Uncertainty In Games

Author : Greg Costikyan
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262527537
Total Pages : 150 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Uncertainty in Games written by Greg Costikyan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2015-01-30 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. and Dungeons & Dragons 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 suggests 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.

Author : Daniel F. Oriesek
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000289877
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Winning the Uncertainty Game written by Daniel F. Oriesek and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-29 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the challenges that emerge for organizations from an ever faster changing world. While useful at their time, several management tools, including classic strategic planning processes, will no longer suffice to address these challenges in a timely and comprehensive fashion. While individual management tools are still valid to solve specific problems, they need to be employed based on a clear understanding of what the greater challenge is and how they need to be combined and prioritized with other approaches. In order to do so, companies can apply the clarity of thinking from the military with regard to which leadership level is responsible for what and how these levels need to interact in order to produce a single aligned response to an outside opportunity or threat. Finally, the tool of business wargaming, while known for some time, proves to be an ideal approach to quickly and effectively bring all leadership levels together, align them around a common objective and lay the groundwork for effective implementation of targeted responses that will keep the organization competitive and in the game for the long run. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to business wargaming, including a historical account, a classification of different types of games and a number of specific real-world examples. This book is targeted at practicing managers dealing with the aforementioned challenges, as well as for students of business and strategy at every level.

Author : Roger Caillois
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252070334
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.3X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Man, Play, and Games written by Roger Caillois and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Roger Caillois, play is an occasion of pure waste. In spite of this - or because of it - play constitutes an essential element of human social and spiritual development. In this study, the author defines play as a free and voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life.

Author : Marie Delaplace
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000546772
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hosting the Olympic Games written by Marie Delaplace and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hosting the Olympic Games: Uncertainty, Debates and Controversy provides a broad and comprehensive analysis of past Olympic and Paralympic events, shedding critical light on the future of the Games with a specific look at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. It draws attention to the debates and paradox that hosting the Games presents for the contemporary city. Employing a range of interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches, individual chapters highlight the various controversies of the Games throughout the bidding process, the event itself and its aftermath. Social Science-based chapters place strong emphasis on the vital importance of sustainable strategy for contemporary host cities. Along with environmental concerns whether atmospheric, microbiological or otherwise, many other requirements, costs and risks involving security and public expenditure among others are explored throughout the book. Including a variety of international and comparative case studies from a range of contributing academics, this will be essential reading for students and researchers in the field of Event studies as well as various disciplines including Tourism, Heritage studies and Urban and Environmental studies.

Author : Katherine Isbister
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262534452
Total Pages : 187 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Games Move Us written by Katherine Isbister and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-10-27 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging examination of how video game design can create strong, positive emotional experiences for players—with examples from popular, indie, and art games. This is a renaissance moment for video games—in the variety of genres they represent, and the range of emotional territory they cover. But how do games create emotion? In How Games Move Us, Katherine Isbister takes the reader on a timely and novel exploration of the design techniques that evoke strong emotions for players. She counters arguments that games are creating a generation of isolated, emotionally numb, antisocial loners. Games, Isbister shows us, can actually play a powerful role in creating empathy and other strong, positive emotional experiences; they reveal these qualities over time, through the act of playing. She offers a nuanced, systematic examination of exactly how games can influence emotion and social connection, with examples—drawn from popular, indie, and art games—that unpack the gamer’s experience. Isbister describes choice and flow, two qualities that distinguish games from other media, and explains how game developers build upon these qualities using avatars, non-player characters, and character customization, in both solo and social play. She shows how designers use physical movement to enhance players’ emotional experience, and examines long-distance networked play. She illustrates the use of these design methods with examples that range from Sony’s Little Big Planet to the much-praised indie game Journey to art games like Brenda Romero’s Train. Isbister’s analysis shows us a new way to think about games, helping us appreciate them as an innovative and powerful medium for doing what film, literature, and other creative media do: helping us to understand ourselves and what it means to be human.

Author : Jeff Boss
Publisher : Tier 1 Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780990670346
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Managing the Mental Game written by Jeff Boss and published by Tier 1 Publishing. This book was released on 2016-11-24 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this concise guide to mental management, executive leadership and team coach and former Navy SEAL, Jeff Boss, teaches a blend of unique mental training methodologies that will enhance your self-belief, self-confidence, and mental fortitude to help you reach new levels of success no matter what your profession is. Jeff's unique WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) style of writing makes the science of mental toughness easy to read and relatable. With a client list that ranges from high potentials to top executives, Jeff demonstrates how to pave the way for breakthrough potential by sharing over 23 mental exercises for dealing with overwhelm. Specifically, you'll learn: 1. Why understanding the mind is the smartest thing you can do 2. Learn the 4 Mental Traps and How To Avoid Them 3. The 3 types of focus and why mastering them is fundamental to success 4. Learn how to deal with uncertainty and not by stymied by fear 5. Learn the 3 pitfalls of uncertainty so you can anticipate and avoid them 6. The truth about managing uncertainty 7. Learn the neuroscience of change 8. Become proficient in replacing negative thoughts with positive ones 9. Create more productive thinking habits by understanding thought architecture 10. 23 exercises for dealing with overwhelming pressure 11. Learn the most effective path to building mental fortitude This book is powerful-but only to the degree that you are willing to proactively put forth the focus to be the person you want to be. The lessons and techniques presented in this book are essential reading for anyone seeking greater success and peak performance, whether it be on the playing field, in business, or life in general. Whatever your personal endeavor may be, whatever challenge you may be facing, these lessons will prepare you to move forward and excel. Reach new levels of personal success and performance as you learn, practice, and apply these powerful concepts and proven techniques.

