Computer games: strategy guides Books

Book Synopsis From the one-bit beeps of Pong to the 3D audio of PlayStation 5, this book examines historical trends in video game sound and music. A range of game systems sold in North America, Europe and Japan are evaluated by their audio capabilities and industry competition. Technical fine points are explored, including synthesized v. sampled sound, pre-recorded v. dynamic audio, backward compatibility, discrete and multifunctional soundchips, storage media, audio programming documentation, and analog v. digital outputs. A timeline chronicles significant developments in video game sound for PC, NES, Dreamcast, Xbox, Wii, Game Boy, PSP, iOS and Android devices and many others.

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Book SynopsisArgues for the queer potential of video gamesWhile popular discussions about queerness in video games often focus on big-name, mainstream games that feature LGBTQ characters, like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, Bonnie Ruberg pushes the concept of queerness in games beyond a matter of representation, exploring how video games can be played, interpreted, and designed queerly, whether or not they include overtly LGBTQ content. Video Games Have Always Been Queer argues that the medium of video games itself canand shouldbe read queerly.In the first book dedicated to bridging game studies and queer theory, Ruberg resists the common, reductive narrative that games are only now becoming more diverse. Revealing what reading D. A. Miller can bring to the popular 2007 video game Portal, or what Eve Sedgwick offers Pong, Ruberg models the ways game worlds offer players the opportunity to explore queer experience, affect, and desire. As players attempt to ''pass'' in OctodaTrade ReviewRuberg powerfully calls for the reclaiming of the entirety of the games medium, identifying how LGBTQ players have always belonged in games (209) … I strongly recommend this book for researchers and students of queer studies and game studies and for scholars focused on media and culture. * Feminist Media Studies *This book helps us to identify the dominant preconceived notions surrounding games, which allows us to resist the heteronormative logic’s preferred ways to interpret and play games....I believe this book is a cornerstone of queer game studies, which will inspire scholars to think beyond the preconceived notions around queerness in, of, and around video games... The book is useful for everyone but especially ideal for students and scholars of queer studies and game studies, who defend and celebrate the different identities, activities, pleasures, and meanings that are available in video games. * Critical Studies in Media Communication *Ruberg offers a polemical intervention into game studies, discovering queer frisson through close readings of how games are played, from the touching shoulders of two men playing a Pong cabinet in the 1970s to the modern trend of speed running or glitching games that transforms the temporality and meaning of play * Real Life Magazine *Bonnie Ruberg is one of the most innovative and original thinkers in the field of game studies. Ruberg's latest work gives us a nuanced and insightful approach to thinking about games through a queer lens. Its essential reading for anyone interested in the cutting edge of theorization about digital games. -- Mia Consalvo, author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in VideogamesOffers an innovative and critical contribution to not just the study of games, but media more broadly. Video Games Have Always Been Queer asks us to take not simply representation, but play itself, seriously and provides powerful ways for thinking about queerness and games. Its an exciting contribution to the field and a must-read for all media scholars. -- T. L. Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyViewing video games through a queer lens powerfully illuminates the ways in which traditional and mainstream video games are queer down to their very code. * European Journal of Cultural Studies *

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Book SynopsisThe Dreamcast Encyclopedia is the fifth book in Scottish author and games journalist Chris Scullion's critically-acclaimed series of video game encyclopedias. The Sega Dreamcast is fondly remembered by players as a games console that was ahead of its time, almost to a fault. Its incredible graphics offered a level of detail that hadn't been seen on home systems to that point, and its built-in modem brought online multiplayer to many console players for the first time ever. Ultimately though, the release of the PS2 (and later the GameCube and Xbox) led to struggling sales and Sega would eventually pull the plug on the Dreamcast just two years into its life, bowing out of the console manufacturing business altogether. On paper the Dreamcast was a commercial failure, but those who owned one remember it so fondly that for many it remains one of the greatest games consoles of all time, with a small but well-formed library of high-quality games. This book contains every one of those games, including not only the entire western library of around 270 titles, but also the 340 or so games that were exclusively released in Japan. With over 600 games covered in total, screenshots for every title and a light-hearted writing style designed for an entertaining read, The Dreamcast Encyclopedia is the definitive guide to one of the most underrated gaming systems of all time.

