I want to buy a copy for my brother and then convince my whole family to read it as it simply makes sense of what is often an over complicated topic. Theory of Fun is about more than fun, it’s the layman’s book for understanding video games-and considering where our understanding of this medium currently is at the moment, Theory of Fun is no less essential reading. Not all of it will go here, some of it-irrelevant to games-I shall post elsewhere, but for now let’s talk about A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster. I’m kinda trying to squeeze it all into my final year media binge before I return to China for work.Īnyways, along with the rest of the media I’ve consumed this year, I hope to reinforce what I’ve learnt by sharing my summative thoughts here on my blog. I’ve actually found myself on a bit of a roll and have moved on to a handful of books on game design, before I then start on material written by former left-wing British politician Tony Benn, shortly followed by a slew of graphic novels.
Theory of fun game design series#
This year I’m not flooded by course material to read over, so I’ve turned my attention to the library and have been enjoying the works of Erving Goffman, Xiaolu Guo, Henry Jenkins and a series of readings on Chinese communication theory and culture. I’m not the kind of person to take the DS or PSP out with me in public though, since the noise, glaring sun and commotion de-immersifies the experience, so long as I don’t bump into a friend along the way I prefer to read. You see, I live some way from my campus and as I commute via public transport, I’m left with a plentiful amount of time in transit. It’s great news by all means, except that this year I’ve rediscovered the usefulness of the student library and losing my privileges there will be a bit of a bummer. Actually, I probably won’t be in Australia for the ceremony, in fact I’m planning on having a faux graduation ceremony involving a lot of sea food and karaoke, but anyways, you get the point.
I’m not sure when exactly, but sometime in the next 6 months I will don the felt hat and graduate from university.
An Overview of A Theory of Fun (Raph Koster) October 30th, 2009