An impassioned look at games & game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date As pop culture games are as important as film or television -- but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary In Rules of Play Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games from board games & sports to computer & video games As active participants in game culture the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation filled with new concepts strategies & methodologies for creating & understanding games Building an aesthetics of interactive systems Salen & Zimmerman define core concepts like play design & interactivity They look at games through a series of eighteen game design schemas or conceptual frameworks including games as systems of emergence & information as contexts for social play as a storytelling medium & as sites of cultural resistance Written for game scholars game developers & interactive designers Rules of Play is a textbook reference book & theoretical guide It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design