Welcome

Together with the Institute for the Future of the Book I produced this website as a way to think about games. We released Version 1.1 back in 2006. Based on the many thoughtful and careful comments people made on it, I revised Gamer Theory and came up with Version 2.0, which is available here. Comments on Version 1.1 are now closed, but we welcome comments and discussion here at Version 2.0. I will probably not produce a Version 3.0 of this book. more ...


A print edition of Gamer Theory was published by Harvard University Press on 18 April 2007. The Harvard edition includes many comments from the 1.1 edition published here in 2006.

Book Chapters
And that is why multiplayer competitions are so popular. Only so many people can obtain rank X or Y, or equipment A or B...
On the contrary, I think the Cave can be controlled. It is controlled by the game designers who build it. They, however,...
The Cave is the world the person enters when gaming because they are excluded from the real social world around them, so...
Hi Ken, Great to return to your space. Jae...
I'm happy to see this replaced as the opening. It's a great introduction. Plus, now it's much easier to find it in th...
The game has become god. The cave is the tabernacle. The god gives guidance and direction for life. “Value the high sco...
"you [LOSE] again"...

Forum has been discontinued
We are looking into whether it is possible to resurrect the forum, but have had to disable it since moving servers.