Download or read book Ultimate Gamer Career Mode written by Craig Steele and published by Kingfisher. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE UKLA BOOK AWARDS 2022 (INFORMATION BOOKS CATEGORY) Take your gaming skills beyond the screen in Ultimate Gamer: Career Mode—the ultimate handbook to becoming a top game developer, Twitch streamer, or the next eSports pro! Written by Craig Steele—who has led gaming workshops at Resonate and Insomnia—and illustrated in graphic-novel style by Berat Pekmezci, this book will give you the low-down on the coolest jobs in the gaming industry. Learn how to storyboard, code and test games, just like your favourite devs, or boost your Twitch subs by learning how to go pro. Think you have the skills to compete in eSports tournaments, or do you need some tips on getting good? This book will give you the know-how on making it big in all areas of the gaming industry! "The judges unanimously thought that Ultimate Gamer was hugely popular with their students. It was probably the most picked-up book on the list. My 10-year-old, who is not a reader, grabbed this book off me and read it from cover to cover." —Judge of the UKLA Book Awards 2022 (Information Books category)

Download or read book The Minds Behind Sports Games written by Patrick Hickey, Jr. and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-08-24 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring interviews with the creators of 35 popular video games--including John Madden Football, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, WCW/nWo Revenge, and RBI Baseball--this book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of some of the most influential and iconic (and sometimes forgotten) sports video games of all time. Recounting endless hours of painstaking development, the challenges of working with mega-publishers and the uncertainties of public reception, the interviewees reveal the creative processes that produced some of gaming's classic titles.

Download or read book Understanding Esports written by Ryan Rogers and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-09-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding Esports: An Introduction to the Global Phenomenon places professional Esports, a rapidly growing industry, in both the cultural and athletic landscape. This book explores how the rise of professional gaming has shaped—and been shaped by—media trends, interpersonal communication, and what it means to be classified as an athlete. Ryan Rogers has assembled contributors from a variety of backgrounds and experiences in order to provide a broad view of the history, experience, and impact of professional gaming. Scholars of media studies, communication, sports, and cultural studies will find this book especially useful.

Download or read book The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games written by Christopher A. Paul and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An avid gamer and sharp media critic explains meritocracy’s negative contribution to video game culture—and what can be done about it Video games have brought entertainment, education, and innovation to millions, but gaming also has its dark sides. From the deep-bred misogyny epitomized by GamerGate to the endemic malice of abusive player communities, gamer culture has had serious real-world repercussions, ranging from death threats to sexist industry practices and racist condemnations. In The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games, new media critic and longtime gamer Christopher A. Paul explains how video games’ focus on meritocracy empowers this negative culture. Paul first shows why meritocracy is integral to video-game design, narratives, and values. Games typically valorize skill and technique, and common video-game practices (such as leveling) build meritocratic thinking into the most basic premises. Video games are often assumed to have an even playing field, but they facilitate skill transfer from game to game, allowing certain players a built-in advantage. The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games identifies deep-seated challenges in the culture of video games—but all is not lost. As Paul argues, similarly meritocratic institutions like professional sports and higher education have found powerful remedies to alleviate their own toxic cultures, including active recruiting and strategies that promote values such as contingency, luck, and serendipity. These can be brought to the gamer universe, Paul contends, ultimately fostering a more diverse, accepting, and self-reflective culture that is not only good for gamers but good for video games as well.

Download or read book Fifty Key Video Games written by Bernard Perron and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-07-26 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines fifty of the most important video games that have contributed significantly to the history, development, or culture of the medium, providing an overview of video games from their beginning to the present day. This volume covers a variety of historical periods and platforms, genres, commercial impact, artistic choices, contexts of play, typical and atypical representations, uses of games for specific purposes, uses of materials or techniques, specific subcultures, repurposing, transgressive aesthetics, interfaces, moral or ethical impact, and more. Key video games featured include Animal Crossing, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, PONG, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and World of Warcraft. Each game is closely analyzed in order to properly contextualize it, to emphasize its prominent features, to show how it creates a unique experience of gameplay, and to outline the ways it might speak about society and culture. The book also acts as a highly accessible showcase to a range of disciplinary perspectives that are found and practiced in the field of game studies. With each entry supplemented by references and suggestions for further reading, Fifty Key Video Games is an indispensable reference for anyone interested in video games.

