Program Overview
This interdisciplinary program examines the significance of video games, exploring their design principles, aesthetic qualities, social impact, and cultural contexts. Students develop critical thinking and research skills, preparing them for careers in game development, interpretation, and reception studies. Through courses in game design, interpretation, and reception, students gain a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of video games.
Program Outline
Academic programs that examine games and interactive media are proliferating with the recognition that we must examine the role they play in our society. Video games must be understood as meaningful systems that exert both personal and cultural influence. This program brings together a wide variety of academic disciplinary approaches in order to apprehend the diverse qualities and effects of this multimodal object. Such work trains students in interdisciplinary research and critical thinking about a ubiquitous media at the same time it prepares students for a wide variety of careers in burgeoning fields related to video games.
Program Learning Outcomes
Completion of this program in Video Game Studies will enable students to perform the following at the level of a minor:
- Identify elements, principles and techniques in game design and evaluate them. (Field I)
- Apply research and literary or other disciplinary theories in Video Game Studies to analyze or interpret video games as aesthetic forms, constructed narratives, or designed interactive engagements. (Field II)
- Describe aspects of the social, political, ideological or other historical contexts of video games or gaming practices, including such as aspects as the cultivation of critical perspectives on intersecting identities and the impact of games on communities; analyze at least once such aspect through an appropriate methodology. (Field III) All of these PLOs will be met at the introductory level by our required course “Introduction to Video games: A Comparative Perspective.” Each of these PLOs will be mastered, at the level of a minor, by a single course taken in each of the following fields. Each field directly corresponds to one of the PLOs:
- Field I: Game Design Students will study and gain hands-on experience learning the principles and techniques of designing and developing video games as creators (programming, scriptwriting, sound design, animation, musical scoring, etc.). (PLO #1)
- Field II: Interpretation and Theory Students will study existing video games as aesthetic forms, constructed narratives, or designed interactive engagements in order to arrive at discipline-specific conclusions about the qualities and significance of those designs. This would include courses that examine genres of video games, undertake formal analyses and theorization of video games, or take up questions like the ethics implied by decision tree design or the representation of race in a given game. (PLO #2)
- Field III: Reception and Impact Students will study the historical and ongoing roles of video games on social, economic, political, and other grounds. This field also deals with cultural phenomena such E-sports, streaming platforms, player communities, public or scholastic events, media reporting, psychological impact, etc. It would cover the history of video games from any perspective (cultural, industrial, etc. ), questions about demographics or distribution, economies of exchange, etc. (PLO #3)
Other:
Students can petition to have other advanced courses count in the minor; petitions will be reviewed by the volunteer program coordinator or an advisor in the program. A minimum of 6 upper-division units are required to complete the minor. All coursework used to satisfy the requirements of the minor must be completed with a minimum grade point average of 2.0.
