the sims

Espen Aarseth holds that gameplay, not Lara Croft?s physique, should command the attention of an evolving game studies.

"Playing with play," John Cayley sets ludology on an even playing field with literature, but without literary scholarship's over-reliance on 'story,' 'closure,' and 'pleasure.'

Eric Zimmerman modifies Gonzalo Frasca's game strategy with a strategic patch.

Do violent games train us for violence? Drawing on social psychology and cognitive science, Simon Penny examines the "ethics of simulation."

An essay by Tara McPherson (and a conversation with Anne-Marie Schleiner) concerning patch mutations, opensorcery, and other explainable gaming offshoots.

Choosing between James Joyce and Stephen King means choosing between engagement and immersion. Or does it?

Moving from the holodeck to the game board, Janet Murray explains why we make dramas of digital simulations.

Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin introduce First Person, an interactive, multi-player collaboration between ebr and the MIT Press.