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    The Well-Read Game

    On Playing Thoughtfully

    Part of Playful Thinking

    Author Tracy Fullerton, Matthew Farber
    Ebook
    The MIT Press
    On sale Mar 25, 2025 | 244 Pages | 9780262382915
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    How players evoke personal and subjective meanings through a new theory of player response.

    In The Well-Read Game, Tracy Fullerton and Matthew Farber explore the experiences we have when we play games: not the outcomes of play or the aesthetics of formal game structures but the ephemeral and emotional experiences of being in play. These are the private stories we tell ourselves as we play, the questions we ask, and our reactions to the game’s intent. These experiences are called “readings” because they involve so many of the aspects of engaging with literary, cinematic, and other expressive texts. A game that is experienced in such a way can be called “well-read,” rather than, or as well as, “well-played,” because of the personal, interpretive nature of that experience and the way in which it relates to our reading of texts of all kinds.

    The concept of the “well-read game” exists at the convergence of literary, media, and play theories—specifically, the works of Louise Rosenblatt’s reader-response theory, Brian Upton’s situational game theory, Tracy Fullerton’s playcentric design theory, and Bernie DeKoven’s well-played game philosophy. Each of these theories, from their own perspective, challenges notions of a separate, objective, or authorial meaning in a text and underscores the richness that arises from the varied responses of readers, who coauthor the meaning of each text through their active engagement with it. When taken together, these theories point to a richer understanding of what a game is and how we might better value our experiences with games to become more thoughtful readers of their essential meanings.
    On Thinking Playfully
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction
    1 Reading Games Aesthetically
    2 Learning to Play Closely
    3 Reading a Game Deeply
    4 Performing a Game
    5 Reflecting on Gameplay
    6 Playing Against the Game
    7 The Pleasures of Reading Games
    8 Becoming a Well-Read Player
    Conclusion
    References
    Index
    Tracy Fullerton, an experimental game designer, is Professor and Director of the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California Games Program.

    Matthew Farber is Associate Professor of Educational Technology and Codirector of the Gaming SEL Lab at the University of Northern Colorado.
    Tracy Fullerton View titles by Tracy Fullerton
    Matthew Farber View titles by Matthew Farber

    About

    How players evoke personal and subjective meanings through a new theory of player response.

    In The Well-Read Game, Tracy Fullerton and Matthew Farber explore the experiences we have when we play games: not the outcomes of play or the aesthetics of formal game structures but the ephemeral and emotional experiences of being in play. These are the private stories we tell ourselves as we play, the questions we ask, and our reactions to the game’s intent. These experiences are called “readings” because they involve so many of the aspects of engaging with literary, cinematic, and other expressive texts. A game that is experienced in such a way can be called “well-read,” rather than, or as well as, “well-played,” because of the personal, interpretive nature of that experience and the way in which it relates to our reading of texts of all kinds.

    The concept of the “well-read game” exists at the convergence of literary, media, and play theories—specifically, the works of Louise Rosenblatt’s reader-response theory, Brian Upton’s situational game theory, Tracy Fullerton’s playcentric design theory, and Bernie DeKoven’s well-played game philosophy. Each of these theories, from their own perspective, challenges notions of a separate, objective, or authorial meaning in a text and underscores the richness that arises from the varied responses of readers, who coauthor the meaning of each text through their active engagement with it. When taken together, these theories point to a richer understanding of what a game is and how we might better value our experiences with games to become more thoughtful readers of their essential meanings.

    Table of Contents

    On Thinking Playfully
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction
    1 Reading Games Aesthetically
    2 Learning to Play Closely
    3 Reading a Game Deeply
    4 Performing a Game
    5 Reflecting on Gameplay
    6 Playing Against the Game
    7 The Pleasures of Reading Games
    8 Becoming a Well-Read Player
    Conclusion
    References
    Index

    Author

    Tracy Fullerton, an experimental game designer, is Professor and Director of the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California Games Program.

    Matthew Farber is Associate Professor of Educational Technology and Codirector of the Gaming SEL Lab at the University of Northern Colorado.
    Tracy Fullerton View titles by Tracy Fullerton
    Matthew Farber View titles by Matthew Farber

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