BIOGRAPHY

Jesper Juul, Assistant Professor of computer game theory and design at the Center for Computer Games Research in Copenhagen, Denmark. Professor Juul designs games and chat systems for his company soup.dk and is currently at work on a book version of his PhD dissertation, Half Real.

ABSTRACT

Playing Culture
Friday (9:00 - 10:30) in Hall of Ideas G

In this unusual and provocative session, Jesper Juul and Eric Zimmerman will explore a cluster of issues surrounding social game play, game meaning, and the ways that players learn and use rules. Juul and Zimmerman are both game creators and game theorists, and for this session they bring their design and their scholarly interests to bear. Through an audience exercise, participants will not just play a game, but embody and perform games and game cultures. The game will serve as the touchstone for a presentation and discussion about the difference between game rules and game fiction, social roles that players take on during play, the role of a game's goal in social learning and play, the relationship between learning game rules and learning the "rules of culture," and the ability of game design as a critical too reflect upon itself as well as on important questions of games, learning, and culture. Come to this session prepared to play like you mean it.