About
Jeff Watson is an artist, designer, and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
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Tag Archives: play
Strange Toys
Imagine you’re in some medieval Kingdom and the king is a mendacious psycho and the reality is that his policies are going to a) harm pretty much everyone but the rich and powerful; and b) erase the good works of … Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged donald trump, e3, ethics, play, toys, usa, videogames, wizards
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Biology of Story Interview: “Living is a Story Thing”
Thanks to Amnon Buchbinder and the Biology of Story team for conducting and smartly editing this interview with me. Check out Amnon’s description of the project and start exploring other thinkers on the topic of story here.
Posted in Blog, Interviews
Tagged amnon buchbinder, biology of story, games, hockey, narrative, play, sports, story
1 Comment
E3: Putting Play in its Place Since 1995
There’s so much wrong with the videogames industry, and there will always be important work to be done within it. But sometimes, in our attention to urgent matters, we can lose the forest for the trees. The entire enterprise deserves … Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged buzzkill, democracy, e3, play, playmaking, power, uses of play, videogames
4 Comments
Not hubris but the ever self-renewing impulse to play
“Not hubris but the ever self-renewing impulse to play calls new worlds into being.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
Posted in Quotes
Tagged friedrich nietzsche, hubris, play, worldbuilding, worldmaking
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Play does not only include the logics of the game
“Play does not only include the logics of the game – it also includes the values of the player. Her politics. Her body. Her social being. Play is a part of her expression, guided through rules, but still free, productive, … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes
Tagged miguel sicart, performance, play, procedurality
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Play implies interplay
“[Play,] whether in life or in a wheel, implies interplay. There must be give and take, or dialogue, as between two or more persons and groups.” – Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
“The rules just kind of got there…”
“The rules just kind of got there. They don’t make any kind of sense except in terms of themselves. But when you start to exercise those rules, all sorts of processes start to happen and you start to find out … Continue reading
Players Make Play For Nothing
An insightful post by David Fono about community-based content generation in ARGs and MMOs: A couple of posts got me thinking about the issue of player generated content recently. Tony Walsh writes generally about players as storytellers as a trend … Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged content generation, david fono, play
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Ground-Up City
Ground-up City. Play as a Design Tool maps the continuing history of an urban design strategy for play in the city. Liane Lefaivre has developed a theoretical model for tackling playgrounds as an urban strategy. She steps off from a … Continue reading
Narrative, Play and Social Space
A brief statement describing my academic research and development objectives at the commencement of my PhD. Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged narrative, play, public space
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