Big Data of Complex Networks presents and explains the methods from the study of big data that can be used in analysing massive structural data sets, including both very large networks and sets of graphs. As well as applying statistical analysis techniques like sampling and bootstrapping in an interdisciplinary manner to produce novel techniques for analyzing massive amounts of data, this book also explores the possibilities offered by the special aspects such as computer memory in investigating large sets of complex networks. Intended for computer scientists, statisticians and mathematicians interested in the big data and networks, Big Data of Complex Networks is also a valuable tool for researchers in the fields of visualization, data analysis, computer vision and bioinformatics. Key features: Provides a complete discussion of both the hardware and software used to organize big data Describes a wide range of useful applications for managing big data and resultant data sets Maintains a firm focus on massive data and large networks Unveils innovative techniques to help readers handle big data Matthias Dehmer received his PhD in computer science from the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. Currently, he is Professor at UMIT - The Health and Life Sciences University, Austria, and the Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen. His research interests are in graph theory, data science, complex networks, complexity, statistics and information theory. Frank Emmert-Streib received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Bremen, and is currently Associate professor at Tampere University of Technology, Finland. His research interests are in the field of computational biology, machine learning and network medicine. Stefan Pickl holds a PhD in mathematics from the Darmstadt University of Technology, and is currently a Professor at Bundeswehr Universitat Munchen. His research interests are in operations research, systems biology, graph theory and discrete optimization. Andreas Holzinger received his PhD in cognitive science from Graz University and his habilitation (second PhD) in computer science from Graz University of Technology. He is head of the Holzinger Group HCI-KDD at the Medical University Graz and Visiting Professor for Machine Learning in Health Informatics Vienna University of Technology.

The recent re-emergence of serious games as a branch of video games and as a promising frontier of education has introduced the concept of games designed for a serious purpose other than pure entertainment. To date the major applications of serious games include education and training, engineering, medicine and healthcare, military applications, city planning, production, crisis response, to name just a few. If utilised alongside, or combined with conventional training and educational approaches, serious games could provide a more powerful means of knowledge transfer in almost every application domain. Serious Games and Edutainment Applications offers an insightful introduction to the development and applications of games technologies in educational settings. It includes cutting-edge academic research and industry updates that will inform readers of current and future advances in the area. The book is suitable for both researchers and educators who are interested in using games for educational purposes, as well as game professionals requiring a thorough understanding of issues involved in the application of video games technology into educational settings. It is also applicable to programmers, game artists, and management contemplating or involved in the development of serious games for educational or training purposes.

A laugh-out-loud 'best of' selection of TommyInnit's most weird and wonderful quotes - plus much more - carefully selected to BLOW YOUR MIND by him and best friend Wilbur Soot. 'Nah, I think I'd be a pretty bad shark' 'What if God was just legs?' 'We're really just chilling, fellas' Born sometime in the early 2000s, TommyInnit's first job was a YouTuber. No, really, we're not joking, the very first job he had was a YouTuber. For the last three years, he's been mouthing off on the internet to anyone who will listen. So far, that's over 40 million followers. Will there ever be an end to TommyInnit's rampant flurry of success? Probably. And Wilbur Soot has been right by his side. Wilbur first started his career as a young man staring at the wall until he also became a YouTuber. He also discovered a little activity some may call 'singing'. In The Quote Book, TommyInnit covers a wealth of topics from cars-that-grow-teeth to slime people, and from things that be crazy to octopi. Curated and edited by Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit is about to change your life one word at a time. Unless, dear reader, you read two words at a time, like he does. Featuring: A day in the life Inside TommyInnit's brain What TommyInnit would do if he was God Life advice from Wilbur Love poetry and history lessons, TommyInnit style Wilbur's attempts to reason with TommyInnit

