Theory of Fun for Game Design

4.5*
This book is a gem. And it is also more on the philosophical and psychology side. Does not really give any definition of fun is (besides mentioning the definitions from literature). But this doesn't necessarily have to be wrong. After all, fun can mean something different for everyone. Instead, he rather tries to explain what can spark fun in what we are doing. In games. However, I feel, that his biggest goal here was rather to push boundaries on how people see and create games and move it a bit into the ‘art' direction. To transform the medium into a little bit more mature one. To make it ask questions without answers and ones which reflect our own struggles in life.
It was written in 2003 and updated 10 years later and the industry has grown a lot since then. And I believe that in the direction that the author wanted it to be. The Indie scene is the best examples of this. But even some bigger titles tried to struggle not only with black and white or power fantasies.