GAME12-200: Computer Game Culture and Audience

Description

This course explores the changing and varied nature of computer game audiences and the culture that they inhabit and which surrounds them. Drawing on both, contemporary social sciences and cultural studies research the course attempts to map the complex relationships between computer games, gamers, popular culture and wider society. Distinctions between various types of audiences are discussed: social gamers, casual gamers, hard-core gamers, as are the various player structures of computer games and their ludic significance. Special attention is paid to online interaction and MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games), examining the active social networks surrounding such games as Everquest and World of Warcraft.

Subject details

Learning outcomes

1. Develop critical thinking about video games.
2. Develop research and synthesis of knowledge on game culture.
3. Encourage critical discussion of game culture based on contemporary scholarship.
4. Provide an introduction to Games Studies.

Prerequisites

No prior knowledge required.

Subject outlines

• January 2018 [Standard]

Subject dates