Course Catalog - 2024-2025

     

HIST 262 - VIDEO GAMES AS HISTORY

Long Title: VIDEO GAMES AS HISTORY
Department: History
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Course Type: Lecture
Distribution Group: Distribution Group I
Credit Hours: 3
Description: How do we understand the historical meaning of a video game? This course answers that question by considering multiple aspects of a game: what it’s like to play it, how it was developed, its impact on society, its reflection of cultural identities, its economic success or failure, its relationship to the law, its artistry, what games it was influenced by and those it influenced. To delve into these various aspects of games, we draw six different historical frameworks: political, social, legal, cultural, technical, and economic. These frameworks determine what kinds of questions we ask about video games and what kinds of sources we utilize to answer those questions.