Week 7 (30-10):
Digital Playgrounds
Resources
- Download a PDF of the lecture.
Read
NB here and below, “read”means before next class. In addition, unless hyperlinked, the texts can be found on Blackboard.
- Hunicke et al.’s MDA-Framework
- Ian Bogost’s (2016) Play Anything, Foreword and Chapter 1 (Playgrounds Everywhere).
- Bogost’s The Squalid Grace of Flappy Bird. (Atlantic, February 3, 2014).
Play
NB Here and below, “Play” means spend at least half an hour with the referenced game.
- Flappy Bird (most true to the original when played on a smartphone)
Week 8 (6-11):
Virtual Worlds
Resources
- Download a PDF of the lecture
Read
- Philip Brey (2014)’s The Phyiscal and Social Reality of Virtual Worlds in The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality
- Chapter 1 and 2 from Nick Yee (2014)’s The Proteus Paradox.
Play
- The ancestor of all virtual worlds: Colossal Cave Adventure (more info here)
Week 9 (13-11):
From Cyborgs to Playing Computers
Resources
- Download a PDF of the lecture
Read
- Donna Haraway (1985)’s A Cyborg Manifesto
- Chapter 6 of Brendan Keogh (2018)’s A Play of Bodies: How We Perceive Video Games.
Play
- Zoe Quinn’s Depression Quest
- Anna Anthropy’s dys4ia
Week 10 (20-11):
No class
Week 11 (29-11):
The End of Fun
Read
- TBA
Play
- Adventure Capitalist (available via Steam, Google Play, and the App Store)
Week 12 &13 (4-12 & 11-12):
The Future of the Digital
Your presentations predicting the future of a digital phenomenon!