Play’s Republic

In an earlier posting, Katie referenced the Wired article “Today’s Homework: Make Good Games”. Among other things, this article discussed a new MA program at Michigan State - “Serious Game Design”. After reading this article, I decided to explore this program further, digging into the MSU program’s web page for more insight into this developing, interdisciplinary program.

The MSU program hopes to attract a diverse group of students from a variety of disciplines, ranging from game design to art, advertising, psychology and journalism, to environmental science, policy sci and health. The program will use this group of scholars to research and design games that have a purpose that goes beyond entertainment and mass market appeal. Through a theoretical study of “learning, cognition, emotion, and play” the SGD students will become prepared for a career in designing games that have agendas (”serious games”).

It is interesting to think about this emerging program in the context of our readings of Huizinga and Caillois. The notion of a “sociology derived from games” becomes interesting to think about when you consider the clear agendas of the so-called “serious games” of today when compared to traditional games whose serious stories are often ignored or hidden in the course of game play.