INTR 260(F) Games, Play and Virtual Worlds (Same as English 260)
We are living during an era in which the real is becoming virtual and the virtual
is becoming real. With the increasing miniaturization and distribution of digital
devices as well as the growth of bandwidth and globalization of networks, we
are rapidly approaching a condition of ubiquitous computing. The computer
revolution of the 1970s and 1980s and the network revolution of the 1990s prepared the way for the virtual revolution now occurring. The intersection of the
real and the virtual can be tracked in the convergence of financial networks and
online gaming. On the one hand the currency of the realm in financial capitalism
includes new instruments ranging from futures and derivatives to swaps and
virtual capital. On the other hand, the fastest growing sector on the entertainment
business is online gaming, whose "real" revenues already exceed the income
from films. Though most of these games are set in medieval fantasy worlds, they
are organized around the goal of accumulating virtual assets that can be exchanged within the game world. The "real" and the virtual meet on eBay, where
the virtual assets for games can be bought and sold for "real" money. Though the
technologies are new, games, play and virtual worlds are as old as humanity itself. Religious myths as well as art and literature create virtual worlds for single
or multiplayer role-playing games. By considering the psychological, social and
cultural dynamics of virtual realities, this seminar will examine the continuity
and discontinuity between modernity and postmodernity. Students will be required to subscribe to and participate in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-
Playing Game (MMORPG) for the entire semester. Class sessions will be devoted to discussions of the games in relation to readings that help to illuminate
the complexity and multiplicity of virtual worlds. The approach to this topic will
be insistently interdisciplinary - philosophical, psychological, aesthetic and economic lines of analysis will be explored. The texts to be considered include:
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, Stephen Kline, Digital Play: The
Interaction of Technology, Culture and Marketing, Guy Debord, Society of the
Spectacle, Jean Baudrillard, Simulation and Simulacra, Nelson Goodman, Ways
of Worldmaking, Pierre Levy, Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging
World in Cyberspace, Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and
Culture of Online Games, Steven Johnson, Everything Bad is Good for You:
How Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, Benjamin Woolley Virtual Worlds, Mark Taylor, Confidence Games, Elinor Harris Solomon, Virtual
Money.
Format: seminar. Requirements: semester-long participation in an online game.
Contribution to a Blog about online games. Contribution to every seminar session. 10-page mid-term paper. 20-page final paper.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 25. (expected: 25).