グローバル教養科目（Writing About Gaming: Game Studies as Social Practice）

Topics that will be covered include: -Gaming as a branch of the humanities -Aesthetics and “Aesthetic” -Gaming history and genres -Ideology -Story, narrative, and “world” -Vocabularies of gaming (e.g. “side quest,” “lore,” “speedrunning,” “bosses,” “loot”) -Experiential and affective vocabularies (e.g. “saving,” “respawning,” “lives,” “crafting,” “leveling up,” “grinding,” varieties of anxiety, acquisitiveness, fear, curiosity) -Social and interpersonal vocabularies (e.g. “NPCs") -Social aspects of gaming (communities, relations, performances and self-performances, wikis and walkthroughs, modding, franchises) -Ontology (what objects, beings, and types of action populate the game?), phenomenology (what kinds of embodiment, movement, and sensory processing and feedback does it make possible?), and epistemology (how is knowledge produced, withheld, awarded, used) -“Poetics of space” (what sensations, experiences, actions are possible within which locations)? Types of spatial experience and organization (dungeons, “secret areas,” levels) -Gameplay and game praxis (movement systems, physics, point of view, controls, puzzle-solving, combat systems, structures of reward)

Mini-lectures followed by collective inquiry and discussion. We will mostly be using Google Classroom and Google Docs.

【Please note that this course uses a five-point grading scale of A+, A, B, C, or F(Fail).】 There will be NO single-authored “final essay” or “final presentation” deliverable at the end of this course, and no exam. Instead, you will be evaluated on the basis of your continuing contributions to in-class writing and discussion, and of your written contributions to our final class project: a “creative and critical guide” for writing and thinking about gaming as art and social practice.

All required readings will be provided by the instructor via Google Classroom.

None, but please be sure you bring a laptop to class, and/or a tablet with a keyboard. In some cases, it may be useful to have one “research device” (e.g. a laptop) and one “gaming device” (e.g. a tablet, a phone, a Switch).

【If the number of students enrolling in this course exceeds 20, there may be a selection process. Instructions for the selection process will be given in the first class, so if you are interested in taking this course, please be sure to attend the first class.】 The course will be conducted in English. Although the instructor endorses language-mixing and “trans-languaging” in class, the instructor will communicate, in principle, in English. Those with the ability to participate in class and group discussions, follow lectures, and read academic and other materials in English will get the most out of the course. However, all levels of English competency are welcome. A prior interest in computer and/or console gaming is welcome but not essential, and you are not required to own or use any particular console or platform. In principle, up to 20 students will be permitted to register. If more than 20 students come to the first class, instructors make a selection (criteria will be announced in class).