Since 1980, in-the-know computer gamers have been enthralled by the unpredictable, random, and incredibly deep gameplay of Rogue and those games inspired by it, known to fans as "roguelikes." For decades, this venerable genre was off the radar of most players and developers for a variety of reasons: deceptively simple graphics (often just text characters), high difficulty, and their demand that a player brings more of themselves to the game than your typical AAA title asks. This book covers many of the most prominent titles and explains in great detail what makes them interesting, the ways to get started playing them, the history of the genre, and more. It includes interviews, playthroughs, and hundreds of screenshots. It is a labor of love: if even a fraction of the author's enthusiasm for these games gets through these pages to you, then you will enjoy it a great deal. Key Features: Playing tips and strategy for newcomers to the genre Core roguelikes Rogue, Angband, NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, ADOM, and Brogue The "lost roguelikes" Super Rogue and XRogue, and the early RPG dnd for PLATO systems The Japanese console roguelikes Taloon's Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer Lesser-known but extremely interesting games like Larn, DoomRL, HyperRogue, Incursion, and Dungeon Hack "Rogue-ish" games that blur the edges of the genre, including Spelunky, HyperRogue, ToeJam & Earl, Defense of the Oasis, Out There, and Zelda Randomizer Interviews with such developers as Keith Burgun (100 Rogues and Auro), Rodain Joubert (Desktop Dungeons), Josh Ge (Cogmind), Dr. Thomas Biskup (ADOM), and Robin Bandy (devnull public NetHack tournament) An interview regarding Strange Adventures in Infinite Space Design issues of interest to developers and enthusiasts Author Bio: John Harris has bumped around the Internet for more than 20 years. In addition to writing the columns @Play and Pixel Journeys for GameSetWatch and developer interviews for Gamasutra, he has spoken at Roguelike Celebration. John Harris has a MA in English Literature from Georgia Southern University.

This book looks closely at the endings of narrative digital games, examining their ways of concluding the processes of both storytelling and play in order to gain insight into what endings are and how we identify them in different media. While narrative digital games share many representational strategies for signalling their upcoming end with more traditional narrative media - such as novels or movies - they also show many forms of endings that often radically differ from our conventional understanding of conclusion and closure. From vast game worlds that remain open for play after a story's finale, to multiple endings that are often hailed as a means for players to create their own stories, to the potentially tragic endings of failure and "game over", digital games question the traditional singularity and finality of endings. Using a broad range of examples, this book delves deeply into these and other forms and their functions, both to reveal the closural specificities of the ludonarrative hybrid that digital games are, as well as to find the core elements that characterise endings in any medium. It examines how endings make themselves known to players and raises the question of how well-established closural conventions blend with play and a player's effort to achieve a goal. As an interdisciplinary study that draws on game studies as much as on transmedial narratology, Forms and Functions of Endings in Narrative Digital Games is suited for scholars and students of digital games as well as for narratologists yet to become familiar with this medium.

Since 1980, in-the-know computer gamers have been enthralled by the unpredictable, random, and incredibly deep gameplay of Rogue and those games inspired by it, known to fans as "roguelikes." For decades, this venerable genre was off the radar of most players and developers for a variety of reasons: deceptively simple graphics (often just text characters), high difficulty, and their demand that a player brings more of themselves to the game than your typical AAA title asks. This book covers many of the most prominent titles and explains in great detail what makes them interesting, the ways to get started playing them, the history of the genre, and more. It includes interviews, playthroughs, and hundreds of screenshots. It is a labor of love: if even a fraction of the author's enthusiasm for these games gets through these pages to you, then you will enjoy it a great deal. Key Features: Playing tips and strategy for newcomers to the genre Core roguelikes Rogue, Angband, NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, ADOM, and Brogue The "lost roguelikes" Super Rogue and XRogue, and the early RPG dnd for PLATO systems The Japanese console roguelikes Taloon's Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer Lesser-known but extremely interesting games like Larn, DoomRL, HyperRogue, Incursion, and Dungeon Hack "Rogue-ish" games that blur the edges of the genre, including Spelunky, HyperRogue, ToeJam & Earl, Defense of the Oasis, Out There, and Zelda Randomizer Interviews with such developers as Keith Burgun (100 Rogues and Auro), Rodain Joubert (Desktop Dungeons), Josh Ge (Cogmind), Dr. Thomas Biskup (ADOM), and Robin Bandy (devnull public NetHack tournament) An interview regarding Strange Adventures in Infinite Space Design issues of interest to developers and enthusiasts Author Bio: John Harris has bumped around the Internet for more than 20 years. In addition to writing the columns @Play and Pixel Journeys for GameSetWatch and developer interviews for Gamasutra, he has spoken at Roguelike Celebration. John Harris has a MA in English Literature from Georgia Southern University.

