Book Description
In this groundbreaking look at the future of education, game scientist David Williamson Shaffer offers a new and powerful way of looking at school, technology, and even thinking itself: a new model of education for a high-tech, digital world of global competition. How Computer Games Help Children Learn looks at how particular video and computer games can help teach our children and students to think like doctors, lawyers, engineers, urban planners, journalists, and other professionals. In the process, new "smart games" will give them the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a changing world.
Customer Reviews:
A Fascinating Concept of Games; needs more research.......2007-03-25
David Shaffer proposes here that we educate children by having them do the things adults do--only by simulating them in game form. This is an idea I haven't run across before, and I think it may have real merit.
I have a nine-year-old son who attends public school. His school spends a lot of money and effort on computer learning, but I have been frankly underwhelmed by the results. The educational software I've seen doesn't strike me as much of an advance over flash cards--just a lot more expensive. I consider myself generally a skeptic on the whole subject of computers in the classroom.
Shaffer's point is that not just any learning software will have educational benefits. The software must be a serious attempt to simulate the sort of tasks that adults do, such as running a business or designing a building. Shaffer calls these epistemic games. Shaffer's descriptions of some of these games do sound interesting, and he provides some evidence that children learn a lot from them. Shaffer's research seems to have dealt mainly with teenagers; his evidence for the benefits of these games seems much less solid for younger children.
I can't say that I'm convinced that computers in the classroom are worth the costs, but after reading Shaffer's book I'm willing to at least consider the idea. Shaffer may indeed have something here that could be a significant step forward in education.
That said, Shaffer's research strikes me as very preliminary. His studies involved only a few kids, who were far from randomly selected. The teachers were hand-picked, highly motivated, and interested in the subject they were teaching. The ratio of teachers to students was high, and the teachers put in a lot of effort. The kids were followed up for only a short time. This is a long way from being proof that the epistemic game concept works. In my opinion, it's very unlikely that conditions this favorable for learning could be maintained for large numbers of children for a long period at reasonable cost. Teachers putting in that kind of effort burn out quickly. Would epistemic games work with ordinary kids being taught by an ordinary teacher? Who knows? If this sounds like I'm being a bit of a sourpuss, the fact is that the history of education is absolutely replete with "reforms" that worked well with a few kids and a select group of teachers, but failed to improve education in the long term. American schools today are in very sad shape. Much of the blame for that goes to well-meaning educational reforms that were implemented too hastily, without evidence that they really improved educational outcomes for most children.
Overall, though, Shaffer's book is interesting and well worth reading.
innovative play.......2007-01-25
In this book, Shaffer takes the conversation about games and their relevance to society in general, and for children's learning in particular, to a new level. In a world where standardized thinking is rapidly being encapsulated in machines or outsourced, he says, education ought to be about providing young people with opportunities to learn innovative ways of thinking.
Which is where computer games come in: these games "are significant because they let us think in new ways" (p.191).
While touring a variety of video and other games, the book is centrally concerned with a new kind of game called an "epistemic game." In these games, players physically take on professional roles, like that of an engineer or architect, and use computers (and mentors/peers) to identify and solve problems - to think - like professionals.
In each of its six chapters, the book explores a specific epistemic game, such as Digital Zoo (about engineering), through a particular professional dimension, such as the specific "Knowlege" or "Values" of an engineer. (Promising commercial games are discussed along similar lines at the end of each chapter as well.) As a result, the book moves easily back and forth between personal stories and impressive studies, helping readers connect solid research on game playing with important learning theories.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in games, learning, and compelling visions for how to transform education.
A better way to teach today's kids... and then some........2007-01-11
Dr. Shaffer aims high and really hits the mark. Most recent, successful books about learning and video games go for the seasoned computer aficionado (me), or the rank computer newbie (my husband). Rarely do they target both. Shaffer's topics are deep and wide, but his language is fluid and unassuming; as a result, both audiences will find useful chunks of knowledge that resonate.
