Time for homework. Where’s my Nintendo Switch?
Time for homework. Where’s my Nintendo Switch?
Time for homework. Where’s my Nintendo Switch?
By Samantha Laine Perfas
March 7, 2023
Summary
Willa Fogelson grabs her Nintendo Switch most Monday nights, dims the lights, and plays a video game for a few hours.
Fogelson is taking an English class being offered for the first time this semester, "English 189v.g: Video Game Storytelling." About 100 students signed up, a level of interest that surprised the professor, Vidyan Ravinthiran, a poet and author.
"I personally think video game storytelling has some of the most potential in telling wide types of stories," said Tess Carney '23, a cognitive neuroscience concentrator who is taking the class.
Students engaged in a discussion of games they've played where this has occurred, citing examples of characters who are supposed to be on a time-sensitive quests, but spend the whole game completing meaningless "Side quests."
She plans to pursue an internship in the video game industry this summer.
In the class, students are assigned a game for the week - often indie games, but sometimes a blockbuster title.
One game on the course list is "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture." Players find themselves in a sleepy town in the English countryside where everyone has gone missing.
Reference
Perfas, S. L. (2023, March 7). New English class focuses on video game narratives. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/03/new-english-class-focuses-on-video-game-narratives/