Life Is a Game: What Game Design Says about the Human Condition

For centuries, thinkers of all stripes have said that life is a game. What if that is...
$509.63 AUD
$509.63 AUD
SKU: 9781501359187
Product Type: Books
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Author: Edward Castronova
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $509.63
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Life Is a Game: What Game Design Says about the Human Condition by Castronova, Edward

Life Is a Game: What Game Design Says about the Human Condition

$509.63

Life Is a Game: What Game Design Says about the Human Condition

$509.63
Author: Edward Castronova
Format: Hardcover
Language: English

For centuries, thinkers of all stripes have said that life is a game. What if that is true? What if life really is a game? What if our presence here is part of a vast and beautiful interactive machine?

Edward Castronova urges readers to think about the human condition in the same way that a player thinks about a game. So many of the mechanics we see in games are present in daily life, from role-playing and levelling up, to investing, diplomacy, and the sublime tension between the risk of loss and the thrill of victory.

What is 'victory, ' though? We all have our own ideas about how to win this game. Some say the point is to feel good. Others say it is all about God, with Heaven as the win condition. However we envision our lives, game designs tells us how best to play. We decide what it means to win this game; game thinking tells us the most sensible way to do it.

Thus, though it is new, the field of game design has much to say about the fundamental questions of human existence. Philosophy asks why we are here. Game Design answers: To interact, to choose, to play.

Author: Edward Castronova
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 09/17/2020
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9781501359187

About the Author
Edward Castronova is Professor of Media at Indiana University, USA. He is the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (2006), Exodus to the Virtual World (2008) and Wildcat Currency: The Virtual Transformation of the Economy (2014). He specializes in Games, Technology, and Society, and has served in the past as Director of the BS degree program in Game Design, and Chair of the Department of Media Arts and Production

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