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Roll for Learning

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Play Story Press is excited to release Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-Playing Games to Use in the Classroom, edited by Camilla Zamboni, Matthew Farber, and William Merchant. Roll for Learning is a curated collection of original micro tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Micro TTRPGs have grown in popularity in recent years, particularly in the game jam space, and offer great potential for classroom use, as these games are intended to be easy to learn and quick to play. Further, TTRPGs are also an emerging field in scholarly texts, so there is a rich literature to draw from when introducing them...

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Virtual Body Language

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Play Story Press is excited to release Virtual Body Language, by Jeffrey Ventrella. Why does the tail wag the brain? What is virtual autism? Why can't our avatars walk hand-in-hand? Will a nonverbal Babel fish save the world? Jeffrey Ventrella, a seasoned virtual worlds programmer and visual language expert, reviews the history of avatars, smileys, and other expressive forms, and considers a future of spectacular creativity. This book combines thoughtful scholarship with amusing anecdotes from the trenches of Silicon Valley. Virtual Body Language presents a thorough analysis of the neurological, linguistic, aesthetic, and technical aspects of how nonverbal communication can be...

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The Psychgeist of Pop Culture – Stranger Things

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Stranger Things, a collection of essays edited by Anton Roberts. Recent times have witnessed an explosion in forms of media that fall under the umbrella of "pop culture". However, no series represents this phenomenon more clearly than Netflix's own Stranger Things. It is a veritable cornucopia of nostalgic cultural references, an offering of the bygone era of the 1980s suburban America. This book brings together scholars from a diverse set of backgrounds to explore why this show engenders such an intense fandom and lasting impact on the human...

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Well Played Journal CfP: For the Love of Games

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Update: Deadline for submissions is extended to 3 January 2025. A lot of us have a special game that inspired us to get more deeply involved in making, studying and playing games as part of our professional and personal lives. It may be *the* game for you or just *a* game that means a lot, and you find yourself replaying it regularly. It could even be a couple of games, or a games series, or a game that disappointed you enough that you were inspired to try and make one even better. Whatever the case may be, we welcome submissions...

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Professors at Play AI Playbook

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Professors at Play and Play Story Press are excited to release Professors at Play AI Playbook, by David Thomas and Lisa Forbes In the spirit of open access, we have made the AI PlayBook free for download. The PDF is a complete copy of the book, with all the parts, pieces, graphics and more. Because some of us still like good old printed books, we also offer a print-on-demand version through Lulu.com. If you’d like to support more publishing from Professors at Play or want full-color printed copies for your amusement, we have you covered. Printed copies are $10 USD...

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The Psychgeist of Pop Culture – Bluey

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Bluey, a collection of essays edited by Kelli Dunlap, PsyD. Bluey is an award-winning animated children’s series centering on the titular Bluey: a curious, inexhaustible 7-year old (in human years) anthropomorphized Blue Heeler puppy, and her family - little sister Bingo, mom Chili, and dad Bandit. Although each episode is brief, they’re full of love, heart, and valuable life lessons for both kids and adults. The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Bluey features both academic and memoir chapters which highlight the parent-child duality of Bluey viewership as well as...

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The Psychgeist of Pop Culture – The Umbrella Academy

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Umbrella Academy, a collection of essays edited by Arienne Ferchaud, PhD. The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Umbrella Academy takes a deep dive into the world of the Hargreeves family and sheds new light on the gothic allure of this series. In this collection of essays, readers will dive deeper into the complexities of the Umbrella Academy and learn why we root for Delores and Five, why we would likely join Klaus' cult, and why, despite the fact they all make morally ambiguous decisions, we continue to hope for...

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