Game Studies

🏫 Media Studies 360 at UVic
🎓 Intended for 40 undergraduate students
📆 Spring 2026 at the University of Victoria
🪑 M and Th, 1-2:20pm | 1.5 units | prereq: AWR
👨🏻‍🏫 Taught by Jentery Sayers (he | him) | jentery@uvic.ca
🗄️ Office hours: M and Th, 11:45am-12:45pm, in CLE D331

Worksheet 1

Worksheet 1 covers course material from January 8th (“Situating Play in Games”) through January 19th (“Joy and Toxicity in Gaming Communities”). Your response is due via Brightspace by Monday, January 26th at 1pm.

The worksheet is open-book, meaning you are allowed to use the course website, the class notebook, the gameplay footage collection, your own games, your own notes and books, audio recordings of class sessions, the library, and the internet to address the prompts.

Please cite your source material.

Download the Worksheet

Please download the worksheet (DOCX format) and complete it in a word processor such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or Pages for Mac.

Format

This open-book worksheet contains five prompts. You should respond to three of them. Note that two of them are required. I will mark the worksheet holistically rather than giving each response a separate mark.

Some prompts ask you to create media. Please attach your audio, image, or video files to your response in Brightspace. Do not use YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Google Drive, or any other non-Brightspace platform to submit files.

If you play a game with someone else or observe them playing (outside of Twitch, YouTube, or a similar public streaming or publishing platform), then please first acquire their written or recorded permission and include it as part of your submission.

The Five Prompts (Select Three)

Prompt 1 (optional). Select a game of your choice, play it for about an hour, and take notes as you do. Then use no more than 425 words, including terminology from the class notebook, to explain how playing the game intersects with leisure, work, and labour. Be specific and be sure to include examples. You might even test the game against Bernard Suits’s remark: “Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles” (1978). Feel free to include documentation (video, audio, or images) of the play session.

Prompt 2 (optional). Select a game of your choice, play it for about an hour, and take notes as you do. Then use no more than 425 words, including terminology from the class notebook, to explain how the game not only motivates you to play it (including motivational affordances) but also socializes play. Be specific and be sure to include examples. You might consider Francis Dalisay et al.’s remark that “what happens in virtual environments, including games, does not stay in virtual environments” (2021). Feel free to include documentation (video, audio, or images) of the play session.

Prompt 3 (optional). Select a game of your choice, research where and by whom it was made, play it for about an hour, and take notes as you do. Then use no more than 425 words, including terminology from the class notebook, to explain how your research on the game’s creation, ownership, publication, studio culture, and/or working conditions shaped your experience playing it. Be specific and be sure to include examples. You might consider the reports we reviewed during the “Ownership, Rights, and EDI in Game Industries” unit. Feel free to include documentation (video, audio, or images) of the play session.

Prompt 4 (required). Return to the game you played for Prompt 1, 2, or 3. Play it for another hour or so. Use a concurrent or reflective think-aloud strategy to 1) document your play (video, audio, or images) and 2) comment on what you expect will happen next in the game. Then use no more than 250 words, including terminology from the class notebook, to reflect on what you learned about the game in particular and about play in general from this exercise. Be sure to include your think-aloud documentation and commentary alongside your written response. Optional reading: “I Suck at This Game: ‘Let’s Play’ Videos, Think-Alouds, and the Pedagogy of Bad Feelings,” by Derritt Mason (2021).

Prompt 5 (required). Return to that game one more time but observe someone else playing it. Maybe you visit a local arcade or board game cafe, watch Twitch or YouTube, or meet up with a friend online or somewhere in town. As you observe, take notes on how the person plays the game and describe the gaming venue or platform where they’re playing it. Then use no more than 425 words, including terminology from the class notebook, to describe and reflect on what you learned about the game’s culture and community, including issues related to joy and toxicity. Optional reading: “Ethnography as Play,” by T.L. Taylor (2022).

Assessment

Your mark for Worksheet 1 constitutes 20% of your final mark in this course.

I will use the following rubric, based on UVic’s official grading system, to assess your responses.

• 89.5-100 (exceeds all expectations of the worksheet): the responses are compelling; they address all the prompts and apply course terminology; they enhance the course material, including lectures, class discussions, the class notebook, and our engagements with games; the use of examples is clear, focused, convincing, and inventive (original insight)
• 79.5-89 points (exceeds some or most expectations of the worksheet): the responses are compelling; they address all the prompts and apply course terminology; they correspond with the course material, including lectures, class discussions, the class notebook, and our engagements with games; the use of examples is clear, focused, and convincing
• 69.5-79 points (meets or mostly meets the expectations of the worksheet): the responses address all the prompts and apply course terminology; they correspond with the course material, including lectures, class discussions, the class notebook, and our engagements with games; the use of examples is often convincing but may warrant some clarification
• 59.5-69 points (meets some expectations of the worksheet): the responses address some of the prompts and apply some course terminology; they correspond with some of the course material, including lectures, class discussions, the class notebook, and our engagements with games; the use of examples warrants some clarification
• 49.5-59 points (does not meet the expectations of the worksheet): the responses do not correspond much, if at all, with the course material or the prompts
• 0-49 points: no responses or incomplete responses

10 points will be deducted from the overall mark if no references are included at the end of the worksheet (see “Citing Your Sources”).

5 points will be deducted from the overall mark if the references at the end of the worksheet are not formatted according to an established citation style (see “Citing Your Sources”).

1 point will be deducted for every 25 words over the prescribed word count.

You do not need to meet the word count in each response to earn a high mark.

I recommend using prose (paragraphs) rather than point form in your responses. Prose is more synthetic and will allow you to make connections.

AI Tools

I do not recommend relying on generative AI or other AI tools to respond to this assignment. AI-generated responses tend to be generic, and they lack self-reflection, which is a key element of every prompt in this worksheet. AI results can also be biased and incorrect. It is your responsibility to ensure that the information you use from AI is accurate. You should also pay attention to the privacy of your data. Many AI tools will incorporate and use any content (including copyrighted materials, original work, and personal information) you upload, paste, or share with them. In short, relying on AI could create more work for you in the end, and it tends to hinder and even “deskill” the learning process.

All sources, including AI tools, must be properly cited. (Language for this policy was drawn from language used at the University of Washington.)

Citing Your Sources

Please do not forget to cite any material from which you draw ideas or examples. This includes games, videos, podcasts, websites, magazines, streams, and AI tools (if you decide to use them) as well as academic publications such as monographs and journal articles. You are welcome to use your preferred citation style (MLA, Chicago, or APA, e.g.).

What to Submit

Please submit a DOCX, ODT, PAGES, or PDF file containing your answers and references along with any media files you were prompted to attach or embed.

When to Submit It

A response to Worksheet 1 is due by 1pm on Monday, January 26th at 1pm, but there is a 24-hour grace period. I will deduct five points for every business day I receive Worksheet 1 after 1pm on Tuesday, January 27th. I will close the submission portal for Worksheet 1 at 1pm on Monday, February 9th, and cannot accept any submissions after the portal is closed. I will not accept any submissions by email.