107113 - HISTORY AND INDUSTRY OF VIDEO GAMES

Subject type: Basic

Coordinator: Adso Fernández Baena

Trimester: First term

Credits: 6

Els materials podran proporcionar-se tant en català com en castellà o anglès. In addition, there may be recommended readings in other European languages ​​(French, Italian ...).

The subject of History and Industry of Video Games (6 ECTS) is a first approach to the multidisciplinary, cultural and historical aspects of video games, within the framework of the subject of Game Design and Creation. It works from the historical perspective of the video game, the players / users, the companies and the social and cultural contexts where they are broadcast. The course consists of theoretical sessions, video viewing and co-production of knowledge from the constant interaction between teacher and students. To achieve the knowledge, the subject evaluates on the one hand the theoretical knowledge and the attitude and participation of individual way and, on the other, the capacity to work in group. 

This subject has methodological and digital resources to make possible its continuity in non-contact mode in the case of being necessary for reasons related to the Covid-19. In this way, the achievement of the same knowledge and skills that are specified in this teaching plan will be ensured.

The Tecnocampus will make available to teachers and students the digital tools needed to carry out the course, as well as guides and recommendations that facilitate adaptation to the non-contact mode.

At the end of the course students must be able to:

• E1.1: Describe the history of interactive products and video games, as well as their typology and aesthetics.
• E1.2: Contextualize a game in the historical and cultural frame of reference.
• E1.3: Differentiate the different genres, as well as the different generations of consoles.
• E1.4: Get to know the main programmers and manufacturers in the history of interactive products from all over the world, Spain and Catalonia.
• E1.5: Analyze the various profiles required by the video game industry.
• E1.6: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a video game in a reasoned and exemplified way.

The course uses the following working methodologies: lectures, presentations, video capsules, case studies, research and critical reading of articles.

Topic 1. Introduction. What is a game and what is play?

Play the game

The game, society, culture.

Historiographic methodologies and criteria

Item 2. Preservation

Strategies and criteria

Agents. Museums and heritage

Failures and rarities

Item 3. Ancestors of the video game

Board games, popular and analog

Mechanical and electromechanical games

Visual toys

Computer experiments

Topic 4. Beginnings of the video game

 Before Pong

 The Golden Age of Arcade

First systems

 The American crash

Item 5. The 8 and 16 bits

Japan: Sega, Nintendo and others

Microcomputers

The video game on PC. The graphic adventure

First 3D

Item 6. From 3D to online play

The arrival of PlayStation

The online jump

The indie boom

7.4 The casual revolution

Item 7. History of the video game in Spain

Beginnings

Relevant games and figures

Myths of the Golden Age

Distribution in Spain

Co-productions and international presence

Item 8. History of VR

First concepts and experiments

The 90s. Ambitions and failures

Implementation. A new screen?

In order to gather evidence of the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, the following evaluative activities will be carried out:

A1. Group work: Video summary (Evidence of E1.2 and E1.6 learning outcomes) 

Production and presentation by teams of a video about a video game creator / programmer. The video will summarize in a maximum time of 3 minutes the basic contributions about a character related to the world of video games. 

A2. Individual work: Writing a theoretical essay (Evidence of learning outcomes E1.2 and E1.6) 

Students will be required to write an essay following the basic rules of academic publications, and on a topic related to the historical contexts of the video game industry. 

A3. Exercises at home: Reading articles and critical summary (Evidence of learning outcomes E1.2, E1.5, and E1.6) 

Reading about two articles / academic works that will be proposed in class and must be read in a schedule outside the classroom. After reading it, the student must submit a personal critique of each of the texts on the Tecnocampus Intranet. 

A4. Partial exam: Continuous assessment exam of the student (Evidence of all learning outcomes) 

Passing the exam is mandatory to pass the course. Otherwise, the student will have a No Presented.

A5. Final exam: Final evaluation exam of the subject (Evidence of all learning outcomes) 

Passing the exam is mandatory to pass the course. Otherwise, the student will have a No Presented.

