Instructor: Dr. Brian Ballentine Office: 211 Colson URL: community.wvu.edu/~bdb026/306 Hours: T 1:00 – 3:00 E-mail: [email protected] W 1:00 – 3:00
[To] claim that there is no difference between games and narratives is to ignore essential qualities of both categories. And yet…the difference is not clear cut, and there is significant overlap between the two. (Espen Aarseth, 1997, 4-5). Course Objectives
The objective of this course is to provide students an in-depth understanding of how narrative theory informs (or not) the design and play of video games. According to Espen Aarseth (1997), to “claim that there is no difference between games and narratives is to ignore essential qualities of both categories. And yet…the difference is not clear cut, and there is significant overlap between the two” (4-5). As a new offering from the English department, this course begins with introducing students to the study of narrative theory or narratology. Narrative theory wrestles with the ways in which a particular medium communicates events, characters, settings, and perspectives. The particular medium that will be the focus for this course is the video game. Video games, especially those that contain rich layers of story-telling, provide a dynamic context for exploring narrative frameworks. In turn, video game genres provide students a unique
opportunity to design their own narratives and put theory into practice. Over the semester, students will examine the complex relationships between narrative and video games in order to answer some of the field’s most challenging questions including:
• How do game mechanics contribute to the unfolding of the game’s story?
• How can we best understand various distinctions between terms such as story, plot, narrative, and event and apply those terms to video game play and design?
• How do different narrative elements influence the player’s understanding of the game? • Are video game narratives closer to literature, drama, film, or role-playing games and
which unique affordances do they share?
• What can we learn from video games by comparing and contrasting them to other forms of story-telling?
Expected Learning Outcomes
Using narrative theory and its terminology as a guiding framework, students will learn to think critically about games and gaming issues and gain exposure to the major writers and researchers in the field. Students will also learn how to design and develop an original game concept and how to present that idea in a concise, coherent format, as well as how to critique the ideas of others. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
• Analyze how narrative functions in the design and play of a text-based adventure game. • Articulate their own argument about the effects of writing and narrative on a game’s
audience or player.
• Develop a text-based game using design tactics from the gaming profession.
• Synthesize what they know about narrative theory and apply that knowledge toward the design of an original game.
Required Texts
Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power Video Games. Cambridge: MIT, 2007. Co, Phil. Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling Game Experiences. Berkeley, CA: New
Technical Requirements & Tools
Note: Technology will fail you at some point in the semester. Corrupt files, lost USB drives, or unsaved work are not reasons for work not coming in on time. PLEASE back-up your work. I would recommend opening a Dropbox account and bringing a USB drive to class to manage files. Grading Criteria
Assignments and Grade Percentages
Blog and Blog Posts 15%
Presentation #1: Choose Your Own Adventure Prezi 10%
Presentation #2: Planting your level ideas 10%
Presentation #3: Final Presentation on Game and Game Portfolio 15%
Final Portfolio 20%
- Back of Box Description
- Limiting what your players can do - Planting your level ideas
- Laying out your level - Bug Tracking Sheet
Final/Playable Quest Text Adventure Game 20%
Participation 10%
Plagiarism Policy
West Virginia University defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. All students should act with personal integrity; respect other students’ dignity, rights and property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts.
Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, submitting work of another person or work previously used Superior ~ A (99. 95, 90) Strong ~ B (89, 85, 80) Satisfactory ~ C (79, 75, 70) Poor ~ D (69, 65, 60) Failing ~ F (<60)
Social Justice Statement
West Virginia University is committed to social justice. I concur with that commitment and expect to maintain a positive learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and non-discrimination. Our University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, veteran’s status, religion, sexual orientation, color, or national origin. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in this class will be appreciated and given serious consideration.
If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements with the Office of Disability Services (293-6700).
Attendance
If you amass more than one unexcused absence, your grade for the course will be lowered one full letter grade. For each unexcused absence after one, I reserve the right to lower your final grade by an additional letter grade.
Professional Expectations & Conduct:
In addition to the requirements in this syllabus, you are expected to work until the class period has ended; to complete all reading assignments on time; to help your classmates learn by your responses to their writing; to choose projects that require significant research and analysis; to spend at least six hours per week out of class for writing and class preparation; to be courteous and considerate. Please turn all cell phones and pagers off (as in no ringing and no vibrating) during class time, as they are disruptive to the class. I’ll do the same. No text messaging, Facebook, MySpace, etc, please. All are very detrimental to your class participation grade. Finally, let’s please respect the request for no food or drink in the lab. Because this is a 3 hour class we will take a 10 minute break during which time we may text, use FB, etc. If at any time course expectations are unclear please do not hesitate to ask.
