Survey

Video Games and Cultural Analysis

Start of Semester Survey

15 out of 22 Respondents

1. What gameplay genre(s) do you prefer and/or are most familiar/comfortable with? (check your top three)

Genre	Number	Percent
WRPG or PC RPG (Dragon Age, Fallout, etc)	11	73.3
Action Adventure (The Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, etc)	9	60.0
First-Person Shooters (Halo, Half-Life, etc)	7	46.7
Fighting Games (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc)	6	40.0
2D Platforming (Super Mario Bros, Braid, etc)	5	33.3
JRPG or Console RPG (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc)	5	33.3
3D Platforming (Psychonauts, Alice: Madness Returns, etc)	1	6.7
Point-and-Click Adventure or Graphical Adventure (The Secret of Monkey Island, The Chzo Series, etc)	1	6.7

The number of you that favored WRPGs over JRPGs is reflective of the decline of JRPG sales in the West over the last few console generations. This would be a good point of discussion when we discuss Japanese culture and video games, especially given the recent controversy surrounding Fez creator Phillip Fish’s comments to a Japanese journalist (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-07-fez-creator-phil-fish-declares-modern-japanese-games-just-suck).

The (sadly, in my opinion) low number of people interested in the classic Point-and-Click adventure game in also reflective of the genre’s decline or as Ron Gilbert puts it the lack of growth in the genre (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=re_LWmRJK-g). When we discuss games as art and the craft of game development Gilbert’s discussion with Tim Schafer on the subject would be a good starting point.

2. What narrative genre(s) do you prefer and/or feel most comfortable with? (check your top two)

Genre	Number	Percent
Fantasy	13	86.7
Science Fiction	9	60.0
Survival Horror	4	26.7
Historical Fiction	4	26.7

When picking example games in future, I will try and lean towards fantasy games, especially for bonus posts.

However, even though survival horror ranked low, I wish to add Slender to our discussions since so many of you expressed interest when it was brought up in class. I may still add it as a bonus game.

3. What social theories/issues are you most interested in? (check your top five)

Topic	Number	Percent
Narratology (the dissection of narrative to its basic and universal components)	12	80.0
Games as Art	12	80.0
Trans- and Post-Humanism (how technology is affecting our bodies and our status as human beings. Think Deus Ex in the real world)	9	60.0
Gender Theory	6	40.0
Fan Studies (how fan groups or 'fandoms' operate)	6	40.0
Embodiment Theory (how the body - real or digital - affects our way of thinking)	6	40.0
Reader Response Theory	5	33.3
Postmodernism	5	33.3
Marxism	3	20.0
Education in Games	3	20.0
Ludology (the study of games of all sorts from cards and boards to video and virtual)	2	13.3
Structuralism	2	13.3
Deconstructionism	2	13.3
New Media Studies (the study of computer-related media, communications, texts, etc)	2	13.3
Queer Theory	0	0.0

Other: 1 Response

I'm interested in all of these honestly.

I want to cover all of these topics but I realize that we simply do not have the time. I will focus on the three primary topics you chose and try to touch on the rest in class discussion and/or bonus assignments.

·         Narratology (the dissection of narrative to its basic and universal components)

Traditionally narratology has been at odds with ludology (the study of gameplay both traditional and digital) primarily because games theory has been done by people coming in from different disciplines. Academics from already-established arts like literature or film would analyze the plot without the gameplay and computer programmers would analyze the technical aspects of gameplay without considering their narrative purpose.

We will be taking a long look at why this is, why it is harmful, and several more holistic methods for analyzing games.

·         Games as Art

This is not a topic we covered last time I taught this class primarily because I find the arguments against games as art to be, shall we say, more politically-driven rather than academic. After all, if everything from a urinal to a glass of water on a shelf can be art, what logical reason is there to exclude games? Still, it would be useful to explore how games operate differently from traditional media and the politics that is hindering games from being openly accepted as art.

·         Trans- and Post-Humanism (how technology is affecting our bodies and our status as human beings. Think Deus Ex in the real world)

As technology continues to influence the ways in which we think, researchers and theorists have tried keeping up with how our reliance on and integration with technology is changing our cognition. We’ll be reading several theoretical works on the future of the human condition and how our machines are changing the way we think.

4. How experienced are you with writing a blog?

	Number	Percent
I have barely or never done a blog specifically, but I feel I know enough about e-publishing/ web publishing/ the internet to write a blog.	7	46.7
I have never done a blog and I am somewhat concerned about creating/maintaining one. I would like a tutorial on basic blog maintenance.	6	40.0
Very experienced! I don't anticipate any issues writing/maintaining a blog.	2	13.3

Because of the number of students that are concerned with the technical aspects of maintaining a blog, I will be adding a page to the class blog on how to craft and maintain a proper professional blog.

5. Would you be interested in a page/widget on the class blog that lists all student individual blogs?

	Number	Percent
Yes, that would be very convenient	11	73.3
Neutral/No Preference	4	26.7
No, I don't like the idea of linking my blog to the class blog	0	0.0

Already implemented a list of blogs on the class blog.

6. Several students from the spring semester have expressed interest in continuing in the field of game theory. Would it be alright for them to join us at our voluntary coffee meetups?

	Number	Percent
Yes, the more the merrier.	11	73.3
Yes, so long as they are there to help us with the class and not socialize.	4	26.7
No, let's keep the meetups restricted to this class only.	0	0.0

I will be sending a formal invite to past students and asking them to join in on our conversations.

7. Please list your top five favorite games.

8. This is probably the most important line of questioning I'll ask you this semester: why?

These two questions obviously have much longer answers and I will be compiling them shortly.

Your answers were very personal and if you would like for me to not post them, let me know via email.

I will actively incorporate games from your favorites list in examples in class.