This collection of essays is devoted to the philosophical examination of the aesthetics of videogames. Videogames represent one of the most significant developments in the modern popular arts, and it is a topic that is attracting much attention among philosophers of art and aestheticians. As a burgeoning medium of artistic expression, videogames raise entirely new aesthetic concerns, particularly concerning their ontology, interactivity, and aesthetic value. The essays in this volume address a number of pressing theoretical issues related to these areas, including but not limited to: the nature of performance and identity in videogames; their status as an interactive form of art; the ethical problems raised by violence in videogames; and the representation of women in videogames and the gaming community. The Aesthetics of Videogames is an important contribution to analytic aesthetics that deals with an important and growing art form.

Official art book of the Marvel's Midnight Suns video game, packed with interviews with the creative team behind the game, as well as stunning concept art created during the development process. When the demonic Lilith and her fearsome horde unite with the evil armies of Hydra, it's time to unleash Marvel's dark side. As The Hunter, your mission is to lead an unlikely team of seasoned Super Heroes and dangerous supernatural warriors to victory. Can legends such as Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Blade put aside their differences in the face of a growing apocalyptic threat? If you're going to save the world, you'll have to forge alliances and lead the team into battle as the legendary Midnight Suns-Earth's last line of defence against the underworld. Marvel's Midnight Suns - The Art of the Game captures the creative process of this much-anticipated game. The exclusive concept art and in-game renderings created by the talented development team-creating the game in collaboration with Marvel-are shown in glorious detail in this lush, hardback volume. Characters, locations, gadgets, weapons, monsters, enemies, and much more are all accompanied by unique insights from the artists and developers behind the game. So step into the world of Marvel's Midnight Suns - and rise up against the darkness!

The Digital Gaming Handbook covers the state-of-the-art in video and digital game research and development, from traditional to emerging elements of gaming across multiple disciplines. Chapters are presented with applicability across all gaming platforms over a broad range of topics, from game content creation through gameplay at a level accessible for the professional game developer while being deep enough to provide a valuable reference of the state-of-the-art research in this field. Key Features: International experts share their research and experience in game development and design Provides readers with inside perspectives on the cross-disciplinary aspects of the industry Includes retrospective and forward-looking examinations of gaming Editor: Dr. Roberto Dillon is a leading game studies educator with more than 15 years of experience in the field of game design and development.

Computer Systems Architecture provides IT professionals and students with the necessary understanding of computer hardware. It addresses the ongoing issues related to computer hardware and discusses the solutions supplied by the industry. The book describes trends in computing solutions that led to the current available infrastructures, tracing the initial need for computers to recent concepts such as the Internet of Things. It covers computers' data representation, explains how computer architecture and its underlying meaning changed over the years, and examines the implementations and performance enhancements of the central processing unit (CPU). It then discusses the organization, hierarchy, and performance considerations of computer memory as applied by the operating system and illustrates how cache memory significantly improves performance. The author proceeds to explore the bus system, algorithms for ensuring data integrity, input and output (I/O) components, methods for performing I/O, various aspects relevant to software engineering, and nonvolatile storage devices, such as hard drives and technologies for enhancing performance and reliability. He also describes virtualization and cloud computing and the emergence of software-based systems' architectures. Accessible to software engineers and developers as well as students in IT disciplines, this book enhances readers' understanding of the hardware infrastructure used in software engineering projects. It enables readers to better optimize system usage by focusing on the principles used in hardware systems design and the methods for enhancing performance.

