A video game is half-real: we play by real rules while imagining a fictional world. We win or lose the game in the real world, but we slay a dragon (for example) only in the world of the game. In this thought-provoking study, Jesper Juul examines the constantly evolving tension between rules and fiction in video games. Discussing games from Pong to The Legend of Zelda, from chess to Grand Theft Auto, he shows how video games are both a departure from and a development of traditional non-electronic games. The book combines perspectives from such fields as literary and film theory, computer science, psychology, economic game theory, and game studies, to outline a theory of what video games are, how they work with the player, how they have developed historically, and why they are fun to play.Locating video games in a history of games that goes back to Ancient Egypt, Juul argues that there is a basic affinity between games and computers. Just as the printing press and the cinema have promoted and enabled new kinds of storytelling, computers work as enablers of games, letting us play old games in new ways and allowing for new kinds of games that would not have been possible before computers. Juul presents a classic game model, which describes the traditional construction of games and points to possible future developments. He examines how rules provide challenges, learning, and enjoyment for players, and how a game cues the player into imagining its fictional world. Juul's lively style and eclectic deployment of sources will make Half-Real of interest to media, literature, and game scholars as well as to game professionals and gamers.
My name is Jesper Juul, and I am a Video Game Theorist. My mission in life is to take video games seriously, while admitting how much I enjoy them.
My latest book is "The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Plain of Playing Video Games". In this book I show myself as a sore loser and ask why we play video games even though they often seem to make us unhappy?
I am an assistant professor at the New York University Game Center. Before that, I have worked at MIT, the Danish Design School and the IT University of Copenhagen. I have a PhD in video game theory (these things exist!), and an MA in Nordic Literature. In addition to writing and teaching about video games, I also develop them on occasion.
I grew up in Denmark, but since 2007 I have been living in New York. For updates or comments, visit my blog The Ludologist on "game research and other important things"!
