This course focuses on the expanded field of society and history at the new millennium, attempting to understand it as a “game space” pervading social networks, corporate board rooms, and battlefields alike. We begin with an examination of the concept of "play" using methods from literary criticism, cultural anthropology, poststructuralism, and cinema studies. For historical background we explore cybernetics and theories of postmodernity. The course will also consider the ramifications of informatic capture and the formation of coded objects and bodies. Themes will include simulation, social realism, and war games. The course will favor both close readings of specific games as well as social and cultural claims about the information age.