Introduction to Game Studies
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During the seminar, we will read a few texts that all deal with social, historical,
political and asthetic aspects of games and play. The first three texts are
frequently quoted seminal texts by
(1)
Karl Groos Groos:Die
Spiele der Thiere (Kapitel 3, 1896 - in German),
(2) Johan
Huizinga Huizinga:_homo_ludens_(Chapter
on_Nature_and Significance of Play, 1949) and
(3) Roger Caillois Caillois:
Man, Play and Games (Chapters 1 and 2, 2001).
The 19th century text of Groos has recently gained new attention with many game scholars being influenced by the "animal turn". Groos' book "Die Spiele der Tiere" (Animal Games) was a volume followed by a later publication of his on games of humans (1901). For Huizinga and for Caillois it is the human that is the main agent for play. Huizinga theoretizes from an anthropological viewpoint (he original text in Dutch has been published in 1938) whereas Caillos (French original from 1958) uses methods from sociology to find out about the social issues of gaming. Amongst scholars who refused to accept tha non-humans can play Bataille has to be mentioned. Hanna Wirman, however, is one of those who claims that animals can play.
Wirman
& Zamansky: Playful Animal-Computer Interactions (2015)
Georges Bataille (interpreted by Andrew
Mitchell and Jason Kemp Winfree, 2009):The Obsessions of Gerges Bataille. Can
Animals Play?
Mijrs et al.: Wheel Running in
the Wild (2014)
Following
up with a remark on animal play Kathie Salen and Eric Zimmerman explain wha
they mean by meaningful games.
Salen & Zimmerman:
Rules of Play (2003, excerpt from Chapter3)
Also important in regard o philosophical, political and terminological regard are:
Sutton-Smith: Play
and Ambiguity (Excerpt, 1997)
Flanagan: Critical_Play (Intro,
2009)
Conway:
Hyper-Ludicity, Contra-Ludicity, and the Digital Game (2010)
Every student is expected to:
-
Pick a concept from one of the abovementioned articles and explain to his/her
peer students how the author develops his/her argument.
- Students are also asked to lay out a counter argument, if they think that
the author is wrong.
- Present the concept and a counter argument.
These presentations should take 15 minutes maximum, followed by 30 minutes discussion
in class. Required reading:
These three short texts have to be read by every student:
(1)
Brian Sutton-Smith Sutton-Smith:
Play and Ambiguity (Excerpt, 1997),
(2) Johan
Huizinga Huizinga:_homo_ludens_(Chapter
on_Nature_and Significance of Play, 1949) and
(3) Roger Caillois Caillois:
Man, Play and Games (Chapters 1 and 2, 2001).