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War in mass media--History, Mass media and war--History, Computer war games, War games, and War films

The word “wargames” might seem like a contradiction in terms. After all, the declaration “This is war” is meant to signal that things have turned deadly serious, that there is no more playing around. Yet the practices of war are intimately entangled with practices of gaming, from military videogames to live battle reenactments. How do these forms of play impact how both soldiers and civilians perceive acts of war? This Quick Take considers how various war games and simulations shape the ways we imagine war. Paradoxically, these games grant us a sense of mastery and control as we strategize and scrutinize the enemy, yet also allow us the thrilling sense of being immersed in the carnage and chaos of battle. But as simulations of war become more integrated into both popular culture and military practice, how do they shape our apprehension of the traumatic realities of warfare? Covering everything from chess to football, from Saving Private Ryan to American Sniper, and from Call of Duty to drone interfaces, War Games is an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the militarization of American culture, offering a compact yet comprehensive look at how we play with images of war.

Games--Social aspects, Games--Psychological aspects, and Educational games

Imagine if new knowledge and insights came not just from research centers, think tanks, and universities but also from games, of all things. Video games have been viewed as causing social problems, but what if they actually helped solve them? This question drives Karen Schrier's Knowledge Games, which seeks to uncover the potentials and pitfalls of using games to make discoveries, solve real-world problems, and better understand our world. For example, so-called knowledge games—such as Foldit, a protein-folding puzzle game, SchoolLife, which crowdsources bullying interventions, and Reverse the Odds, in which mobile game players analyze breast cancer data—are already being used by researchers to gain scientific, psychological, and humanistic insights.Schrier argues that knowledge games are potentially powerful because of their ability to motivate a crowd of problem solvers within a dynamic system while also tapping into the innovative data processing and computational abilities of games. In the near future, Schrier asserts, knowledge games may be created to understand and predict voting behavior, climate concerns, historical perspectives, online harassment, susceptibility to depression, or optimal advertising strategies, among other things.In addition to investigating the intersection of games, problem solving, and crowdsourcing, Schrier examines what happens when knowledge emerges from games and game players rather than scientists, professionals, and researchers. This accessible book also critiques the limits and implications of games and considers how they may redefine what it means to produce knowledge, to play, to educate, and to be a citizen.

Life (Biology)--Simulation games, Life (Biology)--Computer simulation, and Game theory

'A book accessible to all readers, whatever their level of numeracy … an excellent introduction to what theoretical biologists get up to in trying to understand evolutionary and ecological ideas.'― NatureWhy are there only two sexes? Why do stags restrain their aggression in the middle of a fight? Can it ever pay to be nice in a world of selfish individualists? The answers, according to this informative and enjoyable volume, can often be found in games like hide and seek, poker, and the prisoner's dilemma. Author Karl Sigmund applies the ideas and methods of game theory and mathematical modeling to evolution, sex, animal behavior, and aggression in Games of Life, which was included in Ian Stewart's'Top 10 Popular Mathematics Books'in the Guardian (1/18/2012). Starting with artificial life and self-replicating machines, the book examines pursuit games between predators and prey and draws parallels between games of chance and the randomness of molecular evolution. Other topics include the bizarre double games played by chromosomes and applications of game theory to animal behavior. Key topics appear at the start of each chapter, and endnotes provide references for readers wishing to seek out further information. This playful approach to understanding evolution and its central issues of sex, survival, conflict, and cooperation offers a captivating modern perspective on matters of life and death.

Fantasy games--Moral and ethical aspects, Role playing--Moral and ethical aspects, and Dungeons and Dragons (Game)--Moral and ethical aspects

The 1980s saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right, the field of psychology, and law enforcement claimed that these games were not only psychologically dangerous but an occult religion masquerading as a game. Dangerous Games explores both the history and the sociological significance of this panic.Fantasy role-playing games do share several functions in common with religion. However, religion—as a socially constructed world of shared meaning—can also be compared to a fantasy role-playing game. In fact, the claims of the moral entrepreneurs, in which they presented themselves as heroes battling a dark conspiracy, often resembled the very games of imagination they condemned as evil. By attacking the imagination, they preserved the taken-for-granted status of their own socially constructed reality. Interpreted in this way, the panic over fantasy-role playing games yields new insights about how humans play and together construct and maintain meaningful worlds.Laycock's clear and accessible writing ensures that Dangerous Games will be required reading for those with an interest in religion, popular culture, and social behavior, both in the classroom and beyond.

