Fun and Games Books

While this book is great for the young ones, and was well received for our Read Across America events, it is not appropriate for the upper grade students.

This book has many good ideas to use in the classroom. It is using good children's literature, which is another plus.

Although this product was developed with classroom teachers in mind, I have found it a great supplement to my daughter's homeschool studies. Every so often, we take a week out of our normal schedule and do one of the Evan-Moor Theme Pockets.

The November book contains the instructions to make three pocket books: Native Americans, the Food Pyramid and Thanksgiving. The instructions are very detailed and easy to follow. My daughter really enjoys doing the crafts. The finished product is impressive and students can really learn a lot, especially if you utilize the bibilography and add in supplementary books from the library.

I rated the November volume of Theme Pockets 4 stars out of five because I felt the projects in the Food Pyramid pocket book were a bit lacking in creativity. A worksheet, which is the sole component of the vegetable group's pocket, isn't very exciting. The Thanksgiving and Native American books, however, are outstanding.

I love this book. It has lots of creative ideas. Each section gives you a type of shower with preparation ideas (including pictures), invitation, menu, decoration, activities and even type of favors. It makes it easier for you to do. I used one for a baby shower ideas just a month ago it was a big hit, I just added a few more things to it and BAM the perfect shower that was fun and colorful. I have recomended this book to my friend and will like to recommend it to you too.

This is a great book to travel with, good for the car and airplane, but if you have 2 kids, get 2 books, no one wants their mazes to be erased or covered up by their brother's! I got the slim & thick erase pens, they worked pretty well. Cleans off well too, but now they want it all the time! ;)

The book wasn't at all what I expected cause well its not really a book. It is tear away that has 50 ideas. Some of them are a little unrealistic, but most of them sound fun and will encurage you to try new things with your partner. I was a little dissapointed in most of them but I would still recomend it, especially is you are wanted to rekindle a flame! Just keep an open mind!

This book breaks down the components of good sentence structure, writing complex sentences, and writing interesting sentences and paragraphs in a way that is easy to follow and understand. I'm using it for homeschooling, but it is also an excellent tool for enhancing what your child has already learned in school.

I enjoy writing Mini-Lessons for second grade. It explains and gives examples for easy lessons. The book explains different levels of students giving the teacher an understanding of what to expect if you have never taught 2nd grade before. I used the Writing Mini-Lessons for Kindergarten last year and found it very helpful!

My family is having lots of fun learning the forms in this book. Easy to understand and any child who can read and write can do it. This book helped me interest my children in writing, and sometimes I find them doing it on their own now!

Koster has written an incredible book that cannot help but cover game design. The question of "fun" has baffled the game design community for years: it's an unquantifiable concept a designer succeeds at capturing more reliably with luck (and experience) than anything else. This book provides one of the first steps away from that.

For those who harangue the book because of the title, it's worth reading the Foreword, written by Will Wright.

To explain fun, Koster does not bother pretending to live in an ivory tower. He opens the doors to his life and allows you to connect with him as you ponder his ideas. Fun is difficult to disconnect from games, especially since that's his field, so he explains games, too. The result is a narrative, not a white paper: he brings you into his shoes and takes you on a journey, giving you contextual background before (How Brains Work) his central thesis and after (Ethics of Game Design).

The book is not a be-all, end-all "Definitive Guide to Fun". It's a provocation and a challenge, to game designers, to game theorists, and even to gamers. It's meant to make you think, not hold your hand. My favorite moment with the book was when I didn't have it: I loaned it to a roommate, who came back a week later completely stunned, complaining that it had made sense and had gotten him thinking. He plays rugby and Madden, mostly.

You won't find 12 steps to make your game fun, nor will you have any idea how to make a game after you read it, if you didn't before. But when you play a game, and you have fun, now you have somewhere to start in understanding why. And if another game bores you to tears, you may be able to figure out how to improve it.

The book is not about games. It's about gamers: about people. Because people have fun, and they sometimes even do it while gaming. And this book is about why.

There is actually a theory of fun buried in the book, but the time spent developing the theory is minimal. The rest of the book seems to be all about trying to justify choosing game design as a career. Geez! It's fun and you get paid. 'nuff said on that topic.

I should start out by mentioning that I'm reviewing this book from more of a general knowledge standpoint than a purely video game related one.

A lot of other reviews have mentioned that there aren't many practical tips in this book, which is true, but that's why it's a theory of fun and not a handbook of rules. Theories pull basic meanings & principles out of a vast, murky subject that can later evolve into practical uses, in this case for video games or any other artistic medium.

The author breaks down our sense of enjoyment into more manageable & understandable categories, like social and aesthetic satisfactions. But the bulk of the book covers the enjoyment that comes from learning patterns and overcoming challenges, which he defines as "fun."

Although fun as Koster defines it is most evident in video games, the enjoyment that comes from learning and figuring things out could just as easily apply to a mystery novel as a puzzle game. Having a firm understanding of "fun" as well as the other types of enjoyment could benefit any artistic pursuit.

Another fascinating concept in "Theory of Fun" is the idea that all artforms become more and more complex until only a dedicated few can master it, at which point the artform either dies off or is reinvented to better suit the masses. This concept could explain the recent rise of the Wii, with its simple, accessible approach to games over more complex systems.

All in all, "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" isn't just ideas on how to build a better video game mousetrap, but a basic intro on enjoyment so we can hopefully learn to create work that's enjoyable for others.

This is one of my first books i bought here at Amazon.
Im From Argentina and im studying Game Develop & Design. It is really good to read this kind of book because it really helps me on my develop here where the industry is staring recently.

It is an EXCELENT Book. It really acomplish everything i was looking for. It did, also, provide me a new sight of some matters when referring to Game Design.

I do disagree in some explications on the book but it is only my personal opinion and it doesn't make the book worst or anything.

It's a "HAD to HAVE.." book in your bookshelf.

Congratulations on the Writter!!

Koster's presentation makes the book extremely accessible, but still quite in-depth. He covers all the necessary ground.

His theory does not venture far from previous work, but in sticking to accepted dogma, he offers a fairly comprehensive and clear compilation of ideas. This is what makes the book a good read for anyone looking for a foundation in theory related to games.

I found that many ideas in the first half of the book to be over-simplified. Though most issues are readdressed in the second half, his dual presentation created a sense of contradiction. Some early implications are later negated.

Koster also involves a bit much of his own tastes and artistic ethics. This is primarily in the latter portions of the book, but it was enough to turn me off. He goes into some description of how games "should" be, the responsibility of the designer, etc. That may be interesting to some, but I prefer to determine my own principles.

Theory of Fun would do well as required reading for anyone seeking an education in game design, and could be useful to anyone in art, but if you've already covered the field of theory, you may not be too impressed. Still, it's an easy read and rewarding.

I also suggest this book to anyone looking at games from the outside, anyone not involved in production or consumption. It can give the layman a good look into a new world and maybe close some generation gaps. Theory of Fun may be what we need to mail to our representatives to keep them from judging games to hastily.

-Chris Rock
http://blog.sokay.net