Virtual Reality Books

This book is interesting from several different perspectives, however its primary aim is to help senior managers think about the impact of IT and the internet on their organizational culture. Yet, it is also fasinating for business historians and students to see how one of the top management thinkers of our time viewed the internet back in _1996_!

While the precise notions about the emerging internet seem well dated, the concepts and perspectives the author provides about the impact of IT and the internet on organizational culture are as fresh as ever. This is important reading for those students and practitioners in organizational behavior and improvement - and for managers and leaders with the same concern.

If you can rise about the charmingly and insightfully dated notions about the internet circa 1996, this remains an important book!

Provided an in-depth discussion of trends in the information technology industry and their impact on organizational culture. The book is a little dated. However, the topics are very insightful.

Understanding the impact of cybernetics in the management of your employees and how they interact in cyberspace - how much of your company data is available to outsiders and more! James Martin takes all the buzz words you have heard and makes them make sense. Your company will be out of the competative race unless you understand his insights for the future of the corporate structure.

After all the hype I'd looked forward to this book. However, it was a real disappointment.

When he wasn't contradicting himself he was rewriting sections of his own or other's work. There were no new concepts or ideas in here, nor much about what you were supposed to do with the ones he did suggest.

It sort of read like a Tom Peters book, only without the energy, enthusiasm or vision.

Bottom line: avoid.

I have many of Martin's other books and I found this one is not worth reading. It has very flowery language, poor composition and lacks depth in the subject matter.

Martin does a disservice to the Internet and to his readers. Bottom line - avoid at all costs. Sorry.

ce livre a change ma vie, comme david galbraith en fait. vous ne verrez jamais plus le monde de la meme facon grace a l'un comme a l'autre. vous y verrez des choses etranges, illuminees de petites lumieres partout autour de vous. des fils aussi, des prises electriques, des machines, un monde merveilleux et nouveau somme toute! le reve +++ quoi!

ce livre a change ma vie, comme david galbraith en fait. vous ne verrez jamais plus le monde de la meme facon. vous y verrez des choses etranges, illuminees de petites lumieres partout autour de vous. des fils aussi, des prises electriques, des machines, un monde merveilleux et nouveau somme toute! le reve +++ quoi!

To say this book changed my life would only be the slightest exagerration. I could not put it down. Now, when I ride my monorail to the cyberplug center to download new language files into my cerebellum, I always remember - Galbraith brought me there first! There is still much to discover, and as a "Cyberlifer", I can only urge you all, READ THIS BOOK - it is truely the guide to the future!

Even if you're not a big fan of David "Cyber" Galbraith, it's still a fascinating rare glimpse of this virtual pioneer's ideas in the formative phase. Sure to be quite collectable in the years to come.

To say this book changed my life would be the understatement of the millenium. From one action packed page to the next, DW Galbraith "plugged me in" to the future of our universe. Now, as I ride my monorail to the cybercafe to download a new Jujitsu program into my cerebellum, I think back to the years when I could only dream of such wonders...

Finally a well written, enjoyable book full of how-to's, tips and discoveries that raises the value of the software itself.

thanks!

Finally, how-to's, ideas, explanations and guidance that raises the value of a software itself.

Finally a book that raises the value of the program itself.

Helpful tips, how-to's and a discovery or two.

Thanks!

Finally, a well written, enjoyable book full of how-to's, tips and discoveries that raises the value of the software itself.

thanks!

I would have never thought about using Canoma to make a comic strip but it makes perfect sense. That chapter alone had me laughing out loud because the characters and storyline are so silly.

Now that I have skimmed through the book, it is time to really go through the different projects. I can't wait to make our Adelphia Stadium.

I don't know if I would have read more in this series had I read Helmet of Horror and/or Lion's Honey first...I liked Helmet more than Honey...but it not on my list of things I could read over and over. The idea of the labyrinth being both a physical thing AND being the internet (specifically a chat room) is certainly intriguing and novel...but the whole thing sort of confused me. I suppose that was rather the point...the tale itself is something of a labyrinth and the tread being something of an in joke with the chat room/message board response system. Overall, I'd say it was well done and I'm sure if I were to read it again, I'd be able to pull more meaning out it, because I was left with the feeling that I'd missed something...so maybe down the line when I get my own copy, I'll reread it and see what else it brings to me. Looking forward to the next one!

I know the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and I have - very rarely - looked in on chatrooms - rarely, because the chat in the ones I have visited is usually so inane. The book does mirror the inconsequentialness of some of these chatrooms; but if there is some method in the madness of this version of the myth, I'm afraid I just didn't get it. My mind not only does not work this way, but can't understand a mind that does. So I've got lost all right! My fault, no doubt.

