Assignments

Advice on Completing Assignments

Choosing the Game

Choose your games or game carefully. [Read More]

Game Analysis Guidelines

This is a list of general guidelines to analyze a videogame or a specific segment of it. [Read More]

Some Basic Advice

You can find general paper writing advice in the document “Big Red Flags that Give Away a Weak Paper.” The advice is broken down in different sections, which correspond to the different aspects that will be graded in the assignment. [Read More]

Assignments

Written Assignment 1 (1000–1200 words): Report on the practical issues of videogame conventions. Due Ses #5.

Written Assignment 2 (1200–1500 words): Videogame contextualization of a game or games chosen by the student. Due Ses #9.

Mid-term Exam: Three hour written exam; review of the basic concepts covered in class and discussion of theoretical concepts. Exam will take place during the lab session in Week #8 (between Ses #12 and 13).

Written Assignment 3 (1500–1700 words): The final assignment is an in-depth analysis the game or games discussed in the Written Assignment 2. Due Ses #24.

Class Presentation: Each group will present on the historical significance of one game from a specific list. Due during the lab session in Week #10 (between Ses #16 and #17).

For Graduate Students Only: the written assignments for graduate students will be 20% longer. The presentation assignment will be individual, not in groups.

About Your Written Exercises

For those students who may not feel confident about their writing, or are less familiar with humanities essays, you can make an appointment at the MIT Writing and Communication Center.

About Plagiarism

Use of another’s intellectual work without acknowledgement—is a serious offense. It is the policy of the CMS Faculty that students who plagiarize will receive an F in the subject, and that the instructor will forward the case to the Committee on Discipline. Full acknowledgement for all information obtained from sources outside the classroom must be clearly stated in all written work submitted. All ideas, arguments, and direct phrasings taken from someone else’s work must be identified and properly footnoted. Quotations from other sources must be clearly marked as distinct from the student’s own work. For further guidance on the proper forms of attribution, consult the style guides available in the Writing and Communication Center and the MIT Website on Plagiarism.

It’s not enough with being an expert player — you must have something to say about it. You may be an expert player of X game series, but describing your prowess in the game, or regurgitating press releases of the game will not make for a good assignment. Both assignments complement each other, and the goal is to help your reader (which can be anyone, not only the instructor) learn something novel about the game, saying something about the game which may not have been said before.

Choose a game that will allow you to provide that kind of insight, either because you know the game well, or because you know it may have interesting aspects to discuss. Some approaches which may develop into successful papers are:

discovering an obscure or cult game and explaining how it subverted the expectations of players.
discussing the values in a videogame, and their implied morality as incorporated in the game system, contrasting the values of the story of the game to those of the mechanics.
exploring how a game constructs its space within and beyond the screen, and what may constitute the “magic circle” (or not).
providing an alternate interpretation of a game, inspired by the readings of the class.
discussing how a game may straddle between being an interactive story or a game.

There are many, many approaches to analyzing a game—if you’re not sure whether yours would count, check with the instructor.

You can choose more than one game, if you’re aiming at writing a comparative approach. If this is what you want to do, please check with the instructor first, to make sure that a) the comparison is relevant to the class and b) to make sure the discussion will address the connection in enough depth. If the analysis is comparative, your first paper should consist of what the initial points in common / of contrast are, and why is interesting; the second should provide the reader with how the comparison teaches us something about both games.

You can choose more than one game, if you’re aiming at writing a comparative approach. If the analysis is comparative, your first paper should consist of what the points in common / of contrast are, and why is interesting; the second should provide the reader with something new about the game. For example, in comparing System Shock with Bioshock, the first paper would trace the historical relationship between both games by establishing the points in common of both games (development teams, first person view, sound recordings) and differences (fictional worlds, use of non-player characters). The second paper can focus on how each game shapes the agency of the player, and how it relates to the fictional world of the game, based on the commonalities and differences established in the previous assignment.

It is okay to have played the game already, but remember you’ll have to replay it for the assignment. Watching replay videos as a refresher does not fly—it is obvious when you have not played the game recently. Yeah, really.

The first paper is a first approach to the game. In the second paper you have to prove your expertise by having played it extensively—maybe your insight is different from what you first expected, but it’s okay.

The presentation is a brief historical analysis of 80s home computer games, mostly European. The goal is to present each game in their historical context, both on when they were developed, and how they have influenced subsequent games or game genres. The key is providing insight on that relationship, as expressed in a specific argument (a thesis statement).

