Stellar Export of CMS.300/CMS.841 Intro to Videogame Studies Fall 2009

Class Procedures and Assignment Overview
Huzinga, Johan: Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon
Caillois, Roger: The Definition of Play & The Classification of Games
Sutton-Smith, Brian: Play and Ambiguity.
Murray, Janet: From Additive to Expressive Form
Aarseth, Espen: Ergodic Literature
Wolf, Mark J. P: The Videogame as a Medium
Grodal, Torben: Video Games and the Pleasures of Control
Rusch, Doris: Emotional Design of Computer Games and Fiction Films
Frasca, Gonzalo: Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology.
Celia Pearce: Towards a Game Theory of Games
Costikyan, Greg: Games, Storytelling and Breaking the String
Frasca, Gonzalo: Ludologists love stories too. Notes from a debate that never took place
Juul, Jesper: Games Telling Stories? A brief Note on Games and Narratives.
Rusch, Doris C. and Koenig, Nikolaus: Perspectives on Emotion Strategies in Computergames
Hunicke et al: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
LeBlanc, Marc: Tools for creating dramatic game dynamics.
Bogost, Ian: Procedural Rhetoric
Juul, Jesper: A Certain Level of Abstraction.
Rusch, Doris C. and Weise, Matt J.: Games about LOVE and TRUST?
Koster, Raph: A Theory of Fun (chapters 2, 3, 11)
Bogost, Ian: Wii’s Revolution is in the Past
Griffin, Stephen: Push. Play. An Examination of the Gameplay Button
Murray, Janet: Agency
Ryan, Marie-Laure: Introduction to Narrative as Virtual Reality
Jenkins, Henry: Game Design as Narrative Architecture
Pearce, Celia: Narrative Environments - From Disneyland to War of Warcraft
Fernandez-Vara et al: Evolution of Spatial Configurations in Videogames
Bartle, Richard: Making Places
Fernandez-Vara, Clara: Labyrinth and Maze
Nitsche, Michael: Mapping Time in Video Games
Novak, Marcos: Liquid Architectures in Cyberspace (optional)
Murray, Janet: Immersion
McMahan, Alison: Immersion, Engagement, and Presence.
Ryan, Marie-Laure: The Text as World - Theories of Immersion
Hocking, Clint: Game Designers' Rant 2008
Hocking, Clint: i-fi: Immersive Fidelity in Games
Juul, Jesper: Rules and Fiction (optional!)
King, Geoff / Krzywinska, Tanya: Realism, Spectacle, Sensation
Boal, Augusto: Theatre of the Oppressed
Frasca, Gonzalo: Videogames of the Opressed
Adams, Ernest: Postmodernism and the Three Types of Immersion
Bartle, Richard: Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who suit MUDS
Taylor, T.L.: Finding New Worlds (From Play Between Worlds)
Consalvo, Mia: Cheating. Gaining Advantage in Videogames
Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály: Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
Flanagan et al.: Values at Play
Takahashi, Dean: Ethics of Game Design
Kutner, Lawrence & Olson, Cheryl: The Big Fear (excerpt from Grand Theft Childhood?)
Kutner, Lawrence, and Cheryl Olson: Grand Theft Childhood?
always_black: Bow, Nigger
McGonigal, Jane: This is not a game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play
Nitsche, Michael: Claiming its Space: Machinima
Bogost, Ian: Comparative Videogame Criticism
Gingold, Chaim: What WarioWare Can Teach Us About Game Design
Robinett, Warren: Adventure as a Video Game: Adventure for the Atari 2600
Wyckoff, Richard: Postmortem: DreamWorks Interactive’s Trespasser
Rouse, Richard: Game Analysis: Centipede
Raessens, Joost: Playful Identities, or the Ludification of Culture
Goldstein, Jeffrey: Immortal Kombat: War Toys and Violent Video Games
Turkle, Sherry: Aspects of the Self
Gee, James Paul: Semiotic Domains: Is Playing Videogames A "Waste of Time"?
Johnson, Steven: Games (Everything Bad Is Good For You)
Well Played
Bogost: Persuasive Games: Performative Play
Rusch, Doris: Mechanisms of the Soul - Tackling the Human Condition in Videogames
Bogost: Persuasive Games: Gestures as Meaning
Bully - Kirk Battle (L.B. Jeffries)
Shadow of the Colossus - Nick Fortugno
Montfort: Portal of Ivory, Passage of Horn
Rusch: Staring into the Abyss - A Close Reading of Silent Hill 2
Hocking: Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock: The Problem of What the Game is About
Mary Flanagan - Designing for Critical Play