An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television—but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

The Penguin Book of Card Games is the authoritative up-to-date compendium, describing an abundance of games to be played both for fun and by serious players. Auctions, trumpless hands, cross-ruffing and lurching: card players have a language all of their own. From games of high skill (Bridge) to games of high chance (Newmarket) to trick-taking (Whist) and banking (Pontoon), David Parlett, seasoned specialist in card games, takes us masterfully through the countless games to choose from. Not content to merely show us games with the conventional fifty-two card pack, Parlett covers many games played with other types of cards - are you brave enough to play with Tarot? With a 'working description' of each game, with the rules, variations and origins of each, as well as an appendix of games invented by the author himself, The Penguin Book of Card Games will delight, entertain and inform both the novice and the seasoned player.

Why do we play games and why do we play them on computers? The contributors of »Games and Rules« take a closer look at the core of each game and the motivational system that is the game mechanics. Games are control circuits that organize the game world with their (joint) players and establish motivations in a dedicated space, a »Magic Circle«, whereas game mechanics are constructs of rules designed for interactions that provide gameplay. Those rules form the base for all the excitement and frustration we experience in games. This anthology contains individual essays by experts and authors with backgrounds in Game Design and Game Studies, who lead the discourse to get to the bottom of game mechanics in video games and the real world - among them Miguel Sicart and Carlo Fabricatore.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players each on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 20-metre (22-yard) pitch with a target at each end called the wicket (a set of three wooden stumps upon which two bails sit). Each phase of play is called an innings, during which one team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, whilst their opponents bowl and field, attempting to minimise the number of runs scored. When each innings ends, the teams usually swap roles for the next innings (i.e. the team that previously batted will bowl/field, and vice versa). The teams each bat for one or two innings, depending on the type of match. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained (except when the result is not a win/loss result). The game on the field is regulated by the two umpires, one of whom stands behind the wicket at the bowler's end, the other in a position called "square leg" which is about 15-20 metres away from the batsman on strike and in line with the popping crease on which he is taking guard. "Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game". This book contains the fundamental and basic information of the subject and useful for teachers, students and researchers.

Boxing is considered the oldest event which man used in his life. However, in the beginning it was used in a very rough manner. As the interest of people arouse towards this event, it was needed to make the game refined for which boxing federation was created, which has full control over the game. Boxing is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves, throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring. Boxing is an indoor sport which gained so much momentum these days that it is popular in almost all over the world. There are some categories in Boxing bouts for e.g., light heavy, heavy weight etc. Boxing needs stamina, strength and fitness and a Boxer should work out regularly so as to fulfil his goal. This book features an enormous amount of information about boxing thought the world. This book also includes biographies and starts with the most basics of basics and explains the hows and whys of boxing at a pace where even the most ignorant can soon know as much about the sport as any professional.

Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will. Tennis Skills and Rules has something for everyone who plays this wonderful game. The book is designed to help the people especially the aspiring players, beginners, coaches, learners, instructors etc. The comprehensive text in the book explains the various tips and tactics and means and methods to develop these tactics. This book in the series on sports has been designed as a comprehensive manual which gives the readers the basic information of the sport of tennis, as well as its celebrated players memorable moments. Beginning with a brief introduction to the history of the game, the book then engages in a detailed discussion of sporting paraphernalia of tennis, as well as its rules.