Description

Book Synopsis
How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work.

Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing games. They all share one thing in common: rules. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In The Rule Book, Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games. Rules are constraints placed on us while we play, carving a limited possibility space for us. They also inject meaning into our play: without rules there is no queen in chess, no ball in Pong, and no hole in one in golf.

Stenros and Montola discuss how rules constitute games through five foundational types: the explicit statements listed in the official rules, the private limitations and goals players place on themselves, the social and cultural norms that guide gamepla

The Rule Book

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    A Paperback by Jaakko Stenros

    £34.20

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    RRP £38.00 – you save £3.80 (10%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Tue 8 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher MIT Press
      Published 3 December 2024
      ISBN-13 9780262547444
      978-0262547444
      ISBN-10 0262547449
      Also in:
      Hobbies, Games & Quizzes Hobbies, quizzes and games

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work.

      Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing games. They all share one thing in common: rules. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In The Rule Book, Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games. Rules are constraints placed on us while we play, carving a limited possibility space for us. They also inject meaning into our play: without rules there is no queen in chess, no ball in Pong, and no hole in one in golf.

      Stenros and Montola discuss how rules constitute games through five foundational types: the explicit statements listed in the official rules, the private limitations and goals players place on themselves, the social and cultural norms that guide gamepla

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