Video Game History and Theory: Developing a 21st Century Curriculum

Eddo Stern
Design Media Arts
UC Los Angeles

This interdisciplinary research seminar developed a highly diversified videogame history and theory course/curriculum. The seminar was a quarter-long (fall 2014) series of roundtables and bi-weekly meetings, co-chaired by UCLA departments Design Media Arts (which houses the UCLA Game Lab), Computer Science, and Cinema and Media Studies, with attendees from other interested faculty/departments. The seminar addressed two overriding objectives: 1. identify and prioritize the pedagogical building blocks of a single course in videogame history and theory, and 2. begin building the foundation for a broader range of cross-listed courses with specific interdisciplinary emphases. After the seminar, participants received two deliverables in addition to the seminar notes: 1. a blueprint syllabus for a single course in videogame history and theory, and 2. a curriculum sequence of cross-listable videogame courses.