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Drawing on the tools of game design to fix democracy. Anyone who has ever been to a public hearing or community meeting would agree that participatory democracy can be boring. Hours of repetitive presentations, alternatingly alarmist or complacent, for or against, accompanied by constant heckling, often with no clear outcome or decision. Is this the best democracy can offer? In Making Democracy Fun, Josh Lerner offers a novel solution for the sad state of our deliberative democracy: the power of good game design. What if public meetings featured competition and collaboration (such as team challenges), clear rules (presented and modeled in multiple ways), measurable progress (such as scores and levels), and engaging sounds and visuals? These game mechanics would make meetings more effective and more enjoyable—even fun. Lerner reports that institutions as diverse as the United Nations, the U.S. Army, and grassroots community groups are already using games and game-like processes to encourage participation. Drawing on more than a decade of practical experience and extensive research, he explains how games have been integrated into a variety of public programs in North and South America. He offers rich stories of game techniques in action, in children's councils, social service programs, and participatory budgeting and planning. With these real-world examples in mind, Lerner describes five kinds of games and twenty-six game mechanics that are especially relevant for democracy. He finds that when governments and organizations use games and design their programs to be more like games, public participation becomes more attractive, effective, and transparent. Game design can make democracy fun—and make it work.
To create a great video game, you must start with a solid game design: A well-designed game is easier to build, more entertaining, and has a better chance of succeeding in the marketplace. Here to teach you the essential skills of player-centric game design is one of the industry’s leading authorities, who offers a first-hand look into the process, from initial concept to final tuning. Now in its second edition, this updated classic reference by Ernest Adams offers a complete and practical approach to game design, and includes material on concept development, gameplay design, core mechanics, user interfaces, storytelling, and balancing. In an easy-to-follow approach, Adams analyzes the specific design challenges of all the major game genres and shows you how to apply the principles of game design to each one. You’ll learn how to: Define the challenges and actions at the heart of the gameplay. Write a high-concept document, a treatment, and a full design script. Understand the essentials of user interface design and how to define a game’s look and feel. Design for a variety of input mechanisms, including the Wii controller and multi-touch iPhone. Construct a game’s core mechanics and flow of resources (money, points, ammunition, and more). Develop appealing stories, game characters, and worlds that players will want to visit, including persistent worlds. Work on design problems with engaging end-of-chapter exercises, design worksheets, and case studies. Make your game accessible to broader audiences such as children, adult women, people with disabilities, and casual players. “Ernest Adams provides encyclopedic coverage of process and design issues for every aspect of game design, expressed as practical lessons that can be immediately applied to a design in-progress. He offers the best framework I’ve seen for thinking about the relationships between core mechanics, gameplay, and player—one that I’ve found useful for both teaching and research.” — Michael Mateas, University of California at Santa Cruz, co-creator of Façade
In this report the Work and Pensions Committee reiterates its call for the establishment of a Welfare Commission to create a fairer and simpler benefits system that claimants can understand and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) can administer more accurately. The report concludes that the vast majority of decisions DWP makes are accepted by claimants and lead to the right benefits being paid on time to those who are eligible. But the level of official error in the benefits system has increased substantially since 2000-01. The level of overpayments due to official error has risen from £0.4 billion (0.4 per cent of benefits paid) to £0.8 billion (0.6 per cent of benefits paid) in 2008-09. Although the Department has made great strides in reducing fraud, this increase in error should be a cause for concern. The report also highlights a worrying lack of response to scrutiny of the decision making and appeals (DMA) system by DWP. A former President of the Appeal Tribunals, Judge Robert Martin, felt his reports were effectively ignored, and there is evidence that the Decision Making Standards Committee lacks influence. There should be a much more constructive response to scrutiny. Another area that seems not to be working as effectively or as quickly as it should is the reconsideration process - the review of decisions - and the Department should examine this urgently.