The presentation should include:

Very brief overview of the game (date, developer, publisher).
The historical context in which they were developed (see Guide Analysis Guidelines handout).
The core discussion should focus on what makes the game notable. The following are just a few possible aspects, but you can come up with your own: innovation, premise, developers, technology, influences / legacy. It is preferable that you focus on just two or three aspects in depth, rather than going through a laundry list. Make sure that these aspects contribute to the main argument that you’re addressing in the presentation.
List of references (books, magazines, webpages). I forgot to include it in the sample presentation, but you should not leave them out!

Please make sure you check out these examples when preparing your presentation:

Camper’s “Retro Reflexivity: An 8-Bit Period Piece” as a long-form example of how a running argument is supported by specific examples.
Sample Presentation on Vampire Killer.

Each pair of students will provide a 10–15 minute presentation on a specific assigned game. It will be timed, so please make sure to rehearse to give your presentation under 15 minutes. There will be 5 minutes of Q&A between presentations.

Only for graduate students: A brief essay on their assigned game, 750 to 1000 words long, which puts in prose the contents of the presentation, and elaborate on them.

What will be evaluated:

Discussion (75%): how the argument was expressed and supported through the examples.
Resources (25%): demonstrating that the game has been researched thoroughly, both by playing it and by finding and discussing other source.

Wikipedia Links to all the Games

Green Beret / Rush ’n Attack

The Hobbit

Download Game Analysis Guidelines (PDF)

Two basic pieces of advice:

Don’t “paste in” references to the readings. Use the theories to help you find the aspects of the game that can help you write a paper that makes a novel contribution to our understanding of games.

Wikipedia is a good place to start, but it’s not a quotable source. Go to the sources that the Wikipedia cites.

You now know the due dates of both assignments, which means you can make an appointment at the writing center well in advance. If you feel unsure about your writing, please visit the writing center!

“Big Red Flags that Give Away a Weak Paper” (PDF)

The first assignment is a reflection on how we play videogames, and how digital media change the way we learn to play games. It is also an exercise to make you all aware of the conventions that can become an obstacle for new players to learn, and which may be invisible to seasoned players.

Choose one assignment and do the activity taking notes. Your report should be between 1000-1200 words, double spaced in 12 point standard fonts (Times, Arial, etc.), and submitted in one of the following standard formats: .doc, .pdf or .rtf.

A) If you consider yourself a gamer

- Find someone (in the class or outside) who does not play games or does not consider himself / herself a gamer. Teach them how to play your favorite “hardcore” game, preferably first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, role-playing games. If you’re not sure if the game you would like to teach them counts, please ask the instructor. Take 4 to 5 hours working with the person you’re teaching. They don’t have to master the game, the focus is studying the process of first learning the game.

The report of your experience should address these issues:

The videogame playing experience of your subject (be brief)
The game you were teaching (if it was a specific mode of the game, please include that)
What were the most difficult parts of the game to learn? Why?
What was the easiest thing to pick up? Why?
What did your subject do that was surprising to you?

B) If you don’t play videogames regularly or at all.

- Find someone (in the class or outside) who does consider themselves a gamer. Ask them to teach you how to play their favorite “hardcore” game, preferably first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, role-playing games. If you’re not sure if the game they are going to teach you counts, please ask the instructor. Take at least 4 to 5 hours working with the person teaching you. You don’t have to master the game, just see how much you can learn in that time.

The report of your experience should address these issues:

Your videogame playing experience (be brief)
The game you learned to play (if it was a specific mode of the game, please include that)
What were the most difficult parts of the game to learn? Why?
What was the easiest thing to pick up? Why?
What did the person teaching you take for granted that you didn’t know how to do?

C) What will be evaluated in this assignment is your capacity for self-reflection and analysis and to communicate clearly, broken down as follows:

Relevance (20%) - How you set up the experiment: describe your methods concisely but thoroughly (why you chose your game, what is the profile of your player / your teacher, how long you played, how you organized the sessions).
Organization (20%) - How you explain it: the report must be well structured, so that the experiment and the argument are clearly exposed.
Discussion (40%) - Reaching insight about the activity - the report is not a mere description of what you do, it is also an activity for reflection. Discuss what you learned based on the evidence you obtain in the experiment.
Clarity (20%) - How you write it - your writing must be concise and intelligible, with proper grammar and spelling.

The core assignments of the course require demonstrating that you can analyze a videogame (or group of videogames) in the light of the theories covered in class, providing insight about the game or games which you are focusing on. Assignment 2 is a first approach to the game, where you have to introduce what makes the game worth of your study, what sets it apart, why they are worth studying. In Assignment 3, you have to expand the previous assignment, analyze the game in depth, and provide insight on it.

