Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has opened a new student-taught class which delves into the game design of the Fire Emblem series. Yes, Fire Emblem. At university. And there we were thinking that 'Film Studies' sounded cool.
'Fire Emblem Design and Analysis' will be getting underway at Carnegie Mellon in the Fall semester of this year and promises to help students "gain a deeper understanding of the game design, mechanics and writing of the Fire Emblem series". To do this, the class will be examining such topics as the evolution of game mechanics (durability and the weapon triangle both get a shoutout), unit archetypes and series lore before being graded via in-class quizzes and projects.
In the course summary (brought to our attention on Twitter by @lucky_lunatrick), our eyes couldn't help but be drawn to such brilliant-sounding chapter names as 'Chapter Design, Fog of War,' 'The Armoury: Classes, Skills, Weapons, Economics and Merlinus-Maxxing' and 'Transition to Writing: Plotlines and War Crimes'. We'd be tempted to assume that this has the most chilled-out homework going — unless you're playing with permadeath on, in which case, good luck to ya.
To be clear, this is a student-led course which is taught alongside the university's degrees rather than being a part of them. That said, according to the CMU website, student courses do count towards final degrees, so while you wouldn't be able to major in Fire Emblem studies, the marks could help boost your grade — think of it as a support unit, then.
Of course, this is not the first time that we have seen Nintendo games taking the spotlight in an educational setting. Just last year the University of Maryland started using The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to teach students about machine design and Zelda-themed animation projects have resulted in top grades for others in the past.
What happened to 'put that console down and do your homework,' eh?
Would you enrol in a Fire Emblem university course? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
[source coursicle.com, via x.com]
Comments 31
The lack of Three Houses references and images in this article makes me sad. Like a level up without any stat increases.
In my opinion fire emblem hasn't "worked" since they left behind the system of shadow dragon, where there are a set amount of battles you can do to gain xp and level up members. You had to choose carefully which units to level up and how much. Now you can just grind and max out everyone making the game pointless
@SuperRetroArt I think it’s a good feature for newer players. If you don’t like grinding then just… don’t.
Also, I’m not sure the series has ever been consistent on that front. In the recent Three Houses, you can only do a limited number of extra battles on hard mode, whereas in the early Gaiden, you can grind infinitely.
This class looks like so much fun! I wish it was offered it at my college. It would be fun to look at game design principles through the lens of a series.
Technique number 1: Don’t run Emblem Sigurd on Vander, give him to a low mobility unit such as Louis.
@Nua three houses was the least "Fire Emblem" game I can think of, style wise.
Don't squander EXP on your Jagen archetype
These marks may add to your grade, but I doubt many employers would be impressed you spent time at college learning Lance beats Sword.
@SuperRetroArt Sacred Stones says hi
Well, Tears of the Kingdom could be made a curriculum could be used in college. I guess Fire Emblem could have educational value to be found. Any other Nintendo Franchises that could be included in the school system.
I am now going to start a student-led class on Splatoon. Lore, weapon design, map design, gameplay mechanics... Yeah, this should be a thing too.
Love the pun! 😂 Don't think I need a class as I pretty much live and breathe FE, but this is still cool.
@Samalik And it was still set at an academy, and Byleth is a professor. Even if Three Houses wasn't very FE style wise, the puns write themselves for this article.
If you take a class like this you NEVER get to complain about student loans again.
Hehe, this is a gem.
@Brady1138
For some degrees you have to take electives to finish them. I don’t know that there are people lining up to take a class about Fire Emblem on their own time.
@MrGawain
I "learned" many things in college that employers would not be impressed by.
Fire Emblem community is one of the nerdiest communities there are, so in a way this doesn't surprise me.
@Brady1138 Piss off, electives are a natural part of uni. I did a class in forensic science that I’ll never use in my life as an elective but it broadened my horizons. Why should we not make classes as wide as possible?
Oh man, I'd totally take this. I wonder if they cover ironman and ranked runs, I need to really up my game.
As a guy with an MA from Carnegie Mellon, I find this extremely cringey.
As someone who loves videogames, this is freaking stupid and hella cringe.
Oh good lord... These will be the same kids who say their student loan was worthless.
@SuperRetroArt You could just not grind tho. Not to mention some games afer Shadow Dragon don't have grinding like Conquest.
And another useless degree that won't help with real life. This should be more of an after-school club!
In case you didn't know, the instructor did an AMA over on the Fire Emblem subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/1ct5qod/im_the_instructor_for_the_fire_emblem_college/
Instantly employable.
Cool but why? Also why not other tactics games. I get it's about cutscenes or scenes and settings and whatever but I mean I'd take Disgaea instead.
Fire Emblem is good though. But I mean there is having people come into your school to play Mario Kart on a Wii and have Cookies and try to get people into the Church no joke.
And there is games like Minecraft/Tears of the Kingdom I get because of the game design and the experimentation you get from those games mechanics or mods for education use.
But Fire Emblem? I mean sure? Is it the story telling/the tactics gameplay?
I mean might as well have people play the PS3/360 era History Channel shooters at that point during history class let alone Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.
Kerbal Space Program or some engineering/wood work or so games as a simulation.
Games work for simulations of things if they have the right physics or right situations the game is set in with such objects, character roles, worlds presented of scenarios but I mean....
I don't quite get this one as good as Fire Emblem is. I mean why not some Japanese history game or something, one with a pivotal point in time. Or something else.
I clearly went to college at the wrong time (and to the wrong school). I could have used this as one of my electives later in my degree when I needed to maintain full-time status to qualify for my grants but didn't have a lot of classes left to take for my major. 🙈
@axelhander @happydeathman - Sorry you're cringing so much over a student-led elective. 🤷🏽♂️
@anubisvel This cringeworthy nonsense course is only slightly more useful than majoring in economics.
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