Critical Game Studies: What Video Games Tell Us About Us

Video games are inseparable from our larger culture. From the seismic success of video game adaptations like The Last of Us and Fallout to the use of video game technology in drone warfare to the overlap between movements like #GamerGate and American political elections, it is clear that video games demand our attention. This seminar serves as an introduction to the field of game studies by exploring the history of video games, their influence on our culture, and their status as works of art. As the anti-video game Senate Hearings in the 1990s and the "video games cause violence" debates in the early 2000s show, video games have been demonized as a degenerate, dangerous art form, and this reputation has not been entirely unearned, given the significant overlap between gamer culture and online harassment. We will also, however, explore how video games can serve as liberatory, intentional works of art that transcend the exclusionary behavior often associated with the "gamer" identity. Through our readings in the interdisciplinary field of video game studies and our play with games themselves, we will pay special attention to how games are informed by larger cultural questions around politics, identity, race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism. This course will ask you to play critically and approach these video game texts with the same rigor you would approach a work of literature. Each session is structured around the discussion of assigned readings and games, and students are asked to come to class prepared to participate in discussion. Assignments will include a short paper and an experiential component such as experimenting with game design, game script writing, or interactive media. By the end of the quarter, we will improve our critical thinking and writing skills by examining the key role that video games play in our culture and current political moment while understanding what the games we play can tell us about us.