Photo credit: Mathilde Savoie
Since September 2023, the bachelor’s degree in communication (digital media ) at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) has given students the opportunity to specialize in video game studies at the end of their studies. It offers a diverse range of courses such as: Introduction to Video Game Design, Video Game History, Video Games and Social Issues, Video Games, Player Identity and Communities, Video Game Industry, Video Game Analysis, Video Games, Technology and Emerging Practices, and Video Games and Transmediality. The objective of this specialization is to help students develop critical thinking about the most lucrative cultural industry of our time, that of video games, by familiarizing them with the problems and issues related to its communicational, social and technical dimensions.
Since 2013, UQAM’s Faculty of Communication has also offered a Concentration in Video Games and Gamification in the Master’s in Communication program with the following courses: Research seminar on video games, Video games and human-machine communication, Video games and society, Video game practices and player communities and Gamification, culture and communication. Each year, the program welcomes a small number of students, which allows for the formation of a friendly living environment. In addition, students in the program have the opportunity to get involved in activities outside of the school curriculum, including those of the renowned research group Homo Ludens, the creation of a game for the Festival Montréal joue and the Nuit blanche, writing an article for the magazine Vectis , organizing the annual conference En/jeux, and exploring creative video games at Sabotage. Students can even obtain paid research assistantship contracts during their studies and work at the Canada Research Chair in Big Data and Gamer Communities.
The goal of the graduate program in Game Studies is to train specialists in the field – not game designers – who can work in the game industry or pursue a career in research. Indeed, video game studies is now an academic discipline in its own right, with its own approaches, theories, concepts, conferences, publishing venues, and programs, which requires the hiring of new professors and teachers. That said, most of the graduates of this program are now working in user research or community development positions at well-known studios such as Ubisoft, Square Enix, Behaviour Interactive, Eidos and WB Games.
Courses in both programs are taught by experienced lecturers and internationally renowned professors. Maude Bonenfant, Ph.D. D., for example, is recognized for her work on the appropriation of games by gamers, gaming communities, ethical issues concerning video games, and gamblification of mobile games. Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin, Ph.D. D., for her part, is known for her work on video game stereotypes and their misuse, player immersion, as well as issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in the video game industry. As for Fabien Richert, Ph.D. He has developed a specialized expertise on the links between video games and phenomena such as artificial intelligence, ideology, postmodernity, semiotics and critical theory. These professors also have the necessary experience and expertise to supervise the production of dissertations and theses in video game studies.
If you are interested in any of these programs and would like more information, please write to: trepanier_jobin.gabrielle [at] uqam.ca.
Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin
Follow UQAM on social media:
Facebook page of Jeux vidéo et Ludification UQAM
Facebook page of the École des médias de l’UQAM
Instagram page of UQAM’s Homo Ludens
Article sponsored by UQAM.
