Name: Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative
Brand: Vanderbilt University
Availability: OnlineOnly
Rating: 4.6 (57 reviews)

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4.6

stars

201 ratings

About the Course

Intended for both newcomers who are curious about video games and experienced gamers who want to reflect on their passion, this course will explore what happens to stories, paintings, and films when they become the basis of massively multiplayer online games. The Lord of the Rings trilogy—the novels, films, and video game—are our central example of how “remediation” transforms familiar stories as they move across media. The course is designed as a university-level English literature class—a multi-genre, multimedia tour of how literature, film, and games engage in the basic human activity of storytelling. Our journey will enable us to learn something about narrative theory, introduce us to some key topics in media studies and cover some of the history and theory of video games. It will also take us to some landmarks of romance literature, the neverending story that lies behind most fantasy games: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, a bit of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and poems by Keats, Tennyson, Browning, and others. Drawing on centuries of romance narrative conventions, the twenty-first century gaming industry has become a creative and economic powerhouse. It engages the talents of some of our brightest writers, artists, composers, computer engineers, game theorists, video producers, and marketing professionals, and in 2012, it generated an estimated $64 billion in revenue. Anyone interested in today’s culture needs to be conversant with the ways this new medium is altering our understanding of stories. Join me as we set out on an intellectual adventure, the quest to discover the cultural heritage of online games....

Top reviews

Jun 16, 2016

An interesting course for anyone who likes lord of the rings online, fantasy (modern and presents), literature, video games, and/or movies! It's the ultimate combination for maximum nerddom!

Feb 19, 2018

It was very interesting and fun. I liked the literature and examples of the workshop, it was very interesting and It did awaken a much slept passion for poetry and romance.

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51 - 57 of 57 Reviews for Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative

By Karole-Anne C

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Apr 13, 2021

Comprehensive, interesting course. Doesn’t rely heavily on gaming, so those who are more comfortable with literature are engaged. The video format added to the experience.