Tracy Fullerton is head of the renowned games lab at the University of Southern California, and is on the Board of Directors for Square Enix, and Games for Change. 

For years, her book Game Design Workshop has taught pixel pushers that finding the fun is a process, not a vision. And her students include the makers of Journey, Threes!, and Outer Wilds, among others.

Her new book is called The Well-Read Game, and she joins grokludo to talk about a deeper way of playing games, building on things like reader-response theory, and arguing that it can not only be adapted to games, but in some ways, games are even more of a natural fit for a reading, than a book.

Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Why well "read"?
05:45 - The importance of journaling
09:36 - Games as art
18:12 - A new way of playing games
28:00 - What games are best for readings?
36:14 - What games have a variety of readings?
40:53 - Leaving out info to encourage interpretation
49:40 - Creating a suitable space to talk about games
58:21 - Advice for creating book clubs for games

You can find The Well Read Game here: https://www.thewellreadgame.com/

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