Reviews of new games and profiles of game designers now regularly appear in the New York Times and the New Yorker, and sales figures for games are reported alongside those of books, music, and movies. They are increasingly used for purposes other than entertainment, yet debates about videogames still fork along one of two paths: accusations of debasement through violence and isolation or defensive paeans to their potential as serious cultural works. In How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost contends that such generalizations obscure the limitless possibilities offered by the medium’s ability to create complex simulated realities.Bogost, a leading scholar of videogames and an award-winning game designer, explores the many ways computer games are used today: documenting important historical and cultural events; educating both children and adults; promoting commercial products; and serving as platforms for art, pornography, exercise, relaxation, pranks, and politics. Examining these applications in a series of short, inviting, and provocative essays, he argues that together they make the medium broader, richer, and more relevant to a wider audience.Bogost concludes that as videogames become ever more enmeshed with contemporary life, the idea of gamers as social identities will become obsolete, giving rise to gaming by the masses. But until games are understood to have valid applications across the cultural spectrum, their true potential will remain unrealized. How to Do Things with Videogames offers a fresh starting point to more fully consider games’ progress today and promise for the future.

    Negreanu headlines a collection of young, great players - Todd Brunson, David Williams, Erick Lindgren, Evelyn Ng and Paul Wasicka - who share their insider professional moves and winning secrets. You'll learn about short-handed and heads-up play, high-limit cash games, a powerful beginner's strategy to neutralize professional players, how to mix up your play, bluff, and win big pots. The centerpiece, however, is Negreanu's powerful and revolutionary small ball strategy. You'll learn how to play hold'em with cards you never would have played before - and with fantastic results. The preflop, flop, turn and river will never look the same again. A must-have

    For one thousand years, the Empire of Rokugan has stood as a bastion of nobility, honor, and virtue. These lands are ruled by the samurai, powerful heroes who carry the katana and wakizashi as their badge of rank. Eight Great Clans vie with one another for supremacy over these lands, all under the eye of the mighty Emperor. And to the south, the Shadowlands, the eternal enemy of Rokugan, waits for the next opportunity to disrupt all that these foolish mortals have built. It is a land of intrigue, wonder, and adventure. Welcome to the third iteration of the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game. This player's guide will provide players and GM's with all of the setting, culture, and rules needed to create characters in the Legend of the Five Rings world and stage ongoing campaigns in Rokugan. While this book contains an updated version of the familiar rules, conversion rules will be included so that none of the many previous volumes set in this world will ever be obsolete. The best Asian style fantasy setting roleplaying game of this generation returns to its roots with its release this summer. Legend of the Five Rings 3rd Edition returns focus to the Roll and Keep(R&K) system originally released in 1996. Conveying a deeper sense of realism, the R&K system best simulates the tension, reality, and lethality of Samurai drama. Look for it more information in the coming weeks here at L5R.com. * Thrilling fantasy setting based on the myths and culture of Japan, China, and other Asian nations * A new generation of the beloved Legend of the Five Rings roll and keep system.* Streamlines existing rules without making previous products obsolete.* Excellent sourcebook for Rokugani culture and history

    This is the essential volume for the well-equipped Dungeons and Dragons character.

    On the street, Boostergangs roam a shattered urban wilderness, killing and looting. The rest of the world is a perpetual party as fashion-model beautiful techies rub biosculpt jobs with battle armored road warriors in the hottest clubs, sleaziest bars and meanest streets this side of the Postholocaust. The future never looked so bad. But you can change it. You’ve got interface plugs in your wrists, weapons in your arms, lasers in your eyes, bio-chip programs screaming in your brain. You’re wired in, cyberenhanced and solid state as you take it to the fatal Edge where only the toughest and the coolest can go. Cyberpunk: the original roleplaying game of the dark future; a world of corporate assassins, heavy-metal heroes and brain burning cyberhackers, packed with cutting edge technology and intense urban action. Within this box, [sic] you’ll find everything you need to tackle the mean streets of the 2000’s = in a game system that combines the best in realistic action and playability. Compatible with Cyberpunk 1.0

