Mandatory assignments in SPO1510

Spring semester 2015. Lecturer: Per Arne Godejord

The following mandatory assignments have to be performed by the

individual student:
1. Create a Twitter Account, then
a) Follow video games suppliers, developers, gamers, some or all of your fellow students, and
the lecturer.
b) Discuss with others and/or tweet your opinion about video games.
As soon as you have created your Twitter profile, place the link to it in the Fronter forum so that your
fellow students (and the lecturer) may follow you.
Aim: Learn to use Twitter as a tool for professional activity.
2. Create a "newspaper" via Paper.li based on your twitter account and the tweets that you and
those you follow have made. Set your Paper.li to send twitter messages containing the latest edition
of your Paper.li newspaper.
Aim: Understanding how various social media can be joined to develop a professional product.
3. Create a SoundCloud profile and follow some or all of your fellow students SoundCloud profiles.
Place the link to your SoundCloud profile in the Fronter forum so that your fellow students (and the
lecturer) may follow you.
4. Write a short essay on ethics and computer games (minimum 5 pages, maximum 10 pages). See
special instructions next page as for question and how to do this assignment.
5. Upload one recording of yourself to your SoundCloud profile, talking about your favourite
computer game and how it may, or may not be played according to ethical theories. Make it publicly
available so that your fellow students and the lecturer may listen to it.
6. Make one recorded review of a computer game of your own choosing and upload it to your
SoundCloud.

Specific instructions for mandatory assignment 4 short essay

WHAT are you going to do?
This assignment is meant to make you think about ethics. You will assess the following video
games (version does not matter. It may be the latest version, or the first version) ie. either
play them or read reviews, look at walk through movies on YouTube etc.
THE games you are to assess

Manhunt
Walking Dead
Counter Strike
Lara Croft Tomb Raider
Call of Duty Modern Warfare
Watch dogs
Deus Ex

THE questions
1. What ethical theories can be followed or not followed in the video games that are
covered by this assignment?
2. The Geneva Convention gives some guidelines in relation to acts of war. Is it possible
to follow this convention, and win, playing military FPS as Call of Duty and Counter
Strike? Use your own experience from playing military FPS and/or Playing by the
Rules: Applying International Humanitarian Law to Video and Computer Games, by
Frida Castillo as background for your views.
HOW the assignment should be answered and delivered
The assignment is to be solved individually and your result formulated according to the
guidelines for written work at HiNT. Deliver your essay for guidance in pdf format no later
than Monday, 04.05. 2015 at 23:00 hours, by uploading it to the deliverance folder
in
Fronter.
If you have the opportunity to play the games, either in its entirety or as a demo, you write
from practical experience. If you by some reason cannot test the games, you must find as
good descriptions and reviews and walkthrough videos of games as possible so that you can
form an opinion of the games in relation to the question.

Good luck!
Per A. Godejord