The computer screen as stage and instant messaging as action in this lesser work by Victor Pelevin. Certainly no match to his "Buddha's little finger" or "Omon Ra"

Audiobook aficionados will think they've stumbled upon nirvana when listening to this update on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur as read by eight of the best and brightest narrators to be found. Not only are they all first rate voice performers with wide ranges of experience but they're also award winners - far too many to mention here.

Russian novelist Victor Pelevin who was named among the Best European Writers under 35 is anything but conventional. Here, he takes an ancient myth and puts a today spin on it by creating eight characters, all assigned pseudonyms, who sign on to a chat room to discuss philosophy. We may remember that the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth and these characters find themselves in a virtual one.

The story opens with Ariadne writing, "I shall construct a labyrinth in which I can lose myself together with anyone who tries to find me - who said this and about what?" This thread is responded to by the other characters who are all in separate spaces, places of which they are not sure - where are they?

This is a sci-fi story which some may find puzzling and others enthralling as two of the characters struggle to find each other and others labor to explore their shared predicament.

- Gail Cooke

I came to Amazon to read other folks' impression of the content of the book, but, alas, found no posts, so I'm starting one, unwinding Ariadne's thread, as it were, so others would follow it with me. I'm basing my views on the Russian original here. I wanted to understand The Helmet very much. It feels vaguely portentous and significant in some way, and I found myself giving different accounts to authorial metaphors upon rereading it. Is Thesius the programmer while the others are stuck in VR? Are they WWW AI or real human beings? Whose is the independent reality? Is it theirs? Is it Thesius's? Was there a minotaur or are they the minotaur and were all along? Or perhaps they became the minotaur when the previous minotaur was massacred? It's like the literary version of Donnie Darko, and like Donnie Darko, it is a paradoxical entrapment, a fairly amusing jumble while it lasts that unravels to nothing. After all is said and done, the ultimate purpose of The Helmet is not to enlighten at all. It is to deconstruct. To destroy: your mental comfort in spirituality, social order, psychological adjustment, idealism, optimism, hope. When viewed through the prism of Pelevin's literary corpus, the metafictional aspects of The Helmet become clear: it is to show how existential "discourse" is a form of mental agony or onanism, if you will, created out and by nothing for no one's benefit. All is meaningless is the message here. In fact the very discourse is the helmet of horror as is the brain creating it, and as one tries to substantiate and justify the existence of the other, both fail miserably. The entirety of The Helmet (the book), therefore, with all its airs and profundity, with all implications of significance and allusions to higher planes of being, is an onanism, a pure escapist onion in metaphysical skin. Not unlike Pelevin. So why the four stars? During the reading process, you expect some sort of a revelation, a mind-expanding experience, while by the end the story world collapses, and you are left with no more with which you'd started. It isn't a failed expectation either. It's clear that the subject of the book and the book itself are intended to be of no existential consequence, which is, in fact, the lesson. It is that solipsistic speculation -- the author's signature and beloved cash cow -- is a barren womb. Once the concept is understood in a remedial philosophy class, it will yield no more meaning than the minimum number of words required to bring it home. All the literary effluvience and writing mastery in the world will not add weight to it, as anything times zero is zero. Solipsism is self-annihilating, however much it may be true. A book, any book, on this subject is too long. Nothing is easier than cynicism and criticism, gospodin Pelevin, stop it already! Grow up and give us some substance.

GAG. Cyber Spellbook? This is ridiculous. I picked this up briefly at a bookstore to flip through for laughs and it wasn't even laughable just downright idiotic. The authors tell us we can "create" new deities, goddess and gods of computers, etc. OH PLEASE!!! How insulting is that? If Wiccans call these ladies "experts" in their traditions then I feel sorry for the mislead. I am appalled at the crap that is being churned out today. What is next - "An Outline in Chocolate Magic"? Fluffy Bunny to the extreme and a waste of good trees.

Billed as "Magick in the Virtual World" Sirona Knight and Patricia Telesco have tried to repackage Wicca so it relates to the hard core Geeks who follow paganism. Sorry, but it didn't work. It's a book on basic Wicca, with some terms changed to seem like it is technologically spun.

While trying to take Wicca and be innovative about it's application, and by including Ethics and Integrity (which is a good move, btw), instead the attempt was thwarted by the fact that the terminology is a bit antiquated and their updated correspondences quite strange.

For instance trying to update "Charms, Amulets, Talismans, and Fetishes" they mentions AAA batteries. Well, a techno savvy environmentally concerned geek would use rechargables. Just a thought.

