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Syllabus for Graduate Seminar on Socially Conscious Video Games
University of Denver
School of Art & Art History
Electronic Media Arts & Design
Rafael A. Fajardo
Winter 2005
Rafael Fajardo []
Miguel Angel Tarango []
Kelly Monico []
Jennifer Kiesel []
Matthew Benjamin Jenkins []
M E T H O D O L O G Y
RHIZOMIC AND SYNTHETIC
When I sat down to imagine this seminar and to collect a bibliography I realized that their exists no single text or work that addresses the idea of the "Socially Conscious Video Game". This is both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity is the discovery of a void in the scholarship that may be filled by some of the activites that we will pursue in this course. The challenge is to glean from a wide range of texts and media that which may or may not be productive in the creation of a scholarship of this kind.
The challenge is aggravated by the nascent stage of digital video game scholarship. The frameworks for critique and critical language are evolving at this very moment. The canon of games cannot really be said to exist. This class and this document are an early attempt at creating a framework.
The need to range widely in search of models and sources encourages a rhizomic approach. We can, and should, behave opportunistically, seeking models in both likely and unlikely places.
COURSE WORK
Our goal is to weave the varied threads we will explore into a kind of tapestry. What you will find below is a large swath that I have already explored. Some of these threads I have categorized in a way that makes sense to me. It is your responsibility to either adopt and adapt my categories, or to critique them and create your own. It is like wise your responsibility to expand the scope of the search and add to the collection of links and resources presented here. A modest goal is for each one of you to add twenty new links by the end of the quarter. We can debate the merits of the new links in the classroom.
Categorization has its inherent limitations, but it has the advantage of forcing us to attempt to appropriate and organize the knowledge in ways that are knowable, to ourselves and to others.
We should parse and define the phrase &socially conscious video games& so that we have some kind of common frame of reference that is also shareable. Is there actually a differentiation to be made? Are all games in some way &conscious& of the social contexts within which they exist? Is it productive to differentiate between electronic video games and analog games?
WHY GAMES?
Games are fun, and are seen as the domain of children or the idle time of adults. They are trivial things.
Scientists and mathematicians have a wonderful term of art used to distinguish between things that are insignificant and those that are significant. When a procedure or problem requires brain work it is called “non-trivial”. Games haven’t been given much thought in academia until recently. Games are fun, and fun cannot be taken as the object of serious consideration. There is a flaw in the logic that deprecates a serious look at games. Non-trivial amounts of time are spent playing and witnessing games. This time is spent by non-trivial quantities of people. These people help generate non-trivial amounts of revenue for an industry. Each one of these dynamic situations merit attention.
Mysterious things happen when we engage in game play. Joy, exercises in creative imagination, competitive stress, and fear are a small sampling of the range of emotions that we experience in the midst of play. Artists and designers strive to engage and cause similar states in their viewers and users. The methods of game design can be useful to digital media artists.
SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS?
Market forces have predominated in the creative practices. The complexity of the practice has, to date, precluded attempts at exploring non-commercial efforts. Still, our understanding of the expressive potential of the medium is in its infancy. The medium, the form, is so very compelling as to have attracted a few practicioners who are attempting to work through — and in spite of — the market challenges. There is not yet a coherent community nor forum for these efforts. The search for socially conscious video game practices forces us to look far and wide among diverse sources, and, too, forces us to make synthetic connections among these resouces.
Brenda Laurel has attempted through research and through capitalism to open a space for new, female, voices and audiences within the video game milieu. It can be argued that Will Wright's work with The Sims, and with his entire opus, treat social organization and value systems. It can also be argued that the work of the Miller brothers, Rand and Robyn, critique the tone and emotional depth of all video games that came before them. Wright and the Miller brothers have also managed to achieve market success. These practitioners have worked within market imperatives.
