The Expectation Game: Exposing Hidden Assumptions in a Game Studies Classroom

This paper examines how hidden assumptions about games and game culture shape classroom dynamics in a university game studies course. Its central argument is that students, like teachers, carry anticipations about what counts as a legitimate game, appropriate play, and proper engagement with gaming culture, and that these expectations operate as part of a hidden curriculum that can exclude students who lack familiarity with dominant norms. The authors frame this through the concepts of boundary-work, which separates "real" games from "not-real" ones, and gaming capital, the implicit hierarchy that valorizes certain skills and forms of play.

The study draws on an exercise called "The Expectation Game," conducted in a general media and culture studies programme with two groups of roughly twenty students each. Small teams selected games, played them at home, and completed questionnaires about their expectations before and after play. These written reflections were supplemented by class discussion and post-course focus group interviews with a subset of students. The authors note that the course's mixed composition, with students not all pre-selected for an interest in games, made the variety of assumptions particularly visible.

Among the findings, the authors observe in-group and out-group dynamics in which experienced players favored challenging games while also easing novices in through games with artistic or literary connections. Novices often attended to narrative and social criticism in games that more experienced players read primarily through their mechanical survival demands, and both sides expressed surprise at the other's experience. Students also justified their game choices defensively, worrying about whether peers would find their picks boring or too masculine. The authors conclude that making these assumptions explicit can create a more inclusive classroom and broaden the forms of cultural capital that are recognized as valuable.