It is not hard to understand why todays twelve-year-olds would rather play SIMS or DOOM than finish their math homework. Shaffer (and his excellent team of graduate students) makes a very compelling case for why those experiences need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, if the games in the book become more the standard in U.S. schools, there might indeed be hope for our kids in the world-wide digital market after all.
Book Description
The Fun Way To Serious Bridge is for anyone who wants to learn and understand the fundamentals of the mind-stimulating and challenging game of bridge -- and enjoy every minute of it! Harry Lampert combines his skills as a bridge player and teacher with his artistic talents to bring you a totally new FUN way to learn the game. The magic of his superb cartoons and simple, informative language will help you to absorb the principles of serious contract bridge -- and remember them. You'll laugh and learn every step of the way from opening bids to strip and end plays. Whether novice or seasoned social player, this unique book will make good bridge a simple "trick." You'll learn all about:
* Opening bids, suit bids, response and no trump bids, and how to force bids
* Competition and the reasons and ways behind it
* Big hand bidding such as Blackwood Convention, grand slam force and Gerber Convention
* Patterns of play including how tricks are won, the finesse, establishing a long suit, when to pull and delay trumps and entries.
* Defensive and advanced play -- plus much more!
Customer Reviews:
Best Bridge Primer.......2007-08-04
I am a bridge player of long experience, and this is the best book for beginners I ever saw.
A unique book; but far from the best.......2007-04-11
As one of the other reviewers noted, there is a dearth of good introductory bridge books. This book is not bad, but it is very busy and focuses on memorizing rules -- not a good thing, despite the numerous cartoons designed to help you remember. The book is a bit childish and might be good for teaching a kid, I can't see an adult using this to learn with though.
Most of the other books are at least slightly better. Root's ABC's of Bridge is more thorough and less busy, and Penick's Beginning Bridge Complete will get you playing much quicker. But even these books are heavy on memory work and light on teaching you to think. Furthermore, because all of these books are focusing on memorizing instead of thinking things through, they frequently "simply" modern bidding to make it "easier" to learn. Doing this however, destroys the logic behind the bidding, making it almost impossible for a beginner to learn.
INSTEAD OF THIS BOOK, you should get Alan Truscott's Bridge in 3 weeks, the absolute best book, and the *only* one I'd recommend. The writing is superb, which you would expect from the Bridge editor of the NY Times. The book focuses on teaching you to think at the table and will get you playing the game quickly. More over because this book focuses on logic instead of memorization, it actually teaches you to bid and play in the way that most actual players do, making it easier to advance beyond the book.
The best bridge book for beginners.......2007-01-22
Not the ONLY book a beginner should read, but definitely one that ALL bridge players should read. Useful, handy, easy to understand, Lampert can have a complete novice "playing" in one hour.
Same old, same old.... Useless!.......2006-04-15
I have been trying to learn bridge for quite a while now. I have gone through a lot of books at the beginner's level. This one was my first one ever I got and, NATURALLY, it was not that helpful; too dense. There were certain things that annoyed me then, but mostly the underlying lack of reasoning which was replaced by the copious use of mnemonics.
This was the way my bridge odyssey started: looking for books that showed the logic and principles of the game. Surprisingly, I could barely find any! Even the "bibles" written by the "gurus" fail to teach rational thinking when it comes to bridge. Instead, what they really present are flowcharts, decision trees, and point ranges to remember. Then, we the readers are just trying to find easy ways to memorize unconnected snippets.
It is for this reason that bridge is so diificult to learn: there are no teachers out there, just people who have been playing forever and had no chance to forget what they have memorized over the years. Unless you feel like playing a few hundred rubbers per month, most books on bridge are useless to someone who has daily obligations.
Along the way, the bridge community lost the ability to transmit the ability to play the game. Bridge has only survived because of passionate rookies like us who are willing to go through the pain of reading these "books" and then connecting the dots.
So, going back to this book, I now realise that you cannot learn from this book, and once you have learned you do not need this book.
