Digital Play – Games and Virtual Worlds
CUSP 104/107
Fall 2009
Date: Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:45-1:05
Place: UW2 141
Instructor: Wanda Gregory and Skaff Elias
Email: wgregory@u.washington.edu,
Office Hours: after class and by appt
Course Description:
With revenues exceeding 30 billion dollars, video game industry is now one of the largest
segments of the entertainment industry. The massively multiplayer online game (MMO)
World of Warcraft that launched in 2004 now has over 11 million subscribers worldwide.
Today we have players spending thousands of dollars on virtual characters and digital items.
Games have and will continue to become a major part of our culture today and a key
component of the ever-growing digital entertainment industry.
The class integrates lectures, presentations, guest lecturers, case studies and of course
game play, thought, and critique. We will look at a variety of games (paper based and
digital) along with participation in team projects. Topics include: overview of the game
industry, the structure and process of game design, game aesthetics, playtesting and UI
design, narrative and character development, economic and business models, social design,
sociological and psychological dimensions of games and play, identity and community. We
will also study and evaluate characteristics important to all games. The goal will be to
develop a vocabulary and tools for those interested in critiquing their own and others game
designs.
Aims of the Course:
The learning objectives for the class are as follows:
 Understand the structure of games: including economic systems, formal models, games
as systems
 Understand the fundamental principles of high level and low level game design, including
rules, balance, feedback, motivation, progression, and genre-based tricks
 Understand the social and psychological aspects of game play
 Understand the development of the player experience including character development,
narrative and social play
 Understand design considerations in the creation of online environments and games
 Develop a vocabulary for the analysis and critique of games
Assignments will include:
 Weekly readings
 Short game description
 Three papers
 Take home essay test
 Team project – creation of game concept, paper and presentation
 Play Games!!
Papers:
Short game description
Identity paper
Response paper (topic assigned in class)
Game review paper
Team Project – Game concept, pitch, write up and group presentation
1
Students will work in teams to create a game concept, pitch and write up. The team will
submit a one-page summary for class review and suggestions during week 5. In week 10,
teams will present their game concept, and design to a panel of industry experts. More
information on this as quarter progresses.
Take Home Essay:
Will be discussed in class.
Credit for assignments:
Short game description (5%)
Take home essay test (20%)
Identity paper (10%)
Game review paper (10%)
Response paper (10%)
Final group project and paper (20/25%)
Reading Requirements:
 There are no required texts for the course
 In advance of certain lecturers required readings will be provided either by photocopied
materials, pdfs or Internet links
 There will be a form of lecture notes on the class website. However these will not match
the lectures exactly in content, so beware.
Suggested/Optional Books:
 Between Play Worlds, by TL Taylor
 Synthetic Worlds, by Edward Castronva
 Designing Virtual Worlds, by Richard Bartle
 Theory of Fun for Game Design, by Ralph Koster
 Rules of Play, Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen
 The Game Design Reader, Ed. Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen
 Oxford History of Board Games, David Parlett
 Oxford History of Card Games, David Parlett
 The Study of Games, Elliott M. Avendon and Brian Sutton-Smith
Useful Web Sites:
Terra Nova
The Escapist Magazine
Nick Yee/Daedalus gateway
Water Cooler Games
Gamasutra
International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
Penny Arcade
Joystiq
Kotaku
Slashdot Games
MMORPG.com
2
Course Schedule:
This schedule may need to be adjusted as the quarter progresses (class with notice).
Th Oct 1
Overview of the
Course and
Introduction to
Game Structure
Definition of
“game”
Tu – Oct 6
Overview of the
Game Industry
Game Genres
Game
Fundamentals:
Playtime, Players,
Positional
asymmetry
Th– Oct 8
What is Play?
Mind of the Playcognitive aspects
of game play
Readings:
Costikyan, I have no words I must design,
http://www.costik.com/nowords.html#What_is
Barton, Matt. The History of Computer Role Playing
Games,
www.gamasutra.com/features/20070411/barton_01.shtm
l
Stevens, T. “Filling the Immersion Gap”
Varney, A. “Lifegame 2.0”
Drake, S. “The New Gaming Society”
www.escapistmagazine.com/features/issue/53
SHORT GAME WRITE UP DUE
Readings:
Salen and Zimmerman, Chapters 22, 23 and 25 Rules of
Play
Csikszentmihalyi, M. Chapters 3 & 4, The Flow
Tu– Oct
13
Game
Fundamentals:
Heuristics,
interactivity, Politics
Hejdenberg, A. The Psychology Behind Games,
Gamasutra.
www.gamasutra.com/features/20050426/hejdenberg_01.
shtml
IN CLASS GAME
PLAY: Shoot-out
Guest Lecture:
Kristin Olm, Business Development Manager, Playfirst
Discussion of Casual Games Industry.
