Theory of Fun

"One of the undisputed classics in the games field" says the blurb on Raph Koster's book "Theory of Fun in Game Design".

I can see why. 

Koster studied widely in the arts: literature, art, music and his idea is that games are in fact an art form, and if there hasn't yet been a Shakespeare of game design, it's only because the field is so young, but the potential is there.

I agree.  Any field where you create things is, in my book, an art form.  Video games, like rock n' roll before it, do have a bad rap: every school shooting and mass murder is linked to violent video games.  And they can be incredibly violent which doesn't really do the industry any favors.  That doesn't mean that the form itself is necessarily evil or even crass.  If Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to heaven" or Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" doesn't reach high art, I don't know what does.

My problem is that the whole book is one giant ego stroke-a-thon for game designers.  Look, Grandpa, I may not be contributing to society as a firefighter or a teacher for special needs kids...but game design is important!  Jane Mcgonigal even used the word epic!  Seriously?

I can't really see that killing aliens or stealing cars is epic or important any more than Bruce Lee movies challenge our preconceptions of the world we live in. 

But I do think that games have the potential to become educational tools of the highest degree because they can demand what all high art demands which is intense, participatory experience.