Understanding games as systems, with complex interactions of game elements and rules. Gaming the System demonstrates the nature of games as systems, how game designers need to think in terms of complex interactions of game elements and rules, and how to identify systems concepts in the design process. The activities use Gamestar Mechanic, an online game design environment with a systems thinking focus.

1. This extremely multidisciplinary book engages descriptive and prescriptive methods of study to video games, drawing heavily on philosophical traditions. It will have appeal outside of Film & Media and Philosophy to other areas of scholarly research including Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science. 2.The author is a senior scholar with extensive publications that explore the intersection of philosophy and ethics with digital games and reality. He has a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter as well as a well-designed personal website. He has historically be very engaged with his own digital and social media marketing for books he authors and plans to do the same for this title. 3. The author works to debunk and reframe what readers think they know about video games and digital culture, showing that it is wrong (or at least misguided) and that the important questions are often far more interesting and potentially disturbing than anticipated.

Understanding games as systems, with complex interactions of game elements and rules. Gaming the System demonstrates the nature of games as systems, how game designers need to think in terms of complex interactions of game elements and rules, and how to identify systems concepts in the design process. The activities use Gamestar Mechanic, an online game design environment with a systems thinking focus.

Gaming the System takes an active approach to learning about American government, using novel, exciting, and highly instructive games to help students learn politics by living it. These timeless games are the perfect complement to a core textbook in American government—covering key topics like the Constitution, the Supreme Court, Congress, political participation, campaigns and elections, the federal bureaucracy, the social contract, social movements, and public opinion—and can be applied to specific courses at other levels, as well. For Instructors: These nine games are designed to be easily inserted into courses, with all but one fitting into one class session and all flexible enough to adapt or scale as needed. Games are designed so that students will be ready to play after minimal preparation and with little prior knowledge; instructors do not need to design or prepare any additional materials. An extensive instructor-only online resource provides everything needed to accompany each game: summary and discussion of the pedagogical foundations on active learning and games; instructions and advice for managing the game and staging under various logistical circumstances; student handouts and scoresheets, and more. For Students: These games immerse participants in crucial narratives, build content knowledge, and improve critical thinking skills—at the same time providing an entertaining way to learn key lessons about American government. Each chapter contains complete instructions, materials, and discussion questions in a concise and ready-to-use form, in addition to time-saving tools like scorecards and 'cheat sheets.' The games contribute to course understanding, lifelong learning, and meaningful citizenship.

How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.

Illuminates the fascinating, intertwined histories of games and the Early Modern theater

Commit an online crime, go to an online jail. In this MMORPG penal colony, inmates PVP to gain EXP, loot, and most of all...survive. Seph has been sentenced to play in one of these virtual correctional facilities. Sounds fun right? Maybe for some, but there is no worse punishment for Seph, mostly because he isn't a gamer. Will he be able to complete his sentence with all the trials and objectives thrown at him? Trapped in a virtual world he cannot escape, Seph now has to step outside of his comfort zone and align himself with the very thing he's been rebelling against his whole life--the system. Game designer and avid gamer, P.A. Wikoff wrote this story as a love letter to a lifetime of gaming.

In this timely and thrilling novel, Ender's Game meets Ready Player One and several terabytes of fast-paced video game action as five gamers are recruited into a tech giant's secret program. After Rogan Webber levels up yet again on his favorite video game, Laser Viper, the world-famous creator of the game invites him to join the five best players in the country for an exclusive tournament. The gamers are flown to the tech mogul's headquarters, where they stay in luxury dorms and test out cutting edge virtual-reality gaming equipment, doing digital battle as powerful fighting robots. It's the ultimate gaming experience.But as the contest continues, the missions become harder, losing gamers are eliminated, and the remaining contestants face the growing suspicion that the game may not be what it seems. Why do the soldiers and robots they fight in Laser Viper act so weird? What's behind the strange game glitches? And why does the game feel so... real?Rogan and his gamer rivals must come together, summoning the collective power of their Gamer Army to discover the truth and make things right... in a dangerous world where video games have invaded reality.

“This is one of 13 romance novels that should be on every woman's bucket list."--Bustle.com I had the craziest idea when I decided to auction my virginity online. I have reasons for it. Good reasons. My mom’s hospital bills, for one. My medical school tuition, for another. By day, I’m a student and popular gaming blogger, but my dream is to become a doctor. This auction could free me from a crushing pile of debt and give me the cash I need to make my dreams a reality. And honestly, I’m also looking forward to cashing in that troublesome V-card. Win, win. My rules are set in stone: One night, then no further contact with the auction winner. Enter Adam Drake, the brilliant gaming company CEO and multimillionaire. He won my auction. He’s young, driven, and so damn sexy. It’s frightening how attracted I am - though I’d never admit it. And it’s clear I’ll need to protect my heart. But Adam is used to making the rules and before I can catch it, he's found a loophole. Every stipulation I made to protect myself is getting tossed by the wayside. I can’t help but wonder… Is he playing me? Or is he playing for keeps?

Gaming the System takes philosophical traditions out of the ivory tower and into the virtual worlds of video games. In this book, author David J. Gunkel explores how philosophical traditions—put forth by noted thinkers such as Plato, Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, and Žižek—can help us explore and conceptualize recent developments in video games, game studies, and virtual worlds. Furthermore, Gunkel interprets computer games as doing philosophy, arguing that the game world is a medium that provides opportunities to model and explore fundamental questions about the nature of reality, personal identity, social organization, and moral conduct. By using games to investigate and innovate in the area of philosophical thinking, Gunkel shows how areas such as game governance and manufacturers' terms of service agreements actually grapple with the social contract and produce new postmodern forms of social organization that challenge existing modernist notions of politics and the nation state. In this critically engaging study, Gunkel considers virtual worlds and video games as more than just "fun and games," presenting them as sites for new and original thinking about some of the deepest questions concerning the human experience.