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Bachelor of Arts in Video Game Studies

This program examines the many ways that video games intersect with our lives: as games, stories, challenges, escapes, vehicles of self-creation, platforms for interaction with others, cultural representations, and so much more. We approach video games from multiple disciplinary points of view, preparing you for the shifting demands of a field with continually expanding potential.  

You will learn diverse methods for addressing such questions as: How can our relationships to games become constructive means of finding employment and participating socially in the world?  How will video games transform life in the decades ahead, especially with the advent of generative AI? What kinds of research methods and critical thinking will most effectively address the personal, social, cultural, and political effects of gaming?

Program Requirements (24 total units)

CORE (12 units) 

  • VGS 100: Introduction to Video Game Studies
  • VGS 300: Comparative Analysis of Video Games
  • HUM 300GW: Reading and Writing Across Creative Forms
  • VGS 600: Senior Seminar

ELECTIVES (12 units) 12 units of Electives selected from 3 categories: 

  • Field I: Design and Development
  • Field II: Interpretation and Theory
  • Field III: Games & Society

Electives (12 units) Each course listed below is 3 units, unless otherwise specified. Students must take one elective course per field. Courses can only be used for credit within a single field.

FIELD I: Design and Development

  • BECA 340: Media Aesthetics I
  • BECA 352: Esports Studio Tournament and Event Production
  • BECA 374: Writing for Video Games
  • BECA 454: Live Streaming and Content Creation for Esports
  • BECA 536: Creativity and Design Thinking in Electronic Media
  • CINE 414: Exploring Sound Design for Cinema
  • CINE 440: Animation and Video Game Pre-Production
  • CINE 658: Creating Story Worlds
  • CINE 660: 3D Computer Animation
  • CSC 631: Multiplayer Game Development
  • DES 252: Rethinking Digital Visual Media
  • DES 367: Introduction to Video Games

Field II: Interpretation and Theory

  • BECA 321: Critical Study of Popular Culture
  • BECA 340: Media Aesthetics I
  • BECA 374: Writing for Video Games
  • CINE 336: Video Game Culture
  • CINE 560: Digital Domains: History and Aesthetics of Computer Animation
  • CWL 270: Fantasy and Fiction: Exploring Parallel Worlds
  • CWL 275/ENG 275: Reading Video Games
  • CWL 380: Thinking with Video Games
  • WGS 582: Gaming from the Margins
  • CLAS 450/VGS 450/HUM 461: The Ancient World and Video Games
  • CLAS 440/VGS 440/HUM 460: Video Games and the Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean

Field III: Games & Society

  • BECA 321: Critical Study of Popular Culture
  • BECA 422: Media and Society
  • CINE 336: Video Game Culture
  • CINE 560: Digital Domains: History and Aesthetics of Computer Animation
  • COMM 595: Games, Communication, and Culture
  • COMM 665: Research Foundations in Communication and Games (4 units)
  • CWL 380: Thinking with Video Games
  • HUM 320: Music, Ideas, and Visual Culture
  • HUM 423: Going Medieval: Contemporary Adaptations
  • HUM 426: Orientalism in Literature and Society Survey
  • WGS 304: Gender and Popular Culture
  • WGS 582: Gaming from the Margins

Why Major in Video Game Studies

Video games shape contemporary culture for millions of players around the world. The field brings together designers, writers, artists, musicians, economists, historians, and many others whose work contributes to a rapidly growing industry. Choosing Video Game Studies as your major demonstrates sustained engagement with the media and an academic commitment to understanding video games through a wide range of analytic and technical perspectives.

As a major, you will examine the design, content, and cultural contexts of video games and study how they influence both individual experience and social life. You will take up questions such as: How have video games transformed the world and how might they continue to do so? What do players and communities encounter in the design, distribution, and experience of video games? What is distinctive about the ways games invite participation, and how does this shape the lives of players? How might games operate as forms of social or political expression? Because so many aspects of daily life involve games, applications, or services shaped by gamification, the major offers critical perspectives on how this pervasive media affects us and how its impact might be understood or reshaped.

The major supports students as they study this complex media from multiple academic points of view. Students develop their own perspectives on the significance of video games and explore how their interests and expertise at SFSU intersect with this expanding field of study.

The major helps students

  • Deepen knowledge and proficiency within areas of study connected to their academic focuses
  • Develop a specialization in video games that reflects interdisciplinary critical thinking
  • Compare and assess different disciplinary approaches to video games
  • Explore applications of their interests in fields of industry and study
  • Connect with others across disciplines to collaborate on the study of video games

The Video Game Studies major invites you to engage with video games through multiple academic lenses and your own lived experiences. As a major, you will complete a foundational introductory course followed by a structured yet flexible sequence of upper-division classes across several disciplinary areas.

The required introductory course establishes the analytical framework for the major. It builds proficiency in understanding video games as complex artifacts by defining key components of game form and function. It also introduces the three primary fields around which the major is organized:

  • Analysis of Design
  • Analysis of Content and Play Experience
  • Analysis of Context and Cultural Impact

After completing the introductory course, you will continue through the major by selecting courses across these fields, allowing you to shape a pathway that fits your interests while ensuring exposure to distinct disciplinary methodologies. This balance of structure and choice prepares you for the evolving possibilities of a rapidly expanding field.

Courses in the Major Will Enable You To:

  • Contextualize the creation, distribution, and reception of video games and understand their cultural, political, and economic influences.
  • Analyze the design, structure, and effects of video games, including mechanics, aesthetics, narrative, representation, and identity.
  • Explore the historical and socio-cultural roles of video games and interactive technologies.

Students in the Major Will Learn To:

  • Identify design principles that shape game structures and mechanics.
  • Discern the forms of interaction different games encourage and how they influence player engagement.
  • Interpret games as narrative, ludic, and performative texts experienced through both play and spectatorship.
  • Evaluate the cultural roles games play, including how they shape and reflect perspectives on race, gender, and identity.
  • Analyze the ethical dimensions of gameplay as personal, social, and cultural practice.
  • Critically play and assess games from design, historical, cultural, and theoretical viewpoints informed by a wide range of disciplines within and beyond the College of Liberal & Creative Arts

The Video Game Studies major launches Fall 2026. An updated list of VGS course offerings will be added before the semester starts. 

Contact the Video Game Studies Program Director for more information:

Chris Weinberger: cswl@sfsu.edu

To ensure adequate planning of a student’s program, all majors must consult an adviser at least once per year.

For advising, please contact Prof. Chris Weinberger (csw1@sfsu.edu), the VGS program coordinator.