I got an email about this recently, but haven’t seen it myself. Apparently Game Informer picked the top ten books on gaming, and A Theory of Fun is on the list at #9. Perfect timing of course, given that it’s out of print and I get three inquiries a week on how to get ahold of a copy. Working on it…

David Kushner, author of the excellent Masters of Doom (which I have the galleys of somewhere around here, and which came in at #1) managed to type in the full list. I’ll have to see if I can find a copy of the article.

Edit: here’s the article.

Moroagh’s excellent blog continues to have thought-provoking pieces on game design. This time around it’s a great post on social fun, looking at an often neglected quadrant of Nicole Lazzaro’s four types of fun.

Social and Family Gaming #3: Fun and being social « Thoughts on Moroagh - MMORPGs and other distractions

This is an important aspect of family gaming that doesn’t fit the all to heavy if not pure challenge model of “hard fun” alone. We play social games not just to gloat and be proud of the achievement of our beloved ones. We also play social games to socially interact, learn about each other, foster social skills, form bonds, explore others in a safe context of an artificial game environment, learn to cooperate, learn to give in, learn to support, learn to empathize, learn to see things from someone else’s perspective, learn to argue with grace, learn to be able to accept that multiple points of view are present, learn to cope with interpersonal frustrations, learn to unwind together. And of course learning to not gloat and be a graceful winner as much as a proud and respectful loser.

A lot of social behaviors are about the ability to not win for the sake of someone else, to forgo competition for the sake of preserving a social bond, to seek activities that are cooperative rather than competitive.

I couldn’t agree more; and yet, the picture is pretty tangled.

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ETech is on this year again, and this time I am not attending — too busy at work, even though it’s right here in town. Alas! Lots of friends are here and I won’t get to see most of them.

Coincidentally, my keynote there from last year on The Core of Fun is now available as audio from IT Conversations as a free download or stream.

Boy, it’s weird to listen to yourself!

Today I got my royalty statement for A Theory of Fun, covering July through December of last year. And to my utter shock (but great pleasure), enclosed was a check. Yes, that means that the book earned out its royalty, sometime between November of 2004 and December of 2005.

In one of the comments, Morgan asked if I’d recap the book process, and I figured this milestone is as good a reason as any to do so!

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Many thanks to Kiyoshi Shin for the first review of A Theory of Fun in Japan!

• Review in Japanese
• Translated with Google

Looks like you can pick the book up at Amazon.jp and at O’Reilly Japan.

Gotta Love Google translation, btw:

You think in the one which has interest in game design theory whether it was added new necessary book-reading. Furthermore, the place, Japanese, is grateful after all don’t you think? is. He the プレゼン chaos is good, it is is, it is the book to which the atmosphere is transmitted that way (new)