University of Washington: Intro to Cultural Studies
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ENGL 207 A: Introduction to Cultural Studies: Virtual Worlds and Video Games
Welcome to the Introduction to Cultural Studies: "Virtual Worlds and Video Games" keyword collaboratory page!
Course Description
ALEXANDER GALLOWAY in Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture argues that play "is a symbolic action for larger issues in culture" (16) and that video games "render social realities into playable form" (17). Using a broad archive of "imagined worlds”--drawing on literature, video games, text games and hypertext, film, and scholarship--this course will identify and explore some of the key concepts, the key moves, and the key terms of the interdiscipinary fields of cultural studies.
CENTRAL QUESTIONS AND ENGAGEMENTS INCLUDE: What are the different critical practices and methodologies of cultural studies? How might we employ different cultural studies approaches and lenses to these virtual worlds and video games? Why study these "imagined worlds," how are they important, and what values do they have? In this course, we will look at and analyze texts of media old and new through the lenses of cultural studies and deploy virtual worlds and video games as theories about and dramatizations of different social relationships and realities, to unpack and analyze the intersections of cultural formations like race, gender, class, nation, and sexuality, particularly in the US context. We will look at how video games can be rhetorical, political, and popular tools, and in the words of Gonzalo Frasca, how "they can be used for conveying passionate ideas...to deliver an ideological message." Moreover, Henry Jenkins adds that we should "look at games as an emerging art form...and talk about how to strike a balance between this form of expression and social responsibility” (120).
READINGS MAY INCLUDE IN WHOLE OR IN EXCERPT: Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler’s Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Orson Scott Card, Shelley Jackson, Walter Benjamin, Alexander Galloway, Ian Bogost, Lisa Nakamura, N. Katherine Hayles, Maureen McHugh, Nick Montfort, William Gibson, Donna Haraway, Cory Doctorow, Julian Dibbell, and Gonzalo Frasca. Digital and visual texts may include: Will Crowther’s Adventure, Jason Rohrer’s Gravitation, Gregory Weir’s The Majesty of Colors, Andrew Plotkin’s Shade, LambdaMOO, Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern’s Façade, Tron, Monster Camp, America’s Army, and World of Warcraft.
NEW MEDIA AND GAME PLAY will be a required part of the class. Students will be required to keep a weekly “plog” (play log). Moreover, students will produce two short researched, revised, and analytical papers, which will potentially be used to develop into a larger online group project. Students seeking W-Credit will be accommodated.
Collaboratory Lead: Ed Chang, University of Washington\
Keywords for Video Game Studies
Our collaboratory will be part sandbox, part archive, and part online journal where student keyword papers (assignment prompt below) will be revised and further developed for publication. Given the nascent field of video game studies or critical game studies, our collaboratory begins with the demand for a "common" vocabulary, a set of definitions, grinding edges, terms of engagement, and central issues. Therefore, the project at hand is to imagine and initiate a "Keywords for Video Game Studies." Please use the discussion page for each keyword to comment on, ask questions about, and talk about each entry.
Student Keywords
• "Avatar" by Timothy Hong • "Control" by Alex Prak • "Fantasy" by Richard Mitchell • "Gender" by Rachael Strom • "Griefing" by Eric Staples • "Immersion" by Nadine Tabing • "Race" by Megan Killough • "Sandbox" by Kenny Mead • "Sandbox" by Rebecca Wu • "Women Gamers" by Nadine Tabing •
Keyword Major Paper Assignment
One of the crucial goals in academic writing (perhaps all writing) is the ability to define and to provide definitions that are developed, detailed, relevant, and appropriate for a discipline or audience. So, how do you define something? Most would reply to go look up the definition in a dictionary or on a website. And most people would treat that definition as fact, as fixed, even commonly agreed upon. In fact, it is a common strategy to begin academic papers with a quote from a dictionary but find the definitions either not useful or too obvious or to numerous to choose from. Unless a specific history or etymology or usage of a word or term is in question, a dictionary will rarely provide much more than overly generalized information. However, the impulse to look up a term’s definition is a good one and reveals that the writer knows he or she needs a way to focus, to use background information, to determine what is necessary in order to define a term.
