Senior Seminar - VideoGames
Class meets MWF 2-2:50, Final exam time: May 11 (Friday) 7:30 to 10am
Assignments
| Prof. Kim Gregson | Office: Park Hall Rm 341 |
| Phone: 4-7348 | Email: kgregson@ithaca.edu |
| Office Hours: , or by appointment | AIM Screen Name: kgregson |
Course Objectives & Goals By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Define "game" in a variety of contexts
- Write a properly structured academic research paper with an APA formatted bibliography
- Apply basic aesthetic principles (learned in earlier classes) to modern and historic videogames
- Apply legal principles such as copyright and censorship to describe current government policy towards videogames
- Use information from sources intended for different audiences (trade journals, academic journals, newspapers, blogs) to produce a written report on an assigned topic
Grades
| 95-100 A | 90-94 A- | |
| 87-89 B+ | 83-86 B | 80-82 B- |
| 77-79 C+ | 73-76 C | 70-72 C- |
| 67-69 D+ | 63-66 D | 60-62 D- |
| 0-59 F |
Textbook & Readings
Here's the weekly schedule for the semester. Sometimes we will make changes - I might find a cool new article or we might get caught up in an inclass discussion or activity. So check back here frequently.
| Date | Topic | Readings & Assignments |
| Week 1 | Introductions, Course overview, What's a game | Read intro, ch12 , this article presenting an early set of videogame genres from 1982, and the wiki article on videogame genres and this article on defining videogames |
| Week 2 | Different kinds of Games (alternative reality games, journalism games, serious games, MMORPG, mobile games, advergames) | Read "Entering the Education Arcade" in the journal Computers in Entertainment by Henry Jenkins et al (find it thru the Proquest database - it's online as a pdf), read Spotlights from Pew Research Center, and watch this video by Joi Ito about WOW and read Bartle's article on player types and Nick Yee's article updating the Bartle model |
| Week 3 | Different Kinds of Games | Read chapter 3 and the market overview and future of mobile games sections of this mobile gaming white paper and 3 page article on promogames |
| Week 4 | Gamer Identity and Fan Culture | Read Ch 17, read The Cultural Economy of Fandom by John Fiske (thru the ebrary in Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media edited by Lisa Lewis, and watch video from conference at MIT |
| Week 5 | History & Industry & Policy | Read Ch1 & 2, check out Videogame Timeline and VideoGame Museum and GameSpot's History of Videogames |
| Week 6 | History & Industry & Policy | Read Lucky Wander Boy and be ready to discuss in class (what does it say about the industry, game aesthetics, and game effects) F: midterm exam |
| Week 7 | Aesthetics | Read ch 11 and 13 Take home midterm due at beginning of class Friday. Answer three of the four questions below. Each answer should be 3 to 5 pages long. Print. Staple. Turn in. Do not repeat. Do not pass go. No way are you collecting $200. Do put your name on each answer tho.
|
| Spring Break | Spring Break | |
| Week 8 | Aesthetics | Read ch 14 and 15 |
| Week 9 | Social Side of Games | Read ch 24 & 25 |
| Week 10 | Social Side of Games | Read ch 26 & 27 |
| Week 11 | Effects of Playing Games | Read ch 7 & 9 Data for final paper here |
| Week 12 | Effects of Playing Games | Read Ch 10 and Violent Media is Good for Kids by Gerard Jones |
| Week 13 | Games & Girls | Read Ch 19 and check out Women Gamers.com |
| Week 14 | Design | Read ch 4 & 5 |
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SecondLife Blogs |
Videogame Blogs |
Resources
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Attendance and Class Participation
Ithaca College Policy
Students at Ithaca College are
expected to attend all classes, and they are responsible for work missed during
any absence from class. At the beginning of each semester, instructors must
provide students in their courses with written guidelines regarding possible
grading penalties for failure to attend class. Students should notify their
instructors as soon as possible of any anticipated absences. Written
documentation that indicates the reason for being absent may be required. These
guidelines may vary from course to course, but are subject to the following
restrictions:
1. In accordance with New York State law, students who miss class due to their religious beliefs shall be excused from class or examinations on that day. Such students must notify their course instructors at least one week before any anticipated absence so that proper arrangements may be made to make up any missed work or examination without penalty.
2. Any student who misses class due to a verifiable emergency - such as an illness requiring attention by the health center, or hospitalization, death, or serious illness of a family member, or required appearance in a court of law shall be excused. Students may notify the Office of Student Affairs about any emergency, and that office will notify the appropriate faculty member
A student may be excused for participation in College-authorized co-curricular and extracurricular activities, such as athletic events, ROTC, musical and theatrical performances, and professional conferences if, in the instructor's judgment, this does not impair the specific student's or the other students' ability to succeed in the course.
