ClassInfo

GAM 206 History of Games

Jonathan Hey

Office: CDM 635
Spring 2013-2014
Class number: 30499
Section number: 301
TuTh 9:40AM - 11:10AM
LEVAN 00302 Lincoln Park Campus

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Summary

GAM 206: History of Games
Jonathan Hey

GAM 206 301 HISTORY OF GAMES 2014 Spring Office: TBD
Office Hours: TBD
Email (preferred): jhey@cdm.depaul.edu


Description
From "The Royal Game of Ur" (2500+ BCE) to "World of Warcraft" (2004) and beyond, games have been a constant in human history. The forms of games, their experiential qualities, and their cultural significance have varied enormously from era to era and place to place. This class will examine particular games and game genres in their historical context using a case study format. We will focus on "indoor" games, those of chance and skill, as opposed to physical games and sports. The examples will be chosen (i) to have global scope and historic diversity, (ii) to relate to games that students will find familiar, and (iii) to raise particular issues in historical interpretation, the use of primary sources and changing concepts of leisure activity. This course is included in the Liberal Studies program as a course with credit in the Understanding the Past (UP) domain. Please read the more thorough description of Understanding the Past requirements further below in this document.



Texts

Course Readings and Supplies
There is no textbook for the class. There will be a variety of readings made available on-line and/or distributed in class. Subject to change.

Resources
Students in the class will have access to the game library housed in the CTI Computer Game Lab, CS&T 920. Students performing assignments have priority for the use of the games. See http://defrag.depaul.edu/ for information on lab times. You will be required to provide your student ID when checking out games.

Web Site
The Course On-line web site will be an important resource for the course. All assignments will be submitted here. Readings for class and other information will be on COL.

Changes to Syllabus
This syllabus is subject to change as necessary during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed during class, posted under Announcements in D2L or COLWeb and sent via email.


Grading

Your course grade will be calculated as follows:

4 Quizzes 10% each
Gameplay leader 10%
Attendance/Participation 10%
Research project 40% (total as broken down below)
Preliminary Topic 5%
1st Bibliography 10%
Game analysis 10%
Final paper 15%


Prerequisites

Prerequisites: None


Organization and Assessment / Schedule

Organization and Assessment
GAM 206 is divided into four units. In each unit, we will study a particular culture and a game associated with it. Each unit will consist of four classes: a lecture covering the era with an emphasis on cultural issues, a lecture on the game genre and its history, an in-class game play session in which we play the chosen game, and a game discussion session in which we discuss the game and its milieu. There is no midterm or final exam, but there will be quizzes covering the assigned readings.

Attendance at this class is extremely important. This is particularly true of the game play sessions. Students who do not attend the game play session will receive no credit for that unit. Please make every effort to attend class on these dates. I will take attendance at all class meetings.

It is difficult to learn a new game without the guidance of someone who has played before. To make our gameplay sessions more efficient, the class will be divided into groups (usually of four) with a designated gameplay leader. There will be designated portions of a class day in which the gameplay leaders will learn their respective games. Attendance for this day's class is very important. Gameplay leaders are also encouraged to meet outside of class time and play the game among themselves before the in-class gameplay session. In class after the gameplay sessions, we will discuss the games. Gameplay leaders will be expected to participate actively in these sessions.

You must be present at the leaders session, at the in-class gameplay session, and at the following discussion in order to receive credit for the gameplay leader component of the course.

Each student will be required to complete a research project on a historic game other than one we consider together in class. The game should be from before 1945. I encourage you to look for a game that has particular relevance to your cultural heritage: games your grandparents (or great-great grandparents) might have played. There will be intermediate milestones for this project due throughout the quarter. Full details will be available on the assignment handout.

Tentative Schedule


Introduction

Introduction to the Class. Syllabus and requirements. Why study games? Why study the history of games? Aims of the class. Resources: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources of history.

History and Games. Historical methods. Games as primary sources. Components of a game.

