Introduction to Game Studies

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course will serve as a gateway into the study of games and other interactive media from an analytical humanities perspective. While “interactive media” often signals “video game” in the contemporary moment, our readings will contextualize present-day digital gaming within a framework that includes important analog precursor and contemporary texts in order to better understand where video games fit into a broader media ecology. Because reception, design, and, ultimately, interpretation are intimately entwined in gaming culture today, students will also engage the popular and corporate discourses surrounding gaming, particularly as they address issues of social justice, gender, race, and sexuality. These are some of the most pressing issues in U.S. society at large, and they have an increasingly important impact on entertainment industries. Over the course of the semester, students will fine-tune interpretive skills that have been developed in other humanities courses (such as film studies or English) for the unique challenges presented by video games and other interactive texts.