Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
Product Description
As pop culture, games are as important as film or television–but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovat… More >>
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
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William R. Meehan said :
February 15, 2010 at 1:31 am
So, this book was written by MIT faculty in an attempt to legitimize games. Their way of legitimizing games was by being as long-winded as is humanly possible.
Needless to say, this book was not very interesting in the least.
Rating: 1 / 5
Anonymous said :
February 15, 2010 at 1:55 am
As a life-long game designer, I’ve worked on dozens of projects from multi-million dollar blockbusters to academic experimentation & pure research. The current glut of high brow nonsense being passed on as educational literature appalls me. Case in point: The authors here have laughable credentials. Furthermore, anyone with the internet can get this “information” for free. Cashing in on a gullible public has become a ubiquitous pastime in the game literature pyramid scheme, don’t fall victim to it’s wrath.
Rating: 1 / 5
Anonymous said :
February 15, 2010 at 4:13 am
The authors treat you to a pretentious, hollow, lopsided ivory tower view of what games are and then summarize each section by having a guest writer design a game to be played with dimes.
This is exactly what’s giving acadamic game research a bad name.
I can’t imagine anyone who would find this gibberish useful.
Rating: 1 / 5
Amy Talen said :
February 15, 2010 at 7:00 am
While it is a nice romp through the games culture of the 1980′s, it really has no input on the world of games today. The fundamentals have changed, and this book is showing it’s age in a big way. If you are interested in learning more about true fundamentals to game design, check out Chris Crawford’s great book on the topic. Money is tight for every student, don’t invest in this under whelming hog wash.
Rating: 1 / 5
Shaun Peoples said :
February 15, 2010 at 8:27 am
Having used this book for a few semesters, I offer you this: Avoid this book, unless you too are an academic who has nothing real to offer the world of video games in terms of game design or actual game production.
If you are the same type of person that enjoys diagramming sentences or likes to discuss why other people have created artistic things in the manner they did – rather than create something yourself, then you may enjoy this.
[...] I am of the opinion that a person writing on such a topic might be better equipped to do so after having designed a few AAA titles. Then again, people like that tend to be busy working on games.
Buyer beware. I was required to buy this book and was unable to “Dodge this bullet”. To each, their own.
Rating: 2 / 5