History of Interactive Media and Games

Image: Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

COMM 2003

History of Interactive Media and Games
Dr. Martin Roberts
Communications Media Department
Fitchburg State University
Fall 2026, 3 credits

Thu 3 Sept---Fri 11 Dec 2026 | Fridays 14:00-15:15 | Conlon Hall 341
Office hrs: Friday 16:00-17:00 (via Zoom)
Blackboard
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Overview

This course examines the history and historiography of interactive media. Students will explore what interactivity has been, is and might become. This class provides a wide-ranging history of the uses, effects and design of interactive media from their beginnings to the present. Students will study the history of the functions and forms of interactive systems thereby better equipping them as users as well as potential designers of interactive media. This course is required for majors and for game design majors. ART. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1100

Objectives

Sources

  • Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort. Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. MIT Press, 2009.

  • Sarah Ciston, David M. Berry, Anthony C. Hay, Mark C. Marino, Peter Millican, Jeff Shrager, Arthur I. Schwarz and Peggy Weil, Inventing ELIZA: How The First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2026.

  • Thomas M. Malaby. Making Virtual Worlds: Linden Lab and Second Life. Cornell University Press, 2009.

  • Nick Montfort. Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. MIT Press, 2005.

  • Allucquère Rosanne (Sandy) Stone. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. MIT Press, 1995.

  • Sherry Turkle. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Films

Schedule

Assignments and grading are on the Assignments and Evaluation page. The week-by-week reading and screening schedule is on the Schedule page, and the screening clips are collected in the YouTube Library.

Policies

Course and university policies are on the Policies page.