IP Development
and Narrative Play
Readings:
Jenkins, Game Design as Narrative Architecture, pdf
Rogers, “Playing Smart with IP,” Game Developer
Magazine, June/July 2005
Costikyan, G. “Games, Storytelling and Breaking the
String.” Second Person pdf
Hindmarch, W. “Storytelling
Medium.” Second Person. pdf
Th – Oct
Player Identity
games
as
a
Creative
Guest Speaker: to be confirmed
Readings:
3
15
and Character
Development
Thurkle, Sherry. Aspects of the Self, chapter 7, Life on
the Screen
Bartle, R. Players. Bartle, “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds,
Spades: Players who Suit MUDs pfd
Perron, “From Gamers to Players and Gameplayers: The
Example of Interactive Movies” The Video Game Theory
Reader pdf
Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,
Introduction
Stephenson, N. excerpts from Snow Crash
Tu– Oct
20
Girl Games
Readings:
Jenkins, H. “Chess for Girls: Feminism and Computer
Games”, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat pdf
Jenkins, H. “Future Reflections”, From Barbie to Mortal
Kombat. pdf
Bryce, Rutter, “Killing Like a Girl: Gendered Gaming and
Girls Gamers Visibility” pdf
Jenkins, H., “Gendered Space.” From Barbie to Mortal
Kombat, pdf
Guest Speaker: To be confirmed
IDENTITY PAPER DUE
Th– Oct
22
Transmedia
Properties – Case
Study of Nanovors
Readings:
Handouts in Class
Game
Fundamentals:
Elimination,
Kingmaking,
Standards,
Spectation
Tu – Oct
27
Social Gaming,
Virtual Worlds and
Online Gaming
Communities
Readings:
Bartle, R. “Alice and Dorothy Worlds.” Beyond Video
Games, Ed. Chris Batman. pdf
Yee, N. The Labor of Fun, “Games and Culture”,
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001500.php
Game
Fundamentals:
Rules, Downtime,
Busywork, Snowball
and Catchup
Taylor, TL. Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds,
http://www.itu.dk/~tltaylor/papers/TaylorLivingDigitally.pdf
Boyd, d. “Why Youth Love Social Network Sites.
www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf
4
Th – Oct
29
Virtual Worlds and
Online Economics
– Case Study of
ourWorld
Game
Fundamentals:
Reward/Effort Ratio,
Game Arc, Game
Balance
Tu – Nov
3
IN CLASS GAME
PLAY
Online Economics
Game
Fundamentals:
Strategic Collapse,
Rewards, Hidden
Information
Th – Nov
5
Business and
Marketing of
Games
Console Wars – case
study of Xbox Live,
Sony and Wii
Readings:
Castronova, E. The Economics of Fun: Behavior and
Design (chapter 8) Synthetic Worlds pdf
Register for ourWorld.com
Explore other sites including:
Second Life
Avion
World of Warcraft
Xbox Live
Sony Home
Free Realms
Readings:
Chinese Gold Farmers: Preview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho5Yxe6UVv4&eurl
Doctorow, C. Anda’s game. Short story from Salon.Com
November 15, 2004.
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/11/15/anda
s_game/index.html?pn=1
Book, B. These bodies are FREE, so get one NOW!:
Advertising and Branding in Social Virtual Worlds
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=536
422
Readings:
Michael Wolf, “Brand Empire,” The Entertainment
Economy Pdf
Anderson, T. Introduction, Chapters 1 & 3, The Long Tail,
pdf
RESPONSE PAPER DUE
Tu – Nov
10
Advergaming
Game
Fundamentals:
Randomness Luck
and Skills, Costs
Th – Nov
12
Readings:
Edery, D. “Advergames.” Changing the Game. pdf
Edery, D. “Adverworlds: An Intro to Games and Why they
Matter.” Changing the Game. pdf
Guest Speaker: Alex St. John, Former CEO of Wild
Tangent
Legal Aspects of
Games,
Governance,
Privacy, Deviant
Behavior
Readings:
Jenkins, The Virtual World as a Company Town-Freedom
of Speech in Massively Multiple On-line Role Play Games,
“Journal of Internet Law”,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=565
181
Game
Taylor, TL. 'Whose Game Is This Anyway?'“ Negotiating
5
Fundamentals:
Victory Conditions,
the metagame
Corporate Ownership in a Virtual World
http://virtual-economy.org/
Guest Speaker: to be confirmed
Tu – Nov
17
IN CLASS GAME
PLAY:
Game Ethics –
Violence, Identity
and Deception
Readings:
Donath, J., Identity and Deception in the Virtual
Communities
http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/Identity
Deception.html
Bruckman, A. Gender Swapping on the Internet
http://wwwstatic.cc.gatech.edu/elc/papers/bruckman/genderswapping-bruckman.pdf
Th – Nov
19
Alternate Forms
of games –
Pervasive,
narrative based
games
GAME REVIEW PAPER DUE
Readings:
McGonigal, J. Why I Love Bees:
A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming. pdf
McGonagall, J. “The Puppet Master,” pdf
Walz, S. and Ballagas, R. Pervasive Persuasive: A
Rhetorical Design Approach to a
Location-Based Spell-Casting Game for Tourists.
IN CLASS GAME
PLAY:
McLuhan, M. “Games”, Understanding Media
Serious Games –
training, health
and education
Readings:
James Gee. Chapter 1. What Video Games have to teach
us about learning and literacy? pfd
Finalize
Presentations
Aylett, Vala, Sequeira, Paiva. FearNot!–An
Emergent Narrative Approach to Virtual Dramas for
Anti-bullying Education. [http://www.
springerlink.com/index/g54771761631r095.pdf]
Th – Nov
26
THANKSGIVING –
NO CLASS
PLAY GAMES!
Work on Projects!!
Tu – Dec
1
Final Presentation
Th – Dec
3
Final
Presentations
W – Dec 9
FINAL PAPERS
AND PROJECTS
DUE!!!
Tu– Nov
24
6