Games and exercises to help designers understand how people think, how systems work, and how a design process can unfold. Exercises in Play, Systems, and Design is a collection of hands-on, real-world exercises for designers of all kinds. Games and play can help designers understand how people think, how systems work, and how a design process can unfold. The exercises are sometimes played on a tabletop, and sometimes are physical and social games, but they are all thought-provoking and (of course!) very fun to play. The book is divided into three sections, games that can be played in 30 minutes, 2 hours, and a day or more. They are valuable for anyone who wants to know more about how people think, how systems work, how to create meaningful experiences, and how to redesign the world for the better. Short, inspirational essays begin each section, where readers learn about productive collaboration, creative problem solving, how to communicate ideas, and analyzing how systems work.

The X-Ways Forensics Practitioner's Guide is more than a manual-it's a complete reference guide to the full use of one of the most powerful forensic applications available, software that is used by a wide array of law enforcement agencies and private forensic examiners on a daily basis.

In the X-Ways Forensics Practitioner's Guide, the authors provide you with complete coverage of this powerful tool, walking you through configuration and X-Ways fundamentals, and then moving through case flow, creating and importing hash databases, digging into OS artifacts, and conducting searches.

With X-Ways Forensics Practitioner's Guide, you will be able to use X-Ways Forensics to its fullest potential without any additional training. The book takes you from installation to the most advanced features of the software. Once you are familiar with the basic components of X-Ways, the authors demonstrate never-before-documented features using real life examples and information on how to present investigation results. The book culminates with chapters on reporting, triage and preview methods, as well as electronic discovery and cool X-Ways apps.
Provides detailed explanations of the complete forensic investigation processe using X-Ways Forensics.Goes beyond the basics: hands-on case demonstrations of never-before-documented features of X-Ways.Provides the best resource of hands-on information to use X-Ways Forensics.

An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television-but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Classic and cutting-edge writings on games, spanning nearly 50 years of game analysis and criticism, by game designers, game journalists, game fans, folklorists, sociologists, and media theorists. The Game Design Reader is a one-of-a-kind collection on game design and criticism, from classic scholarly essays to cutting-edge case studies. A companion work to Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's textbook Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The Game Design Reader is a classroom sourcebook, a reference for working game developers, and a great read for game fans and players. Thirty-two essays by game designers, game critics, game fans, philosophers, anthropologists, media theorists, and others consider fundamental questions: What are games and how are they designed? How do games interact with culture at large? What critical approaches can game designers take to create game stories, game spaces, game communities, and new forms of play? Salen and Zimmerman have collected seminal writings that span 50 years to offer a stunning array of perspectives. Game journalists express the rhythms of game play, sociologists tackle topics such as role-playing in vast virtual worlds, players rant and rave, and game designers describe the sweat and tears of bringing a game to market. Each text acts as a springboard for discussion, a potential class assignment, and a source of inspiration. The book is organized around fourteen topics, from The Player Experience to The Game Design Process, from Games and Narrative to Cultural Representation. Each topic, introduced with a short essay by Salen and Zimmerman, covers ideas and research fundamental to the study of games, and points to relevant texts within the Reader. Visual essays between book sections act as counterpoint to the writings. Like Rules of Play, The Game Design Reader is an intelligent and playful book. An invaluable resource for professionals and a unique introduction for those new to the field, The Game Design Reader is essential reading for anyone who takes games seriously.