Lecturers

Miguel Sicart, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Bart Simon, Concordia University, Canada

Johannes Grenzfurthner, monochrom & University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria

Course description

A number of academics and independent game designers have pushed the notion that computer games should primarily be understood in terms of formal rules and mechanics – that computer games are, first and foremost, a “procedural” medium. Yet “procedurality,” as the idea is frequently spun, represents more than just a neutral descriptor of the computational properties of digital media. Often, discussions of procedurality position the author (the game designer) as a guaranteer of meaning, charged with the task of embedding meaning in predefined computational processes in order to elicit reflection or even persuasion. Here, meaning is locatable in the object itself – if not in the audiovisuals or the story, then in the rule system as formalized in code. Arguably, this perspective suffers from a subtle (even if unintentional) technological determinism.

This PhD course probes the pitfalls of privileging the formal system as a conceptual lens – not just in relation to understanding computer games, but also in terms of designing them. Games, even computer-mediated ones, are not merely sets of rules established by a designer but are complex arrangements actualized, negotiated, and modified by human players, within specific material and cultural contexts. Nothing is guaranteed by the game system itself – not the meaning, not even the rules. While these insights have been echoed time and again in the literatures on everything from playground games to MMOGs, they are often forgotten in analyses of other kinds of genres and settings. For both theoreticians and practitioners, the implications are many, and thus this course seeks to open up a conversation “against procedurality.”

This critical assessment opens up for discussions on, but not limited to:

• Indeterminacy and contingency in play

• Formalism and essentialism in the study of games

• The “worldness” of games

• Player reinterpretation and transgression

• Designing for player-generated rules

• Game design and performance art

• Player as artist/performer

• Games, festivity, and laughter

The course will draw from a variety of perspectives and disciplinary approaches including game studies, design research, anthropology, media studies, internet studies, and art practice. In this interdisciplinary milieu, students will reflect on their own and each others’ research, the course readings, lectures, and group discussions.