Reading 03: Annotated Bibliography

Cover for "The Shamutanti Hills" by Steve Jackson

“In ev’ry job that must be done 

There is an element of fun 

You find the fun, and snap! 

The job’s a game!” (Travers 1934)

I'm an active reader, it's a curse. Every time I read something it takes me forever because I get too critical with what I'm reading, for instance, when I read a historical novel,  I'm gonna have to have twenty Wikipedia articles open on my phone explaining the backstory of each and every character and place mentioned. So when it came to this weeks reading I made sure to take my active reading compulsions to the next level and really critically analyse what I have been reading.

I learned some interesting stuff, like that the term "gamification" was coined in 2002. However the thought of gamification goes back a long way, it seems that throughout our history, the human race has striven to gamify the boring parts of our life, such as everyday work life and even religious ceremony. I feel that this is an important aspect of life to focus on when writing my chapter as the history of humanity is directly tied to the predigital era of gaming.

I also came across a new game that I feel I should study, I stumbled upon it while going through The Oxford Companion of Children's Literature, "Fighting Fantasy" is a book based game published by the people behind the now popular Games Workshop, which now publishes many different videogames.

Excerpt from Oxford Companion of Children's Literature

Bibliography:

Predigital Precursors of Gamification

The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature

By Daniel Hahn