The books that you can learn from are the books by Root and the book by Watson, both written by great teachers. However, reading them is a brutal experience in dry writting.
Thin, but densely packed...where are the cartoons?.......2004-02-20
My impression when I picked this book up was that there would be tons of cartoons to help remember all of the "rules", e.g, my partner bids 1S, my hand has 10 points, therefore I should do this. In my view, there are not enough cartoons to really help remember the material. So, from this point of view, the book is not successful. Where the book does shine is in its highly concentrated explanation of the basics. I carry this book in my briefcase and read portions of it every day. Think of this book as a supplementary collection of notes to augment your other bridge books. This would be an good, inexpensive textbook for a 10-week class on bridge basics, for example. I think if you really learn the material in this book, you will be a very good beginner with ample room to grow.
Customer Reviews:
more than i expected.......2007-01-16
i'm a backgammon player for more than 20 years and this book has given me many solid and useful insights in statistics, common situations during the game, strategies etc. I loved it! Not to mention that the writer has a great gift of putting his ideas clearly and objectively.
Increased my rating on FIBS by 100.......2003-05-14
I had been stuck below 1500 on FIBS internet backgammon server for over a year. After studying this book for about a month, my rating increased by 100 points. I have since read Bill Robertie's other books, and I am now at 1650 on FIBS. The basic tips highlighted in this book are worth the cost of this book alone. To get the most out of this book, you need to use a backgammon board and play along with the diagrams, and compare what you would usually do compared to what an expert would do in the same situation. Great for beginners and intermediates!
As the title suggests, best for serious players.......2002-02-19
Dr. Robertie presents over 100 backgammon situations in this book. All of them have serious analysis. Not for the novice, but if you're a backgammon hound, it's worth the read. His analysis of the end game is especially good.
easy to read, fast progress results.......2001-02-11
I didn't know anything about backgammon: notation, strategy, etc. I read this book and found it was easy to follow the games and his annotations. Then I started beating people who previously would easily beat me. 'Nuff said.
Good lessions for medium level players.......2000-11-29
Don't wait to find here great secrets or crunch positions to study, in this this book, Bill Robertie reviews 5 whole games, between top flight players. There are good tricks on then, as he chose particular matches with diferent points of strategy.You will find basic rules of the modern way to play backgammon, by reading Robertie's reviews, but if you already mastered basic strategies and want something more instigating, look for Kit Woolsey's New Ideas in Backgammon.
Book Description
Learn how to take the skills and knowledge you use to make games for entertainment to make serious games: games for education, training, healing, and more. "Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform" teaches game developers how to tap into the rapidly expanding market of serious games. Explore the numerous possibilities that serious games represent such as the ability to teach military training in a non-lethal environment and the ability to convey a particular political viewpoint through a game's storyline. You'll get a detailed overview of all of the major markets for serious games, including the military, educators, government agencies, corporations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, religious groups, and activist groups. Discover the goals of each market, the types of games on which they focus, and market-specific issues you need to consider. Case studies of how professionals in these various markets utilize games provide ideas and inspiration as well as credibility for serious games. "Serious Games" shows you how to apply your game development skills to a new and growing area and also teaches you techniques to make even entertainment-based games richer and more meaningful.
Customer Reviews:
Superb Overview for both Novice Games, and Non-Gamer Sponsors of Games.......2007-02-26
This book is exactly what I hoped for when I ordered it from Amazon. In fact, it is much more. The first part, in three chapters, talks about new opportunities for game developers, defines serious games, and talks about design and development issues.
Then the book surprises. It has entire chapters on EACH of the following: Military Games, Government Games, Educational Games, Corporate Games, Healthcare Games, and a chapter on Political, Religious, and Art Games.