Video games--Psychological aspects and Video games--Social aspects

Video games are not necessarily uniform in the “lessons” they teach players. Indeed, even violent video games are not simply hotbeds of violent content. For example, the popular Call of Duty and Resident Evil series require players to behave violently in order to protect other people or computer characters. Thus, in these games, aggression is taught in simultaneity with altruism. The questions, then, arise 1) whether social learning is an appropriate explanation for long-term effects of games, and 2) whether games can only teach antisocial lessons. The first chapter of this book addresses video game effects from a long-term, holistic perspective, focusing on antisocial and prosocial outcomes, using a conveniently collected survey dataset. Moreover, this book also analyzes video games by different genres. Furthermore, this book provides information on associations and gender differences in children's situational motivation, rate of perceived exertion and physical activity levels in exergaming; the efficiency of brain training versus recreational video games; the effect of social media in the video game industry; video games and their correlation with school and cognitive performance; video games and the effect they may have on seizures; and video gaming and the enhancement of prosocial behaviors.

Computer games--Design and construction, Video games--Design and construction, Games--Design and construction, and Game theory

How 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 their appeal. Game designers, he suggests, can harness the idea of uncertainty to guide their work.Costikyan explores the many sources of uncertainty in many sorts of games—from Super Mario Bros. to Rock/Paper/Scissors, from Monopoly to CityVille, from FPS Deathmatch play to Chess. He describes types of uncertainty, including performative uncertainty, analytic complexity, and narrative anticipation. And he suggest ways that game designers who want to craft novel game experiences can use an understanding of game uncertainty in its many forms to improve their designs.

Reproductive health--Czech Republic

The Games of Life analyzes current reproductive medicine in the Czech Republic. It targets biomedicine as a concrete manifestation of modern society's normalization of Western approach to human health and illness by focusing on three specific fields: childbirth, assisted reproduction, and embryo manipulation. The objective of the book is to provide a critical sociological analysis of reproductive medicine as one of the key poles in the current form of biopower. It elaborates on the questions how the borders are negotiated between normality/legitimacy in the definitions of health and illness within the three specialized fields of reproductive medicine, how trust is established within the system of modern reproductive medicine, and how intersectionality, particularly status and gender, enters into this process.

Game theory, Games--Design and construction, and Games--Rules

Understanding games—whether computer games, card games, board games, or sports—by analyzing certain common traits.Characteristics of Games offers a new way to understand games: by focusing on certain traits—including number of players, rules, degrees of luck and skill needed, and reward/effort ratio—and using these characteristics as basic points of comparison and analysis. These issues are often discussed by game players and designers but seldom written about in any formal way. This book fills that gap. By emphasizing these player-centric basic concepts, the book provides a framework for game analysis from the viewpoint of a game designer. The book shows what all genres of games—board games, card games, computer games, and sports—have to teach each other. Today's game designers may find solutions to design problems when they look at classic games that have evolved over years of playing.Characteristics of Games—written by three of the most prominent game designers working today—will serve as an essential reference for game designers and game players curious about the inner workings of games. It includes exercises (which can also serve as the basis for discussions) and examples chosen from a wide variety of games. There are occasional mathematical digressions, but these can be skipped with no loss of continuity. Appendixes offer supplementary material, including a brief survey of the two main branches of mathematical game theory and a descriptive listing of each game referred to in the text.

Sports and state, Sports--International cooperation, Sports--Political aspects, and International relations

International sporting events, including the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, have experienced profound growth in popularity and significance since the mid-twentieth century. Sports often facilitate diplomacy, revealing common interests across borders and uniting groups of people who are otherwise divided by history, ethnicity, or politics. In many countries, popular athletes have become diplomatic envoys. Sport is an arena in which international conflict and compromise find expression, yet the impact of sports on foreign relations has not been widely studied by scholars.In Diplomatic Games, a team of international scholars examines how the nexus of sport and foreign relations has driven political and cultural change since 1945, demonstrating how governments have used athletic competition to maintain and strengthen alliances, promote policies, and increase national prestige. The contributors investigate topics such as China's use of sports to oppose Western imperialism, the ways in which sports helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, and the impact of the United States'1980 Olympic boycott on U.S.-Soviet relations. Bringing together innovative scholarship from around the globe, this groundbreaking collection makes a compelling case for the use of sport as a lens through which to view international relations.