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This book is a potted history of video games, telling all the rollercoaster stories of this fascinating young industry that's now twice as big globally than the film and music industries combined. Each chapter explores the history of video games through a different lens, giving a uniquely well-rounded overview. Packed with pictures and stats, this book is for video gamers nostalgic for the good old days of gaming, and young gamers curious about how it all began. If you've ever enjoyed a video game, or you just want to see what all the fuss is about, this book is for you. There are stories about the experimental games of the 1950s and 1960s; the advent of home gaming in the 1970s; the explosion - and implosion - of arcade gaming in the 1980s; the console wars of the 1990s; the growth of online and mobile games in the 2000s; and we get right up to date with the 2010s, including such cultural phenomena as twitch.tv, the Gamergate scandal, and Fortnite. But rather than telling the whole story from beginning to end, each chapter covers the history of video games from a different angle: platforms and technology, people and personalities, companies and capitalism, gender and representation, culture, community, and finally the games themselves.

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Book SynopsisThe best-selling author of the Baby Loves Science series levels up with this playful STEM picture book introducing kids?and grown-ups?to the robotics world.Do you want to know a secret? Sometimes grown-ups need YOU to explain things to THEM. Like robotics!In this tongue-in-cheek guide, an in-the-know narrator instructs kid readers in the fine art of explaining robotics to a grown-up. Both children and their adults learn: what makes a robot a robot, who designs and builds robots, and how robots work on their own to get a job done. Fun and fact-filled, the How to Explain Science series will empower kid experts to explore complex scientific concepts with any grown-up who will listen.

