"a process which is not contained within the game itself"

I found those words in an article called From Serious Games to Serious Gaming by Henry Jenkins: "a process which is not contained within the game itself." Jenkins is trying to explain why a game should be worth playing in its own right, for its own sake, regardless of how educational its purpose. He points out Sim City designer Will "Wright's notion that we might simply annotate a traditional game, providing a series of links to other sources of information which might enhance the game play experience."

I've been trying to express this ever since I first got involved with simulation games. (Which is pretty much my professional lifetime. Which is pretty much.) This whole idea of the integrity and depth and educational value of the experience of play - itself. How when you make kids play a game like "Fraction Bingo" (you'd just about have to make them), you kill both the learning and the fun.


from Bernie DeKoven's FunLog