Fall 2005 -- SPCM 496-CS, Prof. Sandvig

Home + About + Schedule + Readings + Assignments + Help/Handouts + Blogs + Projects

You are here: Home / Readings (by date)

Readings (by date)

This list is sorted by due date. (Show readings by type.)

This list does not include the Foundational Bibliography, which is optional and not assigned by date.

All Readings

Reading	Type	Due

Coin-Op: The Life	[ Online Class Reader ]	14 Nov (Mon)
Pierce, M. S. (1998). Coin-Op: The Life. In C. Dodsworth, Jr. (Ed.), Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology (pp. 443-461). New York: Association for Computing Machinery Press. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
The Right to Play	[ Web Reading ]	9 Nov (Wed)
OPTIONAL: Castronova, Edward. (2004) The Right to Play. New York Law School Law Review, 49 (1): 185-210. http://ssrn.com/abstract=733486
Clones, Bones, and Twilight Zones	[ Web Reading ]	9 Nov (Wed)
Beard, J. J. (2001). Clones, Bones, and Twilight Zones: Protecting the Digital Persona of the Quick, the Dead, and the Imaginary. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 16(3). http://www.law.berkeley.edu/journals/btlj/articles/vol16/beard/beard.pdf
Parasitic Interventions	[ Web Reading ]	7 Nov (Mon)
Schleiner, A.-M. (1999). Parasitic Interventions: Game Patches and Hacker Art. Opensorcery.net Texts: Unpublished manuscript. http://www.opensorcery.net/patch.html
The Semiotics of SimCity	[ Web Reading ]	2 Nov (Wed)
OPTIONAL: Friedman, T. (1999). The Semiotics of SimCity. First Monday, 4(4). http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_4/friedman/
The Triumph of Tinkering	[ Online Class Reader ]	2 Nov (Wed)
Turkle, S. (1995). The Triumph of Tinkering. In S. Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (pp. 50-73). New York: Simon & Schuster. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
Games as the Play of Simulation	[ Online Class Reader ]	2 Nov (Wed)
New "free" outside reading on simulation added to address questions: OPTIONAL: Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2004). "Games as the Play of Simulation." From K. Salen & E. Zimmerman, Rules of Play, pp. 421-458. MIT Press. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
The Unreal Estate Boom	[ Web Reading ]	31 Oct (Mon)
OPTIONAL: Dibbell, J. (2003, January). "The Unreal Estate Boom." Wired 11(1). http://wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/gaming_pr.html (Discussed in class)
Virtual Worlds	[ Web Reading ]	31 Oct (Mon)
Castronova, Edward, "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier" (December 2001). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 618. Required: pp. 1-5 (the introduction) OPTIONAL: pp. 6-40 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828
A Rape in Cyberspace	[ Web Reading ]	31 Oct (Mon)
Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society," Imaginary Realities 2, no. 4 (April 1999). (also published as ch. 1 of Dibbell's book My Tiny Life.) http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/ (click on "A Rape in Cyberspace") If you get an 403 Forbidden error, press reload. If that doesn't help, search for the reading in google and look at the google cached version.
Commercial Gambling	[ Online Class Reader ]	26 Oct (Wed)
OPTIONAL: Ch. 5: Commercial Gambling as a Social Institution, pp. 143-190 FROM: Abt, V., Smith, J. F., & Christiansen, E. M. (1985). The Business of Risk: Commercial Gambling in Mainstream America. In. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
The Players	[ Web Reading ]	26 Oct (Wed)
Case Study: Conley, Kevin. (2005, July 11). The Players. Annals of Enterprise. The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/050711fa_fact1
Online Gaming Culture	[ Web Reading ]	24 Oct (Mon)
Read pp. 1-3 FROM: Morris, S. (1999). Online Gaming Culture: An Examination of Emerging Forms of Production and Participation in Multiplayer First-Person-Shooter Gaming. Gamegirlz.com Features. http://www.gamegirlz.com/articles/quakewomen.shtml
Chess for Girls?	[ Online Class Reader ]	24 Oct (Mon)
Cassell, J., & Jenkins, H. (1998). Chess for Girls? Feminism and Computer Games. In J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat (pp. 2-45). Cambridge: MIT Press. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
