History of Games
GAM 206 (601)

Marcus Schaefer


Latest additions

Room change: starting Monday we'll meet in Lewis 1108


Syllabus

Week 1 Introduction: Games, History and Gameplay
Week 2-3 Unit 1: Egypt and Race Games
Week 4-5 Unit 2: Chess in Medieval Europe
Week 6-7 Unit 3: Gambling in America
Week 8-9 Unit 4: Japanese video games: games as mass culture
Week 10 Conclusion

 

Notes, etc.

 

Research Paper

Schedule:

  4/9: pick game

  4/23: preliminary bibliography

  5/5: game analysis

  5/14: annotated bibliography

  5/28: thesis statement

  6/11: final paper

 

Readings, Supplies and Links

Resources

Students in the class will have access to the game library housed in the CTI Computer Game Lab, CS&T 920. Some assignments will require that students use specific games available from this library. Students performing assignments have priority for the use of the games. See http://defrag.depaul.edu/ for information on lab times. You will be required to provide your student ID when checking out games.

Classes and office hours

The class meets MW 1:30-3:00pm , Lewis 1108.

 

My office hours are MW 12:30-1:15. 

 

During that time you can find me in the CS&TC building, room 749.

If you want to set up an appointment at another time, or simply ask a question,

send email to mschaefer@cdm.depaul.edu.

 

Grading and Assessment

Quizzes: 20% (best 10 out of 13),
Gameplay Leader: 25%,
Participation: 15%,
Research project: 40% (preliminary bibliography: 5%, annotated bibliography, 10%, game analysis paper: 10%, final paper: 15%)

Attendance and active participation are important in this class, in particular in the game playing sessions. Non-attendance of a game playing session will result in no credit for the respective unit. More than two unexcused absences will result in a 50% reduction of the participation grade. More that 4 will result in no participation credit.

Gameplay leader credit requires your presence at the gameplay leader session (4/7) and the gameplay and discussion sections of your unit. Sign-up for gameplay leader will start first day.

Each student will complete a research project on a game of their choice (a game not covered in class). The game must date from before 1960. There will be several parts to this project, including a bibliography (preliminary and annotated), an analysis of the game play, and the final paper. Details will be given later in the quarter.

I will use the following grading scheme:

Grade Percentage
A 95-100
A- 90-95
B+ 87-90
B 83-87
B- 80-83
C+ 77-80
C 73-77
C- 70-73
D+ 65-70
D 60-65
F <60

For general information, see the class syllabus.

Liberal Studies Credit

Note: This course carries Liberal Studies credit in the Understanding the Past Learning Domain. It belongs to the geographical category of Intercontinental/Comparative. Students may not take more than one U. P. course in any given geographical category.

The central U. P. learning goal is to help you become literate about the past and the methods used to understand the past. DePaul considers that this learning goal is achieved if you are able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes in your written work, exams, and/or contributions to class discussions:

  1. that you have acquired knowledge of prehistoric or historical events, themes, and ideas;
  2. that you can reason through analysis, evaluation, and/or synthesis of a range of primary and secondary source evidence;
  3. that you understand that there are different perspectives on the past, whether those be historical or methodological in nature;
  4. that you can express knowledge and reason effectively in written work.

 

Academic Honesty

Incomplete

An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.


Marcus Schaefer
Last updated: March 28th, 2008.