4. What are Games?
Goals for this week (September 27th/29th)
To understand how scholars define "Games" and why historians are interested in them. We also want to be able to distinguish play from games.
To reflect upon the position of games in our society and try to extrapolate from that, why games were important in other societies
To consider key terminology about games and how to decribe and categorize them.
Overview:
The week introduces you to the field of Games Studies/ Historical Games Studies. The professor will lead a discussion about the different ways to define what a "game" is and scholars have talked about them in the past.
On Wednesday, the professor will lead a discussion about the two readings by C.T. Nguyen about games. Students need to have read the texts for Wednesday's class (September 27th). This class, students will be responsible for most of the discussion, answering the fundamental question: What is a game?. We will not have a lecture by the professor, but instead, students will need to read the assigned works and be ready to discuss what they found most relevent and interesting.
On Friday, the professor will begin to lecture about the medieval history of Games. The goal will be to talk about game evidence - they are material objects that survive from the past but they are also topics of writing and art that are communicated to the present.
Read/Watch/Listen
There are two readings to annotate on Perusal this week:
Nguyen, C. Thi. “Philosophy of Games.” Philosophy compass 12, no. 8 (2017)
And also read chapter one of Nguyen, C. Thi. Games : Agency as Art. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190052089.003.0001, accessed 17 Sept. 2022.
C.T. Nguyen also was interviewed on the Ezra Klein show in February 2022, where he states in a slightly different (and more approachable) way what is in his book. A link to the podcast and a transcript can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-c-thi-nguyen.html
Listen to “The Ezra Klein Show”: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, How to Listen
Practice
Detailed instructions can be found as exercise no. 4.
Write up a permanent note answering the question "what is a game".
Create a new blank document. Make a list of all the games you have played in your life - games you played with toys, commercial games, games you made up. Be as exhaustive as possible. Try to organize them into groups or categories (or a typology). Put medieval-ish ones in bold.
Going Further
When you are encountering a new field of study, it is useful to use a tertiary source (reference works like dictionaries and encyclopedias) to learn terminology, get basic definitions and be introduced generally to key topics.
I recommend the online Encyclopedia of Ludic Terms (English "ludic" is an adjective derived from the Latin, ludus – game, play, sport, pastime). It is a useful and developing resource for studying games.
If you want to read more about this topic, here is another detailed academic texts:
Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon, Jonas Heide Smith, and Susana Pajares Tosca. “What Is a Game?” In Understanding Video Games, 31–60. 4th ed. Routledge, 2020. Link to library catalogue.
Also, there are a number of good podcasts about the field of Games Studies, such as:
Games Studies Study Buddies - long podcasts (up to 2 hrs) discussing important books (both new and classic) in the field of games studies
Gaming the Past - Classical historian Jeremiah McCall talks to game designers about how they use history in their game design
Studying Pixels - two scholars talking about videogames, including current releases
Designer Notes - an experienced game designer sits down with noted designers to find out by examining their careers as a whole.
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