The Well-Played Game applied: The Player as Author

In 2003, Cindy Poremba, "a digital media theorist, producer and curator researching documentary and videogames through Concordia University's Doctoral Humanities program," published a paper which she titled: "Remaking Each Other's Dreams: Player Authors in Digital Games." The abstract begins: "One of the more interesting and distinct aspects of the digital game genre is the proliferation of player-produced content and artifacts."

One of the references she cites is a book, originally published in 1978. The book is about social games - you know, like hide and seek and tag - about the social dynamics, the balance, the rules, like quitting and cheating and stuff. And, oh, yes, it's a book I happened to write - The Well-Played Game - which partially explains my excitement about discovering Poremba's paper. The other thing that excites me, maybe even more, is what she has to say about what I wrote - how well easily she sees the relevance of the book (remember, it was written 30 years ago) to an understanding of the dynamics of the online play community.

In fact, I'd like to go further - to explore its relevance to the virtual world at large. But that's another story.

Cindy's website, shinySpinning, is a treasure for anyone wanting to explore our ever-evolving understanding of fun, games, community and media.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith