When thirteen-year-old Mark Dannon finds the DeathBringer character in his new pack of Epic Heroes cards, the fantasy card games he plays with his friends start turning into a dangerous reality.

Offers a second volume guide to the fantasy realm of the video game franchise "Dragon Age," offering details about the expanded world, storylines, characters, lore, and geographic regions.

Provides an overview of Obsidian Entertainment's role-playing video game "Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire," featuring commentary from developers and artists, and chapters with full-color graphic images discussing game lore including, recent history, characters and cultures, politics and religion, and geography and history.

StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998) is a real-time strategy video game, placing the player in command of three extraterrestrial races fighting against each other for strategic control of resources, terrain, and power. Simon Dor examines the game's unanticipated effect by delving into the history of the game and the two core competencies it encouraged: decoding and foreseeing. Although StarCraft was not designed as an e-sport, its role in developing...

Presents a history of "The Legend of Zelda" video game franchise and the in-game world, including its history, characters, people groups, lands, realms, important items and relics, and divergent timelines.

On New Earth, Epic is not just a computer game, it's a matter of life and death. If you lose, you lose everything; if you win, the world is yours for the taking. Seeking revenge for the unjust treatment of his parents, Erik subverts the rules of the game, and he and his friends are drawn into a world of power-hungry dangerous players.

Ultima and Worldbuilding in the Computer Role-Playing Game is the first scholarly book to focus exclusively on the long-running Ultima series of computer role-playing games (RPG) and to assess its lasting impact on the RPG genre and video game industry. Through archival and popular media sources, examinations of fan communities, and the game itself, this book historicizes the games and their authors. By attending to the salient moments and sites...

"Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from...

"Five friends take a trip to a cabin. It's supposed to be one last getaway before going their separate ways--a chance to say goodbye to each other, and to the game they've been playing for the past three years. But they're all dealing with their own demons, and they're all hiding secrets. And as they start to play the murder mystery game that brought them together in the first place, the lines between the game and reality blend, with deadly consequences....

LARPing, or live-action role playing, is one of the hottest hobbies today. Its devoted participants develop detailed characters, inventing names and personalities, as well as costumes and props. The improvisational nature and opportunity for creativity at LARP events makes for a new experience every time. Readers will dive headfirst into this fascinating pastime, guided by experienced LARPer and writer Michael Sciandra through the ins and outs of...