Big Men on Campus Study Video Games

If GamePolitics was a college course, say, GP101, would you sign up? Well, as fate would have it, an article in the Indiana Daily Student brought our attention to something quite similar being offered this summer through Indiana University's Department of Communication and Culture.

Games, Gamers, and Gaming Culture is a new course being offered this summer in which students will critically examine the relationships between video games, gamers, and society by studying the cultural, social, and political aspects of video games.

Topics include:

- the blurring of boundaries between the virtual and the real

- the psychological impacts of video game use and abuse

- the ideological dimensions of games

- fan cultures and their creative reworking of game content

- the intersections between video games and other media

"Fifty or 60 years ago people thought it was pointless to study film," says Professor Konrad Budziszewski, the course's instructor. "Now people are making the same point about video games, but I think it's an important part of American culture. Half of (all) Americans play video or computer games, and it's not just kids' stuff anymore. The average age for a gamer is over 30, and it's time we look at who's playing what games and what it means about our society."

The video game class will meet weekday mornings with a film screening every Monday evening. Screenings will include documentaries on games, news clips of violence blamed on violent games, and portions of movies based on games. Interested? Well, you better hurry; enrollment is limited to 25 students.

-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent - and intense student of game - Andrew Eisen

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