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.