The "Just for Fun" insert is right off an email that has been running around the internet for a while "You might be a Cyber Witch if...".

The book has an extensive list of "Cyber Magick Deities" and their cyber-updated attributions. While I could see Zeus as the "Stock Market God", by no means is Merlin a "Deity" (IMO)but he could be the modern day Cyber Wizard as she mentions. And Juno seemed a bit "tongue in cheek" with the "Goddess of Email" attribution. I have some friends who use Juno, and I think they would disagree.

There is another whole section of "Techno-Mechanical and Household Items/Tools" which boiled down to appliance correspondences. While the logic used in attributing these things may be correct, the idea that my breadmaker should be "Fire and Earth" or my dishwasher "A modern hotsprings for implements of the Goddess...." or my hot tub "The cauldron of the Goddess..." well.... see what I mean?

There is a section on stones and on herbs, which is just the same material rehashed again. Ditto with the rituals, same basic rituals, but I was a bit skeptical about using my "mouse as a modern wand". (Visual with the cordless laser mouse in my power hand held up to north as I welcome Earth to my circle, laser light comes on red... and it just doesn't seem as impressive as a Wand or an athame...).

The spell section, again, is nothing but updated old workings that are common sense spells. Anyone who has done spell work before recognizes the rehashed spells, and it is funny to see what is substituted for what to update the material.
"The Color of Money.... Then turn on the (green) flashlight, pointing it in all directions, North, East, South, and West (in that order). Say, Lamp of money, light of prosperity, Bring fortune and wealth to me, Blessed be! So shall it be!"
While it is a grand attempt to update old traditions, it lost something in the translation.

Which is what I think happened to the whole book. While it may have been attempt to update our old practices to correspond with the modern times, some of the charm of the practice is lost. While I do use a "Bic Stick" to light a candle outdoors, substituting an electric candle kind of takes away the simplicity of the practice. I have performed "on -line rituals" with others in cyberspace, but we light candles, we use cauldrons, and we try to be as updated as possible without losing the sense of the Old. We do retire to the hot tub after and our "wallpaper" does reflect some place we would like to be.

The attempt was noble, but it lost a lot in the translation. This is one that you may want to borrow from the library, but not something I want to substitute for a good solid, well grounded (three-prong kind) book on Wicca.

The Cyber Spellbook is a "user friendly" reference for witches who use modern gadgets to harness the spells of the Internet tells how to use humor, creativity, and insights to work magic in the virtual world. From cyber sabbats to cyber tools, this is packed with spells and special links.

I enjoyed some of both of these author's earlier works, but in the "Cyber Spellbook" they have hit new heights of excellence. This book forages new ground by integrating electronics and technology into Wiccan spells, thus giving a more modern, up-to-date feel to them. The concepts presented by Sirona Knight and Patricia Telesco are very progressive, and traditional witches will probably have a hard time with it, but this is standard everytime something new and innovative comes along. Some people just can't handle things changing, but in the words of Jim Morrison, "The old get older and the young get stronger. It may take a week, and it may take longer." Pick up a copy of this book and be part of the future.

This book is certain to delight New Age...As a New Age Witch who truly appreciates innovative ideas, I loved this book!!! For the first time in Pagan history, these two Witches have finally put together a book that speaks to our times. It's up to date. We all use electronics and techno-tools in our magic today--I'm keying this review on my computer, which is one of my main cyber witch tools. All witches with fully functioning and open minds will want this book handy in their libraries to refer to--after all, we live in a techno-world, not the Dark Ages. Half-brained Witches will hate it because it threatens their comfy little niche and beliefs. I'm sure there will be a lot of Old Guard, narrow minded Witches that will freak out and complain at the boldness of these authors. I SALUTE these two authors for pushing the envelope and going beyond the insipid little spellbooks with this wonderful New Age book. These authors are ahead of their times and are breaking new ground--way to go Women! Blessed be Patricia Telesco and Sirona Knight!!! May they continue writing more innovative and leading edge books for Witches like me for a long time to come.

The first part of the book is a decent introduction to both storytelling and games, at least for novices. If you know nothing at all about stories, his discussion of the three-act structure, Hero's Journey, etc. are useful primers. The same is true of his remarks on the basics of game design: challenges, competition modes, scoring systems, and so on.

Unfortunately, Glassner runs off the rails when he starts to talk about combining gameplay with storytelling. He frequently makes theoretical arguments founded in preconceptions from traditional storytelling media, while ignoring the practical experience obtained by professional game designers over the last forty years. His chief argument against branching storylines, for example, is that they haven't caught on in mainstream media such as books, television, and movies. At the same time he acknowledges that branching storylines are one of the most popular ways of doing interactive storytelling on computers. The fact that flipping through book pages and rewinding the VCR is awkward, while a computer can deliver a branching storyline seamlessly, does not seem to have occurred to him.