Following final thoughts, the book surprises again. The appendices are world-class. Appendix A is a tremendous listing of Conferences (13 in all), and Organizations (6), Contests (1, Hidden Agenda, $25K prize--we need MORE); web sites (6, less impressive than I hoped), and publications (5). Appendix B is a survey with results, and Appendix C is a very fine bibliography as well as a very helpful Glossary of terms in the field, and an index.
Ever since I saw the US Army sponsor the Serious Games summit, and then saw the emergent success of Games for Change, I realized that we were at the beginning of a major explosion of innovation that could change the world.
In my view, Serious Games need to become the new hub for life-long education, for inter-cultural understanding, and for simulating belief systems, including evil belief systems, at both the macro and micro neuroscience levels. The Earth Intelligence Network was just created this year in order to feed free real-world public intelligence to all Serious Gamers as well as to Transpartisan policy and budget developers.
In my humble opinion, Serious Games is the next big leap in the global Internet, especially when integrated with the Way of the Wiki such that open source software standards can allow games on every threat, every policy, every budget, every location, to interact and to empower the public with tools for sense-making and consensus-building that were once limited to a small elite.
This book was everything I hoped for, and much more. I am not now and never intend to be a game developer. I want to see Serious Games expand from isolated toy-like games that focus on one small issue in isolation, to a vibrant "Co-Evolution" Sphere that in an increasingly accurate representation of the Earth, past, present, and future. This book is my ground zero in observing this field, and I have very high hopes for the future of Serious Games.
A good start but wants a bit more.........2006-07-23
The book provides a good overview but stays on a quite overall level without really getting deep into the important problems in the serious games space. It seems a bit US-centric. But definitely a good companion for anyone wanting to do serious games.
An invaluable resource for anyone interested in Serious Games.......2006-04-17
As a Serious Game Developer, I am keenly aware of the state of our industry, of our movement. We have in a few years achieved a meteoric rise in exposure and progress but this is not enough. There are a multitude of new ideas and projects that don't know what is out there, that don't know we are out there. There is much still to be learned and only by knowing what is out there here and now can new (and old) projects hope to succeed in this nascent field.
Enter this book.
David Michael (author of "indie game developers survival guide") and Sande Chen have provided an indispensable review of this area in their book "Serious Games: Games that Educate, Train, and Inform". Touching upon all the major areas, they provide a blanket survey of the past and present efforts in this arena, introducing us along the way to the people and the companies that are changing the landscape of video games into something that transcends entertainment. The reading is light and the pace is brisk. The content is clearly broken up so that a person can skip straight to their area of interest or read it front to back and take it all in. The coverage is complete and I feel that no area of the Serious Games space was missed.
I wish I would have had this book three years ago when I started my projects. I would have had a much better idea of where I'm coming from and where I'm going. I am thankful to David and Sande for putting this book together in hopes that future developers will not have to struggle as much as I have.
Customer Reviews:
A hidden gem!.......2006-09-18
I have read many books on Craps and this is one of my favorites. Very easy to read and full of good techniques for realistic play. Combine this book with Schoblete's Five-Step Advantage-Play method and you will be a powerful player.
Do yourself a favor and buy this book for your collection. You won't be disappointed. Also, whatever books you read, download wincraps and use the free software to master your play. It really helps. [..]
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.......2003-06-07
I have won money using the techniques outlined in this book. Need I say more?
HOW TO NOT HITCHHIKE HOME FROM VEGAS.......2002-11-29
This comprhensive book is insistant on teaching a conservative method of craps and ignoring, indeed vehemently disdaining, the more tempting and colorful craps bets that the author proclaims to be money loser tbat glitter like tempting gold coins on the craps table. These and other tips are forcefully ingrained into the reader until they are nearly mantra-like in the mind. Still, by the time I arrived at the craps table I found myself wishing I could reach for this book to help me out with a bet or a question. I don't think the dealers and other players would have appreciated my referring to a "How To Play Craps" paperback in the middle of a roll. So later I read the book again and I'm still referring to it. Only complaint; the depiction of women as less than perfect craps players. I'm a less than perfect craps player. My first roll went flying off the table and sailing across the room like I was throwing darts. The author attributes such a wild throw to women and often refers to them as some kind of good luck charm.
