FMST 036. Theory and History of Videogames

This course investigates the video game medium from its earliest incarnation in hackers’ prankish exploits to the latest in AAA and indie publishing, drawing on a variety of texts and perspectives as well as on play, analysis, and creation of video games themselves to build a portrait not just of games, gamers, and gaming, but of a unique moment in the evolution of contemporary digital media. After establishing a basic conceptual vocabulary for thinking, speaking, and writing about video games, we will shift our attention to the broader contexts and cultural functions of video gaming - as commercial and transmedia entities; as spaces for the forging of identity and sociality; and as objects of fandom and instruments of ideology. As this is a hybrid course that emphasizes making as learning, our final project will involve creating games that make critical arguments. Required weekly out-of-class gaming and viewing assignments.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for DGHU
Spring 2025. Rehak.
Catalog chapter: Film and Media Studies
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/film-media-studies

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