Enrolments for 2022 have closed.
Online Games, Play and Gamification
Postgraduate | CUR-MIC510 | 2022
Course information for 2022 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Love it or hate it, the idea of ‘gamification’ has taken root. Examine what it means to play online, and how gaming can both resist and reinforce traditional power structures. Explore the function of rules, and how hacks and mods change the game.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 13 weeks
FEE-HELP available
Online Games, Play and Gamification
About this subject
At the completion of this subject students will be able to:
- analyse the interrelationship and application of play and game theory practices and technology
- critique the changing role of games and play in contemporary networked culture
- evaluate and assess concrete examples of gaming and gamification in diverse online and cultural settings
- communicate the various contexts in which games are produced and consumed and how these intersect with contemporary media and communication
- generate and communicate the complexities of the commercial gaming landscape for a generalist audience.
- Play
- Games
- Immersion and Interactivity
- Games and Violence
- Games and Bodies
- Games and Spaces
- Games and Identity
- Gaming Soundscapes
- Gamification
- Mobile Games
- Games in Popular Culture
- Digital Leisure Studies
This subject explores the broader spaces and nature of play online, and how it relates to the development of digital forms of gaming. The nature of immersion is questioned and the role of interactivity investigated, along with critical perspectives on the popular but controversial notion of 'gamification.' It examines a series of gaming tropes and themes, games as texts, and the ways that games enter social frameworks to convey, refract, engage with, and resist power structures. An ongoing focus is on the function of rules in framing play, particularly in relation to how players cheat, hack and mod their games to break those rules.
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Find out more about the Academic Integrity module.
- Essay (25%)
- Case Study (40%)
- Creative Artefact Exercise (35%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
Part of a degree
To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:
Elective
- OUA-PSU-GCE-2022 - Postgraduate Single Subjects
- CUR-MIC-GCE-2022 - Graduate Certificate in Digital and Social Media
- CUR-MIC-MAS-2022 - Master of Digital and Social Media
- CUR-MIC-GDI-2022 - Graduate Diploma in Digital and Social Media
- UNE-PRO-GCE-2022 - Graduate Certificate in Professional Practice
Equivalent subjects
You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
Related degrees
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
PostgraduateOUA-PSU-GCE
PostgraduateCUR-MIC-GCE
PostgraduateCUR-MIC-MAS
PostgraduateCUR-MIC-GDI
PostgraduateUNE-PRO-GCE