You’ll have to get into the university first, but the University of California, Berkeley is currently offering a course all about learning video games.
Keep whiffing that combo? No idea who you should pick as your main? You have absolutely zero idea what a roman cancel is? Don’t worry, all you need to do is enroll in Berkeley’s The Art of Fighting Games course, a genuinely real university course that actually counts for a couple of units. The course is a part of Berkeley’s DeCal line-up, which the university describes as “legitimate university classes run by students.” So, no, unfortunately there isn’t some professor with tenure that thought “screw it, I want to teach the next generation how to play Street Fighter,” but it’s still incredible that this is something you can do that will actually count towards a degree.
As described on the course’s page, “in this course, we are aiming to help bring beginners to a mid-level of play with guided assistance to offer the smoothest introduction to the world of fighting games. This class is designed to be an introduction to fighting games, geared towards people with less than 100 hours in the genre. Additionally, we will also explore beyond the game itself, and spend some time focusing on the community, history, and impact of fighting games on Japanese culture.”
It genuinely sounds like a really well-rounded course, as the broader FGC culture is just as important as the games itself. I’d honestly take it myself, if I hadn’t already done a soul-sucking degree, and lived in the US, so can someone out there live my dream for me? The description also notes that you don’t need any experience, which is nice to know for beginners.
Considering Tekken 8 is out next week, it seems like a great time to sign-up; but note that if you’re one of the small subset of people reading this that do attend Berkeley, you only have until January 24 to sign-up, so get going on that quick.