Video Games and Cultural Analysis (Beta Draft)
ENG 3930 - 0002 Special Topics
MoWeFr 10:30AM - 11:20AM
CL 220
Instructor: Ms Concetta Bommarito
Office: Rehearsal Hall Room 111 (Subject to Change)
Office Hours: MW 11:30am – 12:30pm, F 11:30am – 1:30pm and by Appointment
Note: Email is checked during the office hours given above. Any email sent outside these times is not guaranteed to be answered as quickly. If you need any help in the class, please make sure that they are addressed in class or during office hours.
Course Overall Goal:
To give you the tools to more critically analyze video games by introducing you to several critical works across disciplines and teaching you how to use these works in your analysis.
Course Objectives
Goal/What you will learn | Activity/How you will learn |
To introduce you to a range of literary and philosophical methodologies for analysis of video games | · Have you read a wide variety of short works and excerpts alongside playing short video games · Shorter texts will correspond to themes in the games |
To enable you to enhance your critical thinking and textual analysis skills | Smaller reader response papers for each reading/gaming pairing |
To facilitate the improvement of your writing skills, particularly in the area of the argumentative essay | Portfolio including: · an analytical ‘Let’s Play’ · a traditional academic paper with an argument or proposal for game incorporating themes from the readings |
To encourage the use of cultural and philosophical writings as tools for game development and analysis | use the readings to analyze games and begin thinking about ways to improve current trends in the industry |
To enhance your appreciation of aesthetic strategies and techniques in the form of the video game | class report on major canonical video game works |
Major Texts
Note: Readings will be available in the course packet online as pdfs.
Michel Foucault: “Panopticism” from the book Discipline and Punish
Jean-Paul Sartre: Excerpts from Nausea
John Berger: Excerpts from Ways of Seeing
Susan Bordo: Excerpts from Beauty Rediscovers the Male Body
Henry Jenkins: Excerpts from Convergence Culture
Takashi Murakami: Excerpts from Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture
Assignments Overview:
Class Participation (10%)
You are responsible for keeping up with the games and readings and contributing to class discussion. Points are earned for meaningful participation in class; points are deducted for disruptive behavior.
-Included in this grade are quizzes that serve to make sure that you are reading/playing on schedule and to take attendance
Presentation (10%)
The last two weeks of class will be dedicated to students presenting on a game that was not assigned for class and discussion how that game links to the readings. You will sign up for a game give a 5-10 minute presentation that summarizes the game using the readings to dissect the effectiveness of the game’s design.
Let’s Play (30%)
You will choose a longer game that we have not discusses in class (one that takes more than 5 hours to complete) and you will write commentary for the game as you play through it. This will be in the format of a ‘Let’s Play’, either text, image or video-based.
There is no min/max page count for this assignment, but the Let’s Play must hit all the major plot points/ gameplay moments of the game. You must not just summarize these moments but also give running analysis as well.
For examples, check out the Let’s Play Archive at http://lparchive.org, in particular the Let’s Play of Breath of Fire IV by username Daeren (http://lparchive.org/Breath-of-Fire-IV/). Chapter’s L: Maybe So (http://lparchive.org/Breath-of-Fire-IV/Update%2051/) and LI: Truth and Dreams (http://lparchive.org/Breath-of-Fire-IV/Update%2052/) in particular are of the quality I am looking for (obviously without the casual cursing).
Final Paper (50%)
You will choose a longer game that we have not discusses in class (one that takes more than 5 hours to complete) and you will write an 8-10 page paper with 5-10 outside resources and 2 readings from the class. The thesis of the paper will do one of the following:
Option 1: Analysis
Link the readings to the game and use the readings to give a detailed analysis of the game’s plot, gameplay, themes, and/or quality. This option will be graded on both content and delivery, i.e. the thesis of the paper and how well written the paper is.
Option 2: Re-Imagining
Link the readings to the game and use the readings to critique the game and create a revised version of the game, i.e. a “spiritual successor” that takes the original game’s concepts and improves and/or further explores them and/or approaches them from a new angle.
