Games and Rules | Beat Suter, Mela Kocher, René Bauer (eds.) [E-Book PDF]
Game Mechanics for the «Magic Circle»
Why do we play games and why do we play them on computers? The contributors of «Games and Rules» take a closer look at the core of each game and the motivational system that is the game mechanics. Games are control circuits that organize the game world with their (joint) players and establish motivations in a dedicated space, a «Magic Circle», whereas game mechanics are constructs of rules designed for interactions that provide gameplay. Those rules form the base for all the excitement and frustration we experience in games. This anthology contains individual essays by experts and authors with backgrounds in Game Design and Game Studies, who lead the discourse to get to the bottom of game mechanics in video games and the real world – among them Miguel Sicart and Carlo Fabricatore.
322 Seiten (PDF), transcript, 2018
ISBN 978-3-8394-4304-0
Narrative Mechanics. Strategies and Meanings in Games and Real Life | Beat Suter, René Bauer, Mela Kocher (eds.)
CHF 51.50
What do stories in games have in common with political narratives?
This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have »many faces«, displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society – such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design – of game mechanics.
Fines Hominis? Zur Geschichte der philosophischen Anthropologiekritik | Marc Rölli (Hg.) [E-Book PDF]
Seit bereits gut 50 Jahren geistern in der Philosophie die Thesen vom «Verschwinden des Menschen», seiner «Auflösung» oder seinem «Ende» herum. Vom «Tod des Subjekts» ist immer wieder die Rede. Es etabliert sich eine philosophische Skepsis, die sich auf «den Menschen» bezieht und über ihn hinausweist. Dieses Buch klärt über die Hintergründe und Bedeutungen dieser als «postmodern» geltenden Postulate auf, ohne dabei in polemische Vorurteile zu verfallen. In den einzelnen Beiträgen werden die historisch einschlägigen Kritiken rekonstruiert, die sich gegen eine anthropologische Erhöhung oder Verabsolutierung «des Menschen» aussprechen. Zugleich bezieht der Band philosophisch Position gegen den aktuellen Trend einer Wiederbelebung naturalistischer Menschenbilder in Biowissenschaften und Hirnforschung.
232 Seiten (PDF), transcript, 2015
ISBN 978-3-8394-2956-3
Design Struggles critically assesses the ways in which the design field is involved in creating, perpetuating, promoting and reinforcing injustice and inequality in social, political, economic, cultural and ecological systems. This book shows how this entanglement arose from Eurocentric and neoliberal thinking. The voices and practices represented here propose to question and disrupt the discipline of design from within, by problematizing the very notions of design. They aim to do so by generating new, anti-racist, post-capitalist, queer-feminist, environmentally conscious and community-based ideas on how to transform design. In this way, Design Strugglesstrives to forge sustainable, new practices within the design field that challenge the status quo and amplify underrepresented voices, both in the world of design, as well as beyond.