🎮 VISM 2003 - Introduction to Game Studies (Winter 2025)

A second-year undergraduate online lecture (~90 students) focused on introducing the field of game studies to students. Assessment methods included weekly game analysis journal entires, multiple choice quizzes, a proposal brainstorming assignment, a formal project proposal, a video annotated bibliography, a research project (zine, game prototype, video essay, podcast, or written essay).

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.