The College of Humanities has a chance to put itself at the forefront of discussions on the biggest cultural influence of the century: video games.
When it comes to studying the humanities, essential discussions on what it means to be human include more than just the culture of yesteryear. The value of the humanities comes from the way it interlaces with every aspect of life, both old and new, from language and art to culture and more. So, how does one of the biggest cultural influences and fastest growing mediums of this generation—video games—fit in?
According to Professor Michael Call (17th-Century French Art and Literature) and Associate Research Professor Brian Croxall’s (Digital Humanities) presentation at the Humanities Center Colloquium—given on September 19, 2024, and titled “Y Play Games?”—video games need to be studied right alongside the cultural influences of film, literature, and music in the College of Humanities. To that end, they’ve started a weekly lecture series designed to mirror the International Cinema—only with video games, not film.
A Cultural Movement
The influence of video games in the modern era is impossible to ignore—think Fortnite dances at soccer games, Assassin’s Creed characters as Olympic torchbearers, and the $73.5 million TV production of The Last of Us. Call quoted a study from the Entertainment Software Association in 2024 that reported that 61% of Americans play at least an hour of video games per week, and the average age of those players is 36. “Video games are increasingly important, both culturally and economically,” he said. “Figures are somewhat hard to come by, but there are analysts who argue that by some metrics, the video game industry is now larger than the music industry. . . . [It’s] about on par with the film industry.”
The video game industry is now larger than the music industry. . . . [It’s] about on par with the film industry.
However, Call explained that academic studies in this area aren’t keeping pace with the industry’s growth and influence, leaving a substantial gap between student interests and educators’ understanding of those interests. While BYU offers plenty of resources for learning about the technical side of gaming—coding and animation, to name a few—there’s a dearth of informational investigation into the cultural side of games. Call and Croxall believe the College of Humanities has an opportunity to fill in the conversational gap at BYU. “Many of us are concerned with students’ disengagement with the humanities,” Call said. “What if we could connect with students about something that they care about deeply and show them how the concepts and approaches of our discipline can help them engage mindfully and in new ways with creative works that they love?"
A Case Study in Farming
To kickstart the process of adding video games to the humanities conversation, Croxall talked about what the bestselling farming game of the last eight years, Stardew Valley, reveals about authorship. The game is a sandbox farming game—a style of game with minimal instruction where the player can design and create however they like. It explores everything from relationships to gender dynamics to the question of corporate greed versus small communities. But the most impressive thing about the game—which has sold more than 30 million copies, an impressive number even by the standards of major gaming companies—is that it was created by a single person: Eric Barone.
To create a good game, a lot of things need to be right: gameplay, art, music, and story, to name just a few, all of which can be challenging for a single person to do alone. “Barone working by himself is audacious,” Croxall said, “but working this way allows him to have complete creative control.” In this way, Barone fits into the traditional role of authorship as defined in literature—a rarity in an industry typically defined by large teams and companies. However, even as Barone conforms to traditional authorship, the game also raises the question of collaborative authorship, since players create the story as they play. “The nature of the play is such that players end up becoming auteurs in their own right,” Croxall said. “They choose to play the game as they want, which means playing the game they want. . . . There’s a lot to talk about.”
An Opportunity at the Door
Our goal. . . is to bring games into the larger humanistic conversation.
Like it or not, video games have become a cultural force in the last fifty years—an entirely new medium for creativity. Call and Croxall both believe that the humanities and video games have things to offer each other by engaging in conversation, just as Stardew Valley adds a new perspective to the notion of authorship. Their weekly lecture series, titled the same as their presentation, seeks to start that conversation by inviting humanities professors to give a 30-minute presentation exploring a game they’ve enjoyed through the context of a humanities topic. “Our traditional humanities lenses can reveal important things about the games that we play, and, in turn, games can illuminate humanities concepts in novel ways,” Call said. “It’s up to us to then discuss them as cultural artifacts, as creative works, and to ask of them the kinds of questions that we’re already asking of other forms of media and art. Our goal is not to divert the humanities into game studies but instead to bring games into the larger humanistic conversation, and I think that’s what we’re well equipped to do.”
Interested in learning more about games at BYU? Attend the weekly Y Play Games lectures every Monday at 4:00 p.m. in 1141 JFSB.