History of Games and Play

Catalog description

This course examines the historical and cultural role of analog and electronic games. Among issues related to current and future developments, the course investigates the socio-cultural impacts of interactive entertainment. Students explore how games help construct beliefs and morals, develop ideologies, and shape identity, and in turn, how culture and society are expressed in gameplay. Students analyze historical and contemporary games and their cultural context while reading current research and theory from a variety of sources in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the game industry.