Customer Reviews

Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Half-Real, Jesper Juul presents us a not only a new definition for games (computer-based or not), but also an original perspective on videogames and how they operate. Going beyond the 'Ludology x Narratology' discussion, Juul balances the 'Rules' and 'Fiction' elements of video games, emphasizing how they relate to each other.

The book is very insightful, containing information that will be valuable to game designers, academics, gamers and new media enthusiasts. Although you could find some of the its content on Juul's previous articles available on the internet, they are much more complete polished in Haf-Real.

I had to purchase this book for an English class where we discuss how we can use videogames to produce fiction, and also how to produce a videogame that is fiction, as well as how the two relate. From what we have covered so far it has really sparked my interest to pursue other literature in this category. Jesper Juul does a great job putting his thoughts out there, and it's been a great read so far.

Very good book on the theory of videogames. Accessible, innovative, thoughtful, and centered on concrete (and popular) examples. He also includes lots of screenshots, which is good.

Juul takes what might be called a "grassroots" approach to game studies, not bringing heavy disciplinary baggage to colonize the area, but instead trying to build a formal theory of games from the ground up. He takes his lead primarily from game and culture theorists like Huizinga, Caillois, Crawford and Sutton-Smith rather than from literary theory or media studies. But he really charts his own course and stakes out his own ground in many ways.

He has a strong interest in game rules, which has led some to criticize him for being overly formalistic, but I find this a refreshing and interesting contrast to the more standard "new media" approach to video games.

This is an interesting read for anyone who wants a perspective about games and gaming from someone who isn't a typical "fanboy" or "industry geek." Some of the insights were a bit typical for what you might expect, but there were a few nuggets that showed that Juul actually took some time to think about the genre and how rules both affect and are effected in games. I found it a bit light on scholarly sources, but since he is a professor, perhaps this book is more what he is teaching in his class than his own research. Not a bad read, if you can stomach some of prose.

I was sorely disappointed with this supposed game studies classic. While charmingly written and enforced with good examples, it offers nothing really significant. The author's definition of games is overly convoluted and not just a bit tautological. He has severely misunderstood both Suits' and Wittgenstein's ideas and thus represents them in a way too negative light. And the titular concept of half-reality is mostly just a useful simplification for speaking to people who have not read semiotics or hermeneutical appropriation theory.

If this is the first book on video game studies you read, it will look damn impressive. If, however, you are more versed in the field, and especially in the study of games and their like outside the video game perspective, it will look just misdirected, outdated and hopelessly shallow.