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Book SynopsisVideo games are considered by many to be just entertainment—essentially void of skillful, artistic intervention. But as any gamer knows, there’s incredible technical and graphic talent behind even a flickering Gameboy screen. You may have never heard Shigeru Miyamoto’s name, but you’ve probably spent many a lazy afternoon absorbed in his work. Joining Nintendo as a video game designer in the late 1970s, Miyamoto created the powerhouse franchises Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong—games so ubiquitous that Miyamoto was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2007. Combining critical essays with interviews, bibliographies, and striking visuals, Shigeru Miyamoto unveils the artist behind thousands of glowing gaming screens, tracing out his design decisions, aesthetic preferences, and the material conditions that shaped his work. With this incredible (and incredibly unknown) figure, series editors Jennifer DeWinter and Carly Kocurek launch the Influential Video Game Designers series, at last giving these artists the recognition they deserve.Trade ReviewI came to this book knowing very little about Miyamoto, but, like anyone else who’s been playing video games since he was a kid, and having played at least a dozen of his titles, several are permanently burned into my brain. DeWinter lays out his many influences, from his time exploring caves in the rural region where he grew up to his time as a teenage banjo player. There were multiple moments when I came across some new (to me) piece of information about Miyamoto, thought back to a game of his — in some cases, one I haven’t played in years — and felt the cognitive click of recognition. -- Jessie Singal * The Boston Globe *Summing up such a massive career is an unbelievable act of compression, and what is there is incredibly well-researched and well-synthesized to the point that it feels like its own tidy Miyamoto-like object… An incredibly well-rounded resource, brimming with anecdotes, interviews, and any document on-hand to provide a clearer understanding of a public-yet-enigmatic figure. -- Cameron Kunzelman * Paste Magazine *Shigeru Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda really gets at the heart of Miyamoto’s influence on the gaming industry … Providing a great understanding of Shigeru Miyamoto’s role in the gaming industry, it’s a book that also gives readers an understanding of the history of gaming as a whole, as well as the many influences one influential designer can have … it provides a fascinating look at how the gaming industry has evolved through the years. * Games Fiends *As Influential Video Game Designers: Shigeru Miyamoto stands, the book is a must-read for young game designers and those who may be considering entering the field. The book provides the greatest insight I've ever read on the history, philosophy and creative process of perhaps the most beloved game creator in industry history. -- Patrick Scott Patterson * SyFy Games *[R]eadable and informative ... Shigeru Miyamoto is a dedicated exploration of an undeniably important contributor to videogame history and culture ... deWinter presents an accessible but always academic study that could provide design students with fresh inspiration just as quickly as it could provide an academic a fresh perspective from which to approach digital games. * Cultural Sociology *DeWinter expertly sifted through a varied assemblage of critical essays, interviews, biographies, and articles on Miyamoto to deliver one of the most definitive examinations to date of his astonishing career. -- Robert Marrujo * Nintendojo *The Influential Video Game Designers series aims at a gap in interdisciplinary games studies: the game-‘auteur.’ To date, video games are considered goods—produced in economics without authorship. However, a close look shows that the "object" of the video game comprises not only modes of production or economics, but also the perspective of a maker. In this sense, the first volume of the series, about the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, is conceptually and theoretically the right decision: Miyamoto is a game designer who is rather unknown to public, but certainly popular and ever-present (at least to a general audience) with his games. To discuss the work, aesthetic preferences, and strategies of production of a man who could be addressed as one of the ‘father figures’ of game design is the right decision. The book itself is not only a must-have for everybody interested in gaming culture, game design or the Japanese gaming industry, but also a great way to remember when you wasted your free time (and your coins) by playing Super Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong. * Rolf Nohr, Professor of Media Aesthetics / Media Culture, The Braunschweig University of Art, Germany *Historians of digital games have until now lacked a critical assessment of the game industry's most famous and influential designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. This certainly held us back, but Jennifer deWinter has at last removed the problem with this balanced account of his achievements. The rest of us will have to get busy and build on her outstanding work. * Henry Lowood, History of Science & Technology Collections and Film & Media Collections, Stanford University Libraries, USA *With this book Jennifer deWinter and Carly Kocurek have made an enormous contribution to the study of videogame history, design and aesthetics. This is not only due to the work's novel focus upon a single designer, but also due to the forensic manner in which they unpack the complex relationship between Miyamoto’s oeuvre and the material conditions which influenced every design decision. Written in an engaging, concise style, this is more than just a book for academics: it is essential reading for any designer or fan of the medium. * Steven Conway, Lecturer in Games & Interactivity, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia *Ultimately, the book is effective in discussing the context and styles of Miyamoto’s influential work as a game designer… And at 184 pages, the relatively brief study should be accessible to scholars and nonscholars alike who are curious about game development. * American Journal of Play *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures Foreword Chapter 1: The Father of Modern Video Games Chapter 2: Spatial Narratives: Characters in their Worlds Chapter 3: From Games to Experiences: Designing for User Freedom and Unique Expression Chapter 4: Revolutionizing Gameplay: Casual Games and Mature Audiences Chapter 5: In His Own Words: Transcript of Miyamoto's 1999 Game Developer Conference Keynote Chapter 6: A Continuing Legacy Gameography Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisHe is the most dominant fighting game champion in the world. But before he was Japan’s first pro gamer, Daigo was one of many players battling their way through Japanese arcades during the golden age of fighting games. Find out how the player became the legend in DAIGO THE BEAST: UMEHARA FIGHTING GAMERS! In Volume 2: In the 1990s, the young Daigo is rising above the fray on the challenging Akihabra arcade beat. But when his singular dedication to gaming faces the resistance of an unforgiving society, conflict begins to brew.