The Iterative Design Process	[ Web Reading ]	19 Oct (Wed)
Zimmerman, E. (2003). Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process. Gamelab Articles. http://www.gmlb.com/articles/iterativedesign.html Also try out the games discussed in this article: (Requires shockwave) Sissyfight Loop Lego JunkBot
Players Who Suit MUDs	[ Web Reading ]	17 Oct (Mon)
Bartle, R. (1997). Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. The Journal of Virtual Environments, 1(1). http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm
Games and the Cognitive System	[ Online Class Reader ]	12 Oct (Wed)
Read Ch. 3: Games and the Cognitive System, pp. 43-82 FROM: Loftus, G. R., & Loftus, E. F. (1983). Mind at Play: The Psychology of Video Games. New York: Basic Books. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
Intrinsically Motivating Instruction	[ Online Class Reader ]	10 Oct (Mon)
Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction. Cognitive Science, 4, 333-369. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
Immortal Kombat	[ Online Class Reader ]	3 Oct (Mon)
Goldstein, J. H. (1998). Immortal Kombat: War Toys and Violent Video Games. In J. H. Goldstein (Ed.), Why we watch: The attractions of violent entertainment (pp. 53-68). New York: Oxford University Press. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
Spacewar	[ Web Reading ]	28 Sep (Wed)
OPTIONAL: Brand, S. (1972, 7 December). Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums. Rolling Stone. http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/stone/rolling_stone.html
All But War is Simulation	[ Web Reading ]	28 Sep (Wed)
Lenoir, T. (2000). All But War is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex. Configurations, 8(3), 289-335. (UIUC library electronic journal, use a UIUC on-campus computer to click on this link) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/configurations/v008/8.3lenoir.pdf *If the above URL doesn't work* because you are off-campus, try this URL instead http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=23380 (UIUC NetID and password required). Then navigate to volume 8, issue 3 and find the article.
Rhetorics of Frivolity	[ Textbook ]	26 Sep (Mon)
Read S-S Ch. 11
Rhetorics of Self	[ Textbook ]	21 Sep (Wed)
Read S-S Ch. 10
Rhetorics of the Imaginary	[ Textbook ]	19 Sep (Mon)
Read S-S Ch. 8
Rhetorics of Identity	[ Textbook ]	14 Sep (Wed)
Read S-S Ch. 6 Video: Aral's day out (in class)
Rhetorics of Fate	[ Textbook ]	12 Sep (Mon)
Read S-S Ch. 4
Rhetorics of Child Play	[ Textbook ]	7 Sep (Wed)
Read S-S Ch. 3
Rhetorics of Animal Progress	[ Textbook ]	31 Aug (Wed)
Read S-S Ch. 2.
The syllabus	[ Web Reading ]	29 Aug (Mon)
Read the entire syllabus carefully. The class syllabus is this Web site. Please carefully read it before this class meeting, particularly the About page.
Why Study Play?	[ Online Class Reader ]	29 Aug (Mon)
Read: Silverstone, R. (1999). "Play." In: R. Silverstone, Why Study the Media?, pp. 59-67. London: Sage. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]
The Ambiguity of Play	[ Textbook ]
Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
How to use the Web Readings	[ Web Reading ]
Readings on the Web are not password protected and may be in a number of formats. As we all know, Web servers are sometimes briefly unavailable. Plan ahead to avoid this problem and don't try to download the readings at the last minute. If a server is down at the last minute this is not an excuse to skip readings.
How to access the online readings	[ Online Class Reader ]
If a reading is marked password protected, it consists of a file in Adobe's portable document format (PDF) that is protected using your UIUC Active Directory Password. If you don't have an active directory password, you can get one at the link above. If you are having password problems please contact the CITES Help Desk. The instructor does not control the active directory password system. HINT: The Active Directory password is the same password you use to log in to NetFiles. ANOTHER HINT: You can read and print these readings using the free Adobe Reader, available at any campus computer lab.

Go to the top of this page.
Last modified: Monday September 25, 2006.
Comments to csandvig@uiuc.edu.