Assignment 2 Requirements

The goal of assignment 2 is to provide context to why the game stands out, what is it that makes it worth of study. In this essay, you’ll identify what areas of the game are salient—it can be an area we have covered, or a forthcoming one. Look at the syllabus for a list of topics that will be discussed in class. Consult with the instructor if you don’t know what discussion would be the most productive with respect to a game or games. If your analysis is comparative, outline what the points of comparison are.

This initial game analysis has to argue persuasively what makes the game relevant to study. Include a brief contextual overview, which should help situate the game as well as support your main argument. For example, if you were talking about how Zork constructs storytelling through the space and its descriptions, rather than providing a strong story during the player’s gameplay, it would be important to highlight when the game was made, and the influence of Adventure, Dungeons and Dragons, and MIT culture in order to understand how the game pioneered environmental storytelling in games.

You must have started playing the game, to start providing some concrete examples of what you want to talk about. You’ll evaluate and expand on those arguments after you finish the game for assignment 3.

Your analysis should be between 1200–1500 words, double spaced in 12 point standard fonts (Times, Arial, etc.), and submitted in one of the following standard formats: .doc, .pdf or .rtf.

The grade of the assignment is broken down as follows:

Relevance (20%) - Providing a thesis statement which aims at generating insight on the game, and expanding on it. Superfluous retellings of plot, mere context descriptions, or disconnected pieces of data on the game usually indicate that you’re not analyzing the game but just rambling about it.
Organization (20%) - Your assignment should be well structured. Again, having an introductory paragraph and thesis statement and a conclusion are basic expectations in an assignment of this sort.
Discussion (20%) - How well you construct and support the argument that you want to make about the game. This usually entails (among other things): defining your terms (particularly when you’re borrowing them from the readings), including specific examples from the game(s), using the theories covered in class as support or contrast to your argument, and using counter-arguments to strengthen your discussion.
Clarity (20%) - How well you write your paper. Be concise and intelligible, with proper grammar and spelling. Please proofread your paper before handing it in.
References (20%) - Include your references at the end, including in-text citations. Use whichever citation format you prefer, just make it possible for your reader to find your sources. Include the URLs of webpages you may cite. The references must also include the game(s) you talk about, following the following model: Developer, Game Title. Publisher, Platform (Year).

This is an extended version of Assignment 2, where you elaborate on your argument from the first paper. You have to demonstrate that you understand the theory and how to apply it to the game, showing that you’re an expert both on the game and on the theoretical aspects that are relevant to your discussion. It may be the case that, in playing the game in more depth, you realize your initial assumptions are challenged—rebating or qualifying your previous work is a perfectly valid paper. You cannot take the previous assignment and paste in a couple more paragraphs—that will be an instant F.

Both assignments will evaluate your capacity to analyze the specific aspects of the game that you advance in the first paper, and providing novel insight on the game, i.e. your reader should learn something new about it.

For this assignment, expand and strengthen your argument by providing examples from gameplay, as well as discuss them using the conceptual frameworks from the class.

To write this assignment, you should have completed the game. If your game does not have an end state (e.g. MMOs or online modes of certain games), or is too long to finish within the given time frame, please talk to the instructor to negotiate what means to “finish” your game.

Your extended analysis should be between 1500-1700 words, double spaced in 12 point standard fonts (Times, Arial, etc.), and submitted in one of the following standard formats: .doc, .pdf or .rtf.

The grade of the assignment is broken down as follows:

Relevance (20%) - Providing a thesis statement which aims at generating insight on the game, and expanding on it. Superfluous retellings of plot, mere context descriptions, or disconnected pieces of data on the game usually indicate that you’re not analyzing the game but just rambling about it.
Organization (20%) - Your assignment should be well structured. Again, having an introductory paragraph and thesis statement and a conclusion are basic expectations in an assignment of this sort.
Discussion (20%) - How well you construct and support the argument that you want to make about the game. This usually entails (among other things): defining your terms (particularly when you’re borrowing them from the readings), including specific examples from the game(s), using the theories covered in class as support or contrast to your argument, and using counter-arguments to strengthen your discussion.
Clarity (20%) - How well you write your paper. Be concise and intelligible, with proper grammar and spelling. Please proofread your paper before handing it in.
References (20%) - Include your references at the end, including in-text citations. Use whichever citation format you prefer, just make it possible for your reader to find your sources. Include the URLs of webpages you may cite. The references must also include the game(s) you talk about, following the following model: Developer, Game Title. Publisher, Platform (Year).

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Introduction to Videogame Studies

Assignments

Advice on Completing Assignments

Choosing the Game

Game Analysis Guidelines

Some Basic Advice

Assignments

About Your Written Exercises

About Plagiarism

Wikipedia Links to all the Games

Assignment 2 Requirements

Course Info

Instructor

Departments

As Taught In

Level

Topics

Learning Resource Types