Posts tagged with courses in Blog Eaten by a Grue

Interested in studying video games during the Winter term? Check out this list of courses involving the study of video games that are being offered next term. Also, find out more about game studies on campus by checking out the Video Game Studies Research Guide.

The University of Michigan is offering a rich variety of game-related courses during the Summer and Fall 2021 terms, so we thought we'd highlight them here as well as on our research guide as you're choosing courses. If you're looking for ideas on how to play games online, we'd recommend taking a look at the Online Games page on our research guide.

The University of Michigan is offering a rich variety of game-related courses during the Winter 2021 term, so we thought we'd highlight them here as well as on our research guide as you're choosing courses for the Winter term. If you're looking for ideas on how to play games online, we'd recommend taking a look at the Online Games page on our research guide.

Are you picking out electives for the Fall and want to take a course related to video game studies? We've accumulated a list here to get you started.

Have you always wanted to take a course about video games? Need to fill an elective slot for Winter term? Since most students are picking out which courses they'd like to take, we thought we'd share a list of interesting courses being taught next term. There are many other good ones out there as well, but here are a few to get you started.

Looking for an interesting elective to take next Fall? This course has received high praise from several regulars at the CVGA, and is designed for non-music majors. Hope you get the chance to check it out!

We'd like to spread the word about a game-related music class being taught again in the Fall: MUSPERF 300: Video Game Music.

Word has come to us of another new game-related class being offered in Fall 2013 here at the University of Michigan:Technology and Play This course considers the social science of play and interactive media technology. The three central questions addressed in this course are: “What is play?”, “How does technology mediate play?”, and “What are the consequences of this mediation?” Over the semester, we’ll investigate the social scientific and humanities research on play, the structure of games, and the societal consequences of mediated play for both children and adults. A special focus will be “games for change” (a.k.a. “serious games”) that have an educational purpose. The term will be organized around competing theories of play (e.g., development, fate/chance, power, identity, fantasy, self-fulfillment, nonsense), and will be illustrated with examples from computer games. This is a project-based course. Throughout the semester we will work toward producing two conceptual design projects for playful technologies. These are roughly equivalent to a midterm and a final, or a short and a long paper. As these are conceptual projects, technical skills are not required. Technology and PlayF13 M/W 4 - 5:30 p.m.Undergraduate Section: COMM 408.001Graduate Section: COMM 840.001No prerequisites.Instructor: Christian Sandvig (csandvig@umich.edu)Note that you must e-mail the instructor to enroll in the graduate section.

If you are a student here at the University of Michigan, there are a couple of new video game-related courses being offered:For Summer 2013:COMM 488-201, SAC 455-202 - Video Games, Culture, & Contexts This course takes as its focus the cultural impact of video games from a number of critical perspectives. Just as movies and television have a rich history, video games develop out of a number of social, economic, and technological structures. We will examine video games as cultural texts that are part of a complex, cultural landscape—objects revealing much about cultural anxieties, ideologies, and assumptions. We will analyze a number of video game texts, ranging from early arcade style games, to console games, to PC games, to games for mobile phones. A range of genres within these game texts will be discussed, such as first person shooters, massively multi-player online games, and casual games—unpacking both the formal aspects of the game and the underlying meaning of game narratives. How and by whom are video games produced, how does the industry market particular games to its perceived audience, who plays games and why, and what is so serious about “serious” games? We will draw from a range of methodological and theoretical texts within the field of game studies: critical cultural, ethnographic, media effects, industrial, and historical. (Instructor: Julia Lange) And for Fall 2013:MUSPERF  300 - Video Game MusicThis course surveys game music from the first synthesized "bleeps" and "bloops" to modern orchestral compositions.  Techniques are learned to aurally analyze game music.  Students will create compositions using computer software as a final project.  Course is designed for non-music majors; the ability to read standard music notation is not needed. (Instructor: Matthew Thompson)