Download or read book EA Sports FIFA written by Raiford Guins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-07-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If there is anything close to a universal game, it is association football, also known as soccer, football, fussball, fútbol, fitba, and futebol. The game has now moved from the physical to the digital - EA's football simulation series FIFA - with profound impacts on the multibillion sports and digital game industries, their cultures and players. Throughout its development history, EA's FIFA has managed to adapt to and adopt almost all video game industry trends, becoming an assemblage of game types and technologies that is in itself a multi-faceted probe of the medium's culture, history, and technology. EA Sports FIFA: Feeling the Game is the first scholarly book to address the importance of EA's FIFA. From looking at the cultures of fandom to analyzing the technical elements of the sports simulation, and covering the complicated relations that EA's FIFA has with gender, embodiment, and masculinity, this collection provides a comprehensive understanding of a video game series that is changing the way the most popular sport in the world is experienced. In doing so, the book serves as a reference text for scholars in many disciplines, including game studies, sociology of sports, history of games, and sports research.

Download or read book Optimizing Play written by Christopher A. Paul and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-05-14 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unexpected take on how games work, what the stakes are for them, and how game designers can avoid the traps of optimization. The process of optimization in games seems like a good thing—who wouldn’t want to find the most efficient way to play and win? As Christopher Paul argues in Optimizing Play, however, optimization can sometimes risk a tragedy of the commons, where actions that are good for individuals jeopardize the overall state of the game for everyone else. As he explains, players inadvertently limit play as they theorycraft, seeking optimal choices. The process of developing a meta, or the most effective tactic available, structures decision making, causing play to stagnate. A “stale” meta then creates a perception that a game is solved and may lead players to turn away from the game. Drawing on insights from game studies, rhetoric, the history of science, ecology, and game theory literature, Paul explores the problem of optimization in a range of video games, including Overwatch, FIFA/EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Clash Royale, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. He also pulls extensively from data analytics in sports, where the problem has progressed further and is even more intractable than it is in video games, given the money sports teams invest to find an edge. Finally, Paul offers concrete and specific suggestions for how games can be developed to avoid the trap set by optimization run amok.

Download or read book 111 Weird Fun and Random Facts About the UFC written by James Bren and published by Gregory Groves. This book was released on with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step inside the thrilling octagon with '111 Weird, Fun, and Random Facts about the UFC' by James Bren, an enthralling journey through the world of mixed martial arts. This meticulously crafted book uncovers the most fascinating, unexpected, and entertaining facets of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Bren's exploration of the UFC takes you from the thrilling battles in the cage to the untold stories behind the fighters and events. Discover the astonishing tale of legendary fighters like Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, and their incredible journeys to the top. Explore the explosive rivalries and jaw-dropping knockouts that have defined the sport. Venture into the realm of Octagon trivia with facts about the dedicated medical staff ensuring fighter safety, the star-studded attendance at UFC events, and even the unexpected inclusion of celebrities like Ben Affleck, Tom Brady, and Jimmy Kimmel as UFC investors. But that's not all - delve into the quirkiest details, from the taste of success with Conor McGregor's whiskey to the strange story of fighter Joe Son, both inside and outside the cage. UFC fans will be thrilled by the enlightening look into fighter training methods, referee Dana White's fascinating past, and the mysteries behind the UFC belt. With 111 intriguing chapters, this book offers a front-row seat to the world of UFC, revealing the thrilling and obscure moments that have shaped the sport. Whether you're a dedicated fan or a newcomer to MMA, '111 Weird, Fun, and Random Facts about the UFC' is your ultimate guide to the Octagon's hidden treasures. Prepare to be captivated, entertained, and left in awe of the astonishing world of the UFC.