Practical Guidance on the Efficient Development of High-Quality Software Introduction to Software Engineering, Second Edition equips students with the fundamentals to prepare them for satisfying careers as software engineers regardless of future changes in the field, even if the changes are unpredictable or disruptive in nature. Retaining the same organization as its predecessor, this second edition adds considerable material on open source and agile development models. The text helps students understand software development techniques and processes at a reasonably sophisticated level. Students acquire practical experience through team software projects. Throughout much of the book, a relatively large project is used to teach about the requirements, design, and coding of software. In addition, a continuing case study of an agile software development project offers a complete picture of how a successful agile project can work. The book covers each major phase of the software development life cycle, from developing software requirements to software maintenance. It also discusses project management and explains how to read software engineering literature. Three appendices describe software patents, command-line arguments, and flowcharts.

Human Capital Systems, Analytics, and Data Mining provides human capital professionals, researchers, and students with a comprehensive and portable guide to human capital systems, analytics and data mining. The main purpose of this book is to provide a rich tool set of methods and tutorials for Human Capital Management Systems (HCMS) database modeling, analytics, interactive dashboards, and data mining that is independent of any human capital software vendor offerings and is equally usable and portable among both commercial and internally developed HCMS. The book begins with an overview of HCMS, including coverage of human resource systems history and current HCMS Computing Environments. It next explores relational and dimensional database management concepts and principles. HCMS Instructional databases developed by the Author for use in Graduate Level HCMS and Compensation Courses are used for database modeling and dashboard design exercises. Exciting knowledge discovery and research Tutorials and Exercises using Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and data mining tools through replication of actual original pay equity research by the author are included. New findings concerning Gender Based Pay Equity Research through the lens Comparable Worth and Occupational Mobility are covered extensively in Human Capital Metrics, Analytics and Data Mining Chapters.

"A stereotype of computer science textbooks is that they are dry, boring, and sometimes even intimidating. As a result, they turn students' interests off from the subject matter instead of enticing them into it. This textbook is the opposite of such a stereotype. The author presents the subject matter in a refreshing story-telling style and aims to bring the Internet-generation of students closer to her stories." --Yingcai Xiao, The University of Akron Introduction to Middleware: Web Services, Object Components, and Cloud Computing provides a comparison of different middleware technologies and the overarching middleware concepts they are based on. The various major paradigms of middleware are introduced and their pros and cons are discussed. This includes modern cloud interfaces, including the utility of Service Oriented Architectures. The text discusses pros and cons of RESTful vs. non-RESTful web services, and also compares these to older but still heavily used distributed object/component middleware. The text guides readers to select an appropriate middleware technology to use for any given task, and to learn new middleware technologies as they appear over time without being greatly overwhelmed by any new concept. The book begins with an introduction to different distributed computing paradigms, and a review of the different kinds of architectures, architectural styles/patterns, and properties that various researchers have used in the past to examine distributed applications and determine the quality of distributed applications. Then it includes appropriate background material in networking and the web, security, and encoding necessary to understand detailed discussion in this area. The major middleware paradigms are compared, and a comparison methodology is developed. Readers will learn how to select a paradigm and technology for a particular task, after reading this text. Detailed middleware technology review sections allow students or industry practitioners working to expand their knowledge to achieve practical skills based on real projects so as to become well-functional in that technology in industry. Major technologies examined include: RESTful web services (RESTful cloud interfaces such as OpenStack, AWS EC2 interface, CloudStack; AJAX, JAX-RS, ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core), non-RESTful (SOAP and WSDL-based) web services (JAX-WS, Windows Communication Foundation), distributed objects/ components (Enterprise Java Beans, .NET Remoting, CORBA). The book presents two projects that can be used to illustrate the practical use of middleware, and provides implementations of these projects over different technologies. This versatile and class-tested textbook is suitable (depending on chapters selected) for undergraduate or first-year graduate courses on client server architectures, middleware, and cloud computing, web services, and web programming.