Examples of already existing spiritual successors include:
-Paper Mario, which is the spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG (same gameplay, different aesthetic)
-Starcraft, which is the spiritual successor to Warcraft (same gameplay, different setting)
-Bioshock, which is the spiritual successor to System Shock 1 and 2 (altered gameplay, different science fiction model, different morality themes)
-Sid Meier’s Alpha Centari, which is the spiritual successor to Sid Meier’s Civilization II (similar gameplay, new setting, far more narrative-driven, plot-driven victory conditions)
-Rock Band, which is the spiritual successor to Guitar Hero (adds multiple instruments to the original guitar-only game)
-A non-game example: Futurama, which is a spiritual successor to The Simpsons (same art style, different themes)
Suggested Games
· Amnesia: The Dark Decent
· Bastion
· Bioshock (any in the series)
· Braid
· Civilization (any in the series)
· Deus Ex (any in the series)
· Duke Nukem (either 3D or Forever)
· Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
· Fallout (any in the series)
· Final Fantasy (any in the series)
· Mass Effect and/or Dragon Age (any in the series)
· Metroid (any in the series)
· Minecraft
· Okami
· Persona (any in the series)
· Planescape: Torment
· Pokémon (any in the series)
· Portal and/or Half Life (any in the series)
· Psychonauts and/or any of the works of Tim Schaffer
· Shadow of the Colossus and/or Ico
· Sid Meier’s Alpha Centari
· Silent Hill (any in the series)
· The Mother Trilogy and/or any of the Project Rainfall games
· World of Warcraft, Old Republic or any other MMORPG
Note: The purpose of this list is to avoid people presenting on the same game. The primary goal of the presentations is for you to promote your favorite games by using the readings as a tool for analyzing and promoting the game’s themes. If you wish to present on a game that is not on this list, please let me know and I will give you permission if I feel that the game can easily be analyzed using the readings of the class.
Required Games
Name | Platform | Access | Video | Cost |
Before the Law | PC - Flash Game | Must have installed | Should not take you more than 5 minutes to do this one (Make sure to get both endings) | Free |
Covetous | PC - Flash Game | Must have installed | Should not take you more than 5 minutes to do this one | Free |
Geek Mind | PC - Flash Game | Must have installed | Should not take you more than 5 minutes to do this one. | Free |
Gray | PC - Flash Game | Must have installed | Should not take you more than 5 minutes to do this one. Make sure to play till the ending. | Free |
September 12th | PC - Flash Game | Must have installed | Should not take you more than 5 minutes to do this one. | Free |
The Stanley Parable | PC - Source Mod | Download a Source Engine Game (Team Fortress 2 is free), then install mod | Time: 31:20 | Free |
Time Fcuk | PC - Flash Game | Must have installed | TBA | Free |
Yume Nikki | PC - Freeware | Yume Nikki v0.10 | Time: 4:10 Barely covers the game, but gives you an idea of some of the more interesting 'events'. | Free |
Additional Works
More games/readings may be added according to class discussion and general tastes of the class (for example, if we have a large contingency of platformers, I might add more platforming games).
Class Rules:
Class Discussion
Students are to remain respectful during class discussions at all times. Insults, hate speech, and other such inappropriate comments as defined in the Student Handbook will not be tolerated and, if persisted in after admonition by the teacher, will be grounds for removal from the class.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas intentionally or unintentionally without giving the source the proper credit. Plagiarism is unacceptable academic behavior at UCF. If you are caught plagiarizing, depending on the severity, you will fail the assignment. You also risk failing the course with a grade of “Z”, indicating academic dishonesty.
Disability Statement
UCF is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities. This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course must contact the professor at the beginning of the semester to discuss needed accommodations. No accommodations will be provided until the student has met with the professor to request accommodations. Students who need accommodations must be registered with Student Disability Services, Student Resource Center Room 132, phone (407) 823-2371.
