false 38615 5435210 026201257X 9780262012577 5 <![CDATA[Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5435210.Racing_the_Beam_The_Atari_Video_Computer_System 4.00 13
Studies of digital media have rarely investigated platforms—the systems underlying computing. This book (the first in a series of Platform Studies) does so, developing a critical approach that examines the relationship between platforms and creative expression. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost discuss the Atari VCS itself and examine in detail six game cartridges: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. Adventure, for example, was the first game to represent a virtual space larger than the screen (anticipating the boundless virtual spaces of such later games as World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was an early instance of interaction between media properties and video games.

Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS—often considered merely a retro fetish object—is an essential part of the history of video games.

Platform Studies series]]> 66416 3.79 84 15 38615 3.87 38 10 2009 68562 0262026147 9780262026147 4 <![CDATA[Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1213030236m/68562.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1213030236s/68562.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68562.Persuasive_Games_The_Expressive_Power_of_Videogames 3.69 13
Bogost calls this new form "procedural rhetoric," a type of rhetoric tied to the core affordances of computers: running processes and executing rule-based symbolic manipulation. He argues further that videogames have a unique persuasive power that goes beyond other forms of computational persuasion. Not only can videogames support existing social and cultural positions, but they can also disrupt and change those positions, leading to potentially significant long-term social change. Bogost looks at three areas in which videogame persuasion has already taken form and shows considerable potential: politics, advertising, and education. Bogost is both an academic researcher and a videogame designer, and Persuasive Games reflects both theoretical and game-design goals.]]> 38615 3.87 38 10 2007 68556 026202599X 9780262025997 1 <![CDATA[Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170693250m/68556.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170693250s/68556.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68556.Unit_Operations_An_Approach_to_Videogame_Criticism 4.20 10 Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. Moreover, this approach can be applied beyond videogames: Bogost suggests that any medium--from videogames to poetry, literature, cinema, or art--can be read as a configurative system of discrete, interlocking units of meaning, and he illustrates this method of analysis with examples from all these fields. The marriage of literary theory and information technology, he argues, will help humanists take technology more seriously and hep technologists better understand software and videogames as cultural artifacts. This approach is especially useful for the comparative analysis of digital and nondigital artifacts and allows scholars from other fields who are interested in studying videogames to avoid the esoteric isolation of "game studies."

The richness of Bogost's comparative approach can be seen in his discussions of works by such philosophers and theorists as Plato, Badiou, Zizek, and McLuhan, and in his analysis of numerous videogames including Pong, Half-Life, and Star Wars Galaxies. Bogost draws on object technology and complex adaptive systems theory for his method of unit analysis, underscoring the configurative aspects of a wide variety of human processes. His extended analysis of freedom in large virtual spaces examines Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Joyce's Ulysses. In Unit Operations, Bogost not only offers a new methodology for videogame criticism but argues for the possibility of real collaboration between the humanities and information technology.]]> 38615 3.87 38 10 2006 6997432 0415996600 9780415996600 0 <![CDATA[Joystick Soldiers]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6997432-joystick-soldiers 0.0 0 Joystick Soldiers is the first anthology to examine the reciprocal relationship between militarism and video games. War has been an integral theme of the games industry since the invention of the first video game, Spacewar! in 1962.While war video games began as entertainment, military organizations soon saw their potential as combat simulation and recruitment tools. A profitable and popular relationship was established between the video game industry and the military, and continues today with video game franchises like America’s Army, which was developed by the U.S.Army as a public relations and recruitment tool.


This collection features all new essays that explore how modern warfare has been represented in and influenced by video games. The contributors explore the history and political economy of video games and the military-entertainment complex; present textual analyses of military-themed video games such as Metal Gear Solid; and offer reception studies of gamers, fandom, and political activism within online gaming.


]]> 38615 3.87 38 10 3104071 0.0 0 0 3122368 0.0 0 0 2009 1452839 1933900024 9781933900025 0 <![CDATA[Elementary Greek: Koine for Beginners, Audio Companion Year 2]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183755277m/1452839.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183755277s/1452839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452839.Elementary_Greek_Koine_for_Beginners_Audio_Companion_Year_2 0.0 0 38615 3.87 38 10 2006 1452838 0974239194 9780974239194 0 <![CDATA[Elementary Greek: Koine for Beginners, Year One Audio Companion]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183755276m/1452838.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183755276s/1452838.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452838.Elementary_Greek_Koine_for_Beginners_Year_One_Audio_Companion 0.0 0 259687 4.00 2 0 38615 3.87 38 10 2005