This book offers an overview of how conflicts are represented and enacted in games, in a variety of genres and game systems. Games are a cultural form apt at representing real world conflicts, and this edited volume highlights the intrinsic connection between games and conflict through a set of theoretical and empirical studies. It interrogates the nature and use of conflicts as a fundamental aspect of game design, and how a wide variety of conflicts can be represented in digital and analo...

Havet har flera ansikten. Ofta rofyllt och välkomnande, men också våldsamt och dödsbringande. I årtusenden har havet varit en scen för liv, handel och krig och misslyckanden.I Facing the Sea får vi ta del av svenska erfarenheter av havet. Vi får läsa om smugglare från Åland, brittiska kapare som beslagtar svenska skepp och marinofficerare som kämpar för flaggans heder. Vi ser också vad en katastrof till sjöss eller bärgandet av ett skeppsvrak kan berätta om samhället i dåt...

A funny, fearless tour behind Scandinavia’s polished image.Michael Booth has long been perplexed by strange paradoxes and character traits of the people of his adopted homelands – and equally bemused by the unquestioning enthusiasm for all things Nordic and hygge that has engulfed the rest of the world.From his home in Denmark, he travels through Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland to uncover the truth behind the myth of the happiest people on Earth. Along ...

James Paul Gee begins his classic book with "I want to talk about video games--yes, even violent video games--and say some positive things about them." With this simple but explosive statement, one of America's most well-respected educators looks seriously at the good that can come from playing video games. In this revised edition of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, new games like World of WarCraft and Half Life 2 are evaluated and t...

A gaming academic offers a “fascinating” exploration of why we play video games—despite the unhappiness we feel when we fail at them (Boston Globe)We may think of video games as being “fun,” but in The Art of Failure, Jesper Juul claims that this is almost entirely mistaken. When we play video games, our facial expressions are rarely those of happiness or bliss. Instead, we frown, grimace, and shout in frustration as we lose, or die, or fail to ad...

Computers are already approving financial transactions, controlling electrical supplies, and driving trains. Soon, service robots will be taking care of the elderly in their homes, and military robots will have their own targeting and firing protocols. Colin Allen and Wendell Wallach argue that as robots take on more and more responsibility, they must be programmed with moral decision-making abilities, for our own safety. Taking a fast paced tour through the latest thinking about philosoph...

Prominent experts from science and the humanities explore issues in robot ethics that range from sex to war.Robots today serve in many roles, from entertainer to educator to executioner. As robotics technology advances, ethical concerns become more pressing: Should robots be programmed to follow a code of ethics, if this is even possible? Are there risks in forming emotional bonds with robots? How might society—and ethics—change with robotics? This volume is the fi...

Thoroughly updated and with a new foreword'The Viking Age is shot through with the spirit of adventure. For 300 years, from just before AD800 until well into the eleventh century, the Vikings affected almost every region accessible to their ships, and left traces that are still part of life today'Far from being just 'wild, barbaric, axe-wielding pirates', the Vikings created complex social institutions, oversaw the coming of Christianity to Scandin...

Artificial Intelligence is going to war. Intelligent military systems are already reshaping conflict—from the chaos of battle, with pilotless drones and robot tanks, to the headquarters far from the action, where generals and politicians use technology to weigh up what to do. AI changes how we fight, and even how likely it is that we will. Warbots will be faster, more agile and more deadly than today’s crewed weapons. New tactics are already emerging, but much deeper thinking is needed. Wh...

The true story of the mad heretic who led history's bloodiest mutiny - 'An adult version of LORD OF THE FLIES that is, moreover, entirely true' Evening StandardWhen the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia struck an uncharted reef off the new continent of Australia on her maiden voyage in 1629, 332 men, women and children were on board. While some headed off in a lifeboat to seek help, 250 of the survivors ended up on a tiny coral island less than half a mile long. A band o...

The robot population is rising on Earth and other planets. (Mars is inhabited entirely by robots.) As robots slip into more domains of human life--from the operating room to the bedroom--they take on our morally important tasks and decisions, as well as create new risks from psychological to physical. This makes it all the more urgent to study their ethical, legal, and policy impacts. To help the robotics industry and broader society, we need to not only press ahead on a wide range of issu...

A magnet for trade and travellers from all over the world, stylish, cosmopolitan Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and legendary beauty, but also of civil wars, bloody religious purges, and the tragedy of Anne Frank.In this fascinating examination of the city's soul, part history, part travel guide, Geert Mak imaginatively recreates the lives of the early Amsterdammers, and traces Amsterdam's progress from waterlogged settlement to a major fi...