2025
Doruk, Balcı; Stenros, Jaakko; Sotamaa, Olli
Game Rules as Player Tools: Introspective Rulebook Method Journal Article
In: ACM Games: Research and Practice , vol. 3, iss. 2, pp. 1 - 14, 2025, ISSN: 2832-5516 .
Abstract | Links | Tags: Methodology, Player agency, Rules
@article{nokey,
title = {Game Rules as Player Tools: Introspective Rulebook Method},
author = {Doruk, Balcı and Jaakko Stenros and Olli Sotamaa},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3718056},
doi = {10.1145/3718056},
issn = {2832-5516 },
year = {2025},
date = {2025-04-09},
journal = {ACM Games: Research and Practice },
volume = {3},
issue = {2},
pages = {1 - 14},
abstract = {The rules we play by carry a structural role in our gameplay experiences as they shape the context and the agency we play through. While rules have long been part of scholarship around play and games, an overwhelming majority of these works carry an implicitly formalist approach, framing the rules as an unchanging part of the artifact. In this article, we highlight works that contribute to a diverse notion of rules and argue that a conscious and reflective understanding of rules can be a tool to shape and experiment with our agencies in games. We also introduce a novel game research method, Introspective Rulebook Method, a living document where the researcher-player reflects on and transforms the rules they play by, as a tool to invent alternative play-practices and metagames. Overall, our work here contributes to a broad understanding of game rules, and the capacity we carry in shaping the games we play.},
keywords = {Methodology, Player agency, Rules},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The rules we play by carry a structural role in our gameplay experiences as they shape the context and the agency we play through. While rules have long been part of scholarship around play and games, an overwhelming majority of these works carry an implicitly formalist approach, framing the rules as an unchanging part of the artifact. In this article, we highlight works that contribute to a diverse notion of rules and argue that a conscious and reflective understanding of rules can be a tool to shape and experiment with our agencies in games. We also introduce a novel game research method, Introspective Rulebook Method, a living document where the researcher-player reflects on and transforms the rules they play by, as a tool to invent alternative play-practices and metagames. Overall, our work here contributes to a broad understanding of game rules, and the capacity we carry in shaping the games we play.
2024
Stenros, Jaakko; Bowman, Sarah Lynne
Transgressive Role-Play Book Chapter
In: Zagal, José P.; Deterding, Sebastian (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies, Chapter 23, Routledge, 2024, ISBN: 9781003298045.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Role-play, Role-playing games, Rules
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Transgressive Role-Play},
author = {Jaakko Stenros and Sarah Lynne Bowman},
editor = {José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding},
url = {https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003298045},
isbn = {9781003298045},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-06-27},
booktitle = {The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies},
publisher = {Routledge},
chapter = {23},
abstract = {This chapter examines the violations against role-playing games (RPGs), expectations of play patterns, and cultural conceptions of role-playing. It discusses the boundedness of play, games, and RPGs and explains the concepts of transgression, deviance, and safety, including safety techniques. The chapter describes three categories of transgressive role-play: adult play and imagination as deviant; violations of game rules and the concept of “game”; and, finally, violations of norms relating to the relationship between the player and the character. “Game” as a concept is a sociocultural artifact. In order to play games together, participants need to trust that they share similar enough ideas about how games are played and how involved one should become while playing. The chapter considers violations of the concept of game, specifically transgressing game rules, trust amongst players, and issues with involvement as well as boundedness and separation of playing from the quotidian.},
keywords = {Role-play, Role-playing games, Rules},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
This chapter examines the violations against role-playing games (RPGs), expectations of play patterns, and cultural conceptions of role-playing. It discusses the boundedness of play, games, and RPGs and explains the concepts of transgression, deviance, and safety, including safety techniques. The chapter describes three categories of transgressive role-play: adult play and imagination as deviant; violations of game rules and the concept of “game”; and, finally, violations of norms relating to the relationship between the player and the character. “Game” as a concept is a sociocultural artifact. In order to play games together, participants need to trust that they share similar enough ideas about how games are played and how involved one should become while playing. The chapter considers violations of the concept of game, specifically transgressing game rules, trust amongst players, and issues with involvement as well as boundedness and separation of playing from the quotidian.
