Study Skyrim at Rice University

[gardian06]

so the requirements for this class are:

willingness to learn about Scandinavian myth, and legend
ability to compare current media with historical
willingness to play through sections of Skyrim (record scratch)

so in order to attend this class you have to either be able to play a AAA game on one of the 3 systems capable to play it, and for most people that will be a gen 3+ xBox360. that means that the bookstore now has to be able to provide for students that do not have one an xBox360, and a game which is a pretty considerable purchase on its own, and then they have to purchase the other books that go along with it. then if we consider the "markup" that typically happens at a college/university bookstore it will be a joke of a purchase.

(I understand that PC is a possibility for playing it as well, but then they would have to be able to sell a compute that could meet minimum specs for a newer AAA title, and that is a nightmare on its own. also there is the possibility of playing it on the PS3, but if the game starts lagging that is more torture then anything else)

 

[MammothBlade]

Well, I think this sounds rather silly, and a more general analysis of Norse mythology in modern literature would be more suitable. Skyrim is by no means the first or most original work to feature Scandinavian folklore, and arguably, not the most accessible either. I suspect most of the people enrolling will already have a copy, though if you don't have a PS3, x360, or decent PC, you're out of luck. Might as well create my own course entitled Wormholes 101: Exploring Portals with Portal. Wait no, that's too accessible. How about... Locomotive Engineering with Train Simulator 2013 - naturally, all the DLC is compulsory material.

What courses universities decide to offer is their own business.

I can't help feeling though, why would anybody waste their money getting a degree in such a worthless course? What employer is going to give a damn about it? If I was going to get myself into debt so that I stood a chance of getting a better career, I'd make sure I achieved a qualification that would actually help me.

That is, after all, the whole point of getting a degree. To make you more employable.

Bear in mind that it seems to be a module, not the actual course. I don't think an employer is going to look and pay too much attention that one of your modules was based on a videogame.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Brilliant! How much does it cost?

 

[gardian06]

Brilliant! How much does it cost?

considering that it is a 3 credit hour course, and the school charges $1,455.00/credit hour for an undergraduate degree class it will be about $4365.00 for the 1 class, and where it is a 300 level class I would presume that it has some interesting pre-reqs.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Will "an xbox, Playstation, or PC meeting minimum specks" be a required tool? Does playing through all the set quests and the story (barring the infinite randomly generated ones) counts as cheating? Could I level grind to an instant A?

 

[Verex]

It's a fun way to learn about existing folklore, though it's way too pricy for me. A few thousand for a class or...use my copy that I got for free...

 

[BeeGeenie]

This seems pretty stupid. It sounds like they were just looking to fill seats and decided to pander through shoving a recent popular video game into a normal course on mythology.

Could be good though, who knows.

Welcome to college. Of course all they want to do is fill the seats. They get paid even if you learn nothing.

And away goes tuition down the drain! XD

 

[viggih7]

As an Icelandic student who has to read the Sagas anyway I really found it funny when a quest at the Bards College has you finding the Poetic Edda (Ljóða Eddan in Icelandic) which is an actual book that I had to read. At the time I wondered if this could be tought to other people with the context of Skyrim and as this shows I wasn't the only one who thought that.

 

[chris11246]

Well two of my roommates are taking a class on Tolkien, part of their homework is to read the books and they have to watch the movies as a class. I guess stuff like this is more common than I thought

 

[Danzavare]

Yes, a precedent!

Videogames and academic pursuits are already familiar bedfellows when it comes to technology, entertainment, economics, and sociology. However, this may mark the first time that a major university has used videogames to analyze literature in an academic setting, at least on this side of the Pacific.

My goal in university is to -hopefully- study video games as a type of 'literature' through my English department. Really, video games give us a new way or presenting an engaging with themes that already exist in traditions of literature. I think the whole 'video games are art' debate misses the point. Video games (some better than others) convey meaning, like with any text/film/play/etc they can be enjoyed on a basic fun level while offering more if we delve further into them.

English isn't just dusty old books, we've studied action films, comics, experimental poetry/digital designs, etc. If we want to study literature, we should be keeping up with it in the modern day too, that includes interactive story telling.

 

[Voulan]

What courses universities decide to offer is their own business.

I can't help feeling though, why would anybody waste their money getting a degree in such a worthless course? What employer is going to give a damn about it? If I was going to get myself into debt so that I stood a chance of getting a better career, I'd make sure I achieved a qualification that would actually help me.

That is, after all, the whole point of getting a degree. To make you more employable.

The actual content of your degree isn't what counts, but rather the degree itself, and the grades you received. Courses are more for whatever you want to learn about, have a passion and interest for, and whatever you're willing to spend your money on. As long as you've completed any required courses for your degree, the rest you choose don't matter at all, but are there for interest and points.

This reminds me of that Portal course at another university. I'm liking this new trend.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

Seriously? You're going to analyse Anglo-European fantasy, and you're going to use fucking Skyrim to do so? Skyrim's just a collection of fantasy tropes already created by other fantasy writers and settings. If you do want to compare Scandinavian literature with modern fantasy, then as ubiquitous as it is, surely Lord Of The Rings would make for a better comparison? After all, it invented the western-fantasy setting so prevalent today, and it's directly based off Scandinavian myths and legends.

