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yukidoit's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
jeremyhornik's review against another edition
4.0
A playful and intellectually precise attempt to define games. The book is written as a series of dialogues between the Grasshopper (the foe of the Ant from the old fable) and his students, Skepticus and Prudence. It's quite funny. The dialogue has a great deal of wit, and the examples he draws to support his points are frequently hilarious. (For example, he imagines Sir Edmund Hilary, having climbed Everest, meeting a man in a bowler with a copy of the Times who has just taken the escalator up the other side.)
The definition of games is quite good, I think, although it may or may not help the maker of games. Here's the definition:
"To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means, and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity."
Or, in the example of the 400-meter dash, to play is to try to run across the finish line (not to drive across it), going all the way around the track (instead of running straight across it.) If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, it probably isn't. But if you like to think about games and rules, this will entertain and delight.
The definition of games is quite good, I think, although it may or may not help the maker of games. Here's the definition:
"To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means, and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity."
Or, in the example of the 400-meter dash, to play is to try to run across the finish line (not to drive across it), going all the way around the track (instead of running straight across it.) If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, it probably isn't. But if you like to think about games and rules, this will entertain and delight.
johndomc's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyable exploration of a definition of games, written in fine philosophical style, with poise and wit and colorfully imagined anecdotes. Sir Edmund Hillary arrives at the top of Everest, triumphant and more dead than alive, to find a man who, with a copy of the morning paper under his elbow, has taken the elevator up the other side; avid chess players receive boxes and boxes of captured chess pieces in the mail; two retired generals hold a companionable gaming feud, with net-piercing tennis balls and, in chess, the secret administration of hallucinogenic drugs as an offensive weapon. Allusions to Socrates, Jesus, Shakespeare... a playful book with weight. Very well-illustrated, too.
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