Includes bibliographical references and index.

Interstitial: How to win "Super Mario Bros" : Topic essays / Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman -- Interstitial: Cosplay : Texts: Bibliography ; Chart of texts and topics -- Interstitial: Urban invasion : Nature and significance of play as a cultural phenomenon / Johan Huizinga ; The definition of play: the classification of games / Roger Caillois -- Shoot club: the DOOM 3 review / Tom Chick -- Interstitial: Collateral romance : Construction of a definition / Bernard Suits ; I have no words & I must design / Greg Costikyan ; The cabal: valve's design process for creating half-life / Ken Birdwell ; Interstitial: Urban games : Semiotic domains: is playing video games a "waste of time?" / James Gee -- The evil summoner FAQ v1.0: how to be a cheap ass / Mochan ; Play and ambiguity / Brian Sutton-Smith ; A theory of play and fantasy / Gregory Bateson ; "Complete freedom of movement": video games as gendered play spaces / Henry Jenkins -- Interstitial: DDR step charts : Format abstract design tools / Doug Church ; Game theory / William Poundstone ; Games and design patterns / Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen ; Tools for creating dramatic game dynamics / Marc LeBlanc ; Game analysis: Centipede / Richard Rouse III -- Interstitial: Indie game jam : Unwritten rules / Stephen Sniderman -- Beyond the rules of the game: why are rooie rules nice? / Linda Hughes ; Changing the game / Bernard DeKoven ; The design evolution of magic: the gathering / Richard Garfield -- Interstitial: Blast theory : Eyeball and cathexis / David Sudnow ; Frames and games / Gary Alan Fine ; Bow, nigger / always_black ; Cultural models: do you want to be the Blue Sonic or the Dark Sonic? / James Gee -- Interstitial: Red vs. blue : Interaction and narrative / Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern ; Game design as narrative architecture / Henry Jenkins ; Adventure as a video game: Adventure for the Atari 2600 / Warren Robinett ; Eastern front / Chris Crawford -- Interstitial: Serious games : The lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat / F. Randall Farmer and Chip Morningstar ; Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: players who suit MUDs / Richard Bartle ; Declaring the rights of players / Raph Koster ; Virtual worlds: a first-hand account of market and society on the cyberian frontier / Edward Castronova -- Interstitial: Painstation : Coda: piercing the spectacle / Brenda Laurel -- Interstitial Le Parkour : Interstitial credits ; Final word / Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman.

This book fills a genuine need in the emerging field of game design for a collection of key texts on game analysis and criticism. Written and designed to accompany Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's earlier textbook Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The Game Design Reader can be used in the classroom or as a resource for game design practitioners. Thirty-two classic and cutting-edge essays by game designers, game journalists, game fans, sociologists, media theorists, and other writers from diverse fields consider foundational questions: What are games and how do they function? How do they interact with the culture at large? What critical approaches can game designers take to create meaningful experiences for players? Salen and Zimmerman have collected writings that span nearly 50 years of game analysis and offer a wide range of perspectives. Game journalists describe the rhythms of gameplay, game designers explicate their designs, sociologists consider such topics as role-playing in virtual worlds, and players offer their hands-on opinions and rants. Each text is "teachable": it can act as a springboard for discussion, a class assignment, or a design project. Each text offers insights to the professional game designers or scholar as well. The book is organized around a series of "Topics" -- ideas fundamental to the study of games, or emerging areas of research -- each of which is introduced with a short essay by Salen and Zimmerman that points to relevant texts in the Reader. "Interstitials" -- visual essays, documents, game ephemera -- act as counterpoint to the texts themselves.