Drew Davidson – författare

Since 2024, Drew Davidson has been conducting an exploratory qualitative study, Stories of/by/for the Fields of Play, with Emily Matheny and many others. Through questionnaires, 175 in-depth interviews, and community participation, he has been engaging with stories around the fields of play; like games, mixed reality, theatre, sports, music, child psychology, etc. The concept of play is rather broad and diverse; from social studies, to health and enjoyment, to education and learning, to games and technology, and more. As such, this is less a focus on a discipline, and more an exploration of the extensive ideas around play, looking for patterns, commonalities, and differences across various areas amongst educational, industry, professional, foundation, and government groups involved in play. This book is a playful thematic oral history of the stories shared. Everyone involved has become a collaborator in this study, starting with their trust in sharing their expertise and experiences through our interviews and conversations. They ve been willing to stay involved and have been open to following the ideas and perspectives throughout this process. They exemplify play, and are amazing and inspiring collaborators. And the book has morphed into two versions with the same content, organized differently. This one, Playing Around, is a more playful version, splitting and interweaving the sections amongst each other to let them resonate and make for more of a mix of ideas. And the other, Playing it Straight, is a more scholarly version that keeps distinct sections for ease of reference. Another way to think of these two versions is as a deck of cards: the latter has all the cards in order, while the former has them shuffled together. I believe the two versions need each other to more fully manifest the interwoven tapestry of playful stories shared.

Since 2024, Drew Davidson has been conducting an exploratory qualitative study, Stories of/by/for the Fields of Play, with Emily Matheny and many others. Through questionnaires, 175 in-depth interviews, and community participation, he has been engaging with stories around the fields of play; like games, mixed reality, theatre, sports, music, child psychology, etc. The concept of play is rather broad and diverse; from social studies, to health and enjoyment, to education and learning, to games and technology, and more. As such, this is less a focus on a discipline, and more an exploration of the extensive ideas around play, looking for patterns, commonalities, and differences across various areas amongst educational, industry, professional, foundation, and government groups involved in play. This book is a playful thematic oral history of the stories shared. Everyone involved has become a collaborator in this study, starting with their trust in sharing their expertise and experiences through our interviews and conversations. They ve been willing to stay involved and have been open to following the ideas and perspectives throughout this process. They exemplify play, and are amazing and inspiring collaborators. And the book has morphed into two versions with the same content, organized differently. This one, Playing it Straight, is a more scholarly version that keeps distinct sections for ease of reference. And the other, Playing Around, is a more playful version, splitting and interweaving the sections amongst each other to let them resonate and make for more of a mix of ideas. Another way to think of these two versions is as a deck of cards: the latter has all the cards in order, while the former has them shuffled together. I believe the two versions need each other to more fully manifest the interwoven tapestry of playful stories shared.

A lot of us have a special game that inspired us to get more deeply involved in making, studying and playing games as part of our professional and personal lives. It may be *the* game for you or just *a* game that means a lot, and you find yourself replaying it regularly. It could even be a couple of games, or a games series, or a game that disappointed you enough that you were inspired to try and make one even better. Whatever the case may be, the contributors to this book have focused on, and analyzed, that game(s), exploring why they think it had such an impact on them, and how it helped define their love of games in general.Well Played: For the Love of Games, is a curated book of authors and their submissions, and it’s a companion to the special issue of the Well Played Journal.

Creative Chaos describes the dynamic process of collaborative design and development within interdisciplinary teams as they work to create something together. Creativity is wonderfully complex and chaotic, and at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center we often describe what we do as “creative chaos” in that it’s not necessarily a process within which you ever have complete control.To articulate what this means, this short book provides an overview of the ETC and our research on how diversity, inclusion and innovation are related, and also how we support these three associated ideas through our project-based curriculum. We then extrapolate from this to share some applicable best practices from the lessons we’ve been learning about the creative process and how best to support diverse teams and help them make the most of the creative chaos.

Creative Chaos describes the dynamic process of collaborative design and development within interdisciplinary teams as they work to create something together. Creativity is wonderfully complex and chaotic, and at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, we often describe what we do as “creative chaos” in that it’s not necessarily a process within which you ever have complete control.To articulate what this means, this short book provides an overview of the ETC, our research on how diversity, inclusion and innovation are related, and how we support these three associated ideas through our project-based curriculum. We then extrapolate from this to share some applicable best practices from the lessons we’ve been learning about the creative process and how best to support diverse teams and help them make the most of the creative chaos.

In this volume, people of diverse backgrounds — tabletop game designers, digital game designers, and game studies academics — talk about tabletop games, game culture, and the intersection of games with learning, theater, and other forms.Even as the digital revolution has progressed apace, tabletop games — board and card, roleplaying and miniatures — have grown and attracted many new fans. Indeed, in tabletop gaming there is far more diversity and design innovation than in digital games, and tabletop games have become of increasing interest to videogame designers, game design instructors, and people who study games of all forms. In this volume, people of diverse backgrounds — tabletop game designers, digital game designers, and game studies academics — talk about tabletop games, game culture, and the intersection of games with learning, theater, and other forms. Some have chosen to write about their design process, others about games they admire, others about the culture of tabletop games and their fans. The results are various and individual, but all cast some light on what is a multivarious and fascinating set of game styles.

This text is an introduction to the future of mass media and mass communications – cross-media communications. Cross-media is explained through the presentation and analysis of contemporary examples and project-based tutorials in cross-media development. The text introduces fundamental terms and concepts, and provides a solid overview of cross-media communications, one that builds from a general introduction to a specific examination of media and genres to a discussion of the concepts involved in designing and developing cross-media communications. CMC Media Files show how cross-media can be applied, with art, music and illustrations that complement the text. Chapters have overviews and problem-based/project-based activities to encourage active engagement with the readings. Throughout the text there are specific examples, case studies, foundations, and interviews with experts in the field to better illustrate the nature of cross-media. Cross-media Communications are integrated, interactive experiences that occur across multiple media, with multiple authors and have multiple styles. The audience becomes an active part in a cross-media experience. The overarching goal is to provide an overview of cross-media design and development. It is meant to be interdisciplinary and introductory in concept and implementation.

This book focuses on strategies for applying games, simulations and interactive experiences in learning contexts. The contributors orchestrated this collection together, reading and writing as a whole so that concepts resonate across articles. Throughout, the promises and problems of implementing games and media in learning experiences are explored. The articles have been authored by Clark Aldrich, Ian Bogost, Mia Consalvo, William Crosbie, Drew Davidson, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Melinda Jackson, Donna Leishman, Michael Mateas, Marc Prensky, Scott Rettberg, Kurt Squire, David Thomas, Siobhan Thomas, Jill Walker Rettberg, and Jenny Weight.

This is a unique text exploring the interplay between stories and media. The discussion focuses around the Myst narrative as it moves across media from games to books to comics to games. Along the way, the text also discusses the Sandman comics, and the hypermedia of Ultima Online and MitterNachtSpiel. This text was created hypertextually to exist online as a website with an inter-related book.

Following on Well Played 1.0 and 2.0, this book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. Contributors analyze sequences in a game in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how the various components of a game can come together to create fulfilling a playing experience unique to this medium. Contributors again look at video games, some that were covered in Well Played 1.0 and 2.0 as well as new ones, in order to provide a variety of perspectives on more great games.

Following on Well Played 1.0, this book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. Contributors analyze sequences in a game in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how the various components of a game can come together to create a fulfilling playing experience unique to this medium. Contributors are again looking at video games in order to provide a variety of perspectives on the value of games.