Readings

The Ambiguity of Play

  [ Textbook ]

Rhetorics of Animal Progress

  [ Textbook ]

31 Aug (Wed)

Rhetorics of Child Play

  [ Textbook ]

7 Sep (Wed)

Rhetorics of Fate

  [ Textbook ]

12 Sep (Mon)

Rhetorics of Identity

  [ Textbook ]

14 Sep (Wed)

Video: Aral's day out (in class)

Rhetorics of the Imaginary

  [ Textbook ]

19 Sep (Mon)

Rhetorics of Self

  [ Textbook ]

21 Sep (Wed)

Rhetorics of Frivolity

  [ Textbook ]

26 Sep (Mon)

How to access the online readings

  [ Online Class Reader ]

If a reading is marked password protected, it consists of a file in Adobe's portable document format (PDF) that is protected using your UIUC Active Directory Password. If you don't have an active directory password, you can get one at the link above. If you are having password problems please contact the CITES Help Desk. The instructor does not control the active directory password system.

HINT: The Active Directory password is the same password you use to log in to NetFiles. ANOTHER HINT: You can read and print these readings using the free Adobe Reader, available at any campus computer lab.

Why Study Play?

  [ Online Class Reader ]

29 Aug (Mon)

Read:
Silverstone, R. (1999). "Play." In: R. Silverstone, Why Study the Media?, pp. 59-67. London: Sage.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Immortal Kombat

  [ Online Class Reader ]

3 Oct (Mon)

Goldstein, J. H. (1998). Immortal Kombat: War Toys and Violent Video Games. In J. H. Goldstein (Ed.), Why we watch: The attractions of violent entertainment (pp. 53-68). New York: Oxford University Press.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Intrinsically Motivating Instruction

  [ Online Class Reader ]

10 Oct (Mon)

Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction. Cognitive Science, 4, 333-369.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Games and the Cognitive System

  [ Online Class Reader ]

12 Oct (Wed)

Read Ch. 3: Games and the Cognitive System, pp. 43-82 FROM: Loftus, G. R., & Loftus, E. F. (1983). Mind at Play: The Psychology of Video Games. New York: Basic Books.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Chess for Girls?

  [ Online Class Reader ]

24 Oct (Mon)

Cassell, J., & Jenkins, H. (1998). Chess for Girls? Feminism and Computer Games. In J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat (pp. 2-45). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Commercial Gambling

  [ Online Class Reader ]

26 Oct (Wed)

OPTIONAL: Ch. 5: Commercial Gambling as a Social Institution, pp. 143-190 FROM: Abt, V., Smith, J. F., & Christiansen, E. M. (1985). The Business of Risk: Commercial Gambling in Mainstream America. In. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Games as the Play of Simulation

  [ Online Class Reader ]

2 Nov (Wed)

New "free" outside reading on simulation added to address questions:

OPTIONAL: Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2004). "Games as the Play of Simulation." From K. Salen & E. Zimmerman, Rules of Play, pp. 421-458. MIT Press.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

The Triumph of Tinkering

  [ Online Class Reader ]

2 Nov (Wed)

Turkle, S. (1995). The Triumph of Tinkering. In S. Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (pp. 50-73). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Coin-Op: The Life

  [ Online Class Reader ]

14 Nov (Mon)

Pierce, M. S. (1998). Coin-Op: The Life. In C. Dodsworth, Jr. (Ed.), Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology (pp. 443-461). New York: Association for Computing Machinery Press.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

How to use the Web Readings

  [ Web Reading ]

Readings on the Web are not password protected and may be in a number of formats. As we all know, Web servers are sometimes briefly unavailable. Plan ahead to avoid this problem and don't try to download the readings at the last minute. If a server is down at the last minute this is not an excuse to skip readings.

The syllabus

  [ Web Reading ]

29 Aug (Mon)

Read the entire syllabus carefully.
The class syllabus is this Web site. Please carefully read it before this class meeting, particularly the About page.

All But War is Simulation

  [ Web Reading ]

28 Sep (Wed)

Lenoir, T. (2000). All But War is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex. Configurations, 8(3), 289-335. (UIUC library electronic journal, use a UIUC on-campus computer to click on this link)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/configurations/v008/8.3lenoir.pdf

If the above URL doesn't work because you are off-campus, try this URL instead http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=23380 (UIUC NetID and password required). Then navigate to volume 8, issue 3 and find the article.

