Play Reality: How Videogames are Changing EVERYTHING, is Jayne Gackenbach's and Teace Snyder's first book together and, like, the twentieth or something between the two of them. Jayne Gackenbach is a well-respected videogame and dream researcher and Teace Snyder is a 'kind of' well-respected hardcore gamer and lifelong writer. Jayne works at, and can be contacted through, Grant MacEwan University, where she has taught and researched for 21 years, and, Teace, oversees, and can be contacted through his website, www.teace.ca, which he created and launched in 2007. Oh yeah, and by the way, they're mother and son too, and, are currently living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where they regularly express the endless bounds of their geekiness and hold hipsters in utter contempt.

This book covers the state-of-the-art in digital games research and development for anyone working with or studying digital games and those who are considering entering into this rapidly growing industry. Many books have been published that sufficiently describe popular topics in digital games; however, until now there has not been a comprehensive book that draws the traditional and emerging facets of gaming together across multiple disciplines within a single volume.

This book unlocks an understanding of video games as virtual travel. It explains how video game design increasingly takes cues from the promotional language of tourism, and how this connection raises issues of power and commodification. Bridging the disciplinary gap between game and tourism studies, the book offers a comprehensive account of touristic gazing in games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Minecraft, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Traveling through video games involves a mythological promise of open-ended opportunity, summarized in the slogan you can go there. Van Nuenen discusses the scale of game worlds, the elusive nature of freedom and control, and the pivotal role of work in creating a sense of belonging. The logic of tourism is fundamentally consumptive—but through design choices, players can also be invited to approach their travels more critically. This is the difference between moving through a game world, and being moved by it. This interdisciplinary and innovative study will interest students and scholars of digital media studies, game studies, tourism and technology, and the Digital Humanities.

This book explores patterns of gameplay and sociality afforded by online gaming. Bringing together essays from leading and emerging academics, this book explores key issues in understanding online gaming, including: patterns of play, legality, production, identity, gamer communities, communication, social exclusion and inclusion, and considers future directions in online gaming.

The fifth edition of this pioneering textbook takes video game studies into the next decade, highlighting changes in mobile, social, and casual gaming. This book introduces students to both the major theories used to analyze games, such as ludology and narratology, and the commercial and organizational aspects of the game industry. Drawing from historical and contemporary examples, this student-friendly text also explores the aesthetics of games, evaluates the cultural position of video games, and considers the potential effects of both violent and "serious" games. This new edition includes updates to the history, statistics, and developments in the vast game studies landscape throughout. The book has been expanded with additional theory, research, and insights from scholars around the world, making it more inclusive and broadening its global perspective. Extensively illustrated and featuring discussion questions, a glossary of key terms, and a detailed video game history timeline, Understanding Video Games, Fifth Edition is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in examining the ways video games are reshaping entertainment, education, and society.

The Five Forces reveals how technology is unleashing forces that will forever alter our lives, politics, and society. Learn more about nanotechnology, transhumanism, the future of space exploration and colonization, super human computers, and so much more! Discover what lies in our future: How will humans change as we merge with our machines, embracing transhumanism? What happens when intelligent algorithms make all the decisions? Should we connect our brains directly to the Internet? And are we entering an age of simulated realities? The Five Forces takes you on a journey to see what the most brilliant minds of our age are dreaming up. Hoffman reveals how new scientific breakthroughs and business ventures are poised to reshape our lives and turn science fiction into fact. With scientists in Japan creating humanoid robots, Silicon Valley biohackers boosting their IQs, and Chinese labs developing human-monkey chimeras, Hoffman gives an inside look at the limits of what’s possible today and the impact these developments will have. Mass Connectivity What happens when brain chips connect our minds directly to the internet? Will we be able to boost our IQs, exchange memories, and communicate with our thoughts? Or will this turn into a nightmare, with corporations reading our minds, hackers overwriting our identities, and governments controlling our actions? Bio Convergence Now that we can decode the building blocks of life and create new lifeforms that never existed before, what comes next? Will we conquer disease, resurrect extinct species, develop superior plants and animals, create DNA-edited babies, and even spawn other intelligent beings? Human Expansionism Is it our manifest destiny to colonize Mars and extend the human race beyond the limits of our solar system? How will technologies like space travel, new materials, and nanotech transform our civilization and open up new horizons we never imagined possible? Deep Automation As our machines become capable enough to do every job better, faster, and cheaper, how will this affect society? Will we wind up delegating our most important decisions to data crunching algorithms? And does this mean our machines will end up running our economies, our corporations, and even our lives? Intelligence Explosion As soon as we create a superintelligence that far surpasses human capabilities, what will happen to us? Will we be able to control our machines, or will they eventually control us? Are we headed for a paradise of plenty, where our technology eliminates hunger, disease, poverty, and war? Or will this be the end of our reign as the rulers of the planet?