Corporations--Taxation--United States--History, Tax shelters--United States--History, Tax shelters--Law and legislation--United States--History, and Taxation--Moral and ethical aspects--United States--History

The rise and fall of a tax shelter industry that enabled some of America's richest citizens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.For ten boom-powered years at the turn of the twenty-first century, some of America's most prominent law and accounting firms created and marketed products that enabled the very rich—including newly minted dot-com millionaires—to avoid paying their fair share of taxes by claiming benefits not recognized by law. These abusive domestic tax shelters bore such exotic names as BOSS, BLIPS, and COBRA and were developed by such prestigious firms as KPMG and Ernst & Young. They brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from clients and bilked the U.S. Treasury of billions in revenues before the IRS and Justice Department stepped in with civil penalties and criminal prosecutions. In Confidence Games, Tanina Rostain and Milton Regan describe the rise and fall of the tax shelter industry during this period, offering a riveting account of the most serious episode of professional misconduct in the history of the American bar.Rostain and Regan describe a beleaguered IRS preoccupied by attacks from antitax and antigovernment politicians; heightened competition for professional services; the relaxation of tax practitioner norms against aggressive advice; and the creation of complex financial instruments that made abusive shelters harder to detect. By 2004, the tax shelter boom was over, leaving failed firms, disgraced professionals, and prison sentences in its wake. Rostain and Regan's cautionary tale remains highly relevant today, as lawyers and accountants continue to face intense competitive pressure and regulators still struggle to keep pace with accelerating financial risk and innovation.

Sports betting--History, Sports--Corrupt practices, and Gambling--History

Major League Baseball claims it hasn't had a game fixed by gamblers since 1919. No points have been shaved in the NBA since 1954. And the NFL states no game of theirs has come under outside influence ever. These, however, are lies. The proof resides in FBI files only recently uncovered and discussed in Larceny Games.

Games of strategy (Mathematics)--History and War games--History

The convergence of military strategy and mathematics in war games, from medieval to modern times.For centuries, both mathematical and military thinkers have used game-like scenarios to test their visions of mastering a complex world through symbolic operations. By the end of World War I, mathematical and military discourse in Germany simultaneously discovered the game as a productive concept. Mathematics and military strategy converged in World War II when mathematicians designed fields of operation. In this book, Philipp von Hilgers examines the theory and practice of war games through history, from the medieval game boards, captured on parchment, to the paper map exercises of the Third Reich. Von Hilgers considers how and why war games came to exist: why mathematical and military thinkers created simulations of one of the most unpredictable human activities on earth.Von Hilgers begins with the medieval rythmomachia, or Battle of Numbers, then reconstructs the ideas about war and games in the baroque period. He investigates the role of George Leopold von Reiswitz's tactical war game in nineteenth-century Prussia and describes the artifact itself: a game board–topped table with drawers for game implements. He explains Clausewitz's emphasis on the “fog of war” and the accompanying element of incalculability, examines the contributions of such thinkers as Clausewitz, Leibniz, Wittgenstein, and von Neumann, and investigates the war games of the German military between the two World Wars. Baudrillard declared this to be the age of simulacra; war games stand contrariwise as simulations that have not been subsumed in absolute virtuality.

Sex customs--Rome--Poetry, Erotic poetry, Greek--Translations into English, Sex customs--Greece--Poetry, and Erotic poetry, Latin--Translations into English

Recent attacks on contemporary art have portrayed the erotic content of works by Robert Mapplethorpe and others as if it were a deviation from the Western artistic tradition. On the contrary, there is a rich tradition of eroticism in the arts beginning with the erotic verse of ancient Greek and Roman poets. Games of Venus, the first comprehensive anthology in English of ancient Greek and Roman erotic verse, revives this tradition for the modern reader. Games of Venus presents the whole spectrum of erotic poetry from Sappho to Ovid in translations which evoke the full range of styles and tones present in the original Greek and Latin. Brief biographical sketches accompany the work of each poet as do notes referring to the myths, geography, historical events, personages, and sexual and social customs mentioned in the verse.