Readings:
Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press, 2004.
Chapter 3 Meaningful Play
Chapter 7 Defining Games
Parlett, D. Chapter 1 Welcome Aboard, in The Oxford History of Board Games.


Unit 1: Ancient Egypt, Ur Valley [Mesopotamia], Indus Valley [Harappan Civilization]

History: Ancient Egypt. Religion and dynastic-ism in the New Kingdom. Records, inscriptions, art, artifacts and other archaeological evidence.

Readings:
Spodek, H. River Valley Civilizations Chapter 3 in The Worlds History.
Parlett, D. Chapter 4 The Tables Turned,
Piccione, Peter A. In Search of the Meaning of Senet.


Game: Race Games. Senet. Descendants of Senet including Backgammon. Design principles of race games.

Play: Senet and make rules for a Senet game or a race game that is invented

Unit 2: Society in Medieval Europe

History: Society and Culture in the Late Middle Ages. Social structure and hierarchy. Medieval Spain and the Muslim world. Spain and England. Thomas Middleton- A Game At Chess / King James I /
Ben Franklin and Chess.

Readings:
Greaves, R. et al. Chapter 14 Life and Culture in Medieval Europe, in Civilizations of the World. Harper Collins, 1993.
Parlett, Ch. 16 Conquering Kings.
Eales, R. Chapter 2 The Symbolic Game of the Middle Ages, in Chess: The History of a Game. Facts on File. 1985.


Strategy Games. History of Chess. Asian variants of chess. Go. Emergent properties in strategy games.

Play: Chess Tournament

Unit 3: America 1803-Reconstruction

History: Risk and tradition in 19th Century America. Gambling Games. The history of gambling. Divination, probability and risk. Typologies of gambling games. The boundary issues between gambling and play. The rise of professional gambling. Lincolns Lyceum Address. Civil War games.

Readings:
Boyer, P. S. et al. Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict 1840-1848 Chapter 13 in The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People.
Reith, G. Chapter 2 The Pursuit of Chance in The Age of Chance: Gambling in western culture. Routledge, 1999.


Play: Faro


Unit 4: Global Decade Series Technological Emergence

Interject: MesoAmerican Ball Game

Play: Gavitts Stock Exchange 1903 (Pit)
WWI
Roaring Twenties
Gambling/Prohibition
The Great Depression
WWII / Games
WWII Enigma Machine / Turing
Marshall McCluhan
Freidrich Kittlers three-part model of media in perception, including Gramophone, Film, and Typewriter
Early Electronic Games
Arcade Games and Pinball
Video Games

Play: Invented Card Game: Saratoga Sabotage

Readings:
Tobin, J. Chapter 13 The Rise and Fall of the Pokemon Empire in Pikachu?s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon. Duke University Press, 2004.
Allison, A. Chapter 7 Pokemon: Getting Monsters and Communicating Capitalism in Millennial Monsters.
Kittler, Freidrich Gramophone, Film, and Typewriter

Conclusion. The changing role of games and leisure.

Final paper due.


Policies and School Policies

Policies
Students are expected to attend all classes and participate in in-class exercises. Class will start promptly. Students are individually responsible for material they may have missed due to absence or tardiness, including obtaining readings handed out in class. Students are responsible for reading assigned material before class.

All assignments and class material will be submitted and available at the Course On-Line site.

Assignments (except for designated group assignments) must represent a student's individual effort. While students are permitted to discuss assignments at the conceptual level, under no circumstances should students share specific answers (electronically or otherwise). Papers must conform to the course guidelines on references and documentation. Use of sources without attribution constitutes plagiarism, a serious violation of academic integrity. Consult the assignment handouts or the instructor if you have questions about how or what to document.

School Policies

Online Instructor Evaluation
Course and instructor evaluations are critical for maintaining and improving course quality. To make
evaluations as meaningful as possible, we need 100% student participation. Therefore, participation in the School‟s web-based academic administration initiative during the eighth and ninth week of this course is a requirement of this course.

