Symposium: Issues in RTVF (398-0-20)
Topic
American Gothic Video Games
Instructors
Patrick Oliver Fiorilli
Meeting Info
Annenberg Hall G28: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
Video games have long turned to the Gothic for inspiration: ruined towns, terrible secrets, and supernatural horrors. But in the late 2010s, a trio of otherwise unrelated projects pulled the genre deep into the darkness at the heart of the American landscape. In so doing, these three games took their places in a long tradition of American Gothic fiction, carried on from figures like Edgar Allan Poe and Flannery O'Connor.
Three scenarios: a young woman returns to her Rust Belt hometown to find that the friends she left behind have moved on in their lives and that secrets lurk in the mines. A truck driver searches the backwoods of Kentucky for the mysterious Route Zero. A man goes missing among the androids and alligators in the industrial sprawl outside New Orleans.
In this class we will be playing three games: Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall, 2017), Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer, 2020), and NORCO (Geography of Robots, 2022). As we discuss these games, we will put them in conversation with additional readings from and surveying the American Gothic literary tradition.
This will be a reading- and writing-heavy course: class meetings will consist of discussion of games and readings, and assignments will generally take the form of written responses and critical essays. You will be expected to play the three primary games we will be discussing to completion.
The games in question are thematically challenging rather than mechanically challenging. They require little in the way of quick thinking or precision reflexes, and mostly involve reading text and solving puzzles. In other words, this class does not require any special knowledge of video games or gaming culture! An interest in the topic is all that's needed to succeed.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course students will be able to:
• Consider how our social forces and genre forms affect the design and play of games.
• Discuss games and their underlying themes from an analytical perspective.
• Recognize and contrast various cultural and literary perspectives on the American Gothic.
• Craft original arguments and critiques using evidence from texts and media.
Class Materials (Required)
In this course we will be playing three video games to completion. Although you will find complete playthroughs of these games online (which may prove useful for revisiting particular scenes), I ask that you play through these games yourself alongside the rest of the class. You are responsible for purchasing and running each of the games. The MSRP for Night in the Woods, Kentucky Route Zero, and NORCO is $19.99, $25.00, and $14.99, respectively. Each of these titles is available on PC and Mac and will run on most any current hardware.
All required readings will be provided via web link or .pdf file on Canvas. Videos, films, and podcasts may be assigned where appropriate, and will be available via link or download.