Mathematical recreations, Games--Mathematical models, and Mathematics--Psychological aspects

The appeal of games and puzzles is timeless and universal. In this unique book, David Wells explores the fascinating connections between games and mathematics, proving that mathematics is not just about tedious calculation but imagination, insight and intuition. The first part of the book introduces games, puzzles and mathematical recreations, including knight tours on a chessboard. The second part explains how thinking about playing games can mirror the thinking of a mathematician, using scientific investigation, tactics and strategy, and sharp observation. Finally the author considers game-like features found in a wide range of human behaviours, illuminating the role of mathematics and helping to explain why it exists at all. This thought-provoking book is perfect for anyone with a thirst for mathematics and its hidden beauty; a good high school grounding in mathematics is all the background that is required, and the puzzles and games will suit pupils from 14 years.

Indigenous peoples--Political and social views, Indigenous peoples--Sports, and Indigenous peoples--Social life and customs

Research on Indigenous participation in sport offers many opportunities to better understand the political issues of equality, empowerment, self-determination and protection of culture and identity. This volume compares and conceptualises the sociological significance of Indigenous sports in different international contexts. The contributions, all written by Indigenous scholars and those working directly in Indigenous/Native Studies units, provide unique studies of contemporary experiences of Indigenous sports participation. The papers investigate current understandings of Indigeneity found to circulate throughout sports, sports organisations and Indigenous communities. by (1): situating attitudes to racial and cultural difference within the broader sociological processes of post colonial Indigenous worlds (2): interrogating perceptions of Indigenous identity with reference to contemporary theories of identity drawn from Indigenous Studies and (3): providing insight to increased Indigenous participation, empowerment and personal development through sport with reference to sociological theory.

Computer games--Research, Computer games--Programming, Computer games--Design, and Video games--Design

There is wide interest in the potential of'serious'video games as vehicles for learning. Especially in the health education domain, there are now many reports of the use of video games intended to produce changes in players'knowledge, attitudes or behaviors that will transfer to'real life'settings outside the context of the game. The authors of this book analyze the learning models implicit in health games described in the literature, and relates these to established learning models in order to illustrate the nature of the gaps between current game designs and relevant learning theory and technology. This analysis provides a systematic framework for identifying principles of game design that are soundly based both in theory and research evidence. Examples are provided from recent game designs. This book also reports on whether computer games can be put to good use for mathematics educational purposes for young teenagers. The authors believe that computer games can be used as a complement for making routine practice more varied, more enjoyable and more effective. In addition, digital epistemic games are computer-based games that mediate mental, intellectual, knowledge-oriented activities. This book presents a strategy for how to analyze digital epistemic games. Other chapters in this book investigate the relationship between video game play and dreams and the emergence of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) in the past decade.

Pension trusts--Illinois--Chicago, Pension trusts--Management, and Pensions--Law and legislation

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, and former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley have something in common that could easily become each of their undoing: Chicago's severely underfunded public pension system. Pension Games is a series of investigative reports on the broken, corrupt system that provides retirement payments to Chicago's many public service workers. Beginning in 2010, the Tribune has tracked this crisis from its birth to its current state of crisis roiling political and business figures from Cook County to Springfield. Through its in-depth research and watchdog reporting, the Chicago Tribune has exposed mismanagement and corruption within the pension system by public officials past and present. Pension Games is a hard-hitting expose that reveals how former mayor Richard M. Daley used pension funds to make political deals and give oversized pensions to all sorts of city workers—himself included. By looking at the history of the pension system, the nature of the laws themselves, and a trove of primary materials, investigative journalists have uncovered rampant corruption and uncorrected failures that have led to an attempt at state-wide pension reform. This book clearly details the exact makeup of arcane pension laws that have allowed this crisis to cripple public finances, while never before examined primary documents and pension records reveal the complex nature of this problem. Pension Games helps explain the origins, cause, and nature of the issues afflicting the residents of Chicago and Illinois in straightforward, aboveboard terms, making the convoluted ins and outs of pensions quite accessible. Complementing this analysis of public records and finances are profiles and case studies of specific individuals, bringing the results of the system's misuse and abuse to life. As the Tribune continued to investigate the issues at the heart of the pension problem, it eventually triggered an official look into pension reform in Illinois, as well as a new federal investigation of several union officials'pensions in Chicago. The immediate and long-term crises posed by a pension system unhinged are at the forefront of public officials'minds, not the least of whom include Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Pat Quinn. If they cannot reform these public finance systems, it may easily be their own political careers that will pay the price. What's more is that many of any convictions or revelations that come out of the reformation process and federal investigation may taint if not undo the largely positive legacy of Richard M. Daley. For the first time ever, one book examines the breadth and depth of the pension problem in Illinois and Chicago, and it is a problem that will only continue to be in the news until major reforms can be enacted. Even after, the fallout from decades of pension abuse will not only affect the Midwest's largest hub of political and economic activity in Chicago and Illinois, but it will have major repercussions for cities and states across the nation struggling with the same issues.