There are those who also have chosen to work on an artistic plane, privileging either art or criticism, or art as criticism. I say privileging because these practitioners do not completely reject a marketplace for their output. Practitioners in this vein include:
Tropical America by Onramp Arts
Beaner by Fran Ilich
Vagamundo by Ricardo Miranda Zuniga
Maria Sisters by Global Arcade
Re-thinking Wargames by Ruth Catlow
Newsgaming by Gonzalo Frasca
Banja (winner of 2003 ars electronica prix)
Velvet Strike by Anne Marie Schleiner
Intruder by Natalie Bookchin
various projects by Mary Flannagan
Escape from Woomera
Slow Death
There are also a group of practitioners who we might call accidental artists, they don't consider themselves to be practicing in art ways, but the community of artists and curators have adopted them.
harvest moon
Second Life
M E D I A G R A P H Y
HOW CAN TETRIS, DOOM AND BLUES CLUES OCCUPY THE SAME CONTINUUM?
Space War, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Tetris, Battle Zone, Mortal Kombat, etc. at the Killer List Of Video Games []
PBS: The Video Game Revolution, The History of Video Gaming []
The Dot Eaters: Video Game History 101 []
Giant List of Classic Game Programmers []
WRESTLING WITH PLAY
The Institute For Play []
Sutton-Smith, Brian. "Play and Ambiguity". The Ambiguity of Play. Harvard. 1997. isbn . pp 1-17. []
Carse, James. "One: There Are At Least Two Kinds Of Games". Infinite and Finite Games. Ballantine Books. 1986. isbn . pp 1-42. []
Helfand, Jessica. "Teasing The Nerves: The Art of technological persuasion". Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture. Princeton Architectural Press. 3204. pp 28-33. []
Kane, Pat. Play Journal. []
Crawford, Chris. The Art of Computer Game Design. []
Zimmerman, Eric. "The Rules of the Game". If/Then 1.0: Play. Netherlands Design Institute. 1999. []
Zimmerman & Lantz. "Checkmate: Rules, Play and Culture". Merge Magazine. Number 5. 1999. issn . pp 41-43. []
Porter, Jenelle. "Eric Zimmerman Interviewed". Artists Space Newsletter. Fall 1999. []
Ringen, Jonathan. "Game Boys". Metropolis Magazine. July 2001. . []
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Rethinking Agency and Immersion: videogames as a means of consciousness-raising". []
McAllister, Ken. Game Work: Language, Power, And Computer Game Culture. University of Alabama Press. January 2005. isbn . [] []
Johnson, Steven. &Infinity Imagined&. Interface Culture: how technology transforms the way we create and communicate. Harper Edge. 1997. isbn. . pp 206-242. [] []
Salen, Katie. Curatorial Statement for "Transforming Play: Family Albums and Monster Movies". Walker Art Center. October 19, 2002. []
DEVELOPING A CRITICAL LANGUAGE
Baigorri, Laura. "Game As Critic As Art ver 2.0". available at www.jstk.org. [] []
Bittanti, Matteo. "Make Better Criticism: A mature form of cultural analysis". Proceedings of IGDA 2004 conference. []
Buzzcut: Game Criticism by Dave Thomas []
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Harper Perennial. 1994. [especially chaps 1 & 2 for our purposes]
Marcus, Greil. "Van Morrison". Rolling Stone's Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. Random House. 1976. isbn . pp 320-323.
Salen, Katie. Rules of Play. MIT. 2003. []
Miller, Laura. "Mystic Simulacrum". . May 29, 2001. []
"Real Life: The Full Review".
Rossignol, Jim. "All About Eve". PC Gamer. October 2004. pp 136-143.
Gillen, Kieron. "The New Games Journalism".
Shanahan, Ian (aka Always_Black). "Bow Nigger".
