November 29, 2005

It’s Juul Time

by Nick Montfort · , 12:14 am

Jesper Juul’s new book Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds is now out from MIT Press. I have not yet seen the book, but it has some basis in Jesper’s very high-quality dissertation of the same name, and I’m willing to recommend that people at least take a serious look at it for that reason alone. Jesper describes the book on his blog, The Ludologist, as being “brand new, all together nicer, more readable, more fun, and just better.” It’s evident from the companion site that he has put many new efforts into this new Half-Real.

Jesper also has the current “hardcore” column (a column by academics about issues central to games research) at the DiGRA site, “Goals and Life Itself.” Among other observations more central to his point, Jesper notes an interesting shift in game studies:

If the mock picture of early game studies was the researcher who had only watched his/her children playing games but never played him or herself, the standard criticism today is against those who play themselves rather than study others play.

One Response to “It’s Juul Time”


  1. Grand Text Auto » Juul’s Half-Real Says:

    […] uul’s brand new book Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (GTxA post, Jesper’s post, book site). I’m too caught up with my own manus […]

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