Video games--Design, Video games industry--Management, and Games--Management

Computer games are big business - tens of billions of dollars are spent annually by the worldwide video games market. The cost of producing video games has ballooned to beyond $20 million dollars in many cases, and team sizes are quickly growing past 100 team members. At the center of this storm is the producer - one person who transforms the money, the hours spent by the team, and the latest technology into a work of art that millions of people will call fun. This book will dig deeply into the role of the producer and expose secrets of game production that stand the test of time: how to build a great team, how to plan a major game development project, and how to pull the development team toward the vision of a great game.

Games--Research, Learning, and Games--Psychological aspects

Serious Games provides a thorough exploration of the claim that playing games can provide learning that is deep, sustained and transferable to the real world.'Serious games'is defined herein as any form of interactive computer-based game software for one or multiple players to be used on any platform and that has been developed to provide more than entertainment to players. With this volume, the editors address the gap in exisiting scholarship on gaming, providing an academic overview on the mechanisms and effects of serious games. Contributors investigate the psychological mechanisms that take place not only during gaming, but also in game selection, persistent play, and gaming impact. The work in this collection focuses on the desirable outcomes of digital game play. The editors distinguish between three possible effects -- learning, development, and change -- covering a broad range of serious games'potential impact. Contributions from internationally recognized scholars focus on five objectives: Define the area of serious games Elaborate on the underlying theories that explain suggested psychological mechanisms elicited through serious game play, addressing cognitive, affective and social processes Summarize the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of serious games, Introduce innovative research methods as a response to methodological challenges imposed through interactive media Discuss the possibilities and limitations of selected applications for educational purposes. Anchored primarily in social science research, the reader will be introduced to approaches that focus on the gaming process and the users'experiences. Additional perspectives will be provided in the concluding chapters, written from non-social science approaches by experts in academic game design and representatives of the gaming industry. The editors acknowledge the necessity for a broader interdisciplinary study of the phenomena and work to overcome the methodological divide in games research to look ahead to a more integrated and interdisciplinary study of digital games. This timely and singular volume will appeal to scholars, researchers, and graduate students working in media entertainment and game studies in the areas of education, media, communication, and psychology.

Sports--Social aspects, Sports--Economic aspects, Sports--Economic aspects--United States, and Sports--Social aspects--United States

The businesses behind Dubai Sports City, the branding of David Beckham, and the presence and popularity of fantasy sports leagues on the internet are unmistakable indicators that the sports and the entertainment industries are quickly becoming one and the same. But, you needn't travel far or be a hard core sports fan to appreciate this fact. Whether you play Madden NFL on the Wii, use Nike+ along with your iPod to monitor your workouts, or channel surf and take note of the number of athlete-driven commercials, evidence of this transformation is ubiquitous in today's sports viewing and consuming experience. In recent years, the rapid convergence of sports and entertainment has been key to the sports business industry's continued growth and financial success. Money Games not only analyzes how industry stakeholders have monetized this convergence, but also provides readers with answers to this core question: how can the sports business continue to profit from the blurring of sports and entertainment? Author David M. Carter considers a wide array of implications for television content, video gaming, athlete branding, the Internet, mobile technology, gambling, sports-anchored real estate development, venue technology, and corporate marketing—in short, those areas where business opportunities exist now that sports and entertainment have become one. Money Games is a must-read for professionals and future leaders of the sports and entertainment industries, and sports fans will also find an intriguing story about the evolution of the games that they cherish and follow.