Unpacking Sports Videogames

Sports occupy a unique position in popular culture. Beyond the physical act of play, they are experienced across media forms: through radio, television, newspaper, film, and increasingly over the past three decades, through sports videogames. Despite their immense popularity, sports video games have been understudied, and unexamined phenomena. The goal of this seminar is to analyze sports video games in their relation to broader sports fan cultures.

In the course students will be asked to engage sports through a variety of media to examine how the specific technologies inform our understanding and consumption of sports. Through textual analysis, class discussion, sports spectating, design criticism, player research, and play, students will unpack the meaning of sports videogames as cultural artifacts. Topics will include: sports culture, learning, e-sports, sports narratives, technology, game design, sports philosophy, and media studies. Students taking the graduate version will need to complete additional assignments. Enrollment will be limited to 25 students.