Readings

On this page: Required Textbooks, Online Readings, Foundational Bibliography, and Password Help.

Required Textbooks

There are two required textbooks. All are available the University Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St., Champaign 333-2050 or at your favorite bookstore, or online.

Note that because the course is crosslisted, books for this course may be filed under any of the rubrics, as they are equivalent. You need to check INFO 490 CSU, CMN 496 CSU, or possibly CMN 496 CSG (unlikely).

1. Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
2. Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (eds.) (2005). The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cambridge: MIT Press. (hardcover only)

(Go back to top.)

Online reader

Online readings are available in electronic form either free on the Web or using using password-protected links. Many electronic readings are in Adobe's portable document format (PDF). (Get the latest version of Adobe Reader for free.) Electronic readings that are password protected use your Active Directory password. More password help is at the bottom of this page. As we all know, Web servers are sometimes briefly unavailable. Plan ahead to avoid this problem and don't try to download the readings at the last minute. If a server is down at the last minute this is not an excuse to skip readings.

(Sorted and referred to by author.)

1. Beard, J. J. (2001). Clones, Bones, and Twilight Zones: Protecting the Digital Persona of the Quick, the Dead, and the Imaginary. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 16(3). http://www.law.berkeley.edu/journals/btlj/articles/vol16/beard/beard.pdf
2. Crowe, N. & Bradford, S. (2006). 'Hanging Out in Runescape': Identity, Work and Leisure in a Virtual Playground. Children's Geographies 4, no. 3, pp. 331-346. Please enter the title into the library website to pull up this article. Visit the library using this url http://www.library.illinois.edu if the link is not working. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
3. Dibbell, Julian. (1999, April). "A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society," Imaginary Realities 2, no. 4. (also published as ch. 1 of Dibbell's book My Tiny Life.)
   http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/ (click on "A Rape in Cyberspace")
4. Lenoir, T. (2000). All But War is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex. Configurations, 8(3), 289-335. (UIUC library electronic journal, use a UIUC on-campus computer to click on this link)
   http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/configurations/v008/8.3lenoir.pdf [TIP: If the above URL doesn't work because you are off-campus, try this URL instead http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=23380 (Your NetID and password are required). Then navigate to volume 8, issue 3 and find the article.]
5. Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2004). "Games as the Play of Simulation." From K. Salen & E. Zimmerman, Rules of Play, pp. 421-458. MIT Press.
   Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
6. Sandvig, C. (2006). The Internet at Play: Child Users of Public Internet Connections. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11(4): 932-956. Full text available online: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00302.x/pdf.
7. Dyer-Witheford, Nick & de Peuter, Grieg. (2009). Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
   Chapter 3: Machinic Subjects: The Xbox and Its Rivals. pp. 69-94. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
8. Dyer-Witheford, Nick & de Peuter, Grieg. (2009). Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
   Chapter 6: Imperial City: Grand Theft Auto. pp. 153-182. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]

(Go back to top.)

Foundational Bibliography

This bibliography will be referred to in class and may be used in your final projects and other special assignments (particularly graduate student assignments). The whole thing is good for you, and some sources have been scanned by the instructors for your convenience.

(Sorted and referred to by author.)

1. Callois, R. (1958/2001). Man, Play and Games (M. Barash, Trans.). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
2. Csikszentmihalyi M., & Bennett, S. (1971). An Exploratory Model of Play. American Anthropologist, 73(1), 45-58. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
3. Gadamer, H. G. (1998). Play as the Clue to Ontological Explanation (D. G. Marshall, Trans.). In H.-G. Gadamer (Ed.), Truth and Method (2nd ed., pp. 101-134). New York: Continuum. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
4. Geertz, C. (1973). Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The Interpretation of Cultures (pp. 412-453). New York: Basic Books. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
5. Giddens, A. (1964). Notes on the Concepts of Play and Leisure. The Sociological Review, 12(1), 73-89. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
6. Goffman, E. (1961). Fun in Games. In E. Goffman (Ed.), Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (pp. 15-81). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
7. Hearn, F. (1976-1977). Toward a Critical Theory of Play. Telos, 30, 145-160. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
8. Huizinga, J. (1950). Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon, pp. 1-27 FROM: Huizinga, J. (1950). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon Press. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
9. Lorenz, K. (1954). Man Meets Dog. London: Methuen. See, e.g., Ch. 16: "On Feline Play" (pp. 150-156). Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
10. Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction. Cognitive Science, 4, 333-369. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
11. Miller, S. (1973). Ends, Means, and Galumphing: Some Leitmotifs of Play. American Anthropologist, 75(1), 87-98. Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
12. Piaget, J. (1962). Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood (C. Gattegno & F. M. Hodgson, Trans.). New York: Norton.
13. Stephenson, W. (1988). The Play Theory of Mass Communication (rev. ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. See esp Ch. 4 ("Play Theory") Download this reading and Ch. 15 ("Play Theory of Mass Communication Broadly Considered") Download this reading. [Password protected: use your Active Directory Password for access. Get password help.]
14. Veblen, T. (1899/1994). The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Penguin Twentieth Century Classics. Read the complete book online via Project Gutenberg. See esp. Ch. 1: Introductory. (This book is so famous you can buy a handy pocket-sized reprint of the first chapter for about $8 so you can carry it around with you everywhere.)

(Go back to top.)