Welcome to the home page for Serious Fun: The Math and More of Games and Puzzles, a Spring 2017 course at Marlboro College.
Game Studies is a fast-growing field that draws on approaches from many different disciplines. We will study games from a variety of perspectives including a good dose of math (no prior math required). We will also add puzzles, which can be thought of as one-player games, to the mix. We'll play a lot, we'll write a lot, we'll solve a lot of puzzles and we'll do some designing in one or more of the Heroscape, Pandemic or Summoner Wars game systems.
You should be able to see a list of links on the left (log-in at the top-right to see more). There are two that you should look at frequently. The "preparation" page will list what you need to have done for each class (reading, practice exercises, etc.). We'll usually talk in more detail about it in the preceding class too, but this will be the page that lets you stay on top of the day-by-day work of the course. The second is the "assignments" link. This contains the parameters and deadlines for all of the graded assignments and also a way to submit them online (usually it will be more appropriate to put handwritten solutions in the envelope by my office door). These two will be updated regularly through the semester.
The "resources" link is also important. This has links to the course text and additional sources, some of which will be required (and you'll know this from the preparation page and/or class) and lots of which will be generally useful stuff to help you progress.
The "wiki" link is one we can all see and edit. This will probably be used for any group projects and linking to sources you want to bring to class discussion. The "roster" one tells you who is in the class (and what they looked like on their first day at Marlboro).
Finally, "grades" will let you know what your grades for the graded assignments are. Note that if you get the assignment to me via any other means than through this site your grade will be listed as "late" until I grade it even if it is in on time. Don't worry if you see this!
You are expected to be aware of the college's policy on academic integrity and to abide by it. Please come and talk to me if anything is unclear.
