Koster, A Theory of Fun (Foreword to Chapter 4)

J-Web: A Theory of Fun 1

Administered through J-Web. There are two sets of questions. When you have a perfect score on the multiple-choice questions, you can move on to the essay questions.

New Games Journalism II

Read and blog a thoughtful response to one of the other examples in Keith Stuart's list of Ten Unmissable Examples of New Games Journalism.

Ex 1c: Game Review (Final) 20pts

If your revisions are superficial or don't address the points brought up by responses to your draft, this phase of the assignment may be worth zero points. Everyone should submit the final draft on J-Web, but I also encourage you to post it on your own blog.

Replayability in Movies

On the course blog, participate in a discussion on It's a Wonderful Life, Groundhog Day, and/or Sliding Doors.

Koster; New Games Journalism

After I've marked the work that's due today, I'll post some comments and thoughts here. I'll draw your attention to it during my usual 4:00 update.

Daily Update

Workbook 3c, which was initially part of the Koster 1 set, has been moved to Unit 2, a general unit on studying games.

Now you don't need to have read Koster yet in order to complete W3c. It refers to an assigned game -- here is where you choose your game. (Post your claim here on this page so you don't repeat someone else's work. More details on W3c to follow.)

Discussion Questions
I'm pleased to draw everyone's attention to Leslie's excellent blog entry recording her intial reactions to Koster. Writing something like that is above and beyond the call of duty, but it shows that she's investing significant time and energy in the book, and she's laying a firm foundation for success later in the course, when the ability to engage with assigned texts, and to integrate your own individual observations and intellectual responses, will lead to an excellent final paper.

I'd rather wait on discussing Koster until more people have had the chance to do the readings. If the copy you ordered hasn't arrived yet, you might try browsing a copy in your local bookstore, or checking nearby libraries to see whether you can borrow a copy until your purchased text arrives. Starting Monday, I'm going to start assuming everyone has their books and is caught up with the reading, but I can be flexible until then.

This means that I will delay posting the Koster and New Games Journalism discussion questions until Friday or the weekend.

The daily agenda for tomrrow is fairly straightforward.

I've posted instructions for Ex 2, which comes in parts A B and C. Part B and C are just like parts B and C of Exercise 1 -- peer review and then revise the draft you wrote for part A.

There's nothing you need to do for the item labeled "Koster" -- I was going to post discussion questions there, but I'm hold off for now. If you do have your book, there will be J-Web questions for the next set of chapters.