Stenros, Jaakko; Montola, Markus
The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games Book
The MIT Press, 2024, ISBN: 9780262377522.
Abstract | Links | Tags: External rules, Five rule types, Formal rules, Games, Internal rules, Material rules, Rules, Social rules
@book{Stenros2024,
title = {The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games},
author = {Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola },
url = {https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14730.001.0001
https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5742/The-Rule-BookThe-Building-Blocks-of-Games},
doi = {10.7551/mitpress/14730.001.0001},
isbn = {9780262377522},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-03-12},
urldate = {2024-03-12},
publisher = {The MIT Press},
series = {Playful Thinking},
abstract = {How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work.
Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing games. They all share one thing in common: rules. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In The Rule Book, Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games. Rules are constraints placed on us while we play, carving a limited possibility space for us. They also inject meaning into our play: without rules there is no queen in chess, no ball in Pong, and no hole in one in golf.
Stenros and Montola discuss how rules constitute games through five foundational types: the explicit statements listed in the official rules, the private limitations and goals players place on themselves, the social and cultural norms that guide gameplay, the external regulation the surrounding society places on playing, and the material embodiments of rules. Depending on the game, rules can be formal, internal, social, external, or material.
By considering the similarities and differences of wildly different games and rules within a shared theoretical framework, The Rule Book renders all games more legible.},
keywords = {External rules, Five rule types, Formal rules, Games, Internal rules, Material rules, Rules, Social rules},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work.
Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing games. They all share one thing in common: rules. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In The Rule Book, Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games. Rules are constraints placed on us while we play, carving a limited possibility space for us. They also inject meaning into our play: without rules there is no queen in chess, no ball in Pong, and no hole in one in golf.
Stenros and Montola discuss how rules constitute games through five foundational types: the explicit statements listed in the official rules, the private limitations and goals players place on themselves, the social and cultural norms that guide gameplay, the external regulation the surrounding society places on playing, and the material embodiments of rules. Depending on the game, rules can be formal, internal, social, external, or material.
By considering the similarities and differences of wildly different games and rules within a shared theoretical framework, The Rule Book renders all games more legible.
Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing games. They all share one thing in common: rules. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In The Rule Book, Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games. Rules are constraints placed on us while we play, carving a limited possibility space for us. They also inject meaning into our play: without rules there is no queen in chess, no ball in Pong, and no hole in one in golf.
Stenros and Montola discuss how rules constitute games through five foundational types: the explicit statements listed in the official rules, the private limitations and goals players place on themselves, the social and cultural norms that guide gameplay, the external regulation the surrounding society places on playing, and the material embodiments of rules. Depending on the game, rules can be formal, internal, social, external, or material.
By considering the similarities and differences of wildly different games and rules within a shared theoretical framework, The Rule Book renders all games more legible.
2021
Harviainen, J. Tuomas; Stenros, Jaakko
Central Theories of Games and Play Book Section
In: Vesa, Mikko (Ed.): Organizational Gamification: Theories and Practices of Ludified Work in Late Modernity, pp. 20-39, Taylor & Francis, 2021, ISBN: 9780367321185.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Definitions, Game definitions, Rules, Theories of play
@incollection{Harviainen2021,
title = {Central Theories of Games and Play},
author = {J. Tuomas Harviainen and Jaakko Stenros},
editor = {Mikko Vesa},
doi = {10.4324/9780429316722},
isbn = {9780367321185},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-02-25},
booktitle = {Organizational Gamification: Theories and Practices of Ludified Work in Late Modernity},
pages = {20-39},
publisher = {Taylor & Francis},
abstract = {This chapter reviews existing theories and frameworks of games, playfulness and play developed since the late nineteenth century. By understanding through various disciplines and approaches the principles of how humans relate to playing, it is possible to apply them to also organizational contexts in a fruitful manner.},
keywords = {Definitions, Game definitions, Rules, Theories of play},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
This chapter reviews existing theories and frameworks of games, playfulness and play developed since the late nineteenth century. By understanding through various disciplines and approaches the principles of how humans relate to playing, it is possible to apply them to also organizational contexts in a fruitful manner.