Incluye bibliografía, regencias e indice.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 608-619) and index.

Unit 1: Core concepts.--Unit 2: Rules.--Unit 3: Play.--Unit 4: Culture.

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. Active participants in game culture, the authors wrote Rules of Play as a catalyst for game design innovation, filling it with concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games.
Building an aesthetics for interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts such as “play”, “design”, and “interactivity”. They look at games through a series of eighteen “game design schemas”, or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of information and emergent complexity, as contexts for social play and storytelling, and as sites of cultural ideology and resistance.
Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of play is a textbook, reference book, and conceptual guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.
“This is the most impressive book on game design I’ve ever seen. Broad in scope yet rich in detail, Rules of Play sets a new standard for game analysis.” - Will Wright, game designer of Sim City and The Sims

“Rules of Play makes a monumental contribution to the development of game theory, criticism, and design. It will instantly become a standard textbook in the field on the basis of its rigor and scope- yet is written in such an engaging style that many will read it for pleasure. Salen and Zimmerman do for games what Sergei Eisenstein did for cinema -offer an expert practitioner’s perspective on central aspects of the aesthetics and cultural importance of an emerging medium.” -Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies, MIT

“Rules of Play is an exhaustive, clear, cogent, and complete resource for understanding games and game design. Salen and Zimmerman describe an encyclopedia of game design issues, techniques, and attributes. In particular, they analyze the elements that can make a game experience richer, more interesting, more emotional, more meaningful, and, ultimately, more successful. It should be the first stop you make when learning about game design.”- Nathan Shedroff, author of Experience Design 1.