What lies beyond the veil of death? Journey past this mortal coil and discover the secrets of the Shadowlands. Study the practices around death and dying on Azeroth, then follow a Broker through the groves of Ardenweald, over the gleaming towers of Bastion, and into the depths of the Maw for a detailed voyage unlike any other. Featuring gorgeous artwork never before glimpsed by mortal eyes, a stunning fold-out map, and secrets straight from the game team, Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond is made to be treasured for eternity. In his authorial debut, Blizzard Entertainment historian Sean Copeland teams up with World of Warcraft's Lead Narrative Designer, Steve Danuser, to open the vaults of hidden knowledge for all curious souls.

Discover 40+ recipes like Mooshroom Burgers, Suspicious Stew, and The Cake! Featuring recipes that are ideal for every skill level (and player type), this cookbook is just what you need to bring a touch of Minecraft into your kitchen. So, what are you waiting for? It's time to gather, cook, and eat! Building can be hungry work. And sometimes, you just need to take a break and enjoy the fruits of your labor, whether that's a quick baked potato while you're hunkered down, waiting for a creeper to quit skulking at your door, or creating a celebratory feast for all your friends! Minecraft: The Official Cookbook gives you everything you need to build awesome meals, no matter your skill level.

The Expanded Edition Guide to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 512-page hardcover guidebook covering everything in the main game as well as the two Expansion Pass DLC packs "The Master Trials" and "The Champions' Ballad". Includes: Expansion Pass concept art gallery; dedicated chapters covering both Expansion Passes; Reference and Analysis chapter; Maps chapter; all-new hardcover and an extensive 4-page Index. MAPS CHAPTER: a dedicated 36-page atlas of Hyrule showing the exact location of all Korok seeds and treasure chests. REFERENCE & ANALYSIS CHAPTER: contains a farming manual showing how to acquire all items of prime interest efficiently; the best weapons and armor upgrades; the most effective recipes; the most lucrative gemstone mining spots; amiibo; merchants and much more. EXPANSION PASS CHAPTERS: 34 pages dedicated to "The Master Trials" and "The Champions' Ballad". 100% AUTHORITATIVE: all side quests, all shrines of Trials and all information about collectible items fully mapped out; also includes optional challenges, mini-games, unlockables, Easter eggs, and more. At-A-GLANCE WALKTHROUGHS: annotated maps and screenshots show the optimal way through every quest and dungeon. LARGE MAP POSTER: two-sided and fully-annotated - covering the immense game area. CONCEPT ART: direct from the development team and beautifully laid out across two sections: 16 pages of concept art from "The Master Trials" and "The Champions' Ballad" as well as a 16-page art tour of the main game. PUZZLE MASTER: every single puzzle and riddle unraveled with refined, visual solutions. EXPERT COMBAT STRATEGY: practical, reproducible tactics to crush all enemies and bosses. COMPREHENSIVE REFERENCES: exhaustive appraisals of all items and monsters - including key parameters that are hidden in the game. EASE OF USE: Instant searches, print navigation systems, extensive 4-page index and detailed map poster give you immediate access to the information you need. PREMIUM HARDCOVER: with guide pages printed on superior-quality art paper.

Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments researches both how game sound affects a player psychologically, emotionally, and physiologically, and how this relationship itself impacts the design of computer game sound and the development of technology. This compilation also applies beyond the realm of video games to other types of immersive sound, such as soundscape design, gambling machines, emotive and fantastical sound to name a few. The application for this research is wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, and of primary importance for academics and practitioners searching for the right sounds.

Basics of Game Design is for anyone wanting to become a professional game designer. Focusing on creating the game mechanics for data-driven games, it covers role-playing, real-time strategy, first-person shooter, simulation, and other games. Written by a 25-year veteran of the game industry, the guide offers detailed explanations of how to design the data sets used to resolve game play for moving, combat, solving puzzles, interacting with NPCs, managing inventory, and much more. Advice on developing stories for games, building maps and levels, and designing the graphical user interface is also included.

