GAMES & CULTURE:POL/PLEASR/PED

Catalog description

Everyone plays games. All the time. But how well can people 'read' the games they play? What roles do culture, race, gender, class or ideology 'play' in games? In this course students will read games as cultural texts. Topics will include how games engage broader cultural and political themes; how prevailing cultures and values affect design, popularity, and even user experience; the relation between role-playing and questions of identity, ethics, group behavior, and politics. In this course students will play many games. But they will also ask: Do we play the game, or does the game play us? 001306