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 the show’s playful way of sharing life lessons. The book explores recurrent psychological themes, individual character experiences, and the psychological, emotional, and...
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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 the siblings' success in the face of the impending apocalypse. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17613/5fcw-fs81
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Well Played is a concept of providing in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings found in the experience of playing a game. Around Halloween in 2020, the Well Played Journal started its 10th volume. Looking back, the first “well played” presentation and article was in 2003, the first book came out in 2009, and the first journal issue was released in 2011. Thinking of Well Played during the pandemic underscored how games have been a part of our experiences and the value and role games have had in people’s lives this past year or so. This...
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Cross-Media Communications: An Introduction to the Art of Creating Integrated Media Experiences This text is an introduction to the future of mass media and mass communications – cross-media communications. Cross-media is explained through the presentation and analysis of contemporary examples and project-based tutorials in cross-media development. The text introduces fundamental terms and concepts, and provides a solid overview of cross-media communications, one that builds from a general introduction to a specific examination of media and genres to a discussion of the concepts involved in designing and developing cross-media communications. CMC Media Files show how cross-media can be applied, with art,...
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Beyond Fun: Serious Games and Media This book focuses on strategies for applying games, simulations and interactive experiences in learning contexts. The contributors orchestrated this collection together, reading and writing as a whole so that concepts resonate across articles. Throughout, the promises and problems of implementing games and media in learning experiences are explored. The articles have been authored by Clark Aldrich, Ian Bogost, Mia Consalvo, William Crosbie, Drew Davidson, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Melinda Jackson, Donna Leishman, Michael Mateas, Marc Prensky, Scott Rettberg, Kurt Squire, David Thomas, Siobhan Thomas, Jill Walker Rettberg, and Jenny Weight.
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stories in between: narratives and mediums @ play This is a unique text exploring the interplay between stories and media. The discussion focuses around the Myst narrative as it moves across media from games to books to comics to games. Along the way, the text also discusses the Sandman comics, and the hypermedia of Ultima Online and MitterNachtSpiel. This text was created hypertextually to exist online as a website with an inter-related book.
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Tabletop: Analog Game Design In this volume, people of diverse backgrounds — tabletop game designers, digital game designers, and game studies academics — talk about tabletop games, game culture, and the intersection of games with learning, theater, and other forms. Even as the digital revolution has progressed apace, tabletop games — board and card, roleplaying and miniatures — have grown and attracted many new fans. Indeed, in tabletop gaming there is far more diversity and design innovation than in digital games, and tabletop games have become of increasing interest to videogame designers, game design instructors, and people who study games...
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Well Played 3.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning Following on Well Played 1.0 and 2.0, this book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. Contributors analyze sequences in a game in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how the various components of a game can come together to create fulfilling a playing experience unique to this medium. Contributors again look at video games, some that were covered in Well Played 1.0 and 2.0 as well as new ones, in order to...
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Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning Following on Well Played 1.0, this book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. Contributors analyze sequences in a game in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how the various components of a game can come together to create a fulfilling playing experience unique to this medium. Contributors are again looking at video games in order to provide a variety of perspectives on the value of games. “Well Played 2.0 continues the tradition...
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Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning What makes a game good? or bad? or better? Video games can be “well played” in two senses. On the one hand, well played is to games as well read is to books. On the other hand, well played as in well done. This book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. On the one hand, well played is to games as well read is to books. On the other hand, well played as...
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