Must be in the Communication major

Digital games are at the forefront of many cultural, economic, and technological shifts our society has undergone over the last few decades. This includes an explosion in the uses of "games" to do a range of things that have reframed what a game is or what a game does - be it the "gamification" of work, games as a medium for art, the reinvention of capitalist accumulation in media industries, or the rise of independent games. What even is a game? What can a game do? This course reviews concepts and issues foundational for "game studies" as a field of research in media and communication, and relates the traditions of this field with emerging interdisciplinary concerns that link games with education, rhetoric, political economy, and contemporary art.