Download or read book We are the Champions The Politics of Sports and Popular Music written by Ken McLeod and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-11 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sports and popular music are synergistic agents in the construction of identity and community. They are often interconnected through common cross-marketing tactics and through influence on each other's performative strategies and stylistic content. Typically only studied as separate entities, popular music and sport cultures mutually 'play' off each other in exchanges of style, ideologies and forms. Posing unique challenges to notions of mind - body dualities, nationalism, class, gender, and racial codes and sexual orientation, Dr Ken McLeod illuminates the paradoxical and often conflicting relationships associated with these modes of leisure and entertainment and demonstrates that they are not culturally or ideologically distinct but are interconnected modes of contemporary social practice. Examples include how music is used to enhance sporting events, such as anthems, chants/cheers, and intermission entertainment, music that is used as an active part of the athletic event, and music that has been written about or that is associated with sports. There are also connections in the use of music in sports movies, television and video games and important, though critically under-acknowledged, similarities regarding spectatorship, practice and performance. Despite the scope of such confluences, the extraordinary impact of the interrelationship of music and sports on popular culture has remained little recognized. McLeod ties together several influential threads of popular culture and fills a significant void in our understanding of the construction and communication of identity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Download or read book How to Play Video Games written by Matthew Thomas Payne and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.

Download or read book We are the Champions The Politics of Sports and Popular Music written by Dr Ken McLeod and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-01-28 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sports and popular music are synergistic agents in the construction of identity and community. They are often interconnected through common cross-marketing tactics and through influence on each other's performative strategies and stylistic content. Typically only studied as separate entities, popular music and sport cultures mutually 'play' off each other in exchanges of style, ideologies and forms. Posing unique challenges to notions of mind - body dualities, nationalism, class, gender, and racial codes and sexual orientation, Dr Ken McLeod illuminates the paradoxical and often conflicting relationships associated with these modes of leisure and entertainment and demonstrates that they are not culturally or ideologically distinct but are interconnected modes of contemporary social practice. Examples include how music is used to enhance sporting events, such as anthems, chants/cheers, and intermission entertainment, music that is used as an active part of the athletic event, and music that has been written about or that is associated with sports. There are also connections in the use of music in sports movies, television and video games and important, though critically under-acknowledged, similarities regarding spectatorship, practice and performance. Despite the scope of such confluences, the extraordinary impact of the interrelationship of music and sports on popular culture has remained little recognized. McLeod ties together several influential threads of popular culture and fills a significant void in our understanding of the construction and communication of identity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Download or read book The Best Non Violent Video Games written by James Batchelor and published by White Owl. This book was released on 2023-10-30 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if there were video games that weren’t about killing things? The world’s biggest entertainment medium has come under decades of scrutiny because of its violent content. But here’s a little known fact: from the very beginning, non-violent video games have done as much, if not more, to shape the industry than violent ones. The Best Non-Violent Video Games is the first ever guide to the full breath of interactive entertainment. Discover the true variety the medium has to offer and learn how developers constantly find new ways to engage people by challenging their minds, testing their reflexes, and even tugging at the heartstrings. Take a journey through more than three hundred video games, stretching back to the very dawn of the industry and extending right up to modern day indie hits. You’ll learn more about the origins of some of gaming’s biggest franchises, discover underrated gems from developers of all sizes, and perhaps even find some new favorites. Written by a journalist with over 15 years of industry experience and more than 30 years of gaming experience, this guide is for anyone seeking something truly different from the video games space without dealing with guns and gore, or those simply looking for a change of pace.

