Intro; Contents; On Thinking Playfully; Preface; I -- Finding the Fun; 1 -- The Search for Fun; Set-Outsideness; Ludic Forms; Ambiguity; II -- Fun; 2 -- Reclaiming Fun; 3 -- The Problem with Fun; The Language of Fun; How to Talk about Fun in a World without "Fun"; Fun en Espa�nol; The Scientific Pursuit of Fun; The Ambivalence of Fun; 4 -- Fun in the Age of Consumerism; Hedonic and Eudaimonic Experiences; Smaller Aesthetics; Fun in the Age of Consumerism; 5 -- The Aesthetic of Meaningful Choice; Computer Science; Cybernetics; Systems Dynamics; Game Theory; The Creation of the Aesthetic of Meaningful Choice

In Pursuit of First PrinciplesCodification and Education; Theorizing Games; Connecting the Dots; 6 -- Electric Kool-Aid Playground; III -- Taste; 7 -- Peeling Back the Layers of Taste; Choice of Games (Genre); Play Styles; Play Communities; Culture Reflects Back; 8 -- Monopoly, Taste, and Games; 9 -- Duchamp + Chess; 10 -- The Curious Case of Myst; 11 -- We the Gamers; Disaster Box Seats; Gamergate Gets Personal; The Monster Rises; The Blame Game; IV -- Games; 12 -- Fun in Games; 13 -- Coming to Terms with Basketball; 14 -- Making Friends in a Robot Playground; 15 -- Go East (or West or North or South); Notes

PrefaceChapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Chapter 12; Chapter 13; Chapter 15; Bibliography; Index

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Reclaiming fun as a meaningful concept for understanding games and play. "Fun" is somewhat ambiguous. If something is fun, is it pleasant Entertaining Silly A way to trick students into learning Fun also has baggage--it seems inconsequential, embarrassing, child's play. In Fun, Taste, & Games , John Sharp and David Thomas reclaim fun as a productive and meaningful tool for understanding and appreciating play and games. They position fun at the heart of the aesthetics of games. As beauty was to art, they argue, fun is to play and games--the aesthetic goal that we measure our experiences and interpretations against. Sharp and Thomas use this fun-centered aesthetic framework to explore a range of games and game issues--from workplace bingo to Meow Wolf, from basketball to Myst , from the consumer marketplace to Marcel Duchamp. They begin by outlining three elements for understanding the drive, creation, and experience of fun: set-outsideness, ludic forms, and ambiguity. Moving from theory to practice and back again, they explore the complicated relationships among the titular fun, taste, and games. They consider, among other things, the dismissal of fun by game journalists and designers; the seminal but underinfluential game Myst, and how tastes change over time; the shattering of the gamer community in Gamergate; and an aesthetics of play that goes beyond games.

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