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Book SynopsisEnter the world of Street Fighter, where fighters of every size, shape and color collide in a global battle for supremacy. In this volume: New challengers rise up, while longtime favorites take their martial arts to the next level! The mysterious Menat confronts Shadaloo, Nash returns from the grave, Ken confronts his dark side, Alex faces off with the Mad Gear Gang, Sakura and Karin cross fists one final time, and Akuma descends into a demonic hellscape! This volume collects: Street Fighter V #1, SFV: Wrestling Special #1, SF: Charlie Nash #1, SF: Menat #1, SF: Wrestlepalooza #1, SF: Sakura VS Karin #1, SF: Necro & Effie #1, SF: Akuma VS Hell #1, SF: Super Combo Special, Ultra Street Fighter II #1

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Book SynopsisThe Art of Ni no Kuni (TM)II: REVENANT KINGDOM is a lavish full-color book showcasing the best art from the highly anticipated roleplaying game. Developed by Level-5 and with collaboration from legendary Studio Ghibli animator Yoshiyuki Momose, Ni no Kuni (TM)II: REVENANT KINGDOM is a beautiful, characterful and exciting game. This book is the ultimate fan resource, showcasing the development of the amazing characters, monsters, vehicles and locations from initial concept sketches through to the finished artworks.Trade Review"A blissful celebration of Level-5 and Yoshiyuki Momose’s legendary artistry, animation, and character design... An essential addition to your collection." VG Blogger

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Book SynopsisThis information-packed strategy guide is a must-have for any Apex Legends player. With handy hints and tips to get you started, this guide will help you to quickly master the basics of the game, including the best weapons, playing as a team and all map locations.As each game is completely different, this guide will help even advanced players hone their technique, find the best loot and choose their weapons wisely. You will also learn about the characters, reviving team members and secrets of the map!

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Book SynopsisStarting with the announcement trailer in 2014, Overwatch's award-winning cinematics captured the hearts of millions across the world, introducing them to a hopeful science fiction world where heroes are needed. Crafting these animated shorts required the Blizzard cinematics team to explore new ways of animated filmmaking with a bold new art style, more frequent releases, and intimate collaboration with the game team. The Cinematic Art of Overwatch chronicles this journey, featuring never-before-seen art and anecdotes that illustrate how Overwatch's richly imagined characters and world were brought to life through cinematic storytelling.

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Book SynopsisSony’s PlayStation revolutionised the videogame industry. It wasn’t the first home console, but it brought gaming to the masses in a way few other systems at the time managed to do. Now, more than 25 years after its initial release there are over 10,000 games spanning Sony’s home and handheld consoles, and PlayStation leads the way in console exclusives. With so many experiences and genres to choose from, it can be daunting. But fear not! We’ve compiled 100 unmissable titles that no PlayStation fan’s library should be without. Some titles will challenge you and test your wits, others provide simple escapism. Some will make you laugh, others may make you cry – but each experience will be unforgettable. Inside you’ll also find behind-the-scenes features from the archives of Retro Gamer, EDGE and GamesRadar, giving you insider info on the creation of some of PlayStation’s finest games, most enduring franchises and iconic characters.

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Book SynopsisWalk around an arcade nowadays and you' ll find it filled with countless penny pushing games and fruit machines. In the Seventies and Eighties it was a completely different scenario with those machines playing second fiddle to countless arcade games. While home computers were moving at an astonishing rate they still couldn' t compete with the incredible games that were being released in the arcades. It was an insanely exciting time to be a gamer and it seemed like a new mechanic or type of game was appearing every time you visited your local arcade. Pong, Asteroids, Street Fighter, Pac Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong are all featured in this book. Sure, many of those games that took your breath away would eventually appear on your own home system, but they were never as good as the originals. Retro Arcade Classics looks at all the greatest arcade content so you can relive one of gaming' s most amazing periods.

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Book SynopsisEnter the expansive world of The Elder Scrolls Online and discover how to survive the wilds of Tamriel!

