1. “The people transmitting their stories to the next generation aren’t priests or poets or medicine women. They’re multinational corporations. And they are not trying to appease the gods. They are trying to appease the shareholders” (Herz, 1997, p. 170).
Can we reclaim the story medium in one of its contemporary forms—i.e., videogames—to use it in a socially-responsive way and at the same time undo the problems that are currently associated with the use of this form?

2. Game Concepts What is a game Meaningful Play Designed Play
Rules
Interactivity
Narrative
Games as Systems

3. What is a Game?
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.
System
Players
Artificial (boundaries between artificial & real)
Conflict
Rules
Quantifiable outcome
Narrative

4. Meaningful Play
Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the design system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaningfulness of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome.
Meaningful play occurs when the relationship between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernable and integrated into the larger context of the game.

5. Games as Designed Systems
Games are Systems
Objects – parts, elements, or variables within the system
Attributes – qualities of properties of the system and its objects
Internal Relationships – relations among the objects
Environment – the context that surrounds the system
Social Interactions – the interactions one has with people around the system
Narrative Frame – storyline that provides overall game semiotics

6. Semiotics How meanings are made
A sign represents something other than itself
Signs are interpreted
Meaning results when a sign is interpreted
Context shapes interpretations
Meaning from objects comes from …
Rules
Narratives
Social Interactions
Boundaries

7. Anatomy of Choice
What happened before the player was given the choice?
How is the possibility of choice conveyed to the player?
How did the player make the choice?
What is the result of the choice? How will it affect future choices?
How is the result of the choice conveyed to the player?

8. Tic-Tac-Toe (rules) Players take turns One player has x and another o
Any cell can only have one o or x
To win you must have 3 in a row of the same type x or o
One move per turn
A row is horizontal, vertical, diagonal
Game is a draw when no player can move
3 x 3 grid
Two players
If you win you can go first