Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design - influential, provocative...

Like many working in games, Jesse Schell had a passion for playing and making games. Working first as a software engineer his roles grew from engineer to game designer to creative director (Disney). But Schell is aware to the challenges (risks, problems and bullshit) posed by accidental, inauthentic and downright Machiavellian misuse of the power of games.

The author of The Art of Game Design, he has gathered, created, and curated a trove of what he calls game design lenses. The game design lenses are a pirates treasure chest overflowing with influential and provocative ways of thinking about games, the game you are designing, or for thinking about any game. (You might even apply them to non-game products or services or things in the world.) (I encourage you to read Bruce Stirling's review of The Art of Game Design on Wired for a mature dose of balance.)

Schell gained a lot of attention for word sketch presented at DICE 2010, "Beyond Facebook" in which he thinks aloud about a world in which corporations have gamified nearly everything in our lives. Dystopia is just around the corner, if it hasn't already arrived. The future present is very very close to the world depicted in Cory Docktrow's short story Unauthorized Bread.

Have a look at his website to delve deeper http://www.jesseschell.com/.