LudoScience

Studies & Analysis (videogames)

Author(s) : Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman
Editor : MIT Press
Publication date : 09-25-2003
Language : english

One of the reference book about the scientific study and design of games. This huge 700 pages book will explore in great details the core concepts related to any kind of games: from outdoor sports to videogames games and TV games. The authors introduce a theoretical framework that defines three level of analysis, which were often cited by many others researchers: "Rules", to study games as artifacts, "Play", to analyze the human experience of playing games, "Culture", to study the impact of play in our society. Each level of analysis is details in a separate book part. A fourth part starts the book by laying down all the needed concepts to analyse play and games: the definition of games, the concept of magic circle, the idea of "meaningful play", etc. While being not an easy book to read, it's a wonderful synthesis of all previous theories related to traditional games, that are updated to match with videogames of today. A must read for any researchers seeking for a strong theoretical framework about games.