Topic: Introduction to Game Narratives

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to how stories work in games with a special focus on digital games. The course begins with an overview of games’ place in human culture and with a basic introduction to narrative theory. That understanding of storytelling lets us examine how games tell stories and how their interactivity changes how stories are both made and consumed. This course represents an opportunity to begin thinking critically about video (and other) games, their narrative potential, and gaming culture. Looking to areas such as character, plot, and other story elements we will examine specific games and their engagement with categories such as gender, ethnicity and race, class, authorial intent as well as, simply, play.