How to Play Your Way to a Fun Life

Posted September 14, 2016

External Article: Slate

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, had his new book, Play Anything, reviewed in "How to Play Your Way to a Fun Life'" by Slate.

Excerpt:

The real value of philosopher and game designer Ian Bogost’s new book, Play Anything, didn’t hit me until I made several failed attempts to write this review. Since the central theme is play, I felt compelled to offer readers something fun—to fashion what Bogost describes as a playground.

It did not go well.

My first inspiration was drawn from Bogost’s account of an artistic school known as Oulipo, which crafts its products according to arbitrary constraints. Using a constraint that found popularity through Oulipo, I would try to dash off a manuscript without using our most common symbol (as I am in this paragraph, starting with My) and wax rhapsodic about how imposing random limits is actually magical, to show how Bogost’s approach in Play Anything can transform boring forms of writing into fun!

For the full article, read here