by Rolf F. Nohr
about Rolf F. Nohr
Rolf F. Nohr is a professor of media aesthetics and media culture at the University of Arts, Braunschweig. He is author of Die Natürlichkeit des Spielens (The Naturalness of Play), Nützliche Bilder: Bild, Diskurs, Evidenz (Useful Images: Picture, Discourse, Evidence) and Die Auftritte des Krieges sinnlich machen (Making the Appearances of the War Sensual). He is also a co-editor of the anthologies The Cake is a Lie! Polyperspektivische Betrachtungen des Computerspiels am Beispiel von ›Portal‹ (The Cake is a Lie! Polyperspectival Considerations of Computer Games Using Portal as an Example), and Strategie Spielen (Playing Strategy).
Tetris
Abstract: Rules are integral to the functioning of game systems and to the experiences they create; for the puzzle game Tetris, this means aligning blocks into rows before they fill the screen. But to fully understand how rules breathe life into interactive experiences, Rolf F. Nohr contends that we must analyze both explicit, internal rules and all those implicit, external regulations that color gaming experiences; playing Tetris is, thus, more than the sum of its blocks.