Games and Labor

Readings part 1:

Welcome To The Club – by Anne Krueger from Video Games magazine (1983)

Immaterial Labor – from Games of the Empire by Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig De Peuter (2009)

Assessment:
Submit the PDF of Immaterial labor with your margin notes on Canvas.

Assessment:
I will ask a random student an open-ended question regarding the assigned texts. If they answer in a way that shows they’ve read the text, they are “checked” and don’t have to answer any more questions. If they don’t, somebody else can volunteer. Repeat until they are all “checked” or I run out of questions.

Readings part 2:

You Can Sleep Here All Night: Video Games and Labor, Ian Williams
Video game company layoffs are creating an industry crisis by Nicole Carpenter
Video Game Developers Are Leaving The Industry And Doing Something, Anything Else by Luke Plunkett
The rise of the video game union by Nicole Carpenter
If you don’t like the game, Change the rules by Marie LeBlanc Flanagan (optionally you can check the companion white paper here)

Assessment:
Fishbowl discussion: there are 2 chairs in the middle of the classroom, the entire class forms a circle around them. The class will have a discussion, but students can only speak if they are sitting in one of the four chairs in the middle. Everyone outside of the chairs must listen.
If a student wants to join the discussion, they can tap a student’s shoulder sitting in a chair, and as soon as that student is finished speaking, they must vacate the chair and let in the newcomer.