electronic book review

digital futures of literature, theory, criticism, and the arts

the sims

Celia Pearce responds
Jesper Juul responds in turn
Representation, Enaction, and the Ethics of Simulation

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

Patched In: A Conversation with Anne-Marie Schleiner about Computer Gaming Culture

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

Douglas and Hargadon respond in turn

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

From Game-Story to Cyberdrama

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

First Person: Introduction

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

Between a Game and a Story?

Ken Perlin on a game-narrative difference that makes a difference: does agency, rather than identifiction, make characters in a game seem more real than those in novels or films?

Notes Toward a More Pervasive Cyberdramaturgy

Jane McGonigal goes mobile with a "transformational agenda" shift for Cyberdrama.