2015 Schedule
Interactive: March 13–17  •  Film: March 13–21  •  Music: March 17–22

Media Criticism and the Study of Games

Saturday, March 14
9:30AM - 10:30AM

Hyatt Regency Austin
Zilker Ballroom 4
208 Barton Springs Rd

Video games, it can be argued, are the medium of the 21st century – the first new medium of expression to come of age since television. The medium is, then, still in its infancy. Our understanding of how games make meaning and how they function as art objects and cultural artifacts is vague and unformed. It seems only natural that critical methodologies applied to other media would be applied to games as well. This is especially true when videogames clearly share some essential characteristics with existing media like movies and television. The auteur theory, genre criticism and industrial analysis have proved useful in those media – in this talk, we will discuss whether they have value in helping us understand videogames. In addition, we will discuss the utility of some unique critical approaches developed and used to enhance our understanding of videogames.

Hashtags

#sxsw #GamesStudy

Presenters

Warren Spector

Dir

Denius-Sams Gaming Academy at The University of Texas at Austin

Warren Spector has been making games for 31 years. The recipient of lifetime achievement awards from the Game Developers Conference and Cartoons on the Bay, his work has been featured at the Austra...

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Details

Access
Free and open to the public. ***Admission subject to venue capacity and age restrictions.
Type
Solo / Dual / Panel
Theme
Gaming
Level
Beginner
Tags

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