The Aesthetic of Play
Brian Upton
(Author)
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Description
A game designer considers the experience of play, why games have rules, and the relationship of play and narrative. The impulse toward play is very ancient, not only pre-cultural but pre-human; zoologists have identified play behaviors in turtles and in chimpanzees. Games have existed since antiquity; 5,000-year-old board games have been recovered from Egyptian tombs. And yet we still lack a critical language for thinking about play. Game designers are better at answering small questions (Why is this battle boring?) than big ones (What does this game mean?). In this book, the game designer Brian Upton analyzes the experience of play--how playful activities unfold from moment to moment and how the rules we adopt constrain that unfolding. Drawing on games that range from Monopoly to Dungeons & Dragons to Guitar Hero, Upton develops a framework for understanding play, introducing a set of critical tools that can help us analyze games and game designs and identify ways in which they succeed or fail.
Product Details
Price
$25.95
$24.13
Publisher
MIT Press
Publish Date
February 02, 2021
Pages
336
Dimensions
5.9 X 8.9 X 0.8 inches | 1.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780262542630
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Brian Upton cofounded Red Storm Entertainment, where he was lead designer of the popular games Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. He is now a script doctor for games at Sony's Santa Monica Studio.