Killing Monsters: Why children need fantasy, super heroes, and make-believe violence. []
IMPLICATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
Leonard, Andrew. "Screenage Wasteland?". . December 05, 2002. []
Markle Foundation studies on Interactive Media for Children
Wartella, Ellen, et al. Children and Interactive Media - Research Compendium Update. Markle Foundation. November, 2002. [ 292K]
Carey, George. An Environmental Scan of Children's Interactive Media from . Markle Foundation. June 3, 2002. [ 102K]
Kleeman, David. One Mission Many Screens - A PBS/Markle Foundation Study on Distinctive Roles for Children's Public Service Media In the Digital Age: Executive Summary Markle Foundation. April 17, 2002. [ 40K]
Wartella, Ellen, et al. Children and Interactive Media - A compendium of current research and directions for the future. Markle Foundation. May, 2000. [ 740K]
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Rideout, Victoria, et al. Zero to Six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. Kaiser Family Foundation. October 2003. . []
Roberts, Donald. Kids & Media @ The New Millenium: A comprehensive national analysis of children’s media use. Kaiser Family Foundation. November 1999. . []
Key Facts: Children and Video Games. Kaiser Family Foundation. October 2002. . []
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Jones, Steve. Let the games begin: Gaming technology and entertainment among college students. Pew Internet. July 2003. []
UK Children Go Online []
WILL WRIGHT AND THE SIMS
Brown, Janelle. "The Sims in the hands of an angry god". . February 17, 2000. []
Sieberg, Daniel. "The World according to Will". . February 17, 2000. []
Johnson, Steven. "Re: Will Wright". . September 14, 2000. [] []
Johnson, Steven. "Video Games 2001: Guinea Pig of Death". . February 2001. []
Schactman, Noah. "From Sims to Slammin' Steel". . February 2, 2002. []
Nick Jr(TM) and Humongous Entertainment (now part of Atari)
Figgins, Stephen. "Humongous Python: Humongous Entertainment adopts Python for game scripting". O'Reilly. November 7, 2002. []
DeMaria, Russell. "An interview with Ron Gilbert of Humongous entertainment". . []
Blues Clues(TM)
Spy Fox(TM)
Backyard sports series
WOMEN AND GAMING
Brown, Janelle. "Girl Gamers: Sugar, Spice, Everything Profitable?". . November 19, 1996. []
Brown, Janelle. "All-Girl Quake Clans Shake Up Boys’ World". . February 5, 1997. []
Alderman, John. "Girl Games Leaps From CD To AM". . April 5, 1997. []
Brown, Janelle. "Women Proto-Programmers Get Their Just Reward". . May 8, 1997. []
Brown, Janelle. "Joystick Nation Faces Gender Divide". . June 9, 1997. []
Brown, Janelle. "GameGirlz Turns Industry On To Game Girls. . November 11, 1997. []
Weil, Elizabeth. "The Girl-Game Jinx". . December 10, 1997. []
Brown, Janelle. "Girl Jocks Take On Digital Hoops" . February 18, 1998. []
Reuters News Service. "Adult Women Like to Play Games". . Aug 27, 2003. []
Brown, Janelle. "Girl Game Pioneer Purple Moon Shuts Down".
February 22, 1999. []
Laurel, Brenda. "Just One of the Girls". Signum Press. Volume 5 Number 4 Issue 6. December 7, 2000. []
PBS: The Video Game Revolution:: "Solving The Mystery of the Missing Girl Games". []
PBS: The Video Game Revolution:: "What Women Want". []
Laurel, Brenda. Utopian Entreprenuer. MIT Press. 2001. isbn .[]
Kassel, Justine, ed. From Barbie To Mortal Kombat: Gender and Video games. MIT Press. 1998. isbn . [] []
Hafner, Katie. "What Do Women Game Designers Want?". . October 14, 2004. []
Game+Girl+Advance: blog
that brings alternative perspectives to videogame culture []
Women In Technology International []
Pobgadget, womyn, grrlz and gadgets []
CONSCIENTIOUS PRACTICES AND PRACTICIONERS
Hidden Agenda by Jim Gasperini []
Interview with Jim Gasperini about making Hidden Agenda []
Tropical America by Onramp Arts []
Ruth Catlow: Activate 3 (from Rethinking Wargames) []
Maria Sisters by Global Arcade []
Vagamundo by Ricardo Miranda Zuniga []
Delete.TV :: hacktivism by Fran Ilich, check out “Beaner” []
Escape From Woomera []
9-11 Survivor []
Waco Ressurection by C-Level []
PacManHattan []
(R)(TM)ark: playful, challenging, transgressive art collective []
Select Parks: blog and catalogue of games by artists []
JFK reloaded []
Mary Flanagan, game artist and critic []
Banja, winner of 2003 Golden Nica at Ars Electronica []
Slow Death: a project by John Gerrard []
Under Ash and Under Siege by Afkar games []
World Trade Organization Loteria []
Velvet Strike by Anne Marie Schleiner []
September 12th & Madrid by Gonzalo Frasca and Newsgaming []
Social Impact Games :: a compendium collected by Marc Prensky []
Water Cooler Games :: games that will have 'em talking []
King, Brad. "Make Love Not War Games". . June 8, 2002. []
Anne-Marie Schleiner at the Digital Hub []
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Videogames of the oppressed: Videogames as a means for critical thinking and debate." Master's Thesis, Georgia Tech University. []
Au, Wagner James. " Burn down the shopping malls".