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Book SynopsisHow gaming intersects with systems like history, bodies, and code Why do we so compulsively play video games? Might it have something to do with how gaming affects our emotions? In Playing with Feelings, scholar Aubrey Anable applies affect theory to game studies, arguing that video games let us “rehearse” feelings, states, and emotions that give new tones and textures to our everyday lives and interactions with digital devices. Rather than thinking about video games as an escape from reality, Anable demonstrates how video games—their narratives, aesthetics, and histories—have been intimately tied to our emotional landscape since the emergence of digital computers.Looking at a wide variety of video games—including mobile games, indie games, art games, and games that have been traditionally neglected by academia—Anable expands our understanding of the ways in which these games and game studies can participate in feminist and queer interventions in digital media culture. She gives a new account of the touchscreen and intimacy with our mobile devices, asking what it means to touch and be touched by a game. She also examines how games played casually throughout the day create meaningful interludes that give us new ways of relating to work in our lives. And Anable reflects on how games allow us to feel differently about what it means to fail.Playing with Feelings offers provocative arguments for why video games should be seen as the most significant art form of the twenty-first century and gives the humanities passionate, incisive, and daring arguments for why games matter.Trade Review"Playing with Feelings traces a compelling intellectual history and uses affect theory to rethink some core game studies debates. Aubrey Anable’s insights on casual, indie, and art games are particularly important at this historical moment in game studies. This is the book many humanistic game scholars have been waiting for."—Adrienne Shaw, author of Gaming at the Edge"Playing with Feelings is one of few works to deeply engage with the theory of affect as developed in media philosophy, sociology, and information studies relative to video games. Written with an eye to the canonical concerns circulating in the lucrative and vibrant field of game studies, the book balances engagement with familiar themes and issues in the game studies and game theory world."—Lisa Cartwright, University of California, San Diego"Playing With Feelings breaks down some fairly weighty themes and theories to create an engaging exploration of how a person’s feelings are influenced by gaming." —The GuardianTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Video Games as Structures of Feeling1. Feeling History2. Touching Games3. Rhythms of Work and Play4. Games to Fail WithConclusion: Affective ArchivesAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisVideo games have developed into a rich, growing field at many top universities, but they have rarely been considered from a queer perspective. Immersion in new worlds, video games seem to offer the perfect opportunity to explore the alterity that queer culture longs for, but often sexism and discrimination in gamer culture steal the spotlight. Queer Game Studies provides a welcome corrective, revealing the capacious albeit underappreciated communities that are making, playing, and studying queer games.These in-depth, diverse, and accessible essays use queerness to challenge the ideas that have dominated gaming discussions. Demonstrating the centrality of LGBTQ issues to the gamer world, they establish an alternative lens for examining this increasingly important culture. Queer Game Studies covers important subjects such as the representation of queer bodies, the casual misogyny prevalent in video games, the need for greater diversity in gamer culture, and reading popular games like Bayonetta, Mass Effect, and Metal Gear Solid from a queer perspective. Perfect for both everyday readers and instructors looking to add diversity to their courses, Queer Game Studies is the ideal introduction to the vast and vibrant realm of queer gaming. Contributors: Leigh Alexander; Gregory L. Bagnall, U of Rhode Island; Hanna Brady; Mattie Brice; Derek Burrill, U of California, Riverside; Edmond Y. Chang, U of Oregon; Naomi M. Clark; Katherine Cross, CUNY; Kim d’Amazing, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Aubrey Gabel, U of California, Berkeley; Christopher Goetz, U of Iowa; Jack Halberstam, U of Southern California; Todd Harper, U of Baltimore; Larissa Hjorth, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Chelsea Howe; Jesper Juul, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; merritt kopas; Colleen Macklin, Parsons School of Design; Amanda Phillips, Georgetown U; Gabriela T. Richard, Pennsylvania State U; Toni Rocca; Sarah Schoemann, Georgia Institute of Technology; Kathryn Bond Stockton, U of Utah; Zoya Street, U of Lancaster; Peter Wonica; Robert Yang, Parsons School of Design; Jordan Youngblood, Eastern Connecticut State U.Trade Review"Queer theory and video games might be considered by some to be an odd combination. But this anthology showcases both the interesting areas where the two fields overlap and explorations of the areas where there is tension. There is much to create and critique in these spaces and Queer Game Studies provides a broad entryway into these ongoing discussions."