Jesper Juul, famous for being the first person to complete a PhD in computer games (at Copenhagen's ITU), has released his hotly anticipated games theory reader Half-Real, which covers the various debates in the academic games world, focussing on the imporant issues in Ludology.
From the blurb:
A video game is half-real: we play by real rules while imagining a fictional world. We win or lose the game in the real world but we slay a dragon (for example) only in the world of the game. In this thought-provoking study, Jesper Juul examines the constantly evolving tension between rules and fiction in video games. Discussing games from Pong to The Legend of Zelda, from chess to Grand Theft Auto, he shows how video games are both a departure from and a development of traditional non-electronic games. The book combines perspectives from such fields as literary and film theory, computer science, psychology, economic game theory, and game studies, to outline a theory of what video games are, how they work with the player, how they have developed historically, and why they are fun to play.
I've not read it yet, so can't yet comment, but it could be the perfect stocking stuffer for your games-thinker friends.
