Assignment 4

Final Assignment: Video Game Categorization

Course: Video Games as a Medium

Professor: Guna Yerrabolu

This course is made for students who enjoy playing video games. It revolves around playing video games and then analyzing the experience, so it could still be suitable for students who don't really play video games. A lot of the questions I got revolved around the requirement for 10-15 games. As I presented in the Research Tips and Tricks, this assignment is still feasible if someone does research. The categories don't have to be broad. So if they research gameplay clips or other people's reviews, the assignment can still be completed since the categories that the student generates are of their own choosing.

Information

Throughout this course, we have observed how medium can shape the message that a video game is portraying. We spent a majority of the class looking at specific video games and analyzing different components that made or broke them. In this process, you were able to find parts of each game that not only colloquially were deemed there strengths and weaknesses but also parts that you liked and disliked. Each of you had a different reaction, showing how each game can have a variety of impact on the player-base. This shows that even though you can generalize the genre of a game, the actual experience of each player is unique. This assignment will take what you learned on categorizing different aspects of video games and meld it with your own impressions to target generalization in a different way. You will generalize not only using traditional, culturally accepted divisions but also on personal perspectives.

Prompt

Find 10-15 video games that you have played or have experience with and categorize them by five aspects present in the game. This may include any part of the game from art style to gameplay to even personal experiences. Generate a diagram of the categorizations, providing an explanation behind the category selections and why each game falls into its respective categories. There are no right or wrong answers as long as you explain WHY you chose what you did.

Sample Diagram. This diagram takes many common categorizations like multiplayer and randomly generated and melds it with character growth/change through gameplay. Similarly, you will incorporate both traditional and personal categories.

Grading

This is the final assignment in this class and is worth 25% of the grade. As I stated before, as long as your explanations are sufficient, it's very hard to lose points. You should be showing ample understanding of how to analyze different aspects of a video game. The difficulty of this assignment comes from being able to generalize the categorizations that you develop across different video games.

This will be due the last day of class. If you need an extension into finals week, talk to me before the due date. Asking on the last day is not acceptable unless there is an emergency. Take this paper seriously, but don't stress too much. Planning ahead and communicating with me will make your life easy, I am the one grading it after all.

Tips and Tricks

• Plan Ahead: The assignment itself isn't hard, but will take some thinking and thinking requires time. I know most of you will leave it to the last day, but I would suggest at least planning out the diagram ahead of time such that you know the direction you're headed.
• Start Small: Trying to do all the categories at the same time might get overwhelming. It's helpful to start with one category and divide your selected games into their respective in- and out-groups. From there, keep adding more categories one at a time.
• Use the Diagram as a Planner: I found it easiest to visualize the categories as I thought them through. Make the diagram as you are categorizing your video games. You can easily move pieces around and track your thought processes. It's easy to get lost with so many moving parts. The diagram will ground your progress.
• Research: Some people may not have 10-15 games that they are comfortable enough with to categorize. Looking up reviews and gameplay of the game will give you ample evidence to divide the game into some aspect. The divisions don't have to be grand, over-arching themes. Find something you notice that you can piece together with other games.
• Ask Me for Help: I'm a resource too. If you need help, just email or talk to me after class.