    How does this affect our daily lives? And how can we increase our awareness of the supernatural activity of heaven?    Prophetic communicator, Jamie Galloway helps you glimpse the unseen dimension and activate the prophetic nature of the seer in every believer. Learn how to recognize and posture your heart for seer moments by partnering with the Holy Spirit with 10 unique keys. In Secrets of the Seer, Jamie shows you how to: Walk in a seer lifestyle, where you can recognize the unseen world in every day situations. Recognize seer moments when the convergence between the natural and spiritual are occurring. Discern supernatural abundance by seeing what is often hidden in plain sight.  Make sense of prophetic mysteries such as entertaining angels, sanctified imagination, and bringing the invisible into the visible world.  Open the portal to the unseen world, and partner with the Holy Spirit to release Heaven’s power into your life!  “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” –Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV)

    Here are 399 games to stretch, challenge, and push the reader, all of which stimulate the formation of neurons—literally, regrowing the brain.Plus they’re not only good for you, but just plain good—these games are fun. 399 Games, Puzzles & Trivia is a lively mix of challenges, riddles, and brainteasers—all vetted by a neuroscientist who specializes in aging brains and designed to work the six key areas of cognitive function that are vulnerable in normal aging: long-term memory, working memory, executive functioning, attention to detail, multitasking, and processing speed. The games are arranged from easiest to most difficult and are labeled according to which cognitive functions they exercise so they can be mixed and matched into a custom “workout.” In just 15 minutes a day, anyone can improve his brain’s strength, flexibility, and long-term health.

    Gorilla Khan stalks darkest Africa from conquered Atlantis... Mad scientists, strange sorcerors, and power-hungry dictators all seek to undo the fate of humanity. It's the final century of the second millennium – and you are our last hope!Spirit of the Century is a complete, stand-alone pulp role-playing game based on the award-winning Fate system (Indie RPG Awards include: Best Free Game of 2003, Best Support, and Andy's Choice). Spirit features a heavily revised, revisited, and reimagined vision of Fate. Character creation can be done as quickly as a few minutes, or expand to take up an evening; adventure design is a snap with three methods for creating relevant, flavorful, player-focused stories at a moment's notice. Spirit's mission is to deliver an evening of fun, a "pick-up" game that requires little preparation, but provides hours of entertainment. All you will need to play are some friends, some dice, and this book.

    A young, vibrant clan, the Ravnos adapt, making the most of a hostile world and turning it to their advantage as best they can. To that end, was their near-total annihilation a Biblical punishment or a rebirth from the ashes of the impending Gehenna?Blasphemies and DebasementAs the next entry in the revised lineup of clanbooks, Ravnos takes one of the classic Vampire sourcebooks and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies revised material, inviting you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each with 32 more pages than the first-edition books) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.

    Such combinations do not come into being by themselves, however; they appear only as the result of proper chess strategy. It is therefore surprising that so few books deal with this highly important subject, and understandable that Pachman's modern classic has been so enthusiastically received by chessplayers at all levels.Ludĕk Pachman, a Czech grandmaster, has long had an international reputation as a chess theorist, but until now his work has not been available in English. This present volume, which condenses his great Modern Schachstrategie, presents his ideas and theories in a form that the English-speaking world can assimilate easily. Beginning with basic concepts and the rules of the minor and major pieces, it covers the use of the Queen, the active King, exchanges, various kinds of Pawns, the center and its use, superiority on the wings, minority attack, strategical points and weak squares, methods of attack and defense, and similar topics. Pachman elaborates the various kinds of strategy that can be employed, and shows how each leads to tactical opportunities. It has been said that his section on the Rook alone make his book indispensable to the serious chess player, since the Rook is so important in both middle and endgames.Pachman presents his method in the form of a thorough, systematic, analytical text, which draws upon scores of great games for exemplification. Both classical and very recent masters are included, although stress is on the moderns: Capablanca, Alekhine, Dr. Lasker, Rubinstein, Nimzovich, Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Bronstein, Smyslov, and Spasski.

    The vampires of this bygone age ride the dark as lords, play their games with the crowned heads of Europe, and travel to the mysterious lands of the East as they wage their ages-old war.The diablerie of saulot, the waking of Mithras, the destruction of Michael the patriarch, the return of the Dracon -- it all means the time of reflection is over. The Inquisition stirs and the time to act is now. Across Europe, monarchs of the night set princes and barons at each other's undying throats. Young vampires take to the field ready to claim their domain and become powerful lords in their own right. Blood calls to blood.The Dark Medieval is a very different time than the modern Final Nights. Cainites group in clans high and low, swear fealty to ancient vampiric monarchs and follow their roads of enlightenment in the same way mortals do religions. Ashen priests and princes face off in a violent world lit only by torches and fear. Dark Ages: Vampire Revised Edition is your complete guide to this time.