Is it still a game if you don't play by the rules? Every game has a set of rules. The rules might be thousands of lines of code or a few lines on the back of a boardgame box, but at some level all games are structural objects. This module looks at games as dynamic systems and explores what gives them their unique structural identity. Possible topics for discussion include: - game rules and game play - computation and systems theory - emergent complexity and artificial life - the formal qualities and underlying structures of games - genres and taxonomes of games - games as goal-oriented structures of desire - digital vs. non-digital games - game design as a design field