Playful Thinking
Playful Thinking is a series of short, readable and argumentative books that share some playfulness and excitement with the games that they are about. The basic assumption is simple: video games are such a flourishing medium that any new perspective on them is likely to show us something unseen or forgotten, including those from such “unconventional” voices as artists, philosophers, or specialists in other industries or fields of study.
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Repairing Play
A Black Phenomenology
ISBN: 9780262545273
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 7, 2023
A provocative study that reconsiders our notion of play—and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color.
Player vs. Monster
The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
ISBN: 9780262047753
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 7, 2023
A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves.
Treacherous Play
ISBN: 9780262046312
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 1, 2022
The ethics and experience of “treacherous play”: an exploration of three games that allow deception and betrayal—EVE Online, DayZ, and Survivor.
Making Games
The Politics and Poetics of Game Creation Tools
ISBN: 9780262044837
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 16, 2021
An argument that production tools shape the aesthetics and political economy of games as an expressive medium.
Ambient Play
ISBN: 9780262044363
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: September 15, 2020
How mobile games are part of our day-to-day lives and the ways we interact across digital, material, and social landscapes.
Play like a Feminist.
ISBN: 9780262044387
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: August 18, 2020
Why video games need feminism and feminism needs video games.
Achievement Relocked
Loss Aversion and Game Design
ISBN: 9780262043533
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 18, 2020
How game designers can use the psychological phenomenon of loss aversion to shape player experience.
Real Games
What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames
ISBN: 9780262042604
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: October 1, 2019
How we talk about games as real or not-real, and how that shapes what games are made and who is invited to play them.
Fun, Taste, & Games
An Aesthetics of the Idle, Unproductive, and Otherwise Playful
ISBN: 9780262039352
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: March 12, 2019
Reclaiming fun as a meaningful concept for understanding games and play.
Play Matters
ISBN: 9780262534512
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: October 27, 2017
Why play is a productive, expressive way of being, a form of understanding, and a fundamental part of our well-being.
Repairing Play
A Black Phenomenology
ISBN: 9780262545273
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 7, 2023
A provocative study that reconsiders our notion of play—and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color.
Player vs. Monster
The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
ISBN: 9780262047753
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 7, 2023
A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves.
Treacherous Play
ISBN: 9780262046312
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 1, 2022
The ethics and experience of “treacherous play”: an exploration of three games that allow deception and betrayal—EVE Online, DayZ, and Survivor.
Making Games
The Politics and Poetics of Game Creation Tools
ISBN: 9780262044837
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 16, 2021
An argument that production tools shape the aesthetics and political economy of games as an expressive medium.
Ambient Play
ISBN: 9780262044363
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: September 15, 2020
How mobile games are part of our day-to-day lives and the ways we interact across digital, material, and social landscapes.
Play like a Feminist.
ISBN: 9780262044387
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: August 18, 2020
Why video games need feminism and feminism needs video games.
Achievement Relocked
Loss Aversion and Game Design
ISBN: 9780262043533
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: February 18, 2020
How game designers can use the psychological phenomenon of loss aversion to shape player experience.
Real Games
What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames
ISBN: 9780262042604
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: October 1, 2019
How we talk about games as real or not-real, and how that shapes what games are made and who is invited to play them.
Fun, Taste, & Games
An Aesthetics of the Idle, Unproductive, and Otherwise Playful
ISBN: 9780262039352
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: March 12, 2019
Reclaiming fun as a meaningful concept for understanding games and play.
Play Matters
ISBN: 9780262534512
Publisher: The MIT Press
Pub Date: October 27, 2017
Why play is a productive, expressive way of being, a form of understanding, and a fundamental part of our well-being.