Weekly Syllabus
The reading packet will be available for sale outside the Forum bookshop during the first week of class. Please check the weekly lesson plan in IVLE for any changes to the readings or the order of presentation.
Week 1: Introduction
Seminar Topics
Module overview, introduction to key concepts; hands-on exposure to interactive narrative and game systems.
Readings
No readings.
Week 2: Narrative and storytelling
Seminar Topics
Exploring various definitions of narrative; the dramatic arc, the role (and death) of the author.
Readings
- Chatman, Seymour, “Chapter 1: Introduction”, in Story and Discourse. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1978, p. 15-42.
- Martin, Wallace, “Narrative Structure: Preliminary Problems”, in Recent Theories of Narrative. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1986, p. 81-106.
Week 3: What is interactive media?
Seminar Topics
Exploring and defining: interactivity, games and play, storytelling and performance.
Readings
- Manovich, Lev, “Chapter 1: What is New Media?” in The Language of New Media, MIT Press, 2000, p. 18-61.
- Ryan, “Peeling the Onion: Layers of Interactivity in Digital Narrative Texts”, http://lamar.colostate.edu/~pwryan/onion.htm (accessed 18 July 2006).
Week 4: Cybertext
Seminar Topics
“Potential” narrative; configurability and text as a machine; pre-computer “interactive” stories.
Readings
- Aarseth, Espen, “Introduction: Ergodic Literature”, in Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. John Hopkins University Press, 1997, p. 1-23.
- Excerpts from Motte, Warren, Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986, pp. 140-162.
Week 5: Visual/database stories
Seminar Topics
Sequence as story – filling in the gaps; creating narratives using visual sequences; application to interactive media; story as database.
Readings
- McCloud, Scott, “Time Frames”, in Understanding Comics, Harper Paperbacks, 1994, p. 94-117.
- Legrady, George, “Modular Structure and Image/Text Sequences: Comics and Interactive Media”, in Comics and Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 2000, p. 79-90.
Week 6. Hypertext fiction
Seminar Topics
Hypertext and non-linear narrative; media-specific analysis.
Readings
- Hayles, N. Katherine. 2004. “Print is Flat, Code is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis.” Poetics Today 25 (1): 67-90.
Week 7: Interactive fiction
Seminar Topics
Interactive fiction; narrative and puzzles; critique of classic adventure games.
Readings
- Montfort, Nick. “The Pleasure of the Text Adventure”, in Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005, p. 1-36.
Week 8: Narrative and games
Seminar Topics
Can games tell stories? Are games a form of narrative? Does play negate narrative? Discussion of ways to create stories from play.
Readings
- Neitzel, “Narrativity in Computer Games”, in Raessens and Goldstein, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, 2005, p. 227-245.
Week 9: Narrative and Space
Seminar Topics
Telling a story through space; museums/exhibitions, Happenings.
Readings
Week 10: Emergent narrative
Seminar Topics
Emergence and storytelling.
Readings
- Jesper Juul: "Game of emergence and games of progression". In Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, Jesper Juul, MIT Press, 2006, p. 67-92.
Week 11: Procedural content
Seminar Topics
Procedural content; balancing player agency and designer control.
Readings
Week 12: Embodied Narrative
Seminar Topics
Boundaries and breaking the “magic circle”; pervasive and immersive games and stories.
Readings
- Jane McGonigal, "The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World, Mission Based Gaming", in Second Person, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, eds., MIT Press, 2007.
Week 13: Project Presentations
Seminar Topics
Project presentations
Readings
No readings.
|