A great book for anyone looking to learn and win Craps........2001-12-12
I liked this book so much, I usually keep two copies just in case
I loose one. Just bought another copy again this year to give to another friend, thats about the fifth copy given away in the last three or four years. (For the money), I'll guarantee the only way you could not win your investment back is if you stood at the craps table with you eyes closed. The book is straight forward but not dry with just a touch of humor. It explains every thing you should know, or could want to know about Craps,
yet is extremely easy to read, and hardly even a half inch thick.
I've read the book several times from cover to cover, and wouldn't think of going near a craps table without first brushing through the book one more time...
Don't Buy This Book.......1998-09-12
This book is a waste of money. The only useful information covers the rules of craps and how to play. The cover promises 25 systems for winning money, but in fact they are mostly variations on each other. None of them are worthwhile systems.
The whole book is repetitive (I think the author just needed to pad things out so you didn't realize you were being ripped off). And the sexist rubbish gets old after a while too.
Book Description
With the impressive growth the games industry has enjoyed for the past decade, game developers, educators, and marketing firms are excitedly envisioning serious games applications for computer game technologies. These applications- serious games- represent opportunities for game developers to apply their talents to areas outside of the entertainment industry. Developing Serious Games is a practical handbook that details what's involved in developing these serious games. It explores the emergence of serious games as a viable niche in the multi-billion dollar gaming industry, and it covers the various types of serious games, including military, academic, medical, and training & development. From there it continues with a discussion of the enabling technology trends, emerging standards, and the tools that promise to reinforce the current trajectory of development and user demand for serious games. The second half of the book emphasizes the economic realities of the serious games industry, including and evaluation of the market, the economic potential of the space, and the customer base. The book culminates with a serious game design document that illustrates the important differences between entertainment games and serious games. It also provides a look to the future of serious gaming from a developer's perspective. The book is written for students, established game developers, and professionals in related fields, such as modeling and simulation or instructional design, who are skilled in training with traditional approaches and tools. It is also applicable to programmers, graphic artists, and management contemplating or involved in the development of serious games.
Customer Reviews:
Simply too general and unfocused.......2006-07-23
This books definitely have good stuff in it, but you become frustrated because you have to dig so much. The books cover way too many issues that are non-specific to serious games. In the places where it do deal with serious games it on, however, quite successful but without being brilliant.
Military, academic, medical, training and more games!.......2006-03-16
Bergeron's DEVELOPING SERIOUS GAMES provides game developers with a practical manual exploring serious games: military, academic, medical and training games, to be specific. With the wealth of titles focusing on pleasure games, it's good to see a developer's guide which explains business concepts, tools which can be applied to real-world challenges and concepts, and discusses major differences between entertainment and educational gaming. Students and developers alike will find it a fine practical 'how-to' guide teaching concepts ranging from locating funding sources for such games to choosing game shells and marketing finished products.
Serious games must be taken seriously!.......2006-03-10
This is a very good book on serious games. It does give you probably up to a hundred examples of serious games on various fields such as the military, medical training games, educational games, simulations, etcetera. In the book serious games are categorised as: Activism Games, Advergames, Business games, Exergaming, Health and medicine games, News games, Political games, Realistic games, Core competency games, Repurposed of the shelf games and Mods. Within all these lots of examples are given that give designers examples. Unfortunately these examples are not really analysed in detail so the reader has to make up his mind if the given example is a good practise of a serious game or not. The book does give some basic ideas on what makes a serious game a good practise and gives lost of references for further study on particular serious game design issues.
