Sunday, April 22, 2007
My approach to running an evening class in games appreciation would rely on finding games that people who didn’t usually play video games could associate with. Invites could be sent out to existing classes that ran courses with parallels in video games.
Many adult education centres run classes in military history, so perhaps the first week would centre on historically accurate RTS games such as Praetorians. Similarly Film or Literature groups could be invited to a session that featured games that had become notable for their narrative approach. Deus Ex, Fahrenheit or Fable. The third week could centre on simulation games, a much looser genre definition. Perhaps Civilisation, Microsoft Train Simulator and the Sims, as a final attempt to attract more people to try the class.
Once attendance had been established the first week of the course would be dedicated to culturally important games, that is games which have become part of the fabric of our culture even to people who don’t play games. Pac Man, Pong, Sonic and Tomb raider are examples of games that it would be easy for the majority of the population to relate to because of the familiarity of the brand names. This would be an important step. Establishing a point of reference in the world of video games would allow the class to move out and expand their experiences without them becoming overwhelmed by it.
The final two weeks would be concerned with criticaly acclaimed titles that they may not have heard of. I would exclude out those that use violence gratuitously to avoid distancing the class from the subject matter. Ico, Okami and Black and white would be good steps as they are all accesible, inteligent and easy to control.
Hopefully attendance would be high enough to justify a second term.
Many adult education centres run classes in military history, so perhaps the first week would centre on historically accurate RTS games such as Praetorians. Similarly Film or Literature groups could be invited to a session that featured games that had become notable for their narrative approach. Deus Ex, Fahrenheit or Fable. The third week could centre on simulation games, a much looser genre definition. Perhaps Civilisation, Microsoft Train Simulator and the Sims, as a final attempt to attract more people to try the class.
Once attendance had been established the first week of the course would be dedicated to culturally important games, that is games which have become part of the fabric of our culture even to people who don’t play games. Pac Man, Pong, Sonic and Tomb raider are examples of games that it would be easy for the majority of the population to relate to because of the familiarity of the brand names. This would be an important step. Establishing a point of reference in the world of video games would allow the class to move out and expand their experiences without them becoming overwhelmed by it.
The final two weeks would be concerned with criticaly acclaimed titles that they may not have heard of. I would exclude out those that use violence gratuitously to avoid distancing the class from the subject matter. Ico, Okami and Black and white would be good steps as they are all accesible, inteligent and easy to control.
Hopefully attendance would be high enough to justify a second term.
# posted by Matt @ 2:03 PM 
