A Casual Revolution

Author : Jesper Juul
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262285800
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Casual Revolution written by Jesper Juul and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-02-10 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How casual games like Guitar Hero, Bejeweled, and those for Nintendo Wii are expanding the audience for video games. We used to think that video games were mostly for young men, but with the success of the Nintendo Wii, and the proliferation of games in browsers, cell phone games, and social games video games changed changed fundamentally in the years from 2000 to 2010. These new casual games are now played by men and women, young and old. Players need not possess an intimate knowledge of video game history or devote weeks or months to play. At the same time, many players of casual games show a dedication and skill that is anything but casual. In A Casual Revolution, Jesper Juul describes this as a reinvention of video games, and of our image of video game players, and explores what this tells us about the players, the games, and their interaction. With this reinvention of video games, the game industry reconnects with a general audience. Many of today's casual game players once enjoyed Pac-Man, Tetris, and other early games, only to drop out when video games became more time-consuming and complex. Juul shows that it is only by understanding what a game requires of players, what players bring to a game, how the game industry works, and how video games have developed historically that we can understand what makes video games fun and why we choose to play (or not to play) them. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images found in the physical edition.

Author : Jesper Juul
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262019051
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Art of Failure written by Jesper Juul and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of why we play video games despite the fact that we are almost certain to feel unhappy when we fail at them.

Author : Dick Weissman
Publisher : Backbeat Books
ISBN 13 : 1476854521
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution written by Dick Weissman and published by Backbeat Books. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Book). Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution is a comprehensive guide to the relationship between American music and politics. Music expert Dick Weissman opens with the dawn of American history, then moves to the book's key focus: 20th-century music songs by and about Native Americans, African-Americans, women, Spanish-speaking groups, and more. Unprecedented in its approach, the book offers a multidisciplinary discussion that is broad and diverse, and illuminates how social events impact music as well as how music impacts social events. Weissman delves deep, covering everything from current Native American music to "music of hate" racist and neo-Nazi music to the music of the Gulf wars, union songs, patriotic and antiwar songs, and beyond. A powerful tool for professors teaching classes about politics and music and a stimulating, accessible read for all kinds of appreciators, from casual music fans to social science lovers and devout music history buffs.

Author : Danny Kennedy
Publisher : Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1609946669
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rooftop Revolution written by Danny Kennedy and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2012-09-03 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the truth that the powerful Dirty Energy public relations machine doesn't want you to know: the ascent of solar energy is upon us. Solar-generated electricity has risen exponentially in the last few years and employment in the solar industry has doubled since 2009. Meanwhile, electricity from coal has declined to pre-World War II levels as the fossil fuel industry continues to shed jobs. Danny Kennedy systematically refutes the lies spread by solar's opponents—that it is expensive, inefficient, and unreliable; that it is kept alive only by subsidies; that it can't be scaled; and many other untruths. He shows that we need a rooftop revolution to break the entrenched power of the coal, oil, nuclear, and gas industries Solar energy can create more jobs, return our nation to prosperity, and ensure the sustainability and safety of our planet. Now is the time to move away from the dangerous energy sources of the past and unleash the amazing potential of the sun.

Author : Roderick MACFARQUHAR
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674040414
Total Pages : 742 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mao's Last Revolution written by Roderick MACFARQUHAR and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains why Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, and shows his Machiavellian role in masterminding it. This book documents the Hobbesian state that ensued. Power struggles raged among Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Qing - Mao's wife and leader of the Gang of Four - while Mao often played one against the other.

Author : Mark Changizi
Publisher : BenBella Books, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 193525121X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Vision Revolution written by Mark Changizi and published by BenBella Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2010-06-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Vision Revolution: How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew About Human Vision, Mark Changizi, prominent neuroscientist and vision expert, addresses four areas of human vision and provides explanations for why we have those particular abilities, complete with a number of full-color illustrations to demonstrate his conclusions and to engage the reader. Written for both the casual reader and the science buff hungry for new information, The Vision Revolution is a resource that dispels commonly believed perceptions about sight and offers answers drawn from the field's most recent research. Changizi focuses on four “why" questions: 1. Why do we see in color? 2. Why do our eyes face forward? 3. Why do we see illusions? 4. Why does reading come so naturally to us? Why Do We See in Color? It was commonly believed that color vision evolved to help our primitive ancestors identify ripe fruit. Changizi says we should look closer to home: ourselves. Human color vision evolved to give us greater insights into the mental states and health of other people. People who can see color changes in skin have an advantage over their color-blind counterparts; they can see when people are blushing with embarrassment, purple-faced with exertion or the reddening of rashes. Changizi's research reveals that the cones in our eyes that allow us to see color are exquisitely designed exactly for seeing color changes in the skin. And it's no coincidence that the primates with color vision are the ones with bare spots on their faces and other body parts; Changizi shows that the development of color vision in higher primates closely parallels the loss of facial hair, culminating in the near hairlessness and highly developed color vision of humans. Why Do Our Eyes Face Forward? Forward-facing eyes set us apart from most mammals, and there is much dispute as to why we have them. While some speculate that we evolved this feature to give us depth perception available through stereo vision, this type of vision only allows us to see short distances, and we already have other mechanisms that help us to estimate distance. Changizi's research shows that with two forward-facing eyes, primates and humans have an x-ray ability. Specifically, we're able to see through the cluttered leaves of the forest environment in which we evolved. This feature helps primates see their targets in a crowded, encroached environment. To see how this works, hold a finger in front of your eyes. You'll find that you're able to look “through" it, at what is beyond your finger. One of the most amazing feats of two forward-facing eyes? Our views aren't blocked by our noses, beaks, etc. Why Do We See Illusions? We evolved to see moving objects, not where they are, but where they are going to be. Without this ability, we couldn't catch a ball because the brain's ability to process visual information isn't fast enough to allow us to put our hands in the right place to intersect for a rapidly approaching baseball. “If our brains simply created a perception of the way the world was at the time light hit the eye, then by the time that perception was elicited—which takes about a tenth of a second for the brain to do—time would have marched on, and the perception would be of the recent past," Changizi explains. Simply put, illusions occur when our brain is tricked into thinking that a stationary two-dimensional picture has an element that is moving. Our brains project the “moving" element into the future and, as a result, we don't see what's on the page, but what our brain thinks will be the case a fraction of a second into the future. Why Does Reading Come So Naturally to Us? We can read faster than we can hear, which is odd, considering that reading is relatively recent,