It does give an introduction into the development process of (serious) games, technologies, (project) management and business aspects. I could care less for this part and on a occasion or two I found the book (in my opinion) wrong. For example the game development process is being described as a `pipeline' process, thus being linear. However good games, serious or not, need to be tested and tested and tested by players and thus redesigned and redesigned and redesigned many times. You can not do that in a linear managed project, where you go from fase to fase! I have never seen it work in practice. This is what happens if a museum, institute or school wants to make a serious game and does it in a linear way: they have an idea, they design the game, they make it and then when almost all the money is gone, they have it tested by some kids only to find out it is a boring game and that it needs to be redone all over. Back to the design fase! They did manage their money well throughout all the fases, but they never realised they needed to go trough the idea and design fase up to 10 times! For this reason and others the use of MS projects as proposed in the book is a bad suggestion. MS projects is ok if you manage a construction project, not good for software development. But the use of MS projects in software development (and thus game projects) is
another story.
Another part of the book is about the hardware and software you could use to make a serious game. The suggestions on software and the lists of examples is very good (even though there is lots more software available to make (serious) games. E.g. have a look at gamesmaken.startpagina.nl. The remarks on hardware, could be left out. It lists what kind of PC configuration you would need to make a serious game. Ok if you are a total beginner in this field, but for the 98% of the other readers it does not make much sense. This list will be outdated at the time the book has left the presses. Also, there is always so much debate on which hardware to use. The book for example suggests a pc configuration for sound recording. Now, I do not want to get into the Mac- PC discussions, but all the people I know (and I have a lot of musicians as friends) use Macs for audio recording with protocols or logic or on a occasion Steinberg software. I did not find these tools in the book. The same goes for graphics design. The book suggest a Alienware or Dell to work on. But all the professional designers I know (more than 50 I estimate) work on Macs. So the solutions mentioned in the book are not wrong, but well... you know it is too personal. I would not even write about it in a book.
But ok, besides these two small issues mentioned above, I think the info in the book is very good.
What I personally was looking for the most is how to really do it. How to make a good game for education, how to make a good game for a museum or how to make a game that convinces kids to eat healthy or not to start smoking. Design issues like these are introduced and discussed in this book, but not enough in my opinion. It would have made this book superb instead of very good if the writer had done that. Just maybe analyse two or three serious games that turned out to be working very well. How where they made, which design choices were made, how was the result measured, which dead ends were tried before they had the final result, how do the players respond to the game, etcetera. But then again, this might be a great subject for the next book on serious games!
www.wouterbaars.net
Gaming Techniques to Teach Lessons.......2006-03-07
Serious games is an interesting offshoot of the standard gaming industry. While most of the characteristics of the games have to be the same as 'play' games the key to a serious game is that it imparts 'a skill, knowledge or attitude that can be applied in the real world.'
When the hijackers who were to crash their planes into the World Trade Center wanted to learn to fly, they used simulators. These very expensive devices move the 'game player' around in three-D to impart muscle memory to the player. Other less serious games can't quite do that, but they can still impart a lot of knowledge about how to fly a plane (microsoft flight simulator), drive a car, or drive a tank.
This book presents a fairly high level overview of the serious game business. It talks about the general concepts of things like marketing (quite different than what's needed for space blasters), costs, marketing and so on. It then covers the basic techniques for game development including the specialized software that has been developed to facilitate the software development.
Worth a wait........2006-01-26
I've been waiting for a book on serious games long time. This is just what I was looking for. I can see the author has put a lot of energy into this work. Well-written and well-researched. Also it comes with good reference.
I particulary like serious game development templates.
A definite keeper for my bookshelf! I recommend it.
Average customer rating:
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Real Players?: Drama, Technology and Education
John Carroll ,
Michael Anderson , and
David Cameron
Manufacturer: Trentham Books
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ASIN: 1858563658 |
Book Description
Educational drama is being transformed by the technology of the screen-mediated world. The everyday use of computers, mobile phones, videogames and television is changing our perceptions of what drama is and how it works.
Real Players? brings together educational drama, youth theatre and the world of digital media today. It illustrates the dramatic conventions of process drama that teachers can bring to creating mediated performance in their classrooms. Examples of practice show how situated role, liveness and simulations create mediated learning communities in drama and applied theatre.