A potent new book examines the overlap between our ecological crisis and video games Video games may be fun and immersive diversions from daily life, but can they go beyond the realm of entertainment to do something serious—like help us save the planet? As one of the signature issues of the twenty-first century, ecological deterioration is seemingly everywhere, but it is rarely considered via the realm of interactive digital play. In Playing Nature, Alenda Y. Chang offers groundbreaking methods for exploring this vital overlap. Arguing that games need to be understood as part of a cultural response to the growing ecological crisis, Playing Nature seeds conversations around key environmental science concepts and terms. Chang suggests several ways to rethink existing game taxonomies and theories of agency while revealing surprising fundamental similarities between game play and scientific work. Gracefully reconciling new media theory with environmental criticism, Playing Nature examines an exciting range of games and related art forms, including historical and contemporary analog and digital games, alternate- and augmented-reality games, museum exhibitions, film, and science fiction. Chang puts her surprising ideas into conversation with leading media studies and environmental humanities scholars like Alexander Galloway, Donna Haraway, and Ursula Heise, ultimately exploring manifold ecological futures—not all of them dystopian.

A radical new history of a dangerous idea Post-Modernity is the creative destruction that has shattered our present times into fragments. It dynamited modernism which had dominated the western world for most of the 20th century. Post-modernism stood for everything modernism rejected: fun, exuberance, irresponsibility. But beneath its glitzy surface, post-modernism had a dirty secret: it was the fig leaf for a rapacious new kind of capitalism. It was also the forcing ground of the 'post truth', by means of which western values got turned upside down. But where do these ideas come from and how have they impacted on the world? In his brilliant history of a dangerous idea, Stuart Jeffries tells a narrative that starts in the early 1970s and continue to today. He tells this history through a riotous gallery that includes David Bowie, the Ipod, Frederic Jameson, the demolition of Pruit-Igoe, Madonna, Post-Fordism, Jeff Koon's 'Rabbit', Deleuze and Guattari, the Nixon Shock, The Bowery series, Judith Butler, Las Vegas, Margaret Thatcher, Grand Master Flash, I Love Dick, the RAND Corporation, the Sex Pistols, Princess Diana, the Musee D'Orsay, Grand Theft Auto, Perry Anderson, Netflix, 9/11 We are today scarcely capable of conceiving politics as a communal activity because we have become habituated to being consumers rather than citizens. Politicians treat us as consumers to whom they must deliver. Can we do anything else than suffer from buyer's remorse?

When we look back over the 20th century and try to understand what's happened to workers and their families and the challenges they now face, the movement of women out of the home and into paid employment stands out as a unique and powerful transformation. At one level, everything has changed. And yet so much more change is needed. Even though we were all witness to the shift of women becoming equal or primary breadwinners over many years, these changes seem somehow to have snuck up on us. As a result, our policy landscape remains stuck in an idealized past, where the typical family was composed of a married-for-life couple with a full-time breadwinner and full-time homemaker who raised the children herself. This report contemplates what a new America should look like after we finally embrace this important new dynamic in our lives and the changes in our homes and businesses it has caused. It examines every institution, including: Health Care--Health care and child care must be overhauled to accommodate the 24 hour work day. Education--With more women acting as equal or primary breadwinners in the family, it is critical that there are resources to provide better and up to date education for all ages. Business--Research shows that corporations with more women in the board room are more successful than those with all male boards. With that in mind, the report puts forth many recommendations to allow businesses to get the best out of all employees by thinking outside the box of old fashioned models in scheduling, benefits, and role playing. Media--The disconnect between how women are portrayed in the media and reality is as present as ever; although women are now portrayed as thin, well dressed, successful stars in their careers and home lives, the reality is that women still struggle to have it all. The report highlights the many disparities that still exist and calls for specific changes. Faith--Many religious institutions have resisted the integration of women into the higher ranks of spirituality, and many feel that it is to the religious community's detriment. Marriage--the dynamics of marriage have changed as gender roles have become less clear and there is more flexibility in the division of responsibilities. Yet no one is sure what the rules are any more. This section, which includes candid essays from men about fatherhood and masculinity, addresses the tricky balancing act that many couples are engaged in. The report will be the cornerstone of the 2009 Women's Conference held in California October 26-27th of 2009. The Women's Conference is the nation's premier forum for women and is hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Conference, also known as The California Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women, has grown from a California initiative for working professionals into an international network of women from all walks of life, backgrounds and perspectives, and a life-changing experience for the thousands of women who have attended. The mission of The Women's Conference is to inspire, empower and educate women to be Architects of Change in their own lives and in the lives of others.

As part of an international dialogue between researchers in educational technology, this title investigates where games can motivate students to learn and improve their knowledge and skills.