Author : Jonathan Fields
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1591845661
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Uncertainty written by Jonathan Fields and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Fields knows the risks-and potential power-of uncertainty. He gave up a six-figure income as a lawyer to make $12 an hour as a personal trainer. Then, married with a 3-month old baby, he signed a lease to launch a yoga center in the heart of New York City. . . the day before 9/11. But he survived, and along the way he developed a fresh approach to transforming uncertainty, risk of loss, and exposure to judgment into catalysts for innovation, creation, and achievement. In business, art, and life, creating on a world-class level demands bold action and leaps of faith in the face of great uncertainty. But that uncertainty can lead to fear, anxiety, paralysis, and destruction. It can gut creativity and stifle innovation. It can keep you from taking the risks necessary to do great work and craft a deeply-rewarding life. And it can bring companies that rely on innovation grinding to a halt. That is, unless you know how to use it to your advantage. Fields draws on leading-edge technology, cognitive science, and ancient awareness-focusing techniques in a fresh, practical, nondogmatic way. His approach enables creativity and productivity on an entirely different level and can turn the once-tortuous journey into a more enjoyable quest.

Author : Dennis V. Lindley
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470055472
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Understanding Uncertainty written by Dennis V. Lindley and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2006-08-28 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively and informal introduction to the role of uncertainty and probability in people's lives from an everyday perspective From television game shows and gambling techniques to weather forecasting and the financial markets, virtually every aspect of modern life involves situations in which the outcomes are uncertain and of varying qualities. But as noted statistician Dennis Lindley writes in this distinctive text, "We want you to face up to uncertainty, not hide it away under false concepts, but to understand it and, moreover, to use the recent discoveries so that you can act in the face of uncertainty more sensibly than would have been possible without the skill." Accessibly written at an elementary level, this outstanding text examines uncertainty in various everyday situations and introduces readers to three rules--craftily laid out in the book--that prove uncertainty can be handled with as much confidence as ordinary logic. Combining a concept of utility with probability, the book insightfully demonstrates how uncertainty can be measured and used in everyday life, especially in decision-making and science. With a focus on understanding and using probability calculations, Understanding Uncertainty demystifies probability and: * Explains in straightforward detail the logic of uncertainty, its truths, and its falsehoods * Explores what has been learned in the twentieth century about uncertainty * Provides a logical, sensible method for acting in the face of uncertainty * Presents vignettes of great discoveries made in the twentieth century * Shows readers how to discern if another person--whether a lawyer, politician, scientist, or journalist--is talking sense, posing the right questions, or obtaining sound answers Requiring only a basic understanding of mathematical concepts and operations, Understanding Uncertainty is useful as a text for all students who have probability or statistics as part of their course, even at the most introductory level.

Author : Mauricio Goldstein
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470262001
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Games At Work written by Mauricio Goldstein and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-04-20 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AS LONG AS PEOPLE HAVE WORKED together, they have engaged in political games. Motivated by short-term gains—promotions, funding for a project, budget increases, status with the boss—people misuse their time and energy. Today, when many organizations are fighting for their lives and scarce resources there is increased stress and anxiety, and employees are engaging in games more intensely than ever before. Organizational experts Mauricio Goldstein and Philip Read argue that office games—those manipulative behaviors that distract employees from achieving their mission—are both conscious and unconscious. They can and should be effectively minimized. In Games at Work, the authors offer tools to diagnose the most common games that people play and outline a three-step process to effectively deal with them. Some of the games they explore include: GOTCHA: identifying and communicating others' mistakes in an effort to win points from higher-ups GOSSIP: engaging in the classic rumor mill to gain political advantage SANDBAGGING: purposely low-balling sales forecasts as a negotiating ploy GRAY ZONE: deliberately fostering ambiguity or lack of clarity about who should do what to avoid accountability Filled with real-world, entertaining examples of games in action, Games at Work is an invaluable resource for managers and all professionals who want to substitute straight talk for games in their organizations and boost productivity, commitment, innovation, and—ultimately—the bottom line.

Author : Benjamin Stokes
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262356937
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Locally Played written by Benjamin Stokes and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How games can make a real-world difference in communities when city leaders tap into the power of play for local impact. In 2016, city officials were surprised when Pokémon GO brought millions of players out into the public space, blending digital participation with the physical. Yet for local control and empowerment, a new framework is needed to guide the power of mixed reality and pervasive play. In Locally Played, Benjamin Stokes describes the rise of games that can connect strangers across zip codes, support the “buy local” economy, and build cohesion in the fight for equity. With a mix of high- and low-tech games, Stokes shows, cities can tap into the power of play for the good of the group, including healthier neighborhoods and stronger communities. Stokes shows how impact is greatest when games “fit” to the local community—not just in terms of culture, but at the level of group identity and network structure. By pairing design principles with a range of empirical methods, Stokes investigates the impact of several games, including Macon Money, where an alternative currency encouraged people to cross lines of socioeconomic segregation in Macon, Georgia; Reality Ends Here, where teams in Los Angeles competed to tell multimedia stories around local mythology; and Pokémon GO, appropriated by several cities to serve local needs through local libraries and open street festivals. Locally Played provides game designers with a model to strengthen existing networks tied to place and gives city leaders tools to look past technology trends in order to make a difference in the real world.