Thought-Provoking Play: Political Philosophies in Science Fictional Videogame Spaces from Japan

Thought-Provoking Play: Political Philosophies in Science Fictional Videogame Spaces from Japan

Author: Martin Roth

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-01-05

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1387438808

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This book considers videogames as spaces of political philosophy. Emerging from a negotiation between designers, player and computer, they prompt us to rethink life in common and imagine alternatives to the status quo. Several case studies on science fictional videogames from Japan serve to demonstrate this potential for thought-provoking play.


Book Synopsis Thought-Provoking Play: Political Philosophies in Science Fictional Videogame Spaces from Japan by : Martin Roth

Download or read book Thought-Provoking Play: Political Philosophies in Science Fictional Videogame Spaces from Japan written by Martin Roth and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-01-05 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers videogames as spaces of political philosophy. Emerging from a negotiation between designers, player and computer, they prompt us to rethink life in common and imagine alternatives to the status quo. Several case studies on science fictional videogames from Japan serve to demonstrate this potential for thought-provoking play.


Japanese Role-Playing Games

Japanese Role-Playing Games

Author: Rachael Hutchinson

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-04-11

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1793643555

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Japanese Role-playing Games: Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG examines the origins, boundaries, and transnational effects of the genre, addressing significant formal elements as well as narrative themes, character construction, and player involvement. Contributors from Japan, Europe, North America, and Australia employ a variety of theoretical approaches to analyze popular game series and individual titles, introducing an English-speaking audience to Japanese video game scholarship while also extending postcolonial and philosophical readings to the Japanese game text. In a three-pronged approach, the collection uses these analyses to look at genre, representation, and liminality, engaging with a multitude of concepts including stereotypes, intersectionality, and the political and social effects of JRPGs on players and industry conventions. Broadly, this collection considers JRPGs as networked systems, including evolved iterations of MMORPGs and card collecting “social games” for mobile devices. Scholars of media studies, game studies, Asian studies, and Japanese culture will find this book particularly useful.


Book Synopsis Japanese Role-Playing Games by : Rachael Hutchinson

Download or read book Japanese Role-Playing Games written by Rachael Hutchinson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-04-11 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese Role-playing Games: Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG examines the origins, boundaries, and transnational effects of the genre, addressing significant formal elements as well as narrative themes, character construction, and player involvement. Contributors from Japan, Europe, North America, and Australia employ a variety of theoretical approaches to analyze popular game series and individual titles, introducing an English-speaking audience to Japanese video game scholarship while also extending postcolonial and philosophical readings to the Japanese game text. In a three-pronged approach, the collection uses these analyses to look at genre, representation, and liminality, engaging with a multitude of concepts including stereotypes, intersectionality, and the political and social effects of JRPGs on players and industry conventions. Broadly, this collection considers JRPGs as networked systems, including evolved iterations of MMORPGs and card collecting “social games” for mobile devices. Scholars of media studies, game studies, Asian studies, and Japanese culture will find this book particularly useful.


The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle

Author: Philip K. Dick

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0547572484

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Slavery is back. America, 1962. Having lost a war, America finds itself under Nazi Germany and Japan occupation. A few Jews still live under assumed names. The 'I Ching' is prevalent in San Francisco. Science fiction meets serious ideas in this take on a possible alternate history.


Book Synopsis The Man in the High Castle by : Philip K. Dick

Download or read book The Man in the High Castle written by Philip K. Dick and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2011 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Slavery is back. America, 1962. Having lost a war, America finds itself under Nazi Germany and Japan occupation. A few Jews still live under assumed names. The 'I Ching' is prevalent in San Francisco. Science fiction meets serious ideas in this take on a possible alternate history.


Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2000-01

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13:

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Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.


Book Synopsis Popular Mechanics by :

Download or read book Popular Mechanics written by and published by . This book was released on 2000-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.