Worst of all, his perspective seems to be based more upon what he WANTS players to want rather than upon what they actually DO want. He proposes what he calls the "Story Contract," in which the author is granted exclusive control over both the psychology of the main characters and the plot sequence. Having done so, he treats this contract as axiomatic for the rest of the book -- but a good many game designers and players would strenuously object to both provisions.

In addition, the book contains a great many irrelevant digressions into territory with which the author is clearly unfamiliar. He categorically condemns settable game difficulty modes (easy, medium, hard, nightmare, etc.) and airily proposes that all games should include dynamic difficulty adjustment. However, he doesn't address the points that dynamic difficulty adjustment is hard to do well, not necessarily suited to all game genres, and above all, that some players LIKE to choose a difficulty level at the beginning of the game. And what this has to do with interactive storytelling, I cannot imagine.

In short, I second Jonathan Lev's conclusions, though perhaps not in such vitriolic terms. The first two hundred pages are good basic material for first-year undergraduates. The rest isn't much use to anyone who actually wants to build interactive storytelling experiences.

I never would have believed that someone could talk so much without having anything to say. I'm positively amazed.

I've waded through this book for hours trying to find even a shred of a concept among the heaped piles of trivia, irrelevancies, flawed arguments, bold and baseless assertions, large amounts of poorly analyzed information and fantastically impractical propositions, not to mention the incessant repetitions of said.

The fact is, this book contains neither illuminating theories nor useful practical suggestions, but only seemingly random (albeit grammatically compatible) sentences strung together in what must be the most extravagant display of Da-Da intellectualism to ever see print.

For example, after stating that on the one hand, the merging of games and stories seems natural and desirable, and on the other hand it has proven more difficult than expected (by whom?), the author treats us to this piece of sublime poetry:

"The quest to find a way to combine storytelling and gaming has all the qualities of a great story or game: there's a noble goal to be achieved, difficulties to overcome through understanding and insight, and success to be won by the careful use of skill, planning and execution".

This self-indulgent babble fills the book's pages to the point of choking. Another episode of it is exemplified when the author is considering the proper term to call users of his "participatory storytelling" idea, kindly sharing his profound thinking processes with the reader:

"What shall we call the people participating in these stories? I like players; someone taking part in a game is called a player, as is a performer in a play or film. Since a person participating in a story environment is doing a bit of each activity, the term "player" seems both fitting and economical".

Thanks to Mr. Glassner for his enlightening elucidations.

Later in the book, the author arrives at a conclusion that several difficulties that he claims to be inherent to interactive storytelling require the transition to a new aesthetic goal, which he calls "participatory storytelling". In addition to the fact that it is impossible to yield from this text either an intelligent overview of these difficulties, a coherent argument as to the superiority of "participatory storytelling", or even a solid definition of it, it seems the author has actually no grasp of the considerations relating to the subject matter. Mr. Glassner suggests, for example, the use of a fantastic science fiction technology he calls "living masks". A living mask, we are told, is a form of "interpreter" assigned to the player, who translates that player's input into the story world, transforming it into a more professional performance. In other words, this "mask" is supposed to be able to understand the player's intention, and then express it in a way that is more theatrical and more "in character" than a non-professional player would be able (or, Mr. Glassner claims, would want) to achieve. A computer rephrasing a human's speech to be more theatrical! Changing his tone to express more emotion! Manipulating his facial expressions to be more like "professional" acting! If this is at all possible, which is in doubt, this technology would certainly consume lifetimes to achieve!

But technology is not the only thing that the author seems to have no grasp of. Not by a long shot. The book drudges through an exhausting overview of what differentiates stories from games (Based, of course, on the mislead assumption that Story + Game = Interactive Storytelling). Since this comparison is about as appropriate as asking what differentiates a symphony from a papaya, Mr. Glassner has to invent some highly imaginative points of comparison which, other than providing an opportunity for several obscene atrocities committed against the English language as regards the definition of certain terms, stretched beyond recognition to be applicable to both stories and games, like the claim that both stories and games have a "referee" of some sort, have very little value. But even within his own twisted semantics, he simply doesn't seem to grasp the core concepts. When comparing the rules of games to those of stories, he focuses on stories, saying that their rules are hard to define because they are dependant on many practicalities - the laws of physics, the capabilities of the characters, or the ramifications of some actions. He's got it all backwards - all of these are the exact considerations which decide the rules of computer games. Stories, all stories, have one, and only one constant and inescapable set of rules - the rules of narrative.