Teachers and others working with young people and media will find this exploration of a new dimension of drama compelling and professionally enriching. The book will also be of interest to people working with Technology and learning in many contexts.
Book Description
John McEnroe stunned the tennis elite when he came out of nowhere to make the Wimbledon semifinals at the age of eighteen-and just a few years later, he was ranked number one in the world. You Cannot Be Serious is McEnroe at his most personal, a no-holds-barred examination of Johnny Mac, the kid from Queens, and his "wild ride" through the world of professional tennis at a boom time when players were treated like rock stars. Here he candidly explores the roots of his famous on-court explosions; his ambivalence toward the sport that made him famous; his adventures (and misadventures) on the road; his views of colleagues from Connors to Borg to Lendl; his opinions of contemporary tennis--and his current roles as husband, father, senior tour player, and often-controversial commentator).
Download Description
John McEnroe was just an eighteen-year-old amateur from Queens when he stunned the tennis world by making it to the Wimbledon semifinals in 1977. He turned pro the following year after winning the NCAA singles title; three years later, he was ranked number one in the world. McEnroe dominated tennis in the eighties, winning three Wimbledon and four U.S. Open titles. His 1980 Wimbledon final match with Bjorn Borg is considered by many tennis experts to be the best match ever. You Cannot Be Serious is McEnroe at his most personal, a no-holds-barred examination of contemporary tennis, his championship seasons, his cantankerous on-court behavior, his marriage to Tatum O'Neal, his current roles as a devoted father, husband to pop star Patty Smyth, senior tennis tour player, and controversial television commentator, and much more. Funny, biting, close to the bone, this is exactly the book you'd expect-and want-from one of the most colorful figures of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Honest and Entertaining.......2007-03-30
The greatest asset of Mr. McEnroe's autobiography is the author's (sometimes brutal) honesty regarding both himself and the characters/events surrounding his rise to fame. Sure, it is clear at times that McEnroe is concealing some juicy details about his personal life, but it is not fair to expect admissions about everything! What McEnroe does share proves to be very revealing about both the pro-tennis tour and his celebrity lifestyle.
Ultimately this book will appeal to fans of not just McEnroe, but rather all of his contemporaries, since McEnroe is not afraid to dish the dirt on his colleagues. Although McEnroe is not going to be winning a literary prize anytime soon (some exciting grand slam wins are breezed by in a style that makes them seem almost secondary), his exciting roller coaster life proves amiable reading which most tennis aficionados will enjoy.
You cannot be serious.......2007-02-21
As a lifelong fan of tennis I was looking forward to this book very much. While it was interesting to hear Mr. McEnroe's story in his own words, I felt like he was VERY selective with regard to what he chose to discuss. He was so brutally honest about all matters tennis and yet offered very little about his personal life. His marriage to Tatum O'Neal was barely even mentioned, which is surprising considering that they had 3 children together. I believe that if you are going to write an autobiography you must be willing to tell the good, the bad and the ugly. In my opinion, Mr. McEnroe told only bits and pieces and left his readers wondering about everything in between.
Living the dream is never what you think it is.......2006-11-07
When I picked up the autobiography I only knew of John McEnroe as a star tennis player. The whole story from his meteoric rise to passing his athletic prime is personal, interesting and in many ways suprising. I am a bigger fan having read the book.
Worth buying for the first half.......2006-07-12
I really enjoyed this book. The first half focuses on JMacs tennis career and matches and he gives a lot of insight into his key matches and opponents. He definitely gets rather technical here but I find it interesting to read his analysis of Arthur Ashe's backhand, for example. He doesn't shrink away from doing a set by set analysis of his key matches, but again I find it interesting to read a first hand account of a wimbledon final in intricate detail from the perspective of one of the participants... The second half focuses more on his personal life, which was less interesting to me. Mcenroe is remarkably straightforward about his shortcomings on and off the court, which makes this more honest and less self-aggrandizing than most autobiographies. For anyone interested in the game of tennis and the career and opinions of one of the game's greatest players, this is definitely worth picking up.
