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The Aesthetic of Play
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The Aesthetic of Play Paperback -

by Brian Upton


From the publisher

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.

Details

  • Title The Aesthetic of Play
  • Author Brian Upton
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 336
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher MIT Press
  • Features Bibliography
  • ISBN 9780262542630 / 0262542633
  • Weight 1 lbs (0.45 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 in (22.61 x 14.99 x 2.03 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Aspects (Academic): Philosophical
  • Dewey Decimal Code 306.481

About 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.
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The Aesthetic of Play
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by Upton, Brian

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780262542630 / 0262542633
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