players have only one goal and share the rewards or penalties of their decisions.
Required readings:
Zagal (2006): Collaborative Games: Lessons learned from board games (15 pages)
7. Thursday, September 17th – Flow, engagement, immersion and presence The great allure of games
Why are games so alluring? How do players respond when playing a game? Studies in game experiences have identified different types of user experience stages known as flow, engagement, immersion and presence. In-class activity: TBA
Required readings:
Chen (2007): Flow in Games (and everything else) (4 pages)
Brown & Cairns (2004): A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion (4 pages)
McMahan (2003): Immersion, Engagement, and Presence – a Method for Analyzing 3-D Video Games (17 pages)
8. Monday, September 21st – Persuasive Games and Procedural Rhetoric
Games are not just for fun. Instead, some of them are focusing on teaching its players about important issues in society or around the world by using the elements of gaming to get their points across. Rather than telling us, we learn through game mechanics.
In-class activity: We will play a variety of pervasive games, (eg. Kabul Kaboom! and September 12th) and discuss how these games convey their messages.
Required readings:
Bogost (2008): The Rhetoric of Video Games (required reading 17 pages – please note that pages 7-9 (the subchapter Rhetoric) and pages 21-22 (the subchapter Learning from Procedural Rhetoric) are not mandatory to read!)
Frasca (2003): Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology (11 pages)
9. Thursday, September 24th – Learning and Serious Games – guest lecture by Serious Games Creating games for learning
Required readings: TBA
Monday, September 28 – No Class, Travel Break 1
Thursday, October 1 – No Class, Travel Break 1
10. Monday, October 5th – Games and Narratives: Beyond points and winning
Games are no longer just about high scores and beating a level. As games have grown with the
technological development, games have begun to encompass vivid worlds and stories, and winning is a matter of experiencing and feeling more than anything else.
In-class activity: We will look at several examples of relevant games. Required readings:
Ryan (2008): Interactive Narrative, Plot Types, and Interpersonal Relations (7 pages) More TBA
11. Thursday, October 8th – Games are about Interaction
The “debate” between ludology and narratology is the fight between games as systems or stories. While the debate has died down, it has influenced a trend in games about how much interactivity a narrative can afford its players.
In-class activity: We will play The Stanley Parable, Dear Esther and Façade Required readings:
Wardrip-Fruin et al (2009): Agency Reconsidered (9 pages) More TBA
12. Monday, October 12nd – Violent Games and Game Ethics
Is there a problem with so many video games being about violence? Do first person shooters or fighting games affect the players and should we be worried? We will debate this fairly old question and talk about the new game Hatred that sparked a big controversy for being all about killing innocents.
In-class activity: We will watch some gameplay trailers and clips and discuss the ethics of violent games. Readings:
Gerard Jones, 2008: Killing Monsters (chapters to be announced) More TBA
13. Thursday, October 15th – Representation of gender, ethnicity and sexuality in games
Are everyone represented equally? Games have long had the reputation of “being made by men, for men” and mainly catering to the white young male rather than anyone else. We will take a look at gender, minority and sexuality in games and discuss how game characters are represented, how they are changing, and what it may mean for players.
Required readings:
Williams et al (2009): The virtual census: representations of gender, race and age in video games (17 pages)
Condis (2014): No homosexuals in Star Wars? BioWare, ‘gamer’ identity, and the politics of privilege in a convergence culture (12 pages)
Monday, October 19 – No Class, Travel Break 2
Thursday, October 22 – No Class, Travel Break 2
14. Monday, October 26th – GamerGate and the harassment of women
Gamergate is a movement that allegedly runs under the banner of advocating for ethics in game journalism and the “gamer identity”. However, with the movement came also a wave of harassment towards female game developers and critics such as Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian.
In-class activity: We will watch GTFO: the movie Required readings:
Williams (2012): When Gaming Goes Bad: An Exploration of Video Game Harassment Towards Female Gamers (8 pages)
Molden (2015): How Do You Catch a Cloud and Pin it Down? The struggle to define and identify the GamerGate “movement” (14 pages)
Dill, Brown & Collins (2008): Effects of exposure to sex-stereotyped video game characters on tolerance of sexual harassment (7 pages)
15. Thursday, October 29th – Characters and the Self
What is an avatar? How do players construct (and customize) and relate to their created avatars. Do we view these characters differently than pre-designed characters? We will discuss the meaning of the constructed self in both virtual worlds and single player games.
Required readings:
Trepte & Reinecke (2010): Avatar Creation and Video Game Enjoyment (12 pages)
Shaw (2011): “He could be a bunny rabbit for all I care”: Exploring identification in digital games (12 pages)
16. Monday, November 2nd – Online Spaces and Cultures
The genre of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games has been booming throughout the last decade with games such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and the Icelandic EVE Online.
In-class activity: We will discuss these online games as spaces and cultures. Readings:
Steinkuehler & Williams (2006): Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as “Third Places” (21 pages)
Kozinets (2010): “Understanding culture online” (20 pages)
Games of the North
17. Thursday, November 5th – Going Indie in Denmark – guest lecture by BetaDwarf
What is it like going indie in a small country like Denmark? The guys from BetaDwarf will tell about their way from university students to being one of Denmark’s game developers.
Readings:
Marklund: Game Development, Education and Incubation – A brief overview of Scandinavian game development, markets, education, and support structures (14 pages)
Monday, November 9 – No Class, Travel Break 3
Thursday, November 12 – No Class, Travel Break 3
18. Monday, November 16th – Games and Cultural Distinctions Is there such thing as a Nordic voice?
Denmark inhabits several small game studios, including, KnapNok Games, Investigate North and PlayDead. Sweden and Iceland have also made their mark on the gaming industry by producing Minecraft, Amnesia and EVE Online.
Are games developed in the Nordic countries unique? Are there any differences in the games developed in the Nordic countries compared to other regions of the world (for instance, the US and Japan)?
We will meet in the game room!
In-class activity: We will play various Nordic games while discussing if they have cultural distinctions and how they relate to the field study yesterday.
No readings for this class.
Wednesday, November 18
th13:00-17:00 - Field Trip
TBA:
Spilhuset/KnapNok/Investigate North/Sybo Games/Hapti.co/PlayDead
Designing a Game
19. Thursday, November 19th – Creation Week The iterative process of game design
We will begin our final project assignment. Either with a group or on your own, you will create a game universe and write a design document for it inspired by the semester’s topics and readings. We will also prepare for a final pitch session.
Readings:
Familiarize yourself with design documents from 3-4 well-known games picked from Gamasutra.com 20. Monday, November 23rd – Continued game development and the art of playtesting
What is optimal playtesting?
Today we play each other’s prototypes and give feedback using the vocabulary and terms we’ve learned through the course.
21. Thursday, November 26th – The New Gaming Revolution: Virtual and Augmented Reality Making games more real for the future
The technology of computers is hastily evolving, and a new trend that is trying to emerge is virtual reality and, to some extent, augmented reality. Several companies are fighting to get out their VR head
displays, such as the Oculus Rift, the Microsoft Hololens and Sony’s Project Morpheus.
We will discuss how this new technology may affect games and how they may be used in the future. In-class activity: We will see examples of how companies are trying to make games and virtual experiences become more real and immersive through HMD and specialized setups.
Readings: TBA
22. Monday, November 30th – TBA
This class has been kept empty for now.
23. Thursday, December 3rd – Pitching your game The final class!
Today we go out with a bang! Each group will have prepared a presentation to “sell” their game from the Creation Week. How do you convey what your game is about, who it is for and why we should play it?
Readings: TBA