The course instructor has the right to determine if the number of absences has been excessive in view of the nature of the class that was missed and the stated attendance policy. Depending on the individual situation, this can result in the student being removed from or failing the course.
Regarding Academic Dishonesty
Link to the Online Student Handbook section on Academic Dishonesty
STANDARDS OF ACADEMIC CONDUCT
A. Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the mission of the College. Unless it is otherwise stipulated, students may submit for evaluation only that work that is their own and that is submitted originally for a specific course. According to the traditions of higher education, forms of conduct that will be considered evidence of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to the following: conversations between students during an examination; reviewing, without authorization, material during an examination (i.e., personal notes, another student's exam); unauthorized collaboration; submission of a paper also submitted for credit in another course; reference to written material related to the course brought into an examination room during a closed-book, written examination; and submission without proper acknowledgment of work that is based partially or entirely on the ideas or writings of others. Only when a faculty member gives prior approval for such actions can they be acceptable.
B. It is the responsibility of instructors to inform students clearly in writing of specific rules, procedures and/or expectations pertinent to their particular course that differ from those identified in paragraph A of this section. In those courses where limited consultation among students is permitted in the preparation of assignments, it is extremely important for instructors to clarify the guidelines for appropriate conduct.
C. In situations where a student may have difficulty in distinguishing between acceptable behavior and academic misconduct, it is the responsibility of the student to confer with the instructor. This is particularly important for avoiding plagiarism when written sources are used in the preparation of papers or take-home examinations.
Because Ithaca College is an academic community, ignorance of the accepted standards of academic honesty in no way affects the responsibility of students who violate standards of conduct in courses and other academic activities.
D. All members of the academic community are expected to assist in maintaining the integrity of Ithaca College, which includes reporting incidents of academic misconduct. Such instances may be reported to a faculty member, the dean of the school involved, or the director of judicial affairs.
PLAGIARISM
Whether intended or not, plagiarism is a serious offense against academic honesty. Under any circumstances, it is deceitful to represent as one's own work writing or ideas that belong to another person. Students should be aware how this offense is defined: Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else's published or unpublished ideas, whether this use consists of directly quoted material or paraphrased ideas.
Although various disciplines follow styles of documentation that differ in some details, all forms of documentation make the following demands:
- That each quotation or paraphrase be acknowledged with footnotes or in-text citation;
- That direct quotations be enclosed in quotation marks and be absolutely faithful to the wording of the source;
- That paraphrased ideas be stated in language entirely different from the language of the source;
- That a sequence of ideas identical to that of a source be attributed to that source;
- That all the sources the writer has drawn from in paraphrase or direct quotation or a combination of paraphrase and quotation be listed at the end of the paper under "Bibliography," "References," or "Works Cited," whichever heading the particular style of documentation requires.
- A student is guilty of plagiarism if he/she fails, intentionally or not, to follow any of these standard requirements of documentation.
In a collaborative project, all students in the group may be held accountable for academic misconduct if they engage in plagiarism or are aware of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it. Students who participate in a collaborative project in which plagiarism has occured will not be held accountable if they were not knowledgeable of the plagiarism.
What, then, do students not have to document? They need not cite their own ideas, references to their own experiences, or information that falls in the category of uncontroversial common knowledge (what a person reasonably well-informed about a subject might be expected to know.) They should acknowledge anything else.
Other Forms of Academic Dishonesty
Other violations of academic honesty include, but are not limited to, the following behaviors:
- Handing in to a class a paper written by someone else;
- Handing in as an original work for a class a paper one has already submitted to another course;
- Handing in the same paper simultaneously to two courses without the full knowledge and explicit consent of all the faculty members involved;
- Having someone else rewrite or clean up a rough draft and submitting those revisions as one's own work
Note: Students who would like help in learning how to paraphrase or document sources properly should feel free to come to the Writing Center in room 228 of Roy H. Park Hall for assistance.
In a collaborative project, all students in a group may be held responsible for academic misconduct if they engage in plagiarism or are aware of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it. Students who participate in a collaborative project in which plagiarism has occurred will not be held accountable if they were not knowledgeable of the plagiarism.
Students with Special Needs
In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with documented disabilities on a case by case basis. Students must register with the Office of Academic Support Services and provide appropriate documentation to the college before any academic adjustment will be provided. To contact that office call 274-1005, or contact Leslie Schettino, Director of Support Services for Students With Disabilities, at
This page last updated 18 January 2006 by Kim Gregson