—Lambda Literary"These are provocative ideas, but the future of video games depends on them."—Games World of Puzzles"This anthology is essential reading for scholars, students, and lay persons who are interested in the issues that arise at the intersection of digital games and queer theory."—CHOICE"Queer Game Studies triumphs as a collection of rigorous essays that challenge, problematize, and extend queer modes of inquiry into the realm of video games."—Los Angeles Review of Books"An important and unique addition to existing scholarship in a field that is still incredibly young."—Critical Studies in Media Communication"Every new page seems to burst with fascinating ideas about how this artistic medium could reach its full potential. You don’t have to be a game developer to appreciate the ideas laid out here, but those who are interested in making games, no matter how small, should look into this book for a treasure trove of inspiration."—Pop MattersTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Imagining Queer Game Studies Adrienne Shaw and Bonnie RubergPart I. Defining Queerness in Games1. What Is Queerness in Games, Anyway?Naomi Clark2. QueergamingEdmond Y. Chang3. Queer Theory, the Body, and Video GamesDerek A. Burrill4. Queering Games History: Complexities, Chaos, and CommunityZoya StreetPart II. Queering Game Play and Design5. Ending the Cycle: Developing a Board Game to Engage People in Social Justice IssuesPeter Wonica6. Playing OutsideLeigh Alexander7. Building a Queer MythologyHanna Brady8. For Play? Literary Ludics and Sexual PoliticsAubrey Gabel9. Play and Be Real about It: What Games Could Learn from KinkMattie Brice10. Queering the Snapshot: Ambient Mobile PlayLarissa Hjorth and Kim d’AmazingPart III. Reading Games Queerly11. On “FeministWhorePurna” and the Ludo-Material Politics of Gendered Damage Power-ups in Open-World RPG Video GamesRobert Yang12. Welcome to My Fantasy Zone: Bayonetta and Queer Femme DisturbanceAmanda Phillips13. Roleplay as Queer Lens: How “ClosetShep” Changed My Vision of Mass EffectTodd Harper14. Queer(ing) Gaming Technologies: Thinking on Constructions of Normativity Inscribed in Digital Gaming HardwareGregory L. Bagnall15. On Gone Homemerritt kopasPart IV. Queer Failures in Games16. The Trouble with CommunitiesAdrienne Shaw17. “Play Like a Girl”: Gender Expression, Sexual Identity, and Complex Expectations in a Female-Oriented Gaming CommunityGabriela T. Richard18. The Nightmare Is OverKatherine Cross19. Queer Gaming: Gaming, Hacking, and Going Turbo Jack Halberstam 20. The Arts of Failure: Jack Halberstam in Conversation with Jesper Juul Moderated by Bonnie Ruberg21. “I Wouldn’t Even Know the Real Me Myself”: Queering Failure in Metal Gear Solid 2Jordan YoungbloodPart V. Queer Futures for Games22. If Queer Children Were a Video GameKathryn Bond Stockton23. Queer Growth in VideogamesChristopher Goetz24. Finding the Queerness in GamesColleen Macklin25. Organizing New Approaches to Games: An Interview with Chelsea Howe, Toni Rocca, and Sarah SchoemannModerated by Bonnie Ruberg26. Forty-Eight-Hour Utopia: On Hope and the Future of Queerness in GamesBonnie RubergContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisFor the first time, the collected texts from the critically and commercially acclaimed fantasy video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are bound together in three exciting volumes. Lavishly illustrated and produced, these titles are straight out of the world of Skyrim - and a must for any wandering adventurer.Trade Review"A brilliantly constructed piece." - Steam First"There are breathtaking paintings of epic battles, in-depth portraits depicting all of the various races, maps for the reader to pour over to get the lay of the land, and more than enough dragons depicted to keep any fantasy fan happy." - Outright Geekery"Having this as an option for those fans is great: you can read when you want to read, and play when you want to play." - Die Hard Game Fan"All in all, this Skyrim Volume is great for people who enjoyed reading the lore and a must have for any Skyrim history buff or true fanboy." - Nerdophiles"Beautifully done...If you're new to Skyrim or if you've been playing for years... it's a great book ... great gift idea... you can't beat it." -Michael Cavacini

