Tuesday & Thursday
1:15-2:30 PM
230 Franklin Center (IMPS)

Timothy Lenoir
Kimberly J. Jenkins Chair in
New Technologies & Society
lenoir A-T duke D-O-T edu
223 Franklin Center
919-668-1952 (office)
Office hours: TBD

Patrick Herron
Research Analyst/Technologist
patrick.h A-T duke D-O-T edu
027 Franklin Center
919-668-0276 (office)
My Google Calendar




Selected Texts:



ISIS 092. How They Got Game. History and cultural impact of interactive simulations and video games. Evolution of computer and video game design from its beginnings to the present: storytelling, strategy, simulation, sports, 3D first-person games. Cultural, business, and technical perspectives. Insights into design, production, marketing, and socio-cultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication. Instructors: Lenoir, Herron

Wk 1 8/28 | Wk 2 9/4 | Wk 3 9/11 | Wk 4 9/18 | Wk 5 9/25

Wk 6 10/2 | Wk 8 10/16 | Wk 9 10/23 | Wk 10 10/30

Wk 11 11/6 | Wk 12 11/13 | Wk 14 11/27 | Wk 15 12/4

Week 1: Course intro

Aug 28

  • Course Introduction
  • Course Overview and Requirements
  • Game Play Poll

Aug 30


Podcast production tutorials:

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Week 2: Beginnings: From the Arcade to First-Gen PC RPG Games

This week's podcasters: Benny and Guillaume

Sept 4

Sept 6


Podcast production tutorials:

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Week 3: Early Japanese Influence: Nintendo Sidescrolling

This week's podcaster: Mark Elstein

Sept 11

Download and install the NES emulator Nestopia (PC or Mac - enhance Nestopia for Mac) to use the following games: Donkey Kong, Mario, Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda

Sept 13

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Week 4: Birth of the first person shooter: Wolfenstein, Doom

This week's podcasters: Ben Arnstein, Chris Venters, Bernice Ponce de Leon

Sept 18

Wolfenstein 3D (PC), Doom (PC or Mac)
(To play Wolfenstein 3D on your Mac, first download and install DOSBox, then Dapplegrey to interact with DOSBox graphically, and then finally install Wolfenstein through your DOSBox DOS emulator by first adding it as a game through Dapplegrey)

Sept 20

  • Brad King & John Borland, Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic, pp. 87-116.
  • JC Herz, Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds, pp. 83-90.
  • Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford, and Grieg de Peuter, “Mortal Kombats,” Chap. 6, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing, pp. 128-150. (pp. 109-150)
  • Alexander Galloway, Origins of the First-Person Shooter, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp. 39-69.

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Week 5: Narrative, Story and Gameplay

This week's podcasters: Clayton and James

Sept 25

Max Payne, Final Fantasy VII
Recommended outside gameplay: Baldur's Gate

Sept 27

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Week 6: Media theory, Narrative, Story, Game

This week's podcasters: NONE

Oct 2

Metal Gear Solid

Oct 4


Fall Break Oct 5-Oct 10, no class Oct 11

Oct 9

no class

Oct 11

no class

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Week 8: MUDS, Ultima Online, Massively Multiplayer Games

This week's podcasters: Jason and Bernice

Oct 16

World of Warcraft

Oct 18

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Week 9: Massively Multiplayer Games: World of Warcraft

This week's podcasters: Kostadin, Harrison and Christopher

Oct 23

World of Warcraft

Oct 25

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Week 10: From War Games to SIMNET

This week's podcasters: Jason, Clayton and James

Oct 30

America's Army, Counter-Strike

Nov 1

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Week 11: Will Wright: From Sims to Spore

This week's podcaster: Mark Elstein

Nov 6

SimCity, The Sims, Spore

Nov 8

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Week 12: Cultural Differences in Gaming

This week's podcasters: Benny Schwartz, Benjamin Arnstein, and Guillaume Vanderschueren

Nov 13

Grand Theft Auto


  • David Leonard, Virtual Gangstas, Coming to a Suburban House Near You: Demonization, Commodification, and Policing Blackness, Nate Garrelts, ed., The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays, Jefferson, NC; MacFarland Publishers, 2006, pp. 49-69.
  • Laurie N. Taylor, From Stompin Mushrooms to Bustin Heads: Grand Theft Auto III as Paradigm Shift, The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: pp. 115-125.
  • Ian Bogost and Dan Klainbaum, Experiencing Place in Los Santos and Vice City, The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: pp. 162-176.
  • Cindy Poremba, Against Embedded Agency: Subversion and Emergence in GTA3, The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: pp. 199-209.
  • Wm. Ruffin Bailey, Inviting Subversion: Metalepses and Tmesis in Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto Series, The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: pp. 210-225.
  • Anne Allison, "Portable monsters and commodity cuteness: Pokémon as Japan 's new global power," Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (2003): 381-395.
  • Michelle Levander, “Where Does Fantasy End,” Time Magazine, June 4, 2001, Vol.157 No.22.
  • Brian Bennett, “101 Pixels of Fun,” Time Magazine, June 4, 2001, Vol.157 No.22.
  • JC Herz, “The Bandwidth Capital of the World,” Wired, 10.8, August, 2002.
  • Caroline Gluck, “South Korea’s Gaming Addicts,” BBC World News, Asia-Pacific, 22 November 2002.
  • BBC World News, “South Korean Dies After Games Session,” 10 August 2005.

Nov 15 Games and Politics


Thanksgiving Recess Nov 20-Nov 26, no class Nov 20 and Nov 22

Nov 20

no class

Nov 22

no class

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Week 14: Gender

This week's podcasters: Kostadin and Harrison

Nov 27

Tomb Raider


Nov 29

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Week 15: Violence

Dec 4

Dec 6 New Theoretical Perspectives

  • Jesper Juul, Video Games and the Classic Game Model, Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press, 2005, pp. 23-54.
  • Ian Bogost, Procedural Rhetoric, Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Video Games, Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press, 2007, pp1-64.
  • Alex Galloway, Gamic Action, Four Moments, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp. 1-38.

Dec 8

Project Previews

 


 
 
This page was last updated on 12/04/2007 07:55:56