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Fun, taste, & games :an aesthetics of the idle, unproductive, and otherwise playful

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Reclaiming fun as a meaningful concept for understanding games and play. "Fun" is somewhat ambiguous. If something is fun, is it pleasant Entertaining Silly A way to trick students into learning Fun also has baggage--it seems inconsequential, embarrassing, child's play. In Fun, Taste, & Games , John Sharp and David Thomas reclaim fun as a productive and meaningful tool for understanding and appreciating play and games. They position fun at the heart of the aesthetics of games. As beauty was to art, they argue, fun is to play and games--the aesthetic goal that we measure our experiences and interpretations against. Sharp and Thomas use this fun-centered aesthetic framework to explore a range of games and game issues--from workplace bingo to Meow Wolf, from basketball to Myst , from the consumer marketplace to Marcel Duchamp. They begin by outlining three elements for understanding the drive, creation, and experience of fun: set-outsideness, ludic forms, and ambiguity. Moving from theory to practice and back again, they explore the complicated relationships among the titular fun, taste, and games. They consider, among other things, the dismissal of fun by game journalists and designers; the seminal but under influential game Myst, and how tastes change over time; the shattering of the gamer community in Gamergate; and an aesthetics of play that goes beyond games.OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

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Publisher

: The MIT Press., 2019

Collation

1 online resource (xiv, 239 pages) :illustrations.

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9780262351249

Classification

NONE

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

Edition

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Subject(s)

Games
Play (Philosophy)
Amusements

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

John Sharp and David Thomas.

Other Information

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desi

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4180/Fun-Taste-amp-GamesAn-Aesthetics-of-the-Idle

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