🎮 VISM 2003 - Introduction to Game Studies (Summer 2024)

A condensed second-year undergraduate online lecture that took place during the Spring/Summer semester. Aimed at introducing students to the field of game studies and the many different subfields and methodologies that compose it. Assessment methods included a game analysis journal, a project proposal (with accompanying annotated bibliography), a research project (written essay, zine, podcast, video essay, or game prototype), and a final take-home exam.

Course Summary: Games studies views games as complex objects, mapping the game ‘object’, the player ‘subject’ and the critical dialogue that delimits game space. This course explores games as cultural artifacts, arising from diverse cultural histories, landscapes and geographies, impacting and impacted by sub-cultures. Students will learn to analyse the mechanics, aesthetics and practices of games via varied analytical approaches addressing their textual, performative, socio-cultural, design and political contexts. As well, the course introduces students to tools and techniques to analyze the cultural impact of the videogame.

Click here to download a PDF copy of the course’s syllabus.