I entered this class as a graduate student researching immersive virtual worlds that occasionally found themselves in game studies spaces. While I’d read games literature in my work, I lacked a foundation in games and had never taken a games class before. Taking this class allowed me to fill this gap, providing me with a foundation in games studies that will continue to help enrich my work and contribute to discussion in games communities. Prior to this class, while I could articulate theories in communication that are relevant to games, my sphere of interest was restricted to virtual worlds. I could not properly articulate the different types of games that exist and how they shape the player experience. Now I have a more enhanced understanding of the different categories of games and what they entail.
The class concept that stuck with me most was mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. I believe the reason for this is that I struggled for a while in parsing the difference between them. In fact, I still get a bit tripped up between dynamics and aesthetics. Regardless, I found it helpful in my ability to break down the design of a game, and how I will approach designing games moving forward. I also really enjoyed the day we learned how to doodle. Knowing how to quickly represent people and objects has honestly come in handy both in and outside of class since we had this lecture.
Something that was challenging to me in this class was sketchnotes. I never could quite figure out how to format them in a way that was aesthetically pleasing without agonizing over where I was placing each word I was writing on the page. As a result, I felt that most of my sketchnotes were a bit lackluster visually. However, in the process of making them, they did force me to retain the information that I was consuming. Hence, I believe my sketchnotes still accomplished their intention. Though, in a less aesthetic manner.
Another challenge that I faced was finding games to play for critical play. As a Mac user without Steam, I would attempt to find options that were available to play online with a link. I also preferred to play games that were free. However, not all critical appeared to have an option listed that checked all of the boxes for me. There was an additional challenge on weeks that required the game to be social, as many social online games are dead without a group of people you know to play with. Therefore, finding a game proved to be a challenge for critical plays.
Over the course of this class, I grew in my ability in how to think about designing, characterizing, and analyzing games. It has motivated me to want to try new games, which is growth as someone who tends to stick to one game at a time. This class has also given me experience in playtesting which I hope to carry over into my research.