American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction

American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction

Author: Robert Yeates

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1800080980

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Visions of the American city in post-apocalyptic ruin permeate literary and popular fiction, across print, visual, audio and digital media. American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction explores the prevalence of these representations in American culture, drawing from a wide range of primary and critical works from the early-twentieth century to today. Beginning with science fiction in literary magazines, before taking in radio dramas, film, video games and expansive transmedia franchises, Robert Yeates argues that post-apocalyptic representations of the American city are uniquely suited for explorations of contemporary urban issues. Examining how the post-apocalyptic American city has been repeatedly adapted and repurposed to new and developing media over the last century, this book reveals that the content and form of such texts work together to create vivid and immersive fictional spaces in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Chapters present media-specific analyses of these texts, situating them within their historical contexts and the broader history of representations of urban ruins in American fiction. Original in its scope and cross-media approach, American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction both illuminates little-studied texts and provides provocative new readings of familiar works such as Blade Runner and The Walking Dead, placing them within the larger historical context of imaginings of the American city in ruins.


Book Synopsis American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction by : Robert Yeates

Download or read book American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction written by Robert Yeates and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visions of the American city in post-apocalyptic ruin permeate literary and popular fiction, across print, visual, audio and digital media. American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction explores the prevalence of these representations in American culture, drawing from a wide range of primary and critical works from the early-twentieth century to today. Beginning with science fiction in literary magazines, before taking in radio dramas, film, video games and expansive transmedia franchises, Robert Yeates argues that post-apocalyptic representations of the American city are uniquely suited for explorations of contemporary urban issues. Examining how the post-apocalyptic American city has been repeatedly adapted and repurposed to new and developing media over the last century, this book reveals that the content and form of such texts work together to create vivid and immersive fictional spaces in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Chapters present media-specific analyses of these texts, situating them within their historical contexts and the broader history of representations of urban ruins in American fiction. Original in its scope and cross-media approach, American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction both illuminates little-studied texts and provides provocative new readings of familiar works such as Blade Runner and The Walking Dead, placing them within the larger historical context of imaginings of the American city in ruins.


Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1977-01

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13:

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Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.


Book Synopsis Popular Mechanics by :

Download or read book Popular Mechanics written by and published by . This book was released on 1977-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.


Gaming

Gaming

Author: Alexander R. Galloway

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2006-05-27

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1452908680

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Video games have been a central feature of the cultural landscape for over twenty years and now rival older media like movies, television, and music in popularity and cultural influence. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to understand the video game as an independent medium. Most such efforts focus on the earliest generation of text-based adventures (Zork, for example) and have little to say about such visually and conceptually sophisticated games as Final Fantasy X, Shenmue, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and The Sims, in which players inhabit elaborately detailed worlds and manipulate digital avatars with a vast—and in some cases, almost unlimited—array of actions and choices. In Gaming, Alexander Galloway instead considers the video game as a distinct cultural form that demands a new and unique interpretive framework. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, particularly critical theory and media studies, he analyzes video games as something to be played rather than as texts to be read, and traces in five concise chapters how the “algorithmic culture” created by video games intersects with theories of visuality, realism, allegory, and the avant-garde. If photographs are images and films are moving images, then, Galloway asserts, video games are best defined as actions. Using examples from more than fifty video games, Galloway constructs a classification system of action in video games, incorporating standard elements of gameplay as well as software crashes, network lags, and the use of cheats and game hacks. In subsequent chapters, he explores the overlap between the conventions of film and video games, the political and cultural implications of gaming practices, the visual environment of video games, and the status of games as an emerging cultural form. Together, these essays offer a new conception of gaming and, more broadly, of electronic culture as a whole, one that celebrates and does not lament the qualities of the digital age. Alexander R. Galloway is assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University and author of Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization.


Book Synopsis Gaming by : Alexander R. Galloway

Download or read book Gaming written by Alexander R. Galloway and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2006-05-27 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Video games have been a central feature of the cultural landscape for over twenty years and now rival older media like movies, television, and music in popularity and cultural influence. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to understand the video game as an independent medium. Most such efforts focus on the earliest generation of text-based adventures (Zork, for example) and have little to say about such visually and conceptually sophisticated games as Final Fantasy X, Shenmue, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and The Sims, in which players inhabit elaborately detailed worlds and manipulate digital avatars with a vast—and in some cases, almost unlimited—array of actions and choices. In Gaming, Alexander Galloway instead considers the video game as a distinct cultural form that demands a new and unique interpretive framework. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, particularly critical theory and media studies, he analyzes video games as something to be played rather than as texts to be read, and traces in five concise chapters how the “algorithmic culture” created by video games intersects with theories of visuality, realism, allegory, and the avant-garde. If photographs are images and films are moving images, then, Galloway asserts, video games are best defined as actions. Using examples from more than fifty video games, Galloway constructs a classification system of action in video games, incorporating standard elements of gameplay as well as software crashes, network lags, and the use of cheats and game hacks. In subsequent chapters, he explores the overlap between the conventions of film and video games, the political and cultural implications of gaming practices, the visual environment of video games, and the status of games as an emerging cultural form. Together, these essays offer a new conception of gaming and, more broadly, of electronic culture as a whole, one that celebrates and does not lament the qualities of the digital age. Alexander R. Galloway is assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University and author of Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization.


