Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date.

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 innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance.

Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. ix)
• Preface (p. xiii)
• 1 About This Book (p. 1)
• 2 The Design Process (p. 11)
• Commissioned Essay (p. 22)
• Reiner Knizia
• Unit 1 Core Concepts (p. 28)
• 3 Meaningful Play (p. 30)
• 4 Design (p. 38)
• 5 Systems (p. 48)
• 6 Interactivity (p. 56)
• 7 Defining Games (p. 70)
• 8 Defining Digital Games (p. 84)
• 9 The Magic Circle (p. 92)
• 10 The Primary Schemas: RULES, PLAY, CULTURE (p. 100)
• Commissioned Game (p. 106)
• Richard Garfield
• Unit 2 Rules (p. 116)
• 11 Defining Rules (p. 118)
• 12 Rules on Three Levels (p. 126)
• 13 The Rules of Digital Games (p. 140)
• 14 Games as Emergent Systems (p. 150)
• 15 Games as Systems of Uncertainty (p. 172)
• 16 Games as Information Theory Systems (p. 190)
• 17 Games as Systems of Information (p. 202)
• 18 Games as Cybernetic Systems (p. 212)
• 19 Games as Game Theory Systems (p. 230)
• 20 Games as Systems of Conflict (p. 248)
• 21 Breaking the Rules (p. 266)
• Commissioned Game (p. 286)
• Frank Lantz
• Unit 3 Play (p. 298)
• 22 Defining Play (p. 300)
• 23 Games as the Play of Experience (p. 312)
• 24 Games as the Play of Pleasure (p. 328)
• 25 Games as the Play of Meaning (p. 362)
• 26 Games as Narrative Play (p. 376)
• 27 Games as the Play of Simulation (p. 420)
• 28 Games as Social Play (p. 460)
• Commissioned Game (p. 490)
• Kira Snyder
• Unit 4 Culture (p. 502)
• 29 Defining Culture (p. 504)
• 30 Games as Cultural Rhetoric (p. 514)
• 31 Games as Open Culture (p. 536)
• 32 Games as Cultural Resistance (p. 556)
• 33 Games as Cultural Environment (p. 570)
• Commissioned Game (p. 588)
• James Ernest
• Additional Reading and Resources (p. 602)
• Conclusion (p. 604)
• Bibliography (p. 608)
• List of Games Cited (p. 620)
• Index (p. 638)