Module ENGL46830: Games as Culture: Critical Approaches

Department: English Studies

ENGL46830: Games as Culture: Critical Approaches

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To develop the critical and theoretical frameworks necessary to evaluate games in terms of their aesthetic, narrative, political, social, structural, ludic etc. qualities
• To understand the relevance of traditional subject areas and disciplinary approaches to the critical study of this new medium
• To understand the ways in which the reception and experience of games varies with different audiences or from different cultural, theoretical, or social perspectives
• To interpret games across various media (analogue, digital, virtual reality), origins (AAA, indie, homebrew etc.), and genres
• To introduce basic principles of video game design and development

Content

• Most weeks students will study a game or games from a theoretical perspective that resonates with a recognisable (but contested) critical keyword. Examples include ‘Utopia’, ‘History’, ‘Nature’, ‘The Posthuman’. Games will be paired with relevant secondary reading or primary source material (literary, visual, historical etc.) as a prompt for discussion. Students will also be encouraged to bring their existing cultural, theoretical, and subject-specific capital to bear, and to start with ‘where they play from’ in the interpretation of these topics and their associated games.
• Games may be analogue and/or digital and/or virtual reality. Examples that might be studied include 7 Wonders, Oregan Trail, War Thunder, Wingspan, Secret Hitler, Never Alone, Assassins Creed, The Sims, Papers Please, The Stanley Parable, Firewatch, System Shock, Bioshock, Travelling While Black. Games can be experienced either as free (open source, abandonware, or emulator) downloads, print-at-home analogue games, in class group play, or via free walkthrough videos.
• A motivating focus throughout will be how existing games may be improved or developed further to address biases, elisions, misrepresentations, inaccessibility etc. relevant to the keyword or the conventions of different game genres.
• Students may have the option to propose games to play (a ‘free play’ seminar) and to devise their own reading lists and theoretical approaches as appropriate.

Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of key critical and theoretical concepts relevant to the analysis of video games
• Knowledge of how video games emerge from and are shaped by particular social, political, economic, technological, media etc. contexts and how they are made appropriately for their anticipated audience
• Knowledge of how games generate meaning and representations from a combination of mechanical/ludic, narrative, visual, musicological, paratextual etc. devices and structures.
• Knowledge of aspects of game design and how these may inform the content, representations, and experiences of gameplay

• Students studying this module will develop:
• Critical skills in the interpretation and analysis of the formal, aesthetic, social, and political dimensions of games
• An ability to articulate and justify a critical response to games, using appropriate knowledge, concepts, and theories
• Skills in the communication and presentation of ideas using visual, oral, or written forms appropriate to the medium of games

• Students studying this module will develop:
• A capacity to analyse different forms of game media in a critical, structured, and systemic way using distinct interpretative skills
• A capacity for independent organisation, time-management and planning, and for independent critical evaluation of the work of others
• Digital skills such as word processing, the information literacy required to access and report on digital artefacts, audio and/or video production or other forms of visualisation

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Seminars: encourage peer-group discussion, enable students to develop critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts, and skills of effective communication and presentation; promote awareness of diversity of interpretation and methodology.
• Feedback Consultation session: encourages students to reflect critically and independently on their work. Please note that this session will not be centrally timetabled and will be organised directly between the student and tutor as schedules permit.
• Independent but directed reading in preparation for seminars provides opportunity for students to enrich subject-specific knowledge and enhances their ability to develop appropriate subject-specific skills.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor.  This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.
• Coursework: tests the student's ability to argue, respond and interpret, and to demonstrate subject-specific knowledge and skills such as appreciation of the basis of game design and the implications for how games represent major themes and theories.
• The first assignment (30%) will be the development of an A3 mood board identifying revisions that could be made to an existing game, to make that game more appropriate for a particular audience.
• The second assignment (70%) will be a proposal for a new game; the exact format would be devised in conversation with the individual student, following feedback on Assignment 1, but could comprise: a series of development blog posts (which could include visual elements), up to 3000 words or equivalent; a podcast or video essay, containing equivalent to 3000 words; a rudimentary game, containing text equivalent to 1500 words along with a 1500 word reflective commentary on the design, planning, and intentions of the game.
• Feedback: The written feedback that is provided after the first assessment allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second assessment.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Before Assessment 1, students have an individual 15 minute feedback session in which they are entitled to show their seminar leader their draft A3 ‘mood board’ and to receive oral comment on it. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for Assessment 2 at this meeting.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University