Game Education Summit North America 2010 - Presentation

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 04:00 PM - 50 Min | Curriculum Track

interactive ethics: mobilizing media studies for games education
Wed, 2010-06-16 16:00 - 16:50
Curriculum Track
Neils Clark
Professor
DigiPen

Presentation Summary:

This session addresses the re-tooling of an introductory media and ethics course for DigiPen’s industry-oriented atmosphere. Covered are: deploying media studies, mapping media legitimacy, mapping media effects, and student response.

Paper Abstract:

Educating future developers, one phrase never seems to pass into obscurity: “Game designers are the ultimate generalists.”
Ethics is a case-in-point, requiring not only fundamental abilities in seemingly contradictory skill sets (i.e. programming and 3-D graphics), but literacy, a grasp on the oft-hidden meanings behind pictures, words, and even interaction. Literary Theory, Cinematic Theory, Communications Theory, Critical Theory, even Psychology and the forbidden lore of Neuroscience, are among a wide range of fields offering deployable media studies theories which can clarify issues in ways not possible a decade ago.
This lecture sets out to discuss initial response of DigiPen students to a broad range of media theorists, especially those exploring:
  • ·         the nature, texture, and “massage,” of mediums, and how mediums relate to one another
  • ·         the legitimacy of gaming, and moral panics surrounding the pastime
  • ·         physical and psychological effects of media, especially games
  • ·         finding and pursuing “truth,” in artist and audience