Summer class looks at video games

For Will Partin, excited doesn’t begin to capture his feelings about the University’s first humanities course on video games.

“Excited is an understatement,” said Partin, the graduate student teaching the course this summer.

The summer session course, titled Art History 290: The Critical Histories of Video Games, will look at video games through their history, theory, form, function and culture.

“I didn’t take a class on game studies until my senior year,” Partin said. “Once I took that class, I knew I’d want to teach my own version someday.”

The new games course opened for enrollment this semester, and Partin said quite a few students have already signed up.

The focus of the course is twofold. According to the syllabus, the class will look at the relationship between game designers and the players. The class will also situate games in their cultural and historical context.

Freshman Bruce Zhang said he has never heard of the course, but he would be interested in taking it.

“There is a lot of debate about video games being violent or sexist,” Zhang said. “(I think) that learning the history and the current state of video games could be interesting.”

Partin has similar ideas for his course.

“By virtue of (video games’) popularity, games both produce and reflect cultural attitudes toward race, gender, violence and sexuality,” Partin said. “There’s no one way to talk about games, so I wanted to develop a curriculum that would reflect the diversity of the medium.”

Partin also added a number of field trips into his course. One trip includes a visit to the Ubisoft studio in Cary, which makes video games including “Assassin’s Creed” and “Just Dance.”

He also plans to utilize guest speakers into class lectures who range from professional gamers to indie game designers.

Senior Dalia Kaakour said she has never heard of the course but said she has never had any interest in games.

But Partin explained how the course goes beyond just video games.

“One of my central learning goals for the course is for students to understand that games can’t be reduced to a single cultural monolith ... (games) can be examined through many theories and take many forms,” Partin said.

Partin explained that while game studies isn’t a new discipline, his generation never had to adapt to gaming.

“When I was very young, my parents used games to help teach me the alphabet, basic math and typing,” Partin said.

The use of video games as learning tools still applies today and will continue to be relevant for future generations, Partin said.

“I want (gaming) to be taken more seriously as a medium,” Partin said.

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