Spring 2027

Video Games as Performance: a Historical Perspective

Explores the history, business, and technology of video games through a performance framework, analyzing consoles, handhelds, and PCs to examine their cultural impact across eras.

offering recorded2 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Dan Lisowski4.0/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.58 GPA, 81.1% A/AB (n=53 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify iconic video game consoles, characters, companies, people, themes, and key attributes across video gaming generations to place key developments in video games into broader social, cultural, and historical contexts.

  • Describe key aspects of the video games as performance framework.

  • Employ various approaches to critically evaluate the artistic, societal, and cultural impact of video games as performance.

  • Demonstrate knowledge of major movements, trends, and events in the development of video games as cultural artifacts in global society.

  • Examine game characteristics through practical play and/or observing playthroughs using a theatrical lens.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
THEATRE 256

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.89/5 from 9 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 900

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.58 GPA, 81.1% A/AB (n=53 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Evolution of video game consoles, handheld systems, and personal computers.
  • The business, technology, and individuals behind video game development.
  • Video games interpreted as theatrical performance.
  • Cultural impact of gaming segments on specific historical eras.

Skills

  • Apply the video games-as-performance framework to analyze gaming.
  • Identify iconic consoles, characters, and companies within historical contexts.
  • Analyze video games as cultural artifacts in global society.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
THEATRE 256 · Spring 2027

Video Games as Performance: A Historical Perspective

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:942:027139",
    "course_id": "THEATRE 256",
    "course_uid": "course_509faabe95f62008b1d2859c",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "027139",
    "source_subject_id": "942",
    "title": "Video Games as Performance: A Historical Perspective",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 2,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "2cc522225a4740e445c2c5a55b89db59ab7d273bec8bcc36c3949354e396e37a",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}