If you had to teach a class on an element of gaming, which games would you put on your syllabus?

kfwyre
2020-08-14T19:40:52Z

Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following:

Choose a focus for your class on gaming (with a snazzy title if you like)

Choose the games that you, as a professor, will have your class dive into in order to convey key concepts

Explain why each game you chose ties into your overarching exploration

Your class can have any focus, broad or specific: level design in first-person shooters; the history of pixel art; the psychology of non-linear narratives; the use of sound effects in mid-2000 platformers; the limitations of turn-based systems in tabletop strategy games, etc. Anything goes, and any forms of gaming are valid!

After choosing your specific focus, choose games that you would put on your syllabus as a sort of "required playing" for students, and talk about why you've chosen each item and what it brings to the table. If you decide to choose, say, NetHack and The Binding of Isaac for your class on "Roguelikes, Roguelites, and the Fallacy of the Berlin Interpretation", discuss how those particular games illustrate some of the key concepts you want to convey to your learners.

While I'm intending this to be serious and straightforward, I also like the idea of people having fun with it, so feel free to come up with some less serious or more entertaining classes. I'd love to see the outline for course that explored, say, the history of exploding barrels or an investigation of taste levels in the fashion of JRPG outfits.

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~games/raf/if_you_had_to_teach_a_class_on_an_element_of_gaming_which_games_would_you_put_on_your_syllabus

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