Creation

Creation

Author: Steve Grand

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 9780297643913

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Mankind now has within its grasp the power to synthesize true artificial life, playing out Dr Frankenstein's dream in both cyberspace and the real world. In this book, Steve Grand, a leading exponent of artificial life, provides the first authoritative and comprehensive tour of the frontiers of this burgeoning new creation. He surveys what has been achieved so far and looks at future possibilities for generating autonomous, intelligent, even conscious living things. The fundamental questions he tackles range widely: what is life? What should the minds, brains and bodies of these new life forms be like? What philosophical guidelines and computational frameworks are necessary? How much can we learn from the evolution of natural life forms? What are the practical, social and ethical implications of this research? At the heart of this brilliantly accessible and thought-provoking book is the author's unique imaginative vision - a vision based on his experience of making some of the most advanced artificial life currently available. The secret of success, he argues, lies in emulating nature's way and working from the bottom up. This groundbreaking book reveals the details of how to do this and challenges how we think about the meaning of life.


Book Synopsis Creation by : Steve Grand

Download or read book Creation written by Steve Grand and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mankind now has within its grasp the power to synthesize true artificial life, playing out Dr Frankenstein's dream in both cyberspace and the real world. In this book, Steve Grand, a leading exponent of artificial life, provides the first authoritative and comprehensive tour of the frontiers of this burgeoning new creation. He surveys what has been achieved so far and looks at future possibilities for generating autonomous, intelligent, even conscious living things. The fundamental questions he tackles range widely: what is life? What should the minds, brains and bodies of these new life forms be like? What philosophical guidelines and computational frameworks are necessary? How much can we learn from the evolution of natural life forms? What are the practical, social and ethical implications of this research? At the heart of this brilliantly accessible and thought-provoking book is the author's unique imaginative vision - a vision based on his experience of making some of the most advanced artificial life currently available. The secret of success, he argues, lies in emulating nature's way and working from the bottom up. This groundbreaking book reveals the details of how to do this and challenges how we think about the meaning of life.


The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem

Author: Cixin Liu

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2014-11-11

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0765377063

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Experience Cixin Liu's award-winning and bestselling masterpiece, The Three Body Problem. A secret military group sends signals into space in hopes of establishing contact with aliens--and succeeds. Picking up their signal is an alien civilization on the brink of destruction who now readies to invade Earth. News of the coming invasion divides humanity like never before. Some want to help the superior beings take over a world they see as corrupt. Others prepare to fight the invasion at all cost. The Three Body Problem begins a ground-breaking saga of enormous scope and vision. "The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century . . . Packed with a sense of wonder." --The Wall Street Journal The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning (forthcoming)


Book Synopsis The Three-Body Problem by : Cixin Liu

Download or read book The Three-Body Problem written by Cixin Liu and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experience Cixin Liu's award-winning and bestselling masterpiece, The Three Body Problem. A secret military group sends signals into space in hopes of establishing contact with aliens--and succeeds. Picking up their signal is an alien civilization on the brink of destruction who now readies to invade Earth. News of the coming invasion divides humanity like never before. Some want to help the superior beings take over a world they see as corrupt. Others prepare to fight the invasion at all cost. The Three Body Problem begins a ground-breaking saga of enormous scope and vision. "The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century . . . Packed with a sense of wonder." --The Wall Street Journal The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning (forthcoming)


Software Takes Command

Software Takes Command

Author: Lev Manovich

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-07-04

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1623567459

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Offers the first look at the aesthetics of contemporary design from the theoretical perspectives of media theory and 'software studies'.


Book Synopsis Software Takes Command by : Lev Manovich

Download or read book Software Takes Command written by Lev Manovich and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers the first look at the aesthetics of contemporary design from the theoretical perspectives of media theory and 'software studies'.