Game theorist Jesper Juul has posted an update on his official weblog linking to extracts from his new MIT Press book Half-Real.

As we've previously mentioned, Juul's keynote at this year's Serious Games Summit @ GDC was possibly the most listenable and practically relevant talk we've heard from anyone who could be labeled a 'game theorist', and Half-Real looks to continue that interest.

As for the name of the book, the preface explains: "A video game is half-real: we play by real rules while imagining a fictional world. We win or lose the game in the real world but we slay a dragon (for example) only in the world of the game."

And the introduction (PDF link) notes amusingly of early game regulation/censorship (in 1457, golf was banned in Scotland because "it was felt that it kept young men from practicing archery". So there.) Anyhow, go poke around, already.