The Players' Realm

Author: J. Patrick Williams
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786428325
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
Digital games have become an increasingly pervasive aspect of everyday life as well as an embattled cultural phenomenon in the twenty-first century. As new media technologies diffuse around the world and as the depth and complexity of gaming networks increase, scholars are becoming increasingly savvy in their approach to digital games. While aesthetic and psychological approaches to the study of digital games have garnered the most attention in the past, scholars have only recently begun to study the important social and cultural aspects of digital games. This study sketches some of the various trajectories of digital games in modern Western societies, looking first at the growth and persistence of the moral panic that continues to accompany massive public interest in digital games. The book then continues with what it deems a new phase of games research exemplified by systematic examination of specific aspects of digital games and gaming. Section One includes four chapters that collectively consider politics and the negotiation of power in game worlds. Section Two details the ideological webs within which games are produced and consumed. Specifically, this important section offers a critical cultural analysis of the hegemony that exists within games and its influence upon players' personal ideologies. To conclude this analysis, Section Three examines game design features that relate to players' self-characterization and social development within digital game worlds. Section Four explores the important relationship between the producers and consumers of digital games, especially insomuch as this relationship is giving rise to a community of novices and professionals who will together determine the future of gaming and--to a degree--popular culture.

The Lords of the Realm

Author: John Helyar
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 030780142X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 641

Book Description
"The ultimate chronicle of the games behind the game."—The New York Times Book Review Baseball has always inspired rhapsodic elegies on the glory of man and golden memories of wonderful times. But what you see on the field is only half the game. In this fascinating, colorful chronicle—based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and digging—John Helyar brings to vivid life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped America's favorite pastime, from the dead-ball days at the turn of the century through the great strike of 1994. Witness zealous Judge Landis banish eight players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, after the infamous "Black Sox" scandal; the flamboyant A's owner Charlie Finley wheel and deal his star players, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers, like a deck of cards; the hysterical bidding war of coveted free agent Catfish Hunter; the chain-smoking romantic, A. Bartlett Giamatti, locking horns with Pete Rose during his gambling days of summer; and much more. Praise for The Lords of the Realm "A must-read for baseball fans . . . reads like a suspense novel."—Kirkus Reviews "Refreshingly hard-headed . . . the only book you'll need to read on the subject."—Newsday "Lots of stories . . . well told, amusing . . . edifying."—The Washington Post

Realms of the Unknown Player's Manual

Author: Timothy A. Dohrer, III
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780963083319
Category : Fantasy games
Languages : en
Pages : 24

Book Description

Protector of the Realm

Author: Gun Brooke
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc
ISBN: 1602823820
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 411

Book Description
With the fate of entire civilizations at risk, the galactic battleground makes for unusual alliances and unexpected passions as two women from very different worlds join forces. When Commodore Rae Jacelon of the Gamma VI space station apprehends the alluring but decidedly dangerous Kellen O'Dal, it is the start of a breathtaking love story, as well as a dangerous rescue mission. A space adventure filled with suspense and a daring intergalactic romance. Book One: Supreme Constellations

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Author: Ethan Gilsdorf
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762766786
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
An amazing journey through the thriving worlds of fantasy and gaming What could one man find if he embarked on a journey through fantasy world after fantasy world? In an enthralling blend of travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir, forty-year-old former D&D addict Ethan Gilsdorf crisscrosses America, the world, and other worlds—from Boston to New Zealand, and Planet Earth to the realm of Aggramar. “For anyone who has ever spent time within imaginary realms, the book will speak volumes. For those who have not, it will educate and enlighten.” —Wired.com “Gandalf’s got nothing on Ethan Gilsdorf, except for maybe the monster white beard. In his new book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, Gilsdorf . . . offers an epic quest for reality within a realm of magic.” —Boston Globe “Imagine this: Lord of the Rings meets Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.” —National Public Radio’s “Around and About” “What does it mean to be a geek? . . . Fantasy Freaks andGaming Geeks tackles that question with strength and dexterity. . . . part personal odyssey, part medieval mid-life crisis, and part wide-ranging survey of all things freaky and geeky . . . playful . . . funny and poignant. . . . It’s a fun ride and it poses a question that goes to the very heart of fantasy, namely: What does the urge to become someone else tell us about ourselves?” —Huffington Post

Forgotten Realms Player's Guide

Author: Rob Heinsoo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780786949298
Category : Dungeons and Dragons (Game)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The complete guide for building Forgotten Realms characters. This guide presents this changed world from the point of view of the adventurers exploring it. This product includes everything a player needs to create his character for a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting.

Expect Us

Author: Jessica L. Beyer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199330786
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
People use online social forums for all sorts of reasons, including political conversations, regardless of the site's main purpose. But what leads some of these people to take their online political activity into the offline world of activism? In Expect Us, Jessica L. Beyer looks at political consciousness and action in four communities, each born out of chaotic online social spaces that millions of individuals enter, spend time in, and exit moment by moment: Anonymous (4chan), IGN, World of Warcraft, and The Pirate Bay. None of these sites began as places for political organization per se, but visitors to each have used them as places for political engagement to one degree or another. Beyer explains the puzzling emergence of political engagement in these disparate social spaces and offers reasons for their varied capacity to generate political activism. Her comparative ethnography of these four online communities demonstrates that the technological organization of space itself has a strong role in determining the possibility of political mobilization. Overall, she shows that political mobilization rises when a site provides high levels of anonymity, low levels of formal regulation, and minimal access to small-group interaction. Furthermore, her findings reveal that young people are more politically involved than much of the civic engagement literature suggests. Expect Us offers surprising and compelling insights for anyone interested in understanding which factors and online environments lead to the greatest amount of impact offline.

Keeper of the Realm

Author: H. J. Ralles
Publisher: Keeper Series
ISBN: 9781929976218
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
The third book of the popular Keeper Series, a middle school fantasy adventure series featuring a boy named Matt who is sucked into his computer game and must win the game to escape his computer and resume is normal life.

Designing Virtual Worlds

Author: Richard A. Bartle
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 9780131018167
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 768

Book Description
This text provides a comprehensive treatment of virtual world design from one of its pioneers. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.

The Role-Playing Society

Author: Andrew Byers
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476623481
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Since the release of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, role-playing games (RPGs) have spawned a vibrant industry and subculture whose characteristics and player experiences have been well explored. Yet little attention has been devoted to the ways RPGs have shaped society at large over the last four decades. Role-playing games influenced video game design, have been widely represented in film, television and other media, and have made their mark on education, social media, corporate training and the military. This collection of new essays illustrates the broad appeal and impact of RPGs. Topics range from a critical reexamination of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, to the growing significance of RPGs in education, to the potential for "serious" RPGs to provoke awareness and social change. The contributors discuss the myriad subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which the values, concepts and mechanics of RPGs have infiltrated popular culture.