February 22, 2002. []
and of course Crosser & La Migra []
OPPORTUNITIES?
Whuffie []
Masum, Hassan and Yi-Cheng Zhang. "Manifesto for the Reputation Society". FirstMonday.org September 2004. []
FirstMonday.org :: peer reviewed journal on the internet []
Masum, Hassan and Yi-Cheng Zhang. The Reputation Society. []
Kane, Pat. On a reputation society. []
NEW PARADIGMS SUGGESTED BY NEW MATERIALS AND NEW INTERFACES?
Zimmerman, Eric. &Creating A Culture OF Design Research&. Design Research. MIT Press. 2003. []
Zimmerman, Eric. &Play As Research&. Design Research. MIT Press. 2003. []
CHALLENGES
Au, Wagner James. "Playing Games With Free Speech". . May 6, 2002. []
Hafner, Katie. "On video games, the jury is out and confused" New York Times. June 5, 2003.
Goode, Erica. "With Video Games, Researchers Link Guns to Stereotypes". New York Times. December 10, 2002.
Pesce, Mark. "The Trigger Principle". . 2000.
Boal, Mark. "The Shooters and the Shrinks". . May 6, 1999. []
Au, Wagner James. "Quake, Doom and blood lust". . May 12 1999. []
Costikyan, Greg. "Games don't kill people -- do they?". . June 21, 1999. []
Media and the Family []
Grossman, Lt Col Dave. Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill : A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence. Crown. 1999. []
Rules of Play
reviews and interviews
WIRED coverage of Game Issues That Matter
King, Brad. "Make Love Not War Games". . June 8, 2002. []
Scheeres, Julia. "Games Elevate Hate to Next Level". . February 20, 2002. []
Kettman, Steve. "gamers score at arts festival". . september 7, 2001. []
BBC News coverage of game issues that matter
PopGadget: Personal Tech for Women :: coverage of game issues that matter
Alderman, John. "Saving Pac Man For Posterity". . May 22, 1997. []
http://www.bannister.org/software/rocknes.htm
Game Developers Fora::
Serious Games initiative of the Woodrow Wilson Institute
Undifferentiated
Kohler, Chris. Power+Up. Brady Games, Pearson Education. Indiana. 2005. isbn .
Scholder, Amy & Zimmerman, Eric. Re:Play. Publishing Group Peter Lang. 2003. isbn 0- []
Killer Instinct exhibition at the Zenith Media Lounge of the New Museum []
/blog/category/doom-ed/john-carmack/
Jones, Mark. "Char Davies: VR Through Osmosis". . 2000.
Acker, Kathy. "After the end of the Art World". Art & Design Magazine. Number 45. Academy Group Ltd. London. 1995. issn . pp 7-9. [full text available on the Art Index]
Virilio, Paul. "Infowar (in conversation with Derrick De Kerchove)". Ars Electronica: Facing the Future. MIT. 1999. isbn . pp 326-335.
Dorsey, David. "The Parable of Myst II". Fast Company. April 1996. Issue 2. Page 91.
Pawasarat, Catherine. "RE: Hideo Kojima". . 2000.
Van de Walle, Mark. "Shenmue". . December 8, 2000.
Hwang, Francis. "Video Games 2001: Cheatin' Art". . 2001.
Hall, Justin. "Video Games 2001: Counter-Strike". . 2001.
Au, Wagner James. "Video Games 2001: Familiar and Alien. . 2001.
Steadman, Carl. "Video Games 2001: Star Trekking" . . 2001.
Johnson, Steven. "Video Games 2001: Stories on a Rail". . 2001.
Hoffman, Donna. The Growing Digital Divide: Implications for an Open Research Agenda. Markle Foundation. July 1999. []
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