Nature-Inspired Computing: Physics and Chemistry-Based Algorithms provides a comprehensive introduction to the methodologies and algorithms in nature-inspired computing, with an emphasis on applications to real-life engineering problems. The research interest for Nature-inspired Computing has grown considerably exploring different phenomena observed in nature and basic principles of physics, chemistry, and biology. The discipline has reached a mature stage and the field has been well-established. This endeavour is another attempt at investigation into various computational schemes inspired from nature, which are presented in this book with the development of a suitable framework and industrial applications. Designed for senior undergraduates, postgraduates, research students, and professionals, the book is written at a comprehensible level for students who have some basic knowledge of calculus and differential equations, and some exposure to optimization theory. Due to the focus on search and optimization, the book is also appropriate for electrical, control, civil, industrial and manufacturing engineering, business, and economics students, as well as those in computer and information sciences. With the mathematical and programming references and applications in each chapter, the book is self-contained, and can also serve as a reference for researchers and scientists in the fields of system science, natural computing, and optimization.

Mobile Cloud Computing: Models, Implementation, and Security provides a comprehensive introduction to mobile cloud computing, including key concepts, models, and relevant applications. The book focuses on novel and advanced algorithms, as well as mobile app development. The book begins with an overview of mobile cloud computing concepts, models, and service deployments, as well as specific cloud service models. It continues with the basic mechanisms and principles of mobile computing, as well as virtualization techniques. The book also introduces mobile cloud computing architecture, design, key techniques, and challenges. The second part of the book covers optimizations of data processing and storage in mobile clouds, including performance and green clouds. The crucial optimization algorithm in mobile cloud computing is also explored, along with big data and service computing. Security issues in mobile cloud computing are covered in-depth, including a brief introduction to security and privacy issues and threats, as well as privacy protection techniques in mobile systems. The last part of the book features the integration of service-oriented architecture with mobile cloud computing. It discusses web service specifications related to implementations of mobile cloud computing. The book not only presents critical concepts in mobile cloud systems, but also drives readers to deeper research, through open discussion questions. Practical case studies are also included. Suitable for graduate students and professionals, this book provides a detailed and timely overview of mobile cloud computing for a broad range of readers.

This book presents recent developments on the theoretical, algorithmic, and application aspects of Big Data in Complex and Social Networks. The book consists of four parts, covering a wide range of topics. The first part of the book focuses on data storage and data processing. It explores how the efficient storage of data can fundamentally support intensive data access and queries, which enables sophisticated analysis. It also looks at how data processing and visualization help to communicate information clearly and efficiently. The second part of the book is devoted to the extraction of essential information and the prediction of web content. The book shows how Big Data analysis can be used to understand the interests, location, and search history of users and provide more accurate predictions of User Behavior. The latter two parts of the book cover the protection of privacy and security, and emergent applications of big data and social networks. It analyzes how to model rumor diffusion, identify misinformation from massive data, and design intervention strategies. Applications of big data and social networks in multilayer networks and multiparty systems are also covered in-depth.

Software Engineering for Science provides an in-depth collection of peer-reviewed chapters that describe experiences with applying software engineering practices to the development of scientific software. It provides a better understanding of how software engineering is and should be practiced, and which software engineering practices are effective for scientific software. The book starts with a detailed overview of the Scientific Software Lifecycle, and a general overview of the scientific software development process. It highlights key issues commonly arising during scientific software development, as well as solutions to these problems. The second part of the book provides examples of the use of testing in scientific software development, including key issues and challenges. The chapters then describe solutions and case studies aimed at applying testing to scientific software development efforts. The final part of the book provides examples of applying software engineering techniques to scientific software, including not only computational modeling, but also software for data management and analysis. The authors describe their experiences and lessons learned from developing complex scientific software in different domains. About the Editors Jeffrey Carver is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama. He is one of the primary organizers of the workshop series on Software Engineering for Science (http://www.SE4Science.org/workshops). Neil P. Chue Hong is Director of the Software Sustainability Institute at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include barriers and incentives in research software ecosystems and the role of software as a research object. George K. Thiruvathukal is Professor of Computer Science at Loyola University Chicago and Visiting Faculty at Argonne National Laboratory. His current research is focused on software metrics in open source mathematical and scientific software.

