'Video Games and the Meaning of Life': A Look into One of Dartmouth’s Most Popular Classes
By Zach Gorman | September 30, 2020Though the College prides itself on its small class sizes, there are certain courses that are in such great demand that they fill even the largest lecture halls. While Zoom has made such classes a bit more acceptable to the claustrophobic, courses like COSC 1, “Introduction to Programming and Computation” and ECON 1, “The Price System: Analysis, Problems and Policies” still feature well over one hundred students each. Another one of these giant courses is one that may come as a surprise: MUS 46/FILM 50.04/COLT 40.07, “Video Games and the Meaning of Life.” Although music professor William Cheng, who teaches the class, initially intended to hold the course as a seminar capped at 12 students, demand was so high that he ultimately admitted 223 students — and had to turn away a few dozen more.
