skip to main content
10.1145/1496984.1497001acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesfutureplayConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

It's all Greek to me: a case for the classics in game development education

Published: 03 November 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This article provides an overview of Classical Greek literature as a parallel for the game development industry: we outline how the historical developments of Greek storytelling and literature inform the developmental history of video games. As the Greek storytelling medium evolved, the sense of the tragic hero and narrative complexity evolved. Similarly, as generations of video game players evolve, their demand for more complex characters and more fully developed storylines will also evolve. We attempt to provide a vantage point that future game designers may consider during the design of future game-based story elements. While we epitomize our case using Greek Literature, the same elements and structure are found throughout the evolution of story telling in many ancient civilizations. It is our assertion that good education in game design and development requires a good technical background and a solid foundation in narrative storytelling. As such, it is recommended that game-oriented curriculum include the study of the Classics.

References

[1]
Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1951
[2]
De La Croix, Tansey, and Kirkpatrick. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 3rd Edition, 1991.
[3]
Aristotle. Poetics. Translated by S. H. Butcher.
[4]
Beardsley, Monroe C. Aesthetics from Classical Greece to the Present: A Short History. New York:. Macmillian, 1966.
[5]
Bates, Bob. Game Design, Course Technology PTR; September, 2004.
[6]
Denby. Does Homer Have Legs?, The New Yorker, August 1993
[7]
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy, ed. by Douglas Smith, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
[8]
Greek tragedies, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1960.
[9]
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus." Existentialism. Ed. Robert C. Solomon. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974. pp. 177--88.
[10]
Freeman, Charles. The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. New York. Viking Press. 1999.
[11]
Skloot, "A Further Note on the Modernity of 'Hippolytus'" The Classical Journal, Vol. 64, No. 5. Feb, 1969, pp. 226--227.

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
Future Play '08: Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share
November 2008
297 pages
ISBN:9781605582184
DOI:10.1145/1496984
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

In-Cooperation

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 03 November 2008

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. Aristotle
  2. Greek literature
  3. Homer
  4. game curriculum
  5. game design
  6. game design theory
  7. game development
  8. game-based education
  9. philosophy
  10. story
  11. storytelling

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

FuturePlay08
FuturePlay08: FuturePlay 2008 Academic Games Conference
November 3 - 5, 2008
Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • 0
    Total Citations
  • 436
    Total Downloads
  • Downloads (Last 12 months)11
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1
Reflects downloads up to 18 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media