A cultural history of digital gameplay that investigates a wide range of player behavior, including cheating, and its relationship to the game industry. The widely varying experiences of players of digital games challenge the notions that there is only one correct way to play a game. Some players routinely use cheat codes, consult strategy guides, or buy and sell in-game accounts, while others consider any or all of these practices off limits. Meanwhile, the game industry works to constrain certain readings or activities and promote certain ways of playing. In Cheating, Mia Consalvo investigates how players choose to play games, and what happens when they can't always play the way they'd like. She explores a broad range of player behavior, including cheating (alone and in groups), examines the varying ways that players and industry define cheating, describes how the game industry itself has helped systematize cheating, and studies online cheating in context in an online ethnography of Final Fantasy XI. She develops the concept of "gaming capital" as a key way to understand individuals' interaction with games, information about games, the game industry, and other players. Consalvo provides a cultural history of cheating in videogames, looking at how the packaging and selling of such cheat-enablers as cheat books, GameSharks, and mod chips created a cheat industry. She investigates how players themselves define cheating and how their playing choices can be understood, with particular attention to online cheating. Finally, she examines the growth of the peripheral game industries that produce information about games rather than actual games. Digital games are spaces for play and experimentation; the way we use and think about digital games, Consalvo argues, is crucially important and reflects ethical choices in gameplay and elsewhere.

As audiences are increasingly no longer solely listeners but also active producer-consumers, and as video games and other interactive systems increasingly permeate our daily lives, understanding interactivity and its impact on the audience has never been more important. A collection of newly commissioned chapters on interactivity in music and sound edited by preeminent scholars in the field, this book marks the beginning of a journey into understanding the ways in which we interact with sound, and offers a new set of analytical tools for the growing field of interactive audio. What does it mean to interact with sound? How does interactivity alter our experience as creators and listeners? What makes interactive audio different from non-interactive audio? Where does interacting with audio fit into our understanding of sound and music? What does the future hold for interactive media when it comes to our musical and sonic experiences? And how do we begin to approach interactive audio from a theoretical perspective? The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio answers these questions by exploring the full range of interactive audio in video games, performance, education, environmental design, toys, and artistic practice. Examining these questions from a range of approaches - technological, emotional, psychological, and physical - the book provides a thorough overview of the fascinating experience of interactive sound.

Known for their visibility and tendency to generate controversy, first-person shooter (FPS) games are cultural icons and powder-kegs in American society. Contributors will examine a range of FPS games such as the Doom, Half-Life, System Shock, Deus Ex, Halo, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises. By applying and enriching a broad range of perspectives, this volume will address the cultural relevance and place of the genre in game studies, game theory and the cultures of game players.

Guns, Grenades, and Grunts gathers scholars from all disciplines to bring the weight of contemporary social theory and media criticism to bear on the public controversy and intellectual investigation of first-person shooter games. As a genre, FPS games have helped shepherd the game industry from the early days of shareware distribution and underground gaming clans to contemporary multimillion dollar production budgets, Hollywood-style launches, downloadable content and worldwide professional gaming leagues. The FPS has been and will continue to be a staple of the game market.

The worldwide video game console market surpassed $10 billion in 2003. Current sales of new consoles is consolidated around 3 major companies and their proprietary platforms: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. In addition, there is an enormous installed "retro gaming" base of Ataria and Sega console enthusiasts. This book, written by a team led by Joe Grand, author of "Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty," provides hard-core gamers with they keys to the kingdom: specific instructions on how to crack into their console and make it do things it was never designed to do.
By definition, video console game players like to have fun. Most of them are addicted to the adrenaline rush associated with "winning," and even more so when the "winning" involves beating the system by discovering the multitude of "cheats" built into most video games. Now, they can have the ultimate adrenaline rush---actually messing around with the soul of the machine and configuring it to behave exactly as the command. This book builds on the motto of "Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty" and will appeal to the community of hardware geeks who associate unscrewing the back of their video console with para-jumping into the perfect storm.
* Providing a reliable, field-tested guide to hacking all of the most popular video gaming consoles.
* Written by some of the most knowledgeable and recognizable names in the hardware hacking community.
* Game Console Hacking is the first book on the market to show game enthusiasts (self described hardware geeks) how to disassemble, reconfigure, customize and re-purpose their Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox systems.

This stunning book explores the rich mythology of Assassin's Creed, featuring the art and history of the series from the first groundbreaking game through the graphic novels to the DLCs. Highlighting the lush and vibrant art that has become a hallmark of the series, this luxury coffee-table book brings the game's famous historical locations and figures to life and explores the evolution of each iconic Assassin and Templar.