Goals and Outcomes
Definitions are a common genre, a common practice across many different disciplines: defining specialized terminology or neologisms, defining a process or a function, defining a theoretical or methodological perspective, defining a project’s goals, target audience, or impact. Definitions are arguments. They argue that this is the way something should be seen, described, done, presented, used, and so on. The best definitions are about this process, about inquiry, about exploration, and about analysis. It is as the editors of the Keywords for American Cultural Studies say, a way to “clear a conceptual space” (6), and it is in that space where agreements, contradictions, arguments, counterarguments, elaboration, and change can happen.
Your major paper assignment is to write an academic definition paper, to define a term relevant to video game studies, to write in essence a keyword. In academic writing, the length of a definition may range from a few sentences to many pages to entire books devoted to a single definition. You will write 4 to 6 page extended definition of a video game studies keyword drawing on your definitional claim, on current research and scholarship, and on detailed examples and descriptions. Keep in mind that this is more than just a description of your term, a narrative of your term, or a summary of possible definitions of your term. Remember that definitions are arguments and one scholar’s definition of “avatar” might focus on or challenge different things than a second scholar’s definition. Use the Keywords text as a model for your paper, as if you were writing an entry for a Keywords for Video Game Studies vocabulary collection.
Here are possible keywords to choose from (some are more challenging than others, some seem deceptively easy):
art, avatar, body, boss, character, cheat, community, control, cyberspace, dystopia, easter eggs, emote, EULA, exploit, FPS, game, gaymer, gender, gold farming, griefing, hypertext, identity, immersion, interactivity, ludology, machinima, MMOG, narrative, nation, other, performance, play, political economy, power, protocol, race, RPG, sandbox, self, serious games, sex, sexuality, simulation, skin, swarming, utopia, virtual labor, virtual reality, virtual world, women gamers
Guidelines and Due Dates
Audience: Because this paper requires a strong understanding of cultural studies and games studies concepts, you will write for an audience that is more of an academic community, which can include your instructor, your classmates, and the authors of the essays we have read. Keep in mind that your audience is varied in many ways, including academic experience and familiarity with the texts, so you’ll need to consider of what information each type of reader will need to make sense of your essay. Another good way to think about your audience is to imagine the publication in which your essay could appear such as for a game studies website or a Keywords type book.
Format: This assignment is a formal, academic paper and should follow the manuscript guidelines outlined in the course policies, 4-6 pages, typed, double-spaced, proper heading, page numbers, stapled, works consulted page, at least 5 recent, authoritative sources, MLA citation and bibliographic format
Due: You must complete two Keyword Major Papers during the quarter. Each paper must be on a different keyword, submitted on a different due date. Papers will be collected three times during the quarter, roughly in Week 4, Week 7, and Week 10.
Video Game Studies Annotated Bibliography
As you complete research for your Keyword Major Papers, please take a moment to add to the course annotated bibliography. Add entries for essays, articles, websites, and other useful and authoritative sources, which might be of use to the class. If the entry is not self-explanatory (e.g. by title), please include a brief annotation to summarize the source. Please use MLA bibliographic format.
Instructions for First-Time Users
Students: If you're a student enrolled in this class, you'll have access to edit and create pages. First, you'll need to create an account and email me your user name so I can give you special editing privileges. Please note: You will only be able to modify pages once I have activated your account.
- To create an account, click on the link in the top right-hand corner of this page.
- Submit all the information requested on the registration page. Make sure to remember your user name and password.
- Email me your user name so I can activate your account.
- Until I activate your account, you're welcome to experiment with editing pages in the Sandbox. Check out the Help and FAQs pages for tips on how to format pages.
- After I've activated your account, you will be able to add and edit pages.
- Please do not add a new page without talking to me first. Do not substantively change any pages without talking to me or the original author of the page first. Individual authors are free to modify their own pages.
- Anyone can and should add to the course annotated bibliography.
Other Visitors to the Site: If you're not enrolled in this class, you can still read and comment on the work that we're generating throughout the quarter. This will be a work in progress until the beginning of June, so please check back for new additions and developments. You're also welcome to email me with any questions or comments about our course.
