Digital Game Cultures
Examines the forms, practices, economies, institutions, politics, and modes of engagement that make digital games an important site of culture and power.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2019: 3.48 GPA, 73.9% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.33 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Explain the complex cultural forms that constitute digital games
Critique the powerful structures and institutions that drive the cultural economies of gaming
Analyze the diverse practices and ways of life in which game players and communities engage
Evaluate the contradictory politics of digital games in terms of their complicity with cultural hierarchies and their potential for radical cultural critique
Share the experience of play to build a productive and inclusive community
Make choices to develop individualized pathways through course material and meaningful ways of engaging it
Embrace the challenges of play to take satisfaction and pride in accomplishments, regardless of failures along the way
Develop a vision for digital games as a part of research and/or teaching practice
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapCOM ARTS 250, (COM ARTS 351 or 346), and junior standing, or graduate/professional standing
- COM ARTS 250
- COM ARTS 351
- 346
- junior standing
- graduate/professional standing
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- All of
- COM ARTS 250
- Any of
- COM ARTS 351
- 346
- Any of
- junior standing
- graduate/professional standing
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2019: 3.48 GPA, 73.9% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.33 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Forms, practices, economies, institutions, politics, and modes of engagement in digital games
- Digital games as a site of culture and power
Skills
- Explain the complex cultural forms that constitute digital games
- Critique the powerful structures and institutions that drive the cultural economies of gaming
- Analyze the diverse practices and ways of life in which game players and communities engage
- Evaluate the contradictory politics of digital games in terms of their complicity with cultural hierarchies and their potential for radical cultural critique
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
No records available.
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
{
"model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
"model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
"task_version": "17",
"output_id": "476d5739286f5179bbee3542de73242a64decfbda0d2ea9236624997ca20b08d",
"requirements_status": "needs_review",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}