Spacewar

  [ Web Reading ]

28 Sep (Wed)

OPTIONAL: Brand, S. (1972, 7 December). Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums. Rolling Stone.
http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/stone/rolling_stone.html

Players Who Suit MUDs

  [ Web Reading ]

17 Oct (Mon)

Bartle, R. (1997). Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. The Journal of Virtual Environments, 1(1).
http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

The Iterative Design Process

  [ Web Reading ]

19 Oct (Wed)

Zimmerman, E. (2003). Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process. Gamelab Articles. http://www.gmlb.com/articles/iterativedesign.html

Also try out the games discussed in this article:
(Requires shockwave)

• Sissyfight
• Loop
• Lego JunkBot

Online Gaming Culture

  [ Web Reading ]

24 Oct (Mon)

Read pp. 1-3 FROM: Morris, S. (1999). Online Gaming Culture: An Examination of Emerging Forms of Production and Participation in Multiplayer First-Person-Shooter Gaming. Gamegirlz.com Features.
http://www.gamegirlz.com/articles/quakewomen.shtml

The Players

  [ Web Reading ]

26 Oct (Wed)

Case Study: Conley, Kevin. (2005, July 11). The Players. Annals of Enterprise. The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/050711fa_fact1

A Rape in Cyberspace

  [ Web Reading ]

31 Oct (Mon)

Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society," Imaginary Realities 2, no. 4 (April 1999). (also published as ch. 1 of Dibbell's book My Tiny Life.)
http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/ (click on "A Rape in Cyberspace")
If you get an 403 Forbidden error, press reload. If that doesn't help, search for the reading in google and look at the google cached version.

Virtual Worlds

  [ Web Reading ]

31 Oct (Mon)

Castronova, Edward, "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier" (December 2001). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 618.
Required: pp. 1-5 (the introduction) OPTIONAL: pp. 6-40
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828

The Unreal Estate Boom

  [ Web Reading ]

31 Oct (Mon)

OPTIONAL: Dibbell, J. (2003, January). "The Unreal Estate Boom." Wired 11(1). http://wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/gaming_pr.html (Discussed in class)

The Semiotics of SimCity

  [ Web Reading ]

2 Nov (Wed)

OPTIONAL: Friedman, T. (1999). The Semiotics of SimCity. First Monday, 4(4).
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_4/friedman/

Parasitic Interventions

  [ Web Reading ]

7 Nov (Mon)

Schleiner, A.-M. (1999). Parasitic Interventions: Game Patches and Hacker Art. Opensorcery.net Texts: Unpublished manuscript. http://www.opensorcery.net/patch.html

Clones, Bones, and Twilight Zones

  [ Web Reading ]

9 Nov (Wed)

Beard, J. J. (2001). Clones, Bones, and Twilight Zones: Protecting the Digital Persona of the Quick, the Dead, and the Imaginary. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 16(3).
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/journals/btlj/articles/vol16/beard/beard.pdf

The Right to Play

  [ Web Reading ]

9 Nov (Wed)

OPTIONAL: Castronova, Edward. (2004) The Right to Play. New York Law School Law Review, 49 (1): 185-210. http://ssrn.com/abstract=733486

The following foundational readings form the basis of the course, and many of the theoretical concepts developed, summarized, or taken for granted by more recent work originated in these articles. Although these readings are not assigned on the course schedule, they may be useful for your final project. Where practical, scanned copies of these readings are available below.

Callois, R. (1958/2001). Man, Play and Games (M. Barash, Trans.). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Csikszentmihalyi M., & Bennett, S. (1971). An Exploratory Model of Play. American Anthropologist, 73(1), 45-58.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Gadamer, H. G. (1998). Play as the Clue to Ontological Explanation (D. G. Marshall, Trans.). In H.-G. Gadamer (Ed.), Truth and Method (2nd ed., pp. 101-134). New York: Continuum.

Geertz, C. (1973). Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The Interpretation of Cultures (pp. 412-453). New York: Basic Books.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Giddens, A. (1964). Notes on the Concepts of Play and Leisure. The Sociological Review, 12(1), 73-89.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Goffman, E. (1961). Fun in Games. In E. Goffman (Ed.), Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (pp. 15-81). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Hearn, F. (1976-1977). Toward a Critical Theory of Play. Telos, 30, 145-160.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Huizinga, J. (1950). Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon, pp. 1-27 FROM: Huizinga, J. (1950). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Miller, S. (1973). Ends, Means, and Galumphing: Some Leitmotifs of Play. American Anthropologist, 75(1), 87-98.
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Lorenz, K. (1954). Man Meets Dog. London: Methuen. See, e.g., Ch. 16: "On Feline Play" (pp. 150-156):
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Piaget, J. (1962). Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood (C. Gattegno & F. M. Hodgson, Trans.). New York: Norton.

Stephenson, W. (1988). The Play Theory of Mass Communication (rev. ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

See esp. ch. 4, "Play Theory"
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

and ch. 15, "Play Theory of Mass Communication Broadly Considered"
Download this reading. [Password protected: use your UIUC Active Directory Password for access.]

Veblen, T. (1945). The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: B. W. Huebsch.