new two-year Master of Arts program in Game Studies<\/a> have begun their coursework and plans for either a major research paper (MRP), technical project or thesis.<\/p>\nLaunched this fall, the program has a special focus on \u201cgames for education, health and persuasion,\u201d which examines how game design can be used in non-gaming fields.<\/p>\n
Stuart Gritter (BA \u201913) came to Game Studies through a background in English and Interactive Arts and Science (IASC) and is interested in studying how games use implicit lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of game-oriented programs out there, particularly at the MA level,\u201d says Gritter, who has spent the past decade working in software development. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to do research on the different ways we learn from games.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a topic he\u2019s already been exploring through his podcast, Learn From Game. Gritter looks forward to \u201cbeing able to refine some of those ideas and to find academic support for some of the things that have come up over the years of talking about educational lessons and implicit lessons in games.\u201d<\/p>\n
He plans to use the MA program as preparation for a PhD.<\/p>\n
Fellow Brock IASC grad Paul Drotos (BA \u201919) has been working freelance in sound design in video games and audio editing since graduation. While he enjoyed working in sound design, he is looking forward to tackling a major research paper on labour in games.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s interested in examining games\u2019 inclusion of \u201cbusy work that mimics labour in our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to explore the question of whether games are mimicking life or if they are preparing us for labour,\u201d Drotos says.<\/p>\n
Kai Moiseeva, who brings a background in communication and media to the Game MA program, appreciates the interdisciplinary approach taken in the courses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough my undergraduate courses, I discovered game design and took everything I could,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re studying texts that very much help me connect what I learned in my undergrad to games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moiseeva will be looking at the interactive nature of narrative and hopes to do a creative project in his second year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing games since I was a little kid,\u201d he says. \u201cI always appreciated games that had interactivity. The more games I played, the more I began to question how game narratives were different from book or movie narratives, and that just drew me in.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Gritter, returning to Brock for Game Studies highlights just how much the discipline has developed in the past decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen years ago, game studies was still going through some speed bumps in terms of being taken seriously as a discipline,\u201d he says. \u201cThe discipline is maturing and moving in a positive direction. Academia is giving the gaming community and gaming culture the respect it deserves. It\u2019s very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MA in Game Studies<\/a> program invites applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds, including recent university graduates and mid-career professionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve accepted the quest and are ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":81638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,188,55,37,1],"tags":[263,2749,3335,3330,30,1792],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81639,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81637\/revisions\/81639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}