Disappointing & Dull!.......2006-06-05
As a long time fan of professional tennis, and John McEnroe in particular, I was tremendously disappointed in this one. Most of the book reads like a box score of a tennis match. McEnroe describes matches in agonizing detail. I was amazed that he remembered these matches so explicitly; perhaps he watched video of them while writing the book. There is painfully little about his personal life. I read Tatum O'Neal's book just before this one, and was curious to read McEnroe's take on their marriage. While I admired him for not taking an opportunity to trash his ex, he doesn't disclose much about why their marriage failed, or why his current marriage succeeds. I suppose he wanted to keep some things private, which is certainly understandable; but if that's the case, why write an autobiography in the first place?
Book Description
The author explores the ways in which games can be used to instruct and inform as well as provide pleasure. He uses innovative approaches to problem solving through individualized game techniques. Topics include: improving education with games; educational games for the physical and social sciences; games for the learning disadvantaged; games for occupational choice and training; games for planning and problem solving in government and industry; and the future of serious games. This book was originally published in 1970 by Viking Press.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Ideas.......2006-11-21
Serious games takes a look at the power of games to simulate a simplified version of reality and thus help people understand the variables, causes, and effects impacting decisions in the real world. As it was written in the late 1960s the game ideas presented are mostly untechnical and are really more like role-playing scenarios than what we might think of as games today. Nonetheless Abt does a good job of talking about both the theory of games, the practical aspects to consider in their design and some good examples of successful games. Don't expect practical advice for designing your serious video game.
Customer Reviews:
A Mixed Bag but still a Fun Read.......2005-03-22
The title is a misnomer - Movie Game Book: A Serious Book of Film Trivia. Yes there is a single trivia question listed every other page in the border and yes every 10 pages or so there are two pages which test your film knowledge via question and answer. But the other 8 page of each 10 are two page outlines of various film related subjects and themes - everything from important directors, to influential ideas (e.g. McCarthyism) to specific film studios.
So, as the bulk of the film is a film studies outline - if you have an interest in short but interesting capsules - I would recommend it. Particularly if you don't have a Hollywood-centric view of films. World films, directors and studios are significantly covered and one of the more enjoyable aspect of the book.
Some of the language is less than polished as it was obviously transcribed from a French edition. They could also do with a bit of proof checking. For example, on the subject of film blockbusters they list Gone with the Wind with 11 Oscars when it won 8 Oscars and another two wins were plaques - the math still falling short of 11. Yet on the next page they mention that Titanic with 11 Oscars beat Gone With The Wind's total. The writers/editors also do too much editorializing. It's fine to have a home country bent but when you are on the topic of film "Blockbusters" and you write "From The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) to The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich, 2004), great spectacles have been Hollywood's pride and glory. A Frenchman, nevertheless, has managed to match them: Jean-Jacques-Annaud. Always energetic and spectacular, whether in an anthropomorphic saga (The Bear), a thriller set in the Middle Ages adapted from Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose), or in joyful pursuit of the tribe of the Ulams in Quest for Fire." Point being that if you are writing about true blockbusters in film history when you start discussing The Name of the Rose (and spend one quarter of the two pages allotted to do it) you truly have lost perspective.
Ending on a positive note, the book is absolutely loaded with beautiful black & white and color prints of film scenes along with film posters, star photos and the like. The shots are quite beautiful and well presented on good quality paper. One only wishes the footprint of the book were slightly larger to show these terrific shots off even more.
Books:
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- Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
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- I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl
- If Truth Be Told (Five Star Expressions)
- Inferno
- Infinite Crisis (DC Comics)
- Jack London : Novels and Stories : Call of the Wild / White Fang / The Sea-Wolf / Klondike and Other Stories (Library of America)
- Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
- Les Miserables (Modern Library)
Books Index
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