Games and other playable forms, from interactive fictions toimprovisational theater, involve role playing and story--something played andsomethi... read full description
reviews
Dec 27, 2009
Brian
rated it: 
Second Person is a collection of essays on the interface between games and stories, or in other cases between games and real life. "Games" here primarily means tabletop RPGs and video games, though several essays push these boundaries, indeed beyond what is normally thought of as a game. The essayists present several recurring problems: most fundamentally, how do we overcome the basic tension between the linear path of a story and the branching decision tree of a game? Points of vie
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Jun 12, 2009
Dave
rated it: 
A must-read for anybody interested in the gaming subculture. Even though some of the essays are... hm, misinformed? Or misinterpreted, perhaps. On the whole, there's a lot of really interesting stuff packed into this monster of a compendium. Plus, three complete games!
Apr 15, 2009
Julia
rated it: 
Um ótimo livro com diversos autores, para quem busca conhecer mais sobre jogos de interpretação e os dilemas que surgem durante sua criação.
Apr 03, 2008
Trevor
rated it:
Harrigan and Wardrip-Fruin continue the First Person series, this time focusing on "playable media". The section on table-top RPGs gives a solid overview of this important gameform, which has been overshadowed in recent years by computerized reinventions like Everquest and World of Warcraft. The essays here are critically engaged but not so front-loaded with academic jargon that they are rendered unreadable to someone breaking the seal on game studies. I'm looking forward to seeing t
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Aug 06, 2007
Summer
rated it:
This book is mostly anecdotes about game creation rather than any sort of serious scholarship. It did, however, confirm my suspicions that some fantasy novels are just dressed-up transcripts of the author's long-running Saturday night Dungeons and Dragons game.
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