An authoritative overview of the developing field of public history reflecting theory and practice around the globe This unique reference guides readers through this relatively new field of historical inquiry, exploring the varieties and forms of public history, its relationship with popular history, and the ways in which the field has evolved internationally over the past thirty years. Comprised of thirty-four essays written by a group of leading international scholars and public history practitioners, the work not only introduces readers to the latest scholarly academic research, but also to the practice and pedagogy of public history. It pays equal attention to the emergence of public history as a distinct field of historical inquiry in North America, the importance of popular history and ‘history from below’ in Europe and European colonial-settler states, and forms of historical consciousness in non-Western countries and peoples. It also provides a timely guide to the state of the discipline, and offers an innovative and unprecedented engagement with methodological and theoretical problems associated with public history. Generously illustrated throughout, The Companion to Public History’s chapters are written from a variety of perspectives by contributors from all continents and from a wide variety of backgrounds, disciplines, and experiences. It is an excellent source for getting readers to think about history in the public realm, and how present day concerns shape the ways in which we engage with and represent the past. Cutting-edge companion volume for a developing area of study Comprises 36 essays by leading authorities on all aspects of public history around the world Reflects different national/regional interpretations of public history Offers some essays in teachable forms: an interview, a roundtable discussion, a document analysis, a photo essay. Covers a full range of public history practice, including museums, archives, memorial sites as well as historical fiction, theatre, re-enactment societies and digital gaming Discusses the continuing challenges presented by history within our broad, collective memory, including museum controversies, repatriation issues, ‘textbook’ wars, and commissions for Truth and Reconciliation The Companion is intended for senior undergraduate students and graduate students in the rapidly growing field of public history and will appeal to those teaching public history or who wish to introduce a public history dimension to their courses.
Learn and Leverage the Power of Unity to Create Amazing Video Games! KEY FEATURES ● Discover everything to learn about Game Design, processes, and Unity's 2D and 3D engines. ● Less complicated step-by-step tutorials on building gameplay systems and improving their performance. ● Dedicated help and support for developing prototypes, releasing games, and sharpening the user experience. DESCRIPTION The Unity Engine has been steadily evolving over the past few years into one of the most powerful resources for the game development community. Its feature-rich toolkit and user-friendliness make it an ideal foundation for budding game developers. The book ‘Mastering Game Design with Unity 2021’ will walk you through creating a multimedia game from scratch, covering everything from the basics of game development to advanced design concepts. The book will help you to learn the ins and outs of scenes, game objects, input systems, physics, particles, and post-processing effects, and even get access to instructions to put your newfound skills to use. In addition, this book will help you to learn the fundamentals of game logic design, interactive narratives, game mechanics, storyboarding, and design structure in an easy-to-understand format from a coaching game expert. Whether you're brand new to the gaming industry or a seasoned developer looking to strengthen your Unity skills, this book will provide everything you need to know to design stunning 3D games, animations, 3D content, and virtual reality/augmented reality experiences in Unity 3D. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Use the Unity Game Editor and Assets to design and build 3D animations and games. ● Understand important game design concepts across a variety of genres. ● Take advantage of Unity's pre-built UI, rendering, physics, and graphics systems. ● Create custom gameplay systems and elements using C# scripting. ● Figure out how to make an already existing prototype appear even better. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR This book is for aspiring game designers, animators, and professional graphic creators who wish to create games with spectacular 3D visuals and high-quality animation effects. Readers can go through the fundamentals of game design and then learn how to use them in Unity to make their own custom video game from scratch. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The Unity Engine 2. Components and Prefabs 3. The Basics of Combat 4. Getting to Know UI 5. Mastering the Fundamentals 6. The Physics of Fun 7. The Joy of Animation 8. The Mind of the Enemy 9. Forging Your Weapon System 10. All About Audio 11. A Graphical Upgrade 12. So Many Particles 13. Mastering Player Progression 14. UX 15. 2D vs. 3D 16. Mastering the Genres 17. Platforms and Publishing 18. From Concept to Completion
What makes people sue? Why do individuals who have lost their cases decide to appeal? In this book, the author offers a comprehensive description of the motives and concerns underlying an individual's decision to appeal in civil litigation. Contrary to most previous research on this topic that argues that people are primarily results-driven, Barclay asserts that people are actually concerned with getting a fair hearing from the court - winning is secondary. The evidence he presents is meticulous but engaging, providing a perspective that explains many behaviours toward the courts, including noncompliance, violence and decisions to self-represent. This book is for anyone interested in the United States judicial system.
The unusual marriage of Romantic ballet and artificial intelligence is an intriguing idea that led a team of interdisciplinary researchers to design iGiselle, a video game prototype. Scholars in the fields of literature, physical education, music, design, and computer science collaborated to revise the tragic narrative of the nineteenth-century ballet Giselle, allowing players to empower the heroine for possible ”feminine endings.” The eight interrelated chapters chronicle the origin, development, and fruition of the project. Dancers, gamers, and computer specialists will all find something original that will stimulate their respective interests. Contributors: Vadim Bulitko, Wayne DeFehr, Christina Gier, Pirkko Markula, Mark Morris, Sergio Poo Hernandez, Emilie St. Hilaire, Nora Foster Stovel, Laura Sydora
