Category Archives: games

Das Eckige muss ins Runde?



Weil Spiel-Software in der Regel einfacher zu bewerben und zu verkaufen ist als ihre bildungstheoretische Reflexion, gelten „Game based Learning“ (GBL), „Playducation“, „Gamification“ und ähnliche Projekte als state of the art – auf Didaktikmessen und Konferenztagen gleichermaßen. In der aktuellen … Continue reading

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Some Game Design Approaches

As impressive as most commercial games look like, ‘new’ games rely mostly on skinning (signs and stories), slight modding (rule systems), recombination and maybe some additional extras – to already known and successful games and game mechanics.

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At Last: My printable Werewolf Game is here…

One of the astonishing moments of gameplay comes, when out of a set of very simple rules and playing material an incredible dense and dark forest of actual play emerges. Gripping storylines, high emotions, alliances and conspiracies, endless possibilies. I … Continue reading

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Das Namenlose Uni-Hamburg-Spiel

Link zum Bild mit höherer Auflösung. Ein Blick auf den Spielplan genügt: Figuren aufstellen; versuchen, mit allen Figuren einmal ungeschlagen um den Parcours zu gelangen (“Wie ungerecht, die Studis müssen fünf Pöppel nach Hause bringen und die Profs nur drei!”). … Continue reading

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Unusability: You don’t want to play it again!

“Unusable games” sound like a contradiction: Who would want to play a game that doesn’t work? And why are there designers – educators, of all the people with already a reputation for bad game design – that create these unusable … Continue reading

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Neue Medien (er)spielen!

“Der sinnliche Trieb will bestimmt werden, er will sein Objekt empfangen; der Formtrieb will selbst bestimmen, er will sein Objekt hervorbringen; der Spieltrieb wird also bestrebt sein, so zu empfangen, wie er selbst hervorgebracht hätte, und so hervorzubringen, wie der … Continue reading

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About the virtuality of media

One of mankinds greatest achievements is also one of its greatest obstacles in furthering the means to represent and thus reflect and understand ‘reality’. Languages provides us with a seemingly simple way of assigning words to concepts to reality: Language, … Continue reading

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Causality in history: Chrononauts

“Chrononauts is a fascinating, whimsical exploration of time travel, causality, and possibility covering many fascinating and significant events of the last century or so.” – Andrew Looney “Chrononauts” by Anrew Looney (2000) is a card-based game where the players play … Continue reading

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Visual analysis of gamebooks

Gamebooks were, during the 80ies and before the rise of PCs and the internet, a staple of interactive fiction. Back then, the next best thing to sitting together with some friends and playing a face-to-face roleplaying game was reading these … Continue reading

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Lecture “First and Second Order Games” at the HAW

On tuesday, December 15th, from 18:00 to 19:30 I will give a lecture with the title “Spiele erster und zweiter Ordnung – Lernen zwischen Konvention und Innovation” (“First and second order games – Learning between convention and innovation”). I will … Continue reading

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