U of Central AR HONC2310 The Virtual Other in Interactive Fiction
International Game Developers Association
Full name: Honors Core III: The Virtual Other in Interactive Fiction
| Games Education |
|---|
 |
| Course |
Table of contents |
[edit] Teachers
[edit] Instructors
- Michael Herring
- Phil Frana (Thesis Advisor)
[edit] Course Background Information
The University of Central Arkansas Honors College is the prototypical Honors program. Started in 1986, the current curricula consists of a two-year thesis, preceded by a two-year program of "Honors Core" courses that are heavy in the liberal arts/philosophy department. They vary in subject matter, but are themed as such: The Search for Self, the Search for Community, The Search for the Other, and The Art of the Search.
For my two-year thesis, I developed a course intended to be taught as Honors Core III, The Search for the Other. The course consisted of a broad survey of the medium of the video game, divided by component arts rather than chronologically sorted.
[edit] Location
The class was taught for the Fall 2006 semester at the University of Central Arkansas Honors College in Conway, AR.
[edit] Classification
See: Areas for classifing for your course.
Primary classification: Game Studies, specifically Experience-centered criticism and Ludology.
Secondary classifications: Game History and Experience of Play with a touch of Conceptual Game Design
[edit] Student background needed
Very little background was needed for this class. The students' experience with gaming and gamer culture ranged from the uber-gamer who had beaten Metal Gear Solid right before class to the neophyte who wasn't aware people played games other than FIFA2002.
[edit] Course prerequisites
The only prerequisites were admission into the Honors College and completion of Honors Core I and II, which are unrelated to the subject matter of this class.
[edit] Time periods
The class was taught from late August to mid-December. We met every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 50 minutes at a time.
At least one class period a week was devoted to a "Game Showcase," where a game was selected and played, to be discussed in future class meetings.
[edit] Course Structure
[edit] Course description
[edit] Course learning objectives
In the spirit of Honors Core III's traditional objectives, the objectives for this class included:
- Foremost, to critically analyze the video game as both an amalgam of art forms and an art form unto itself.
- Discussing the implications of players as gamers and consumers of art.
- Discussing players as avatars and as themselves, depending on the game.
- To analyze the question of what, exactly, an avatar is and how different games define it.
- To understand the concepts involved in designing games, including gameplay mechanics, constituent art forms and modes of interactivity.
[edit] Week by week topics
[edit] Course Materials & Facilities Used
Books
Other materials
1up's coverage/reviews of Shadow of the Colossus, and their Northern Lights feature on the people and culture of Q? Entertainment.
Software
Snes9x was used for some game showcases, and for analyzing Chrono Trigger.
Syllabus
http://www.khakionion.com/imagedump/Syllabus.pdf
Assessment materials
Many assignments from the class can be seen at http://games.khakionion.com
[edit] Analysis of learning methods
[edit] What worked
half-real was very well received by the students. This book was cogently written and easily understood by the gamut of students, both well-acquainted with and wholly alien to the video game.
The final project ended up being a more in-depth critical analysis/presentation, rather than production of an IF. This was a good choice, since the students spent more time thinking critically about games rather than learning how to use Hugo or Informs IF machines.
[edit] What didn't work
| This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. |