Author : Harlow Giles Unger
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 0306819767
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book American Tempest written by Harlow Giles Unger and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Thursday, December 16, 1773, an estimated seven dozen men, many dressed as Indians, dumped roughly £10,000 worth of tea in Boston Harbor. Whatever their motives at the time, they unleashed a social, political, and economic firestorm that would culminate in the Declaration of Independence two-and-a-half years later. The Boston Tea Party provoked a reign of terror in Boston and other American cities as tea parties erupted up and down the colonies. The turmoil stripped tens of thousands of their homes and property, and nearly 100,000 left forever in what was history's largest exodus of Americans from America. Nonetheless, John Adams called the Boston Tea Party nothing short of "magnificent," saying that "it must have important consequences." Combining stellar scholarship with action-packed history, Harlow Giles Unger reveals the truth behind the legendary event and examines its lasting consequence--the spawning of a new, independent nation.

Author : Jack A. Goldstone
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197666302
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Revolutions: a Very Short Introduction written by Jack A. Goldstone and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the 20th and 21st century revolutions have become more urban, often less violent, but also more frequent and more transformative of the international order. Whether it is the revolutions against Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR; the "color revolutions" across Asia, Europe and North Africa; or the religious revolutions in Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria; today's revolutions are quite different from those of the past. Modern theories of revolution have therefore replaced the older class-based theories with more varied, dynamic, and contingent models of social and political change. This new edition updates the history of revolutions, from Classical Greece and Rome to the Revolution of Dignity in the Ukraine, with attention to the changing types and outcomes of revolutionary struggles. It also presents the latest advances in the theory of revolutions, including the issues of revolutionary waves, revolutionary leadership, international influences, and the likelihood of revolutions to come. This volume provides a brief but comprehensive introduction to the nature of revolutions and their role in global history"--

Author : Gar Alperovitz
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603584927
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book What Then Must We Do? written by Gar Alperovitz and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Never before have so many Americans been more frustrated with our economic system, more fearful that it is failing, or more open to fresh ideas about a new one. The seeds of a new movement demanding change are forming. But just what is this thing called a new economy, and how might it take shape in America? In What Then Must We Do? Gar Alperovitz speaks directly to the reader about where we find ourselves in history, why the time is right for a new-economy movement to coalesce, what it means to build a new system to replace the crumbling one, and how we might begin. He also suggests what the next system might look like—and where we can see its outlines, like an image slowly emerging in the developing trays of a photographer's darkroom, already taking shape. He proposes a possible next system that is not corporate capitalism, not state socialism, but something else entirely—and something entirely American. Alperovitz calls for an evolution, not a revolution, out of the old system and into the new. That new system would democratize the ownership of wealth, strengthen communities in diverse ways, and be governed by policies and institutions sophisticated enough to manage a large-scale, powerful economy. For the growing group of Americans pacing at the edge of confidence in the old system, or already among its detractors, What Then Must We Do? offers an elegant solution for moving from anger to strategy.

Author : Douglas W. Allen
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226014762
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Institutional Revolution written by Douglas W. Allen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few events in the history of humanity rival the Industrial Revolution. Following its onset in eighteenth-century Britain, sweeping changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and technology began to gain unstoppable momentum throughout Europe, North America, and eventually much of the world—with profound effects on socioeconomic and cultural conditions. In The Institutional Revolution, Douglas W. Allen offers a thought-provoking account of another, quieter revolution that took place at the end of the eighteenth century and allowed for the full exploitation of the many new technological innovations. Fundamental to this shift were dramatic changes in institutions, or the rules that govern society, which reflected significant improvements in the ability to measure performance—whether of government officials, laborers, or naval officers—thereby reducing the role of nature and the hazards of variance in daily affairs. Along the way, Allen provides readers with a fascinating explanation of the critical roles played by seemingly bizarre institutions, from dueling to the purchase of one’s rank in the British Army. Engagingly written, The Institutional Revolution traces the dramatic shift from premodern institutions based on patronage, purchase, and personal ties toward modern institutions based on standardization, merit, and wage labor—a shift which was crucial to the explosive economic growth of the Industrial Revolution.