The Video Games Textbook takes the history of video games to another level, with visually-stimulating, comprehensive, and chronological chapters that are relevant and easy to read for a variety of students. Every chapter is a journey into a different era or area of gaming, where readers emerge with a strong sense of how video games evolved, why they succeeded or failed, and the impact they had on the industry and human culture. Written to capture the attention and interest of both domestic and international college students, each chapter contains a list of objectives and key terms, illustrative timelines, arcade summaries, images and technical specifications of all major consoles. Key Features Explores the history of video games, including the social, political, and economic motivations Facilitates learning of material with illustrative timelines, arcade summaries and images Highlights the technical specifications of all major consoles Illustrates the breakthroughs and trends of the gaming market

Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.

This is a multidisciplinary textbook on social commerce by leading authors of e-commerce and e-marketing textbooks, with contributions by several industry experts. It is effectively the first true textbook on this topic and can be used in one of the following ways: Textbook for a standalone elective course at the undergraduate or graduate levels (including MBA and executive MBA programs) Supplementary text in marketing, management or Information Systems disciplines Training courses in industry Support resources for researchers and practitioners in the fields of marketing, management and information management The book examines the latest trends in e-commerce, including social businesses, social networking, social collaboration, innovations and mobility. Individual chapters cover tools and platforms for social commerce; supporting theories and concepts; marketing communications; customer engagement and metrics; social shopping; social customer service and CRM contents; the social enterprise; innovative applications; strategy and performance management; and implementing social commerce systems. Each chapter also includes a real-world example as an opening case; application cases and examples; exhibits; a chapter summary; review questions and end-of-chapter exercises. The book also includes a glossary and key terms, as well as supplementary materials that include PowerPoint lecture notes, an Instructor’s Manual, a test bank and five online tutorials.

A concise and affordable resource for the mass communication course, Media Essentials provides a flexible, informative, and relevant breakdown of what the media is, how it works, and how it impacts today’s most talked-about subjects. From #metoo to content streaming to social media and politics, students learn how a wide variety of recent developments have impacted the mass-media landscape—and how past innovation and change have informed our current media world. Media Essentials is available with LaunchPad, a robust online platform designed to help students fully engage with course content—and with the world of mass media. From our acclaimed LearningCurve adaptive quizzing, which helps students learn and retain concepts, to compelling features like an interactive e-book and a variety of entertaining and thought-provoking video clips, LaunchPad gets students connected with—and interested in—the information they need to succeed in class.

Traces the fast-rising prices of health care and education in the United States and other major industrial nations, examining the underlying causes which have to do with the nature of providing labor-intensive services.