Seems like a waste of time to me (to require in a class setting), but then again it is a liberal arts college.
Portal as a required college text
11–20 of 46 posts
Re: Portal as a required college text
#12germane
Re: Portal as a required college text
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Classic videogames didn't really go for the self-aware pretentiousness that makes Portal a compelling choice for academic study. (I mean that in the nicest possible way: it is a game that knows it is better written than 90% of the stuff on the shelves next to it, and it isn't afraid to hit you over the head with that fact over and over and over again.)
There's quite a bit of stuff from the 80s that is self-aware of videogames as a medium, and is actually studied by academics pretty frequently. Chris Crawford's Balance of Power / Balance of the Planet duo are two that are frequently discussed. Crawford is so sure that his stuff is better than other stuff out there that he's even written several books about why his game design is so great, and other game design is so…
Mostly the choice of Portal smells to me of a university picking a famous recent title in an attempt to stay relevant
I don't see how you can get that from the article. It explains pretty clearly the specific topics they're going to emphasize, and how Portal ties in with the rest of the course.
What's nice about Portal is that it has such clear elements, that it gets people to see things they ordinarily wouldn't look for in a game. It's a great introduction to the idea that games can engage humanity.
For starters, it's got great set design, sounds, and music. The characters are studies in their respective types. The set shows a clear progression from clean "lab"-style environment to broken-down warehouse style (both well-executed) and then back again, with a gradual transformation between styles that mirrors the transition of the protagonist's relationship with her environment. The game also raises lots of different issues: the morality of experimenting on humans, the possible emotional nature of AIs, the effectiveness of various incentives (like curiosity, or guilt) and disincentives (like "death", more guilt, or pessimism).
I really would not have any trouble writing a humanities paper on this game, there's a lot going on. It's not the best video game ever, but I think it's good to start with a super-accessible game like Portal because so many people don't take games seriously.
Re: Portal as a required college text
#14Calling it a "book" is weird, but in the right context, culturally/technically/socially significant games aren't any weirder a required item than, say, films that also meet those criteria, and studying important films has been pretty well established for decades. Portal is a slightly strange choice, though, because of how new it is. I would imagine the course doesn't usually choose books or films from the past 5 year…
Who said "book"?
Re: Portal as a required college text
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's quite a bit of stuff from the 80s that is self-aware of videogames as a medium, and is actually studied by academics pretty frequently. Chris Crawford's Balance of Power / Balance of the Planet duo are two that are frequently discussed. Crawford is so sure that his stuff is better than other stuff out there that he's even written several books about why his game design is so great, and other game design is so…
Mostly the choice of Portal smells to me of a university picking a famous recent title in an attempt to stay relevant I don't see how you can get that from the article. It explains pretty clearly the specific topics they're going to emphasize, and how Portal ties in with the rest of the course. What's nice about Portal is that it has such clear elements, that it gets people to see things they ordinarily wouldn't look…
That seems to be mostly missing the point of games as a medium, though--- everything you're discussing is what a novelization of Portal might have been about. In that case, why even pick a game at all? To me at least, the interesting aspects of games as a new form of media are the things that you couldn't imagine one-to-one translated into a novel, like experimentation, interactivity, exploration, rule systems, etc.
I do agree that it's easy to write humanities papers about games from a purely narrative direction, but it's a hallmark of the not-games-focused humanities academic usually--- the literary theorist or film scholar who wrote a paper about a game as if it were a novel or a film. That kind of work is thankfully getting much less common than it was 10-15 years ago.
Re: Portal as a required college text
#16I love this; the notion of non-book texts (usually film) is also one my colleges have worked on in developing our freshman seminars.
But, and I hate to bring this up, but I wonder how differently this idea would play at a college that was not all-male. I've attended a lot of CS education talks that have a strong tension between "games are a way to engage students" and "games are way less engaging for girls than boys". This is a different context, of course, but I'm still curious.
Re: Portal as a required college text
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly the choice of Portal smells to me of a university picking a famous recent title in an attempt to stay relevant I don't see how you can get that from the article. It explains pretty clearly the specific topics they're going to emphasize, and how Portal ties in with the rest of the course. What's nice about Portal is that it has such clear elements, that it gets people to see things they ordinarily wouldn't look…
That seems to be mostly missing the point of games as a medium, though--- everything you're discussing is what a novelization of Portal might have been about. In that case, why even pick a game at all? To me at least, the interesting aspects of games as a new form of media are the things that you couldn't imagine one-to-one translated into a novel, like experimentation, interactivity, exploration, rule systems, etc.…
The narrative wouldn't work the same if it were a novel or a film. To take a simple example, watching someone else being reluctant to incinerate the Weighted Companion Cube would only work as part of a screwball comedy. If you have to do it yourself, it's still a funny situation but it feels a bit different.
And if you want to focus on the game, there is an interesting game mechanic, too.
Re: Portal as a required college text
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly the choice of Portal smells to me of a university picking a famous recent title in an attempt to stay relevant I don't see how you can get that from the article. It explains pretty clearly the specific topics they're going to emphasize, and how Portal ties in with the rest of the course. What's nice about Portal is that it has such clear elements, that it gets people to see things they ordinarily wouldn't look…
That seems to be mostly missing the point of games as a medium, though--- everything you're discussing is what a novelization of Portal might have been about. In that case, why even pick a game at all? To me at least, the interesting aspects of games as a new form of media are the things that you couldn't imagine one-to-one translated into a novel, like experimentation, interactivity, exploration, rule systems, etc.…
Yup, totally forgot that stuff. A book or movie can change your ideas or emotions, and performance art might even change the way you think about the space around you. But it's still just presented for you to accept or ignore. On the other hand, by the end of Portal, you've had four solid hours of practicing these new ideas! Portal actually changes your skill set as you play it. Portal's genius, to me, was matching the development of the player's skill and abilities right along with the character's relationship to her environment. Aligning the situations in the game to match the changes in my neurons was super-impressive to me.
Re: Portal as a required college text
#19Well, at least it takes less than 5 hours to finish, which is a lot better than some books I've read for school.
Re: Portal as a required college text
#20I appreciate the idea, but I have a major issue with it. I personally get motion sick from playing various kinds of first person games. (The problem first showed up for me with Doom.)
Judging from videos I've seen, Portal would be exactly the kind of game that I can't comfortably play. Normally that is not an issue because I don't have to play games I don't like. But if they get a kid like me in the class, how will they deal with it?