Official course description:

Full info last published 28/08-20
Course info
Language:
English
ECTS points:
7.5
Course code:
KGADTGS1KU
Participants max:
25
Offered to guest students:
yes
Offered to exchange students:
-
Offered as a single subject:
yes
Price for EU/EEA citizens (Single Subject):
10625 DKK
Programme
Level:
MSc. Master
Programme:
MSc in Games
Staff
Course manager
Professor, Head of Center
Course semester
Semester
Efterår 2020
Start
24 August 2020
End
31 January 2021
Exam
Exam type
ordinær
Internal/External
ekstern censur
Grade Scale
7-trinsskala
Exam Language
GB
Abstract
Students learn to analyse and critically engage with games and related theoretical topics.
Description

Games and play are an increasingly important genre of entertainment, marketing, personal expression and art. This course provides a theoretical foundation for analysing game and engaging with the role of games in our society.

Students will gain an understanding of how to analyse and critically engage with games.

The seminar follows two interwoven threads: game analysis and theoretical topics in game research. The course covers central topics that addresses these issues including:

  • Games, mediation and textuality
  • Player Involvement
  • Narrative
  • Aesthetics
  • Ethics
  • Persuasive Games
  • Politics and ideologies of Games

The students' own research interests are encouraged and welcomed.

Formal prerequisites

Students are expected to have a grounding in the theoretical humanities and/or social sciences.

This course builds on Games & Culture. If the prospective student has not taken this course, but feels qualified for other reasons, please contact the course manager before applying.

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

  • Analyze digital games in a thorough and coherent manner, utilizing theories and methods engaged with in the course as a suite of analytical tools.
  • Engage critically with the academic literature in the field of Game Studies.
  • Refine and develop existing theories to better suit specific applied analysis.
  • Research a given topic independently in order to produce a paper that is good enough for submission to an international journal or conference.
Learning activities

4 weeks of teaching consisting of seminar presentations and discussions, hands-on analysis exercises, student presentations, reading groups and a final writing project.

The course will be run like a reading group, seminar and paper presentation workshop, where everyone will be expected to participate actively in presenting their work in progress and comment on the other presentations. During the 14 weeks students will present their term paper ideas, receive feedback and suggestions, and refine their idea into a scientific paper with a research question, methodology, literature review and analysis.

The exercises will consist of playing games and taking notes about the gameplay experience and the game analyses. We will focus on 3-4 relevant games (to be determined by the participants).

As inspiration for the term paper we will have lectures from the local teachers and other ITU researchers, as well as visiting scholars and especially invited international researchers. Students will also receive individual supervision and guidance during the entire process. In this way, research practices will be learned through the practical experience of doing actual research in an actual research environment.

Course literature

The course literature is published in the course page in LearnIT.

Student Activity Budget
Estimated distribution of learning activities for the typical student
  • Preparation for lectures and exercises: 15%
  • Lectures: 20%
  • Exercises: 15%
  • Assignments: 10%
  • Project work, supervision included: 20%
  • Exam with preparation: 20%
Ordinary exam
Exam type:
C: Submission of written work, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
C11: Submission of written work
Exam submission description:
The term paper is an essay on the level of a publishable academic journal article. It has to be based on a good-sized literature review, contain an original research question and a solid argument, and use (i.e. critically engage, not simply list) a substantial number of sources (15-20). Its length should be between 4000 and 6000 words.

Time and date