Beyond the immediate thrills of winning and the psychological challenges of losing, what are the stakes pointed to by the ever-increasing popularity of online and digital games?  Intensive monetary investments by both producers and players in the commercial gaming industry suggest a high valuing of digital gaming in multiple other, non-financial senses. Certainly beyond individual pleasure, there are many versions of collective appreciation and sociality in and around digital or online play, but how does gaming not only reinforce certain existing cultural values (e.g. competitive sports; creative production; entertainment and leisure) but also possibly shift social and political understandings? What reflections, reinscriptions and distortions around ideas of gender, race, class and other modes of social distinctions and behavior are generated through digital game play? With the rapid development of computer-based creative media, how does gaming borrow from and adapt prior forms and models of cultural production (storytelling, sound art, animation and other motion picture generation as well as non-digital game precedents) and produce new modes of interaction, desire and gratification? This course will look at multiple examples of late modern gaming while tracking longer histories of games’ meaning and impacts across different cultures, considering the politics and social consequences of what games “do.” Philosophy and Critical Theory (PHCRT) courses focus on developing critical reading and thinking skills, with an emphasis on learning to frame and explore meaningful questions. Students consider multiple perspectives and claims in the process of formulating independent, well-founded opinions.

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