It seems Mr. Glassner's understanding of interactivity is no better than his understanding of storytelling or games. He bemoans what he calls "The Myth of Interactivity: more interactivity makes any experience better". It's hard to say who exactly Mr. Glassner thinks are the subscribers to this "myth". After all, I've yet to hear someone express a wish that food or music, for example, were interactive, however that could possibly be achieved, yet these activities are among those most enjoyed by people the world over.

The examples given by Mr. Glassner serve both to undermine his point as to the overestimation of interactivity and to demonstrate that he, himself, has no idea of what interactivity is:

"Interactivity itself is hardly novel or interesting: an ATM is interactive... and the automatic doors in front of a supermarket are interactive. The whole world is filled with interactive experiences, from waving down a cab to sharpening a pencil".

For all of these activities save the last, the author is correct in claiming that they are, strictly speaking, interactive. The part about the pencil sharpening is outright puzzling. However, all these activities are perfect examples of why increased interactivity is better: first, they are the simplest, silliest forms of interactivity. Supporting a claim to the overestimation of interactivity with these examples is like supporting a claim to the overestimation of reading with the example of bumper stickers. Furthermore, each and every one of these activities could be improved with more interactivity. The interaction with an ATM would be much more interesting if, for example, it gave you financial advice instead of just spewing out cash, listening to your concerns and recommending a proper course of action. A door at the supermarket would be much more interesting if you could ask it for directions to the different products you're looking for, and a cab ride is improved immeasurably if you have an engaging conversation with the driver. Improve the interactivity of these experiences, and you improve their value (To learn more about interactivity, read Chris Crawford's book on the subject, and while you're at it, read his one on interactive storytelling, too).

What passes for a main argument in this forgettable book is that interactivity and stories conflict because stories are meticulously construed by master craftsmen and therefore cannot brook interference from the audience without being destroyed. And since this "interference" is the essence of interactivity, the two are incompatible. If Mr. Glassner were correct, which he most certainly is not, then it would be impossible to wed the two - this would be a shotgun marriage with neither party gaining anything, and the only question being how much each would lose on behalf of the other. As Mr. Glassner would have it, the interactive part would lose dramatically while the story would lose little (The storyteller retains control of the main characters, their actions and emotions, with the players making secondary contributions). An understandable position for a screenwriter.

However, what the author fails to see is that story and interactivity can actually be combined in a way that benefits both parties instead of simply making both lose their soul. This, however, requires a major paradigm shift because it is simply impossible to deal with the concept in the terms of current artistic media. The result will be nothing like traditional games and it will be nothing like traditional stories. It will have a different contract between storyteller and audience than that Mr. Glassner is howling like a frenzied fundamentalist to preserve, and it will have a very different kind of interactivity than that of a computer game, let alone the sports games that Mr. Glassner seems so interested in for some reason (being, is it were, the farthest thing from relevant to the subject which can still be termed "game"), and it will have a very different definition for the role of storyteller - to create a system of narrative possibilities out of which hundreds of thousands of moving and powerful stories can be constructed using the user's input. Is it possible? Yes. Do we have the technology? Yes. Will Mr. Galssner's book take us any closer to it? Don't bet on it.


After having despaired and having been irritated beyond measure in my attempts to extract even a modicum of benefit or interest from this oversized doorstop, I literally threw it away with force. Avoid doing the same with your time and money.

With so much talk about stories, games and interactivity, it is about time there is such a comprehensive book about the convergence of all these concepts. Andrew Glassner not only captures the present trends and experiments going on in these areas, but has presented an in-depth background and methodology of each. The advantage of this book is that it is from perspective of someone that has pioneered developments in each of these areas. His casual writing style allows us to enter the creative thought process evaluating such diverse examples and creative relationships.

This book is not for everyone. It is a challenging read with such a broad spectrum of references, nomenclature, cultures. How do you get it into one book with the continuity of a single voice? Mr. Glassner seems to have achieved it. Digital interactive storytelling is an emerging art form that incorporates and challenges traditions, conventions and techniques from all story mediums. The book, Interactive Storytelling, becomes an expert roadmap offering a well organized journey through all facets of play, games and stories. It includes critical insights into the challenges and pitfalls of each. If you are serious about participating in the creation of the future of story and interactivity, it is a must own reference. No one book has been able to cover as much at the level of detail needed to be considered an expert reference. Even though there are many complementary books on more focused aspects of story, games and play, this book serves as a central hub of how such various ideas interrelate..

After a life time of earning a living from interactivity and stories, it is good to know you can always learn more. I recommend this book to anybody training or developing content for the future of interactive of entertainment

This book first gives an education in the