Visual Tracking in Conventional Minimally Invasive Surgery introduces the various tools and methodologies that can be used to enhance a conventional surgical setup with some degree of automation. The main focus of this book is on methods for tracking surgical tools and how they can be used to assist the surgeon during the surgical operation. Various notions associated with surgeon-computer interfaces and image-guided navigation are explored, with a range of experimental results. The book starts with some basic motivations for minimally invasive surgery and states the various distinctions between robotic and non-robotic (conventional) versions of this procedure. Common components of this type of operation are presented with a review of the literature addressing the automation aspects of such a setup. Examples of tracking results are shown for both motion and gesture recognition of surgical tools, which can be used as part of the surgeon-computer interface. In the case of marker-less tracking, where no special visual markers can be added to the surgical tools, the tracking results are divided into two types of methodology, depending on the nature and the estimate of the visual noise. Details of the tracking methods are presented using standard Kalman filters and particle filters. The last part of the book provides approaches for tracking a region on the surgical scene defined by the surgeon. Examples of how these tracking approaches can be used as part of image-guided navigation are demonstrated. This book is designed for control engineers interested in visual tracking, computer vision researchers and system designers involved with surgical automation, as well as surgeons, biomedical engineers, and robotic researchers.

From the Foreword "Getting CPS dependability right is essential to forming a solid foundation for a world that increasingly depends on such systems. This book represents the cutting edge of what we know about rigorous ways to ensure that our CPS designs are trustworthy. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get a deep look at these concepts that will form a cornerstone for future CPS designs." --Phil Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Trustworthy Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering provides practitioners and researchers with a comprehensive introduction to the area of trustworthy Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) engineering. Topics in this book cover questions such as What does having a trustworthy CPS actually mean for something as pervasive as a global-scale CPS? How does CPS trustworthiness map onto existing knowledge, and where do we need to know more? How can we mathematically prove timeliness, correctness, and other essential properties for systems that may be adaptive and even self-healing? How can we better represent the physical reality underlying real-world numeric quantities in the computing system? How can we establish, reason about, and ensure trust between CPS components that are designed, installed, maintained, and operated by different organizations, and which may never have really been intended to work together? Featuring contributions from leading international experts, the book contains sixteen self-contained chapters that analyze the challenges in developing trustworthy CPS, and identify important issues in developing engineering methods for CPS. The book addresses various issues contributing to trustworthiness complemented by contributions on TCSP roadmapping, taxonomy, and standardization, as well as experience in deploying advanced system engineering methods in industry. Specific approaches to ensuring trustworthiness, namely, proof and refinement, are covered, as well as engineering methods for dealing with hybrid aspects.

Handbook of Robust Low-Rank and Sparse Matrix Decomposition: Applications in Image and Video Processing shows you how robust subspace learning and tracking by decomposition into low-rank and sparse matrices provide a suitable framework for computer vision applications. Incorporating both existing and new ideas, the book conveniently gives you one-stop access to a number of different decompositions, algorithms, implementations, and benchmarking techniques. Divided into five parts, the book begins with an overall introduction to robust principal component analysis (PCA) via decomposition into low-rank and sparse matrices. The second part addresses robust matrix factorization/completion problems while the third part focuses on robust online subspace estimation, learning, and tracking. Covering applications in image and video processing, the fourth part discusses image analysis, image denoising, motion saliency detection, video coding, key frame extraction, and hyperspectral video processing. The final part presents resources and applications in background/foreground separation for video surveillance. With contributions from leading teams around the world, this handbook provides a complete overview of the concepts, theories, algorithms, and applications related to robust low-rank and sparse matrix decompositions. It is designed for researchers, developers, and graduate students in computer vision, image and video processing, real-time architecture, machine learning, and data mining.