Email
Email is the primary means of communication between faculty and students enrolled in this course outside of class time. Students should be sure their email listed under "demographic information" at http://campusconnect.depaul.edu/ is correct.

Plagiarism
The university and school policy on plagiarism can be summarized as follows: Students in this course, as well as all other courses in which independent research or writing play a vital part in the course requirements, should be aware of the strong sanctions that can be imposed against someone guilty of plagiarism. If proven, a charge of plagiarism could result in an automatic F in the course and possible expulsion. The strongest of sanctions will be imposed on anyone who submits as his/her own work a report, examination paper, computer file, lab report, or other assignment which has been prepared by someone else. If you have any questions or doubts about what plagiarism entails or how to properly acknowledge source materials be sure to consult the instructor.

Incomplete
An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.

Students with Disabilities
Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that you have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at: csd@depaul.edu.
Lewis Center 1420, 25 East Jackson Blvd.
Phone number: (312)362-8002
Fax: (312)362-6544
TTY: (773)325.7296

Understanding the Past

This course is included in the Liberal Studies program as a course with credit in the Understanding the Past (UP) domain. This Learning Domain studies human life in past societies (mostly pre-1945) as a process of continuity and change over time. It includes courses offered in a range of scholarly fields concerned with historical questions?including but not limited to History, Archeology, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Literature, and Sociology. Courses in this learning domain are distinguished by their interest in reconstructing the past through the analysis of primary evidence, in critically reflecting on the ways the past has been explained and understood, and in examining the ways human experience is shaped by diverse geographies and chronological periods.

Learning Outcomes

The central UP learning goal is to help students become literate about the past and the methods used to understand and interpret the past. We consider that Liberal Studies and domain learning goals are achieved if students are able to:
1. describe and explain knowledge of prehistoric or historical events, themes, and ideas;
2. examine and assess historical evidence and interpretations through analysis, evaluation, and/or synthesis of a range of primary and secondary source evidence;
3. recognize that there are different perspectives on the past, whether those be historical or methodological in nature;
4. compose written work that expresses knowledge and an ability to reason effectively in writing.
Writing Expectations
Instructors of UP courses should assign at least six pages of written work that students complete outside of class. Such writing assignments should be designed to evaluate both content‐based knowledge and skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing; they should not be limited to "opinion" or "response" pieces. In lower‐division courses, instructors are encouraged to favor shorter, more frequent writing assignments over long end‐of‐term papers, to create more opportunities for students to practice writing and to receive comments and writing instruction from faculty. Revisions of papers are especially encouraged and will be counted toward fulfilling the page requirement above (i.e., a 4‐ to 6‐page paper that is graded separately as a rough draft and as a revised paper would constitute 8 to 12 pages total outside writing).


School policies:

Changes to Syllabus

This syllabus is subject to change as necessary during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed during class, posted under Announcements in D2L and sent via email.

Online Course Evaluations

Evaluations are a way for students to provide valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The evaluations are anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations, but the evaluation is completely separate from the student’s identity. Since 100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation. Students complete the evaluation online in CampusConnect.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

This course will be subject to the university's academic integrity policy. More information can be found at http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/ If you have any questions be sure to consult with your professor.

All students are expected to abide by the University's Academic Integrity Policy which prohibits cheating and other misconduct in student coursework. Publicly sharing or posting online any prior or current materials from this course (including exam questions or answers), is considered to be providing unauthorized assistance prohibited by the policy. Both students who share/post and students who access or use such materials are considered to be cheating under the Policy and will be subject to sanctions for violations of Academic Integrity.

Academic Policies

All students are required to manage their class schedules each term in accordance with the deadlines for enrolling and withdrawing as indicated in the University Academic Calendar. Information on enrollment, withdrawal, grading and incompletes can be found at http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/Current%20Students/Pages/PoliciesandProcedures.aspx.

Students with Disabilities

Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that you have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at:
Lewis Center 1420, 25 East Jackson Blvd.
Phone number: (312)362-8002
Fax: (312)362-6544
TTY: (773)325.7296