The aesthetic of play / Brian Upton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Upton, Brian, 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Games--Psychological aspects.

Games.

Games--Rules--Psychological aspects.

Play--Psychological aspects.

Play.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The MIT Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this book, Brian Upton analyzes the experience of play - how playful activities unfold from moment to moment and how the rules we adopt constrain that unfolding. Drawing on games that range from Monopoly to Dungeons & Dragons to Guitar Hero, he develops a framework for understanding play, introducing a set of critical tools that can help analyze games and game designs and identify ways in which they succeed or fail. He considers the making of meaning in play and in every aspect of human culture. He draws on findings in pragmatic epistemology, neuroscience, and semiotics to describe how meaning emerges from playful engagement. Upton argues that play can also explain particular aspects of narrative; a play-based interpretive stance, he proposes, can help us understand the structure of books, of music, of theater, of art, and even of the process of critical engagement itself. -- Edited summary from book.

Contents:

Defining play

Interactivity

Play spaces

Heuristics

Anticipation

Mastery

Understanding

Epistemology

Neurons

Signs

Playing without winning

Performance

Narrative play

Narrative structure

Play & meaning

Critical play.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0-262-32421-0

0-262-32420-2

OCLC:

905349559