Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations

I'm using this book as one of my main sources for my Masters thesis. It is stunning in its breadth and depth analysis of the field. I'd write more but I need to finish the thesis. Cannot recommend enough!

As the foreword to this book notes, its intent is to provide a summary of the current state of RPG research, such that different disciplines can better cross-reference each other's findings. To my mind, that is exactly what the book provides, and it does so excellently.However, being a *summary* necessarily means that some detail gets lost. For example, the book spends a good two pages on discussing Bartle's player types - but, like most everywhere else, only the 4 player type model is discussed. The 8 player model, which has been published for at least 15 years and has advantages in differentiation, is not even mentioned.I would expect similar loss of detail throughout the book. Nevertheless, as a starting point for further reading, I would thoroughly recommend it!

A great collection of academy papers on RPG Studies. Here you will find something about almost any type or RPG, psychology, design, cultural impact, computer RPGs.