Course Schedule
Week 1 – January 11th
Welcome
In-class: “Play” through all four episodes from Pixelate on understanding games: http://www.pixelate.de/games/understanding-games/episode/1
Download and play a Quest text adventure game from: http://www.textadventures.co.uk/browse/
Assigned: Set up a blog at: 1up.com and send me a friend request so I can add you to the engl306-club.1up.com course “club”. Blog about our readings. Sign up for a free Prezi educational account at: http://prezi.com/profile/signup/edu/
Week 2 – January 18th
Readings: Co, Ch. 1 “How do you make a game?” and Abbott,Ch. 1 “Narrative and life” (pdf) In-class: Complete “Beginners” section of Quest tutorial including ‘Creating a simple game’
and ‘Interacting with objects’: http://quest5.net/wiki/Tutorial_Introduction Assigned: Blog post #2 on next week’s readings
Due: 1up.com blog and blog post #1 on today’s readings
Week 3 – January 25th
Readings: Co, Ch. 2 “Defining the game” and Abbott,Ch. 2 “Defining narrative” (pdf) In-class: Develop “back of box” description (assignment 1, pg. 63). Our genre is ‘text
adventure’ on the PC platform but the rest is up to you and your group. Begin Prezi tutorials: http://prezi.com/learn/
Assigned: Group Assignment #1 Prezi presentation on CYOA book Due: Blog post #2 on today’s readings
Week 4 – February 1st
Readings: Co, Ch. 3 “Enemies and obstacles: Choosing your challenges”
In-class: Develop “Limiting what your players can do” (assignment 2, pg. 86). Many of the skills are defined by Quest (e.g., use, look at, talk to) but name them anyway. Complete first three “Intermediate” sections of Quest tutorial ‘Using scripts,’ ‘Custom Attributes,’ and ‘Custom Commands’: http://quest5.net/wiki/Using_scripts Assigned: “Back of box” description and “Limiting what your players can do” due next week Due: Group Prezi presentations on CYOA book
Week 5 – February 8th
Week 7 – February 22nd
Readings: Wardrip-Fruin Ch. 1 and Wired article “The Curse of Cow Clicker” http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_cowclicker/all/1 In-class: Begin “Laying out your level” (assignment 4, pg. 156)
Assigned: Continue “Laying out your level” (assignment 4, pg. 156) and Blog Post #4 Due: Group Prezi presentations on “Planting your level ideas” from Week 5
Week 8 – February 29th
Readings: Bogost, Preface and Bogost, Ch. 1 “Procedural Rhetoric” In-class: Finish “Laying out your level” (assignment 4, pg. 156) Assigned: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game Due: Blog post #4 on today’s readings
Week 9 – March 7th
Readings: Bogost, Ch. 2 “Political Processes”
In-class: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game Assigned: Blog post #5
Due: “Laying out your level” (hard copy)
Week 10 – March 14th
Readings: Bogost, Ch. 6 “Licensing and Product Placement” plus read an “Expert Blog” post of your choice from Bogost’s Gamasutra blog here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/IanBogost/143/ In-class: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game
Assigned: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game & Blog Post #6 Due: Blog post #5 on today’s readings
Week 11 – March 21st [Ballentine away at conference]
Readings: Bogost, Ch. 8 “Procedural Literacy”
In-class: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game
Assigned: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game & Blog Post #7 Due: Blog Post #6 and informal progress reports of game portfolio status
Week 12 – March 28th SPRING BREAK
Week 13 – April 4th
Readings: Bogost, Ch. 11 “Purposes of Persuasion”
In-class: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game Assigned: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game
Due: Blog Post #7 and informal progress reports of game portfolio status
Week 14 – April 11th
Readings: Co, Ch. 9 “Ship it!”
In-class: Continue developing group Quest text adventure game Assigned: Prepare for testing and bug tracking with peer-review team Due: Working beta version of Quest text adventure game
Week 15 – April 18
thReading How to write a goo bug tracking report and other good bug info: http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/category/bug-defect-tracking/ In-class: Testing and bug tracking
Assigned: Finalize Quest text adventure game for distribution to class. Due: Bug tracking sheet (hard copy)
Week 16 – April 25
thIn-class: Final Presentations and in-class game play
Due: Final presentations (Prezi and/or other multimedia formats) of entire game portfolio
FINAL GAME PORTFOLIOS & TEAM EVALUATIONS – May 3
rd(Thursday)
Due: Final game portfolios complete with playable Quest text adventure game. Groups may choose to ‘turn in’ a portfolio in any number of formats including CD/DVDs, USB drives, URLs to an online portfolio, or invitations to view a Dropbox folder. Each individual student is expected to complete and email me a confidential peer evaluation form (available for download on the 306 web site).
Course Assignments and Presentations
Presentation #1: Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) analysis
Students will be required to read/interact with and analyze a book from the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) series of “gamebooks.” CYOA books will be available on reserve. These books embody some of the qualities of gameplay, interactivity, and of course narrative studied in this course. There are three main components to the assignment.
1. Read/play/interact with the book. The first time through, students will track and document the “narrative” that they create as they make choices for their character (n.b., students are not to ‘cheat’ and restart if their reading ends early or if their character dies). Afterwards, replay the book several times, exploring the multiple paths.
2. Create a map or a storyboard for the book. This will take much longer than simply re-reading the book and will be excellent practice for the coming assignment to create an original game design. Student may create the maps directly in Prezi or use a variety of software applications to create their storyboard including Microsoft Word, Visio, or PowerPoint (and then import those other media into Prezi). If students would rather, they may draw their storyboards. Regardless of the method, provide a legend or a key that helps decipher the storyboard and use a color scheme (or other visual cues) to orient the storyboard users (the class).
3. Write a 500-1000 word summary of the gameplay experience. In the process, identify and describe terminology from the reading selections on narrative and discuss where those terms are or are not applicable in the book. Also, consider what the storyboard may or may not reveal about the book that a casual reading/playing of the book would not.
Blog Posts 1 -7
For each blog post (approx. 400-500 words each), I want to see you engage critically with these readings. I do not wish to be prescriptive however your Reflections must go well beyond “I liked it/didn’t like it.” Answers aren’t so much “right” or “wrong” as they are a thoughtful
representation of your rhetorical and critical skills. Outside sources/links are always welcome. Each Reflection should be posted online to your growing and evolving blog at 1up.com.
