Lauren Liebe did her doctoral studies in early modern drama—a subject, she says, that lends itself well to the dramatic world of video games of which she’s been a fan since childhood. “I remember playing Baldur’s Gate II and the original Doom with my father when I was very little,” she says.

Liebe, an assistant teaching professor of game design and digital media, arts and technology at Penn State Behrend, teaches Game 160N: Introduction to Video Game Culture. The course is part of Behrend’s game development minor and it attracts both gamers and non-gamers.

“We start off talking about the history and the technological developments that made video games possible,” says Liebe, “and then we look at the development of different genres—how they began and how they have evolved over the decades to their modern-day versions.” 

Students in the class get to play games like Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure that were played on large, mainframe computers through The Internet Archive. They learn about the origins of video game arcades, the rise and fall of the Pac-Man era, and the console explosion. Liebe also teaches them about the monetization of video games, how games were and are advertised, the idea of fandom, and how these and other elements of game culture have changed over time.

“Some of their assignments are reflecting on their experience of playing an adventure game from the 1970s,” she says. “I want them to think about how this compares to games today, and how they can find the roots of today’s games in earlier games.”

Inevitably, she says, students experience a “culture shock” when they play decades-old games. But this encourages them to reflect on the development of more approachable and user-friendly interfaces.