Computer games represent a significant software application domain for innovative research in software engineering techniques and technologies. Game developers, whether focusing on entertainment-market opportunities or game-based applications in non-entertainment domains, thus share a common interest with software engineers and developers on how to best engineer game software. Featuring contributions from leading experts in software engineering, the book provides a comprehensive introduction to computer game software development that includes its history as well as emerging research on the interaction between these two traditionally distinct fields. An ideal reference for software engineers, developers, and researchers, this book explores game programming and development from a software engineering perspective. It introduces the latest research in computer game software engineering (CGSE) and covers topics such as HALO (Highly Addictive, sociaLly Optimized) software engineering, multi-player outdoor smartphone games, gamifying sports software, and artificial intelligence in games. The book explores the use of games in software engineering education extensively. It also covers game software requirements engineering, game software architecture and design approaches, game software testing and usability assessment, game development frameworks and reusability techniques, and game scalability infrastructure, including support for mobile devices and web-based services.

Evolutionary Psychology and Digital Games: Digital Hunter-Gatherers is the first edited volume that systematically applies evolutionary psychology to the study of the use and effects of digital games. The book is divided into four parts: Theories and Methods Emotion and Morality Social Interaction Learning and Motivation These topics reflect the main areas of digital games research as well as some of the basic categories of psychological research. The book is meant as a resource for researchers and graduate students in psychology, anthropology, media studies and communication as well as video game designers who are interested in learning more about the evolutionary roots of player behaviors and experiences.

Computer simulation is an effective and popular universal tool that can be applied to almost all disciplines. Requiring only basic knowledge of programming, mathematics, and probability theory, Computer Simulation: A Foundational Approach Using Python takes a hands-on approach to programming to introduce the fundamentals of computer simulation. The main target of the book is computer science and engineering students who are interested mainly in directly applying the techniques to their research problems. The book will be of great interest to senior undergraduate and starting graduate students in the fields of computer science and engineering and industrial engineering.

With its unique focus on video game engines, the data-driven architectures of game development and play, this innovative textbook examines the impact of software on everyday life and explores the rise of engine-driven culture. Through a series of case studies, Eric Freedman lays out a clear methodology for studying the game development pipeline, and uses the video game engine as a pathway for media scholars and practitioners to navigate the complex terrain of software practice. Examining several distinct software ecosystems that include the proprietary efforts of Amazon, Apple, Capcom, Epic Games and Unity Technologies, and the unique ways that game engines are used in non-game industries, Freedman illustrates why engines matter. The studies bind together designers and players, speak to the labors of the game industry, value the work of both global and regional developers, and establish critical connection points between software and society. Freedman has crafted a much-needed entry point for students new to code, and a research resource for scholars and teachers working in media industries, game development and new media.

The Paradox of Transgression in Games looks at transgressive games as an aesthetic experience, tackling how players respond to game content that shocks, disturbs, and distresses, and how contemporary video games can evoke intense emotional reactions. The book delves into the commercial success of many controversial videogames: although such games may appear shocking for the observing bystander, playing them is experienced as deeply rewarding for the player. Drawing on qualitative player studies and approaches from media aesthetics theory, the book challenges the perception of games as innocent entertainment, and examines the range of emotional, moral, and intellectual experiences of players. As they explore what players consider transgressive, the authors ask whether there is something about the gameplay situation that works to mitigate the sense of transgression, stressing gameplay as an aesthetic experience. Anchoring the aesthetic game experience both in play studies as well as in aesthetic theory, this book will be an essential resource for scholars and students of game studies, aesthetics, media studies, philosophy of art, and emotions.