Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
The course aims to provide an introduction to the field of game studies as well as an overview of different cultural approaches of video games. After a presentation of the main theories of play and of the different ways of defining this object (what is a game? what is playing? what is the place of this activity among other cultural practices?), the course thus addresses several themes related to the cultural dimension of the medium, such as: video game narration, the player-avatar relationship, the history of video games (and the different ways of constructing this history), the relationship between video games and others. media (literature, cinema), the players' creative practices (remixes of video games, amateur game creation), the political uses of games, or even the discourses on and around video games (the video game press, the translation and localization of games, etc.).
In order to anchor these different studies in a deep understanding of video game works and of the multiple practices that play can cover, the theories presented are articulated to the analysis of games from various genres, which are made available to the students during and after the course (in the local of the Digital Lab).
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Learning how to constitute video game as an object of study and research with different disciplinary approaches
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Practically, the course articulates two different formats:
- Students must follow the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) "Introduction to the Video Game Culture", which consists of 6 modules each representing just over an hour of video. These videos (to be watched at home) serve as an introduction to the course content and free up time during classroom sessions for hands-on exercises.
- Students must attend 10 in-class sessions, which are divided into two parts: a theoretical part (deepening the content of the MOOC) and a practical part of commented play in class.
Guest speakers are also invited each year.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
MOOC and in-class sessions
Recommended or required readings
Although it is not a mandatory reading, the Liège Game Lab's book, Culture videoludique! (2019, Liège, PULg) synthesizes a good part of the course content and is therefore an ideal support for note-taking.
More detailed references on each topic of the course are given during the sessions, and the Powerpoint presentations are systematically made available to students on MyULg.
Assessment methods and criteria
Both parts of the course are subject to an evaluation: students will have to validate the MOOC (which requires completing a short multiple-choice questionnaire at the end of each module) and to write a paper on the content seen in class (instructions about this work will be specified in class).
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
The course takes place in the second quadrimester, every Thursday from 16:30 to 18:30 at the Opera complex, room Berthe Bovy.
Contacts
Coordinator : Fanny Barnabé (fanny.barnabe@uliege.be)
Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the May-June 2020 session
Teaching methods implemented : distance-learning
During the confinement period, the course sessions are broadcast live on the streaming platform Twitch, via the LiegeGameLab's channel (https://www.twitch.tv/liegegamelab/) at the usual course schedule (Thursdays from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm). The videos are then made available to students on the MyULg platform, in the "podcasts" section of the course.
Assessment subjects
The subject matter of the evaluation will be that of all sessions of the course. However, students will be free to choose which sessions they will use to answer the questions in their paper: those who did not have easy access to the online content will be able to mainly refer to the in-class sessions when constructing their answers.
Assessment methods
Evaluation Guidelines :
The evaluation consists of two parts:
- Students must validate the MOOC "Introduction à la culture vidéoludique" (pass the 6 multiple-choice questionnaires related to the 6 modules) in order to take the exam; the grade obtained in the MOOC will be worth 20% of the final grade.
- The exam will take the form of a 3000-word paper (excluding bibliography) answering two transversal questions about the course, which will be sent to students by e-mail after the last session (the answers must therefore be about 1500 words per question); the grade obtained will be worth 80% of the final grade.
Evaluation Criteria :
- Each answer must use the material from at least two different class sessions (authors or theories quoted, reflections developed by the speaker, analyses of games made in class, etc.). There is not a single "right answer" to be given; the question serves as a thread between classes to allow students to show that they have understood the material.
- The use of additional scientific sources (not presented in class) will be a bonus.
- The work must be a scientific production (not an opinion article or an essay). It must therefore be based on scientific sources and these must be correctly quoted in the body of the text (whenever they are used!) AND included in a correctly formatted bibliography.
Contacts
Fanny Barnabé : fanny.barnabe@uliege.be
Teaching assistants:
François-Xavier Surinx : fxsurinx@student.uliege.be
Léanna Michel : leanna.michel@student.uliege.be
Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the Aug-Sept 2020 session
Assessment subjects
The subject matter of the evaluation will be that of all sessions of the course. However, students will be free to choose which sessions they will use to answer the questions in their paper: those who did not have easy access to the online content will be able to mainly refer to the in-class sessions when constructing their answers.
Assessment methods
Evaluation Guidelines :
The evaluation consists of two parts:
- Students must validate the MOOC "Introduction à la culture vidéoludique" (pass the 6 multiple-choice questionnaires related to the 6 modules) in order to take the exam; the grade obtained in the MOOC will be worth 20% of the final grade.
- The exam will take the form of a 3000-word paper (excluding bibliography) answering two transversal questions about the course, which will be sent to students by e-mail after the last session (the answers must therefore be about 1500 words per question); the grade obtained will be worth 80% of the final grade.
Evaluation Criteria :
- Each answer must use the material from at least two different class sessions (authors or theories quoted, reflections developed by the speaker, analyses of games made in class, etc.). There is not a single "right answer" to be given; the question serves as a thread between classes to allow students to show that they have understood the material.
- The use of additional scientific sources (not presented in class) will be a bonus.
Contacts
Fanny Barnabé : fanny.barnabe@uliege.be
Teaching assistants:
François-Xavier Surinx : fxsurinx@student.uliege.be
Léanna Michel : leanna.michel@student.uliege.be