General criteria of the activities:

- The teacher will present a statement for each activity and the evaluation and / or rubric criteria.
- The teacher will inform of the dates and format of the delivery of the activity.

The grade of each student will be calculated following the following percentages:

A1. Group work: Video summary 20%

A2. Individual work: Writing a theoretical essay 20%

A3. Exercises at home: Reading articles and critical summary 10%

A4. Partial exam: Continuous assessment exam of the student 20%

A5. Final exam: Final evaluation exam of the subject 30%

Final grade = A1 x 0,2 + A2 x 0,2 + A3 x 0,1 + A4 x 0,2 + A5 x 0,3

Considerations:
- It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam to pass the asignatura.
- An activity not delivered or delivered late and without justification (court summons or medical matter) counts as a 0.
- It is the responsibility of the student to avoid plagiarism in all its forms. In the case of detecting a plagiarism, regardless of its scope, in some activity it will correspond to have a note of 0. In addition, the professor will communicate to the Head of Studies the situation so that measures applicable in matter of sanctioning regime are taken. .

Recovery:

• It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam of recovery to pass the asignatura.
• The mark of the resit exam will be equivalent to the final mark.
• In case of passing the recovery, the maximum final mark of the subject will be 7.

ESTEVE, Jaume. "Eight Carats. A History of the Golden Age of Spanish Software (I)", 2012.

ESTEVE, Jaume. "Eight Carats. A History of the Golden Age of Spanish Software (II)", 2012.

KENT, Steven. "The Great History of Video Games." Nova, 2016.

DONOVAN, Tristan; GARRIOTT, Richard. "Replay: The history of video games". Lewes: Yellow Ant, 2010.

PLANELLS, Antonio José. "Video Games and Fiction Worlds." Chair Editions, 2015.

MURIEL, Daniel; CRAWFORD, Garry. "Video games as culture: considering the role and importance of video games in contemporary society". Routledge, 2018.

PURSELL, Carroll. "From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play". JHU Press, 2015.

GUINS, Raiford. "Game after: A cultural study of video game afterlife". MIT Press, 2014.

HUIZINGA, Johan. "Homo Ludens" Ils 86. Routledge, 2014.

ZAGALO, Nelson. "Video games in Portugal. History, technology and art". FCA Editora, 2013.

WOLF, Mark P. "Video Games Around the World." MIT Press, 2015.

ESTEVE, Jaume (ed.). "Obsequium: a cultural, technological and emotional account of The Abbey of Crime." Eight Carats, 2014.

JENKINS, Henry. "Fans, bloggers and video games: the culture of collaboration", 2009.

WRIGHT, Will; BOGOST, Ian. "Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames". Mit Press, 2007.

LATORRE, Oliver Pérez. "The video game language: analysis of the meaning of the video game". Ed. Laertes, 2012.

NEWMAN, James. "Videogames". Routledge, 2012.

MOTT, Tony. "1001 Video Games to Play Before You Die." Barcelona: Grijalbo, 2011.

REMESAL, Víctor Navarro. "Directed Freedom: A Grammar of Video Game Analysis and Design." Shangrila Texts Apart, 2016.

JULY, Jesper. "The art of failure: An essay on the pain of playing video games". Mit Press, 2013.

RAVENTÓS, Cristian López. "The video game as a contemporary discursive practice. Pokemon and the naturalization of neoliberal social reality." Doctoral Thesis: Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​2013.

HICKS, Marie. "Programmed inequality: How Britain discarded women technologists and lost its edge in computing". MIT Press, 2017.

KOCUREK, Carly A. "Coin-operated Americans: Rebooting boyhood at the video game arcade." University of Minnesota Press, 2015.

GORGES, Florent. "The History of Nintendo: 1983-2016. Famicom or Nintendo Entertainment System." Paper Heroes, 2019.

WILLIAMS, Andrew. "History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction". Routledge, 2017.

DONOVAN, Tristan. "It's All a Game: A Short History of Board Games." Thomas Dunne Books, 2017.

NAVARRO REMESAL, Víctor. "Ludens Cinema. 50 Dialogues Between Game and Cinema." Editorial UOC, 2019.