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Book SynopsisIn this classic of travel writing, first published sixty years ago, a Danish journalist records his experience of life in North Africa under colonial rule. Driving through the Sahara in a battered Chevrolet, having converted to Islam and with a knowledge of Arabic, he leaves the beaten track to discover communities and landscapes shrouded in mystery for centuries. Brushes with magicians, cave-dwellers and Sufi mystics, however, prove less astonishing than the cruelties inflicted on the local populations by Mussolini's generals.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business is one of the most comprehensive collections of works on EVE Online ever produced, but written in language that is accessible to the uninitiated reader. It captures a side of EVE that is often lost in academic writings, and each chapter stands as a snapshot in time of one of the world’s most unique and well-studied massively multiplayer online games."—Brendan Drain, MMO expert"A book as unique as EVE itself—it will make you think, help you understand a game you may never play, and afford a glimpse onto a less traveled byway of the gaming universe. The roster of authors is delightfully varied, with contributions from archivists, developers, players, PhD students, and researchers, broadening inquiry into a thoughtful, engaging treatment of a cherished game."—Bonnie Nardi, author of My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of “World of Warcraft”*\"By addressing everything from collaboration to conflict, from economics to embodiment, the authors of Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business use the specific case study of EVE Online to investigate how emerging digital technologies reshape selfhood and society."—Tom Boellstorff, author of Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human"This work serves as an excellent consideration of the world of EVE Online for any researcher."—American Journal of PlayTable of ContentsContents Glossary of EVE Online Jargon Introduction Marcus Carter, Kelly Bergstrom, and Darryl Woodford 1. EVE Online for the Uninitiated Kelly Bergstrom and Marcus Carter 2. EVEOnline Is Hard and It Matters Christopher Paul 3. Virtual Interstellar Travel William Sims Bainbridge 4. Universes, Metaverses, and Multiverses Kjartan Pierre Emilsson 5. The Digital Grind: Time and Labor as Resources of War in EVE Online Oskar Milik 6. The Russians Are Coming! Stereotypes and Perceptions of “Russianness” in EVE Online Catherine Goodfellow 7. The Art of Selling Trust Chribba 8. We Play Something Awful: Goon Projects and Pervasive Practice on Online Games Richard Page 9. The Accidental Spymaster Keith Harrison 10. The Evolution of Player Organizations: A Goonswarm Perspective The Mittani (Alexander Gianturco) 11. RIP Vile Rat: Makeshift Memorials in EVE Online Martin R. Gibbs, Marcus Carter, and Joji Mori 12. Imagined Capsuleers: Reframing Discussions about Gender and EVE Online Kelly Bergstrom 13. The Social System in EVE Online Mantou (Zhang Yuzhou) 14. Do EVE Online Players Dream of Icelandic Spaceships? The Role and Mechanisms of Co-creation in CCP’s Success Jedrzej Czarnota 15. EVEOnline as History Nick Webber 16. On the EVE of Preservation: Conserving a Complex Universe Kristin MacDonough, Rebecca Fraimow, Dan Erdman, Kathryn Gronsbell, and Erica Titkemeyer Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisHow uncertainty in games—from Super Mario Bros. to Rock/Paper/Scissors—engages players and shapes play experiences. In life, uncertainty surrounds us. Things that we thought were good for us turn out to be bad for us (and vice versa); people we thought we knew well behave in mysterious ways; the stock market takes a nosedive. Thanks to an inexplicable optimism, most of the time we are fairly cheerful about it all. But we do devote much effort to managing and ameliorating uncertainty. Is it any wonder, then, asks Greg Costikyan, that we have taken this aspect of our lives and transformed it culturally, making a series of elaborate constructs that subject us to uncertainty but in a fictive and nonthreatening way? That is: we create games. In this concise and entertaining book, Costikyan, an award-winning game designer, argues that games require uncertainty to hold our interest, and that the struggle to master uncertainty is central to thei

