The return of a classic book about games and play that illuminates the relationship between the well-played game and the well-lived life. In The Well-Played Game, games guru Bernard De Koven explores the interaction of play and games, offering players—as well as game designers, educators, and scholars—a guide to how games work. De Koven's classic treatise on how human beings play together, first published in 1978, investigates many issues newly resonant in the era of video and computer games, including social gameplay and player modification. The digital game industry, now moving beyond its emphasis on graphic techniques to focus on player interaction, has much to learn from The Well-Played Game. De Koven explains that when players congratulate each other on a “well-played” game, they are expressing a unique and profound synthesis that combines the concepts of play (with its associations of playfulness and fun) and game (with its associations of rule-following). This, he tells us, yields a larger concept: the experience and expression of excellence. De Koven—affectionately and appreciatively hailed by Eric Zimmerman as “our shaman of play”—explores the experience of a well-played game, how we share it, and how we can experience it again; issues of cheating, fairness, keeping score, changing old games (why not change the rules in pursuit of new ways to play?), and making up new games; playing for keeps; and winning. His book belongs on the bookshelves of players who want to find a game in which they can play well, who are looking for others with whom they can play well, and who have discovered the relationship between the well-played game and the well-lived life.

Founder and Executive Director of Hearts at Home Jill Savage explores the important role "home" plays in a family's journey. With her personable, humorous style, Jill shares from her experience as a mother of five and from conversations with many other moms to offer practical ideas and motivation to create a home that is a safe place for a functional family to blossom community center that offers hospitality and compassion church where prayer and Scripture guide all members museum filled with a family's history, stories, and heritage school with lessons of virtue, integrity, and ethics This anchor book for Hearts at Home will extend beyond this valuable ministry to encourage all women to build the heart of their home on biblical principles and to raise a family that is strong, loving, and firmly standing on a foundation of faith.

How computer games can be designed to create ethically relevant experiences for players. Today's blockbuster video games—and their never-ending sequels, sagas, and reboots—provide plenty of excitement in high-resolution but for the most part fail to engage a player's moral imagination. In Beyond Choices, Miguel Sicart calls for a new generation of video and computer games that are ethically relevant by design. In the 1970s, mainstream films—including The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver—filled theaters but also treated their audiences as thinking beings. Why can't mainstream video games have the same moral and aesthetic impact? Sicart argues that it is time for games to claim their place in the cultural landscape as vehicles for ethical reflection. Sicart looks at games in many manifestations: toys, analog games, computer and video games, interactive fictions, commercial entertainments, and independent releases. Drawing on philosophy, design theory, literary studies, aesthetics, and interviews with game developers, Sicart provides a systematic account of how games can be designed to challenge and enrich our moral lives. After discussing such topics as definition of ethical gameplay and the structure of the game as a designed object, Sicart offers a theory of the design of ethical game play. He also analyzes the ethical aspects of game play in a number of current games, including Spec Ops: The Line, Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, Fallout New Vegas, and Anna Anthropy's Dys4Ia. Games are designed to evoke specific emotions; games that engage players ethically, Sicart argues, enable us to explore and express our values through play.

This handbook discriminates clearly between the responsibilities, cognitive understanding, and the feelings of the practitioner. It is intended to be useful to all "humanistic" therapists and counsellors irrespective of their particular theoretical orientation.

Organized by application areas, rather than by specific network architectures or learning algorithms, Building Neural Networks shows why certain networks are more suitable than others for solving specific kinds of problems. Skapura also reviews principles of neural information processing and furnishes an operations summary of the most popular neural-network processing models.

This undergraduate textbook presents an inquiry-based learning course in stochastic models and computing designed to serve as a first course in probability. Its modular structure complements a traditional lecture format, introducing new topics chapter by chapter with accompanying projects for group collaboration. The text addresses probability axioms leading to Bayes’ theorem, discrete and continuous random variables, Markov chains, and Brownian motion, as well as applications including randomized algorithms, randomized surveys, Benford’s law, and Monte Carlo methods. Adopting a unique application-driven approach to better study probability in action, the book emphasizes data, simulation, and games to strengthen reader insight and intuition while proving theorems. Additionally, the text incorporates codes and exercises in the Julia programming language to further promote a hands-on focus in modelling. Students should have prior knowledge of single variable calculus. Giray Ökten received his PhD from Claremont Graduate University. He has held academic positions at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Ball State University, and Florida State University. He received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award in 2015. He is the author of an open access textbook in numerical analysis, First Semester in Numerical Analysis with Julia, published by Florida State University Libraries, and a co-author of a children’s math book, The Mathematical Investigations of Dr. O and Arya, published by Tumblehome. His research interests include Monte Carlo methods and computational finance.

Reimagining how we understand health, illness, life, and death, gaming expert Sandra Danilovic advocates for the potential games have to transform healthcare practices beyond the clinic or hospital in the way we care for each other and for ourselves.

Master the craft of game design so you can create that elusive combination of challenge, competition, and interaction that players seek. This design workshop begins with an examination of the fundamental elements of game design; then puts you to work in prototyping, playtesting and redesigning your own games with exercises that teach essential design skills. Workshop exercises require no background in programming or artwork, releasing you from the intricacies of electronic game production, so you can develop a working understanding of the essentials of game design.

Nurturing brain development in children through play. The mental health field has seen a significant shift in the past decade toward including a neuroscience perspective when designing clinical interventions. However, for many play therapists it has been challenging to apply this information in the context of play therapy. Here, Theresa Kestly teaches therapists how to understand the neurobiology of play experiences so the undeniable benefits of play therapy can be exploited to their fullest. At last, clinical readers have a book that takes seriously the importance of play and brings a scientific eye to this most important aspect of life. Drawing on concepts of interpersonal neurobiology, the benefits of play interventions to achieve attunement, neural integration, healthy attachment, and the development of resilience and well-being become clear. The book is organized into three parts. The first part lays a conceptual foundation for considering play in relation to the neurobiology of the developing brain and mind. The next part explores specific topics about play including the therapeutic playroom, the collaborative relationship between therapist and clients, storytelling, and mindfulness. The last part of the book asks questions about the state of play in our families, clinics, and schools. How did we get to a place where play has been so devalued, and what can we do about it? Now that we know how important play is across the lifespan from a scientific standpoint, what can we do to fully integrate it into our lives? After reading this book, clinicians, teachers, and even parents will understand why play helps children (and adults) heal from painful experiences, while developing self-regulation and empathy. The clinical examples in the book show just how powerful the mind is in its natural push toward wholeness and integration.