Looking to become more efficient using Unity? How to Cheat in Unity 5 takes a no-nonsense approach to help you achieve fast and effective results with Unity 5. Geared towards the intermediate user, HTC in Unity 5 provides content beyond what an introductory book offers, and allows you to work more quickly and powerfully in Unity. Packed full with easy-to-follow methods to get the most from Unity, this book explores time-saving features for interface customization and scene management, along with productivity-enhancing ways to work with rendering and optimization. In addition, this book features a companion website at www.alanthorn.net, where you can download the book's companion files and also watch bonus tutorial video content. Learn bite-sized tips and tricks for effective Unity workflows Become a more powerful Unity user through interface customization Enhance your productivity with rendering tricks, better scene organization and more Better understand Unity asset and import workflows Learn techniques to save you time and money during development

In recent years, digital technologies have become more ubiquitous and integrated into everyday life. While once reserved mostly for personal uses, video games and similar innovations are now implemented across a variety of fields. Transforming Gaming and Computer Simulation Technologies across Industries is a pivotal reference source for the latest research on emerging simulation technologies and gaming innovations to enhance industry performance and dependency. Featuring extensive coverage across a range of relevant perspectives and topics, such as user research, player identification, and multi-user virtual environments, this book is ideally designed for engineers, professionals, practitioners, upper-level students, and academics seeking current research on gaming and computer simulation technologies across different industries. Topics Covered: Digital vs. Non-Digital Platforms Ludic Simulations Mathematical Simulations Medical Gaming Multi-User Virtual Environments Player Experiences Player Identification User Research

Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokemon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question-what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today's leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.

Love the game? Then you'll love this Annual. It's packed with essential tips, secrets and info guaranteed to up your skill level and help you build an undefeatable crew. Read about each Legend and discover their unique personality, strengths and abilities. Get ready for action and excitement on every page!

Games and simulations have emerged as new and effective tools for educational learning by providing interactivity and integration with online resources that are typically unavailable with traditional educational resources. Design, Utilization, and Analysis of Simulations and Game-Based Educational Worlds presents developments and evaluations of games and computer-mediated simulations in order to showcase a better understanding of the role of electronic games in multiple studies. This book is useful for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to gain a deeper comprehension of the relationship between research and practice of electronic gaming and simulations in the educational environment.

As games become increasingly embedded into everyday life, understanding the ethics of their creation and use, as well as their potential for practicing ethical thinking, becomes more relevant. Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques and Frameworks brings together the diverse and growing community of voices and begin to define the field, identify its primary challenges and questions, and establish the current state of the discipline. Such a rigorous, collaborative, and holistic foundation for the study of ethics and games is necessary to appropriately inform future games, policies, standards, and curricula.

Thirty-nine essays explore the vast diversity of video game history and culture across all the world's continents. Video games have become a global industry, and their history spans dozens of national industries where foreign imports compete with domestic productions, legitimate industry contends with piracy, and national identity faces the global marketplace. This volume describes video game history and culture across every continent, with essays covering areas as disparate and far-flung as Argentina and Thailand, Hungary and Indonesia, Iran and Ireland. Most of the essays are written by natives of the countries they discuss, many of them game designers and founders of game companies, offering distinctively firsthand perspectives. Some of these national histories appear for the first time in English, and some for the first time in any language. Readers will learn, for example, about the rapid growth of mobile games in Africa; how a meat-packing company held the rights to import the Atari VCS 2600 into Mexico; and how the Indonesian MMORPG Nusantara Online reflects that country's cultural history and folklore. Every country or region's unique conditions provide the context that shapes its national industry; for example, the long history of computer science in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, the problems of piracy in China, the PC Bangs of South Korea, or the Dutch industry's emphasis on serious games. As these essays demonstrate, local innovation and diversification thrive alongside productions and corporations with global aspirations. Africa * Arab World * Argentina * Australia * Austria * Brazil * Canada * China * Colombia * Czech Republic * Finland * France * Germany * Hong Kong * Hungary * India * Indonesia * Iran * Ireland * Italy * Japan * Mexico * The Netherlands * New Zealand * Peru * Poland * Portugal * Russia * Scandinavia * Singapore * South Korea * Spain * Switzerland * Thailand * Turkey * United Kingdom * United States of America * Uruguay * Venezuela

The third volume of The Art of Hearthstone chronicles the artistic achievements that infused the Year of the Mammoth with charm, character, and beauty. Through vivid illustrations and behind-the-scenes interviews with artists and game designers, The Art of Hearthstone draws back the curtain to a massive creative undertaking, showing how a huge team came together to deliver one of Hearthstone's most impressive years ever.