Download or read book The Book of Games written by Bendik Stang and published by Book of Games. This book was released on 2006-11 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A feast for the eyes with literally thousands of vivid, high-resolution screen shots, this book provides a comprehensive visual tour through the world of PC and video gaming. Sorted by genre, 150 of the most exciting current software titles are reviewed with information of interest to players, parents, and industry professionals. Each game is featured in a two-page spread that includes detailed game summary, analysis, and strategy, nine representative in-game screen shots, games with similar skill and strategy requirements, appropriate age range, ESRB content ratings, complete technological specifications, and more. Feature stories are included throughout the book, covering game-related topics such as multiplayer online gaming, games in movies, and the future of gaming. The book also includes useful reference tools such as an illustrated glossary, an overview of game publishers, and information on current and upcoming hardware platforms such as Sony's new PS3 and Nintendo's Wii.

Download or read book GameAxis Unwired written by and published by . This book was released on 2005-05 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GameAxis Unwired is a magazine dedicated to bring you the latest news, previews, reviews and events around the world and close to you. Every month rain or shine, our team of dedicated editors (and hardcore gamers!) put themselves in the line of fire to bring you news, previews and other things you will want to know.

Download or read book A Newborn Business written by Zoltan Andrejkovics and published by Zoltan Andrejkovics. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Games covered Fortnite, League of Legends, Dota 2, FIFA, Overwatch, CS:GO, Clash Royale, Hearthstone and F1 series "How can I become a professional esports player?" "How can I make a living playing esports?" "What is the lifespan of an esports game?" "What are the most popular esports?" These are just some of the questions I have been asked over the last five years. With the boom of the esports industry, everyone wants to know how they can be part of it. In this book, I have answered those questions, and dozens more, based on my years of experience working in the professional esports scene as a team manager. In this book, you will find no topic was off limits. I talk about the past, present, and future of esports and different aspects of the professional gaming industry at large.

Download or read book Geek Dad written by Ken Denmead and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate DIY project guide for techie dads raising kids in their own geeky image, in the spirit of The Dangerous Book for Boys Today's generation of dads grew up more tech-savvy than ever. Rather than joining the Little League team, many grew up playing computer games, Dungeons and Dragons, and watching Star Wars. Now with kids of their own, these digital-age dads are looking for fresh ways to share their love of science and technology, and help their kids develop a passion for learning and discovery. Enter supergeek, and father of two, Ken Denmead. An engineer and editor of the incredibly popular GeekDad blog on wired.com, Ken has created the ultimate, idea-packed guide guaranteed to help dads and kids alike enjoy the magic of playtime together and tap into the infinite possibility of their imagination. With illustrations throughout, this book offers projects for all ages to suit any timeframe or budget. With Denmead's expert guidance, you and your child can: •Fly a night-time kite ablaze with lights or launch a video camera with balloons •Construct the "Best Slip n' Slide Ever," a guaranteed thrill ride •Build a working lamp with LEGO bricks and CDs •Create a customized comic strip or your own board game •Transform any room into a spaceship •Make geeky crafts like cyborg jack-o'-lanterns or Ethernet cuff links Brimming with endlessly fun and futuristic tidbits on everything from gaming to gadgets, GeekDad helps every tech-savvy father unleash his inner kid-and bond with the next generation of brainiacs. Watch a Video

Download or read book Redefining Sports Media written by Jason Kido Lopez and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-29 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the examination of sports media within cultural and media studies is organized around more than just a shared topic: mediated sports. What count as "sports media" in journals, books, and conferences are extremely diverse; they can cover athlete expression on social media, shoe commercials, gender in sports commentary, Indigenous name change activists, and fantasy sports. Besides being mediated and, in some cases, loosely connected to sports events and leagues, it is hard to see what they all share that could serve as the foundation for a unified field of study. Jason Kido Lopez argues that sports media are defined by genre, which is reflected in their industries, within their content, and by their audiences. Throughout the media and cultural complex, sports and sports media are built on the genre of live and real competition and, therefore, to study sports media is to study that genre. Each chapter will explore how the genre is constructed in commodification of mediated sport, representation within sports media, athlete expression, sports fandom, and gaming around sports. This book will be of interest to those studying sports media as well as media and cultural studies, but also can be used as an introductory survey of the research on sports media from a media and cultural studies perspective.