It's not like Skyrim is all that consistent or strong in its internal setting. The lore only exists to serve the needs of the gameplay and the player. As soon as you look at it outside of that context, it all falls apart.

Actually, I've got a proposition of my own:

Intelligent tummies: the beauty of your own navel

Professor J-e-f-f-e-r-s will be leading a semester-long study looking the human navel, and the art of Omphaloskepsis. Many cultures believe that the navel is a centre of knowledge, and that it houses powerful chakra. Over the semester, students will be asked to analyse their own belly buttons, and see what powerful new insights they can gain about themselves. The purpose of this is to establish how pretentious modern education has become, and how gratifying it is to masturbate to shallow intellectualism while learning nothing of any real intellectual value at all. All students upon passing the course will be presented with a Bachelor of Pretentious Art, giving them an academic grounding on which to base their meaningless waffle.

Jeffers thanks goodness you're here. We absolutely needed some pretentious, rational, intelligent, crusading, kind-hearted fellow to piss on everyone's parade today.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

If you're at Rice and sign up for this course, just remember that the course's primary thrust is still reading literature.

Dude, Skyrim's primary thrust is reading literature!

Could you change "primary thrust"? It's giving the giggles.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Well, games are a medium like any other, it makes sense they'd be part of the curriculum of courses eventually. Didn't think it'd be in a non video game class quiet so quickly though. (Course, I personally made my art anthropology class about video games for two sessions but that's a special case!)

 

[Vault101]

That is, after all, the whole point of getting a degree. To make you more employable.

not if you can afford to broaden your mind for the sole purpose of boradening your mind

 

[Legion]

And that is not even touching the aspect that careers are made by persons, not by degrees. A lot of succesful people have build their careers without ever getting a degree matching to the field in which they suceeded.

The whole idea of "Study something that sounds useful and you will get a job; Study something related to culture/art/literature and you will be a failure" is very far from the actual reality and builds on some very narrow assumptions of what people deem a successful career.

In response to your first paragraph. That was my entire point. If you are getting a degree that doesn't have anything to do with what you want/need, then there is no point doing it, it is a waste of money.

If you are the kind of person who can get a decent job without a relevant degree, then you may as well save yourself the money and spend it elsewhere.

As for your second paragraph, I do not recall in any shape or form suggesting that art degrees were worthless or that non-scientific jobs were bad, so I don't really have anything else to say.

*snip*

Again. That is my entire point. If you get a degree and the employer doesn't care about it, then it's a waste of money and time. If they care more about your experience and your work ethic then it makes more sense to save your money and invest elsewhere, as opposed to getting a degree that isn't going to help you.

That is, after all, the whole point of getting a degree. To make you more employable.

not if you can afford to broaden your mind for the sole purpose of boradening your mind

I guess that depends on the person, really. All the people my age who got degrees are pretty much the same as they were before. They didn't even really have any new experiences seeing as they all stayed at home and travelled to and from university. It was pretty much "school, but more advanced."

Then again, that's not how you are "supposed" to do it.

Personally if I wanted to broaden my mind I'd spend that £30,000+ costs on travelling the world.

 

[Vault101]

snip.

you seem to have a very narrow veiw of things

I'm not saying everyone should go out and get degress OR you should get one for the sake of getting one, OR get any old degree and expect to get a job

but knowlege is a wonderful thing and is not "worthless" in of itself.....

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I guess that depends on the person, really. All the people my age who got degrees are pretty much the same as they were before. They didn't even really have any new experiences seeing as they all stayed at home and travelled to and from university. It was pretty much "school, but more advanced."

Then again, that's not how you are "supposed" to do it.

Yeah, it all depends. They probably would have changed at least a little if they had lived away from home.

For a person like me who has social anxiety disorder, it brought me out of my shell. I did things alone/by-myself because I had to. Now, living back at home, I've found that living away from home brought the active side of me out. Now that I'm back I'm barely active, other than going out with friends on Saturday nights and Sundays, on most weekends.

There are also little experiences that can be found from going to college, even if it cost a lot of money/put me in debt, I find I'd probably be a much different person if I hadn't gone.

I wouldn't have found my love of playing poker. As such I wouldn't have found I'm pretty good at it if I keep my head cool/calm. I wouldn't have been able to be a member of my first university's first poker club(actually university funded, with tournaments and prizes). There was actually a semester leader-board and the top 40 players from a semester would compete in a semester end tournament that would have bigger prizes than the previous tournaments during the year. Since it was a university funded club, it was free to enter the regular season games, and of course you had to be the best to get to the final game.

I ended up winning a good bit in my time at that place before I transferred to a four year school:

A poker hat, a 25 dollar Wal-Mart card, fifty dollars in snack food, a DVD player, and Sony PSP(got second in one of the semester end tournaments to get the PSP).

We also had a little cash game poker ring in the downstairs basement of my dorm hall. I was usually doing that most nights. One night I bought in for 10 dollars and walked away with everybody's money, 150 dollars total. The nightly cash games usually lasted about five hours 7pm to midnight.

One the academic side, my writing would be far worse than it is now, if I hadn't taken all the writing and creative writing classes, required and elective.
There was many many more experiences that I had while in college, but it would take to long to post the rest here. So, college is expensive, but it can be rewarding on more levels than just maybe helping get a job/career.

 

[MundaneOddity]

Well friends, it appears I am moving to Texas to go to Rice University.