This reader collects the texts, videos, and computer programs -- many of them now almost impossible to find -- that chronicle the history and form the foundation of the still-emerging field of new media. General introductions by Janet Murray and Lev Manovich, along with short introductions to each of the texts, place the works in their historical context and explain their significance. The texts were originally published between World War II -- when digital computing, cybernetic feedback, and early notions of hypertext and the Internet first appeared -- and the emergence of the World Wide...

Games and other playable forms, from interactive fictions to improvisational theater, involve role playing and story -- something played and something told. In Second Person, game designers, authors, artists, and scholars examine the different ways in which these two elements work together in tabletop role-playing games (RPGs), computer games, board games, card games, electronic literature, political simulations, locative media, massively multiplayer games, and other forms that invite and structure play.

Second Person -- so called because in these games and playable...