Your Turn: Critical/Creative Inquiries in Board Game Media

In this course, we will discover what tabletop gaming has offered humanity from the Ur-game (the Royal Game of Ur, played in Mesopotamia 4500 years ago) to the “new golden age of board games” happening now. Engaging critical scholarship in the emerging field of game studies, we will discuss how theme and mechanics create narrative and meaning, as well as how historical games challenge “inevitable” outcomes. We will examine the hobby’s culture with an eye toward increasing belonging and explore the medium’s potential to imagine a more just and equitable world (such as the decolonizing ecology represented by Spirit Island and the Queer joy of Molly House). Class will be a mix of lab and discussion. You will play several “heavy” (high complexity) games and provide a “session report” on each (usually a 1-2 page response paper that discusses the game in depth and includes applied analysis of the theory readings). For your final project, you will propose, design, and play test your own game, writing an introduction and a rule book. Students will be evaluated on thorough and enthusiastic preparation for and participation in class and lab, written or video assignments, and the final project. This course is especially suited to students interested in history, art, mathematics, and media studies.