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Book SynopsisProgramming Game AI by Example provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the “bread and butter” AI techniques used by the game development industry, leading the reader through the process of designing, programming, and implementing intelligent agents for action games using the C++ programming language. Techniques covered include state- and goal-based behavior, inter-agent communication, individual and group steering behaviors, team AI, graph theory, search, path planning and optimization, triggers, scripting, scripted finite state machines, perceptual modeling, goal evaluation, goal arbitration, and fuzzy logic.

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Book SynopsisAvatar of girl power or sexual plaything? The ambiguity of being Lara.Table of ContentsContents Foreword By Sue-Ellen Case 1. The Phenomenon of Lara Croft2. A Duplicitous Gift3. The Origins of a Cultural Icon4. The Market and the Hardware5. Medial Origins and Sexual Grounds6. Virtual Reality7. The Interactive Movie8. The Loss of Surface9. The Medialization of the Body10. The Universal Medium11. Tomb Raider: the Movie12. The Question of Sexual Difference13. Afterplay: the Next Generation NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis Based on the award-winning The Elder Scrolls, The Infernal City is the first of two exhilarating novels following events that continue the story from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, named 2006 Game of the Year.Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil. It is Umbriel, a floating city that casts a terrifying shadow—for wherever it falls, people die and rise again. And it is in Umbriel’s shadow that a great adventure begins, and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a secret. A spy on the trail of a vast conspiracy. A mage obsessed with his desire for revenge. And Annaig, a young girl in whose hands the fate of Tamriel may rest . . . .

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Book SynopsisExplore the nuanced storytelling and inner-workings of the hit first-person shooter Borderlands video game series through a funny, self-reflexive, bold, and inclusive critical lens. The latest in ECW's acclaimed Pop Classics collection.

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Book SynopsisWritten by an actual game programmer who grew up playing many of these games and traded e-mails with some of the programmers.

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Book SynopsisThe official art book for the Marvel's Avengers expansion Black Panther: War for Wakanda Blindsided by a betrayal and the resulting tragedy, King T'Challa, the Black Panther, devoted protector and current ruler of Wakanda finds it difficult to entrust his duty to anyone else, even his sister Shuri, while also confronting those who wish to do Wakanda harm. When arch-villain Klaw's forces threaten Wakanda's safety, T'Challa must take the fight right to them to defend everything and everyone he holds dear. Players experience the game's story and additional missions in the ongoing Avengers Initiative in the lush jungles of Wakanda, an entirely new environment and sole location of the world's Vibranium. They also get to explore the Royal Palace that overlooks Birnin Zana, known as "The Golden City," in a new Outpost that contains Shuri's laboratory, Zawavari's chambers, and the Wakandan War Room. Unmask the artistry behind the expansion in this showpiece hardback book containing exclusive concept sketches, character art, storyboards, and fully rendered scenes alongside fascinating insights into the creative process from the talented creators of the expansion.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFollowing the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16, NES, SNES, GameCube, and Game Boy & Virtual Boy Anthologies, Geeks-Line is now proud to present the PlayStation 2 Trilogy, more than 1,100 pages of pure pleasure!Six years after the PlayStation tidal wave, the end of the millennium was marked by the release of an extraordinary console with a monolithic aesthetic worthy of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and the finest high-tech parts. While the PlayStation had paved the way to 3D, the PlayStation 2 demonstrated that this bold, new direction was the future for video games.

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Book SynopsisFollowing the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16, NES, SNES, GameCube, and Game Boy & Virtual Boy Anthologies, Geeks-Line is now proud to present the PlayStation 2 Trilogy, more than 1,100 pages of pure pleasure!Six years after the PlayStation tidal wave, the end of the millennium was marked by the release of an extraordinary console with a monolithic aesthetic worthy of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and the finest high-tech parts. While the PlayStation had paved the way to 3D, the PlayStation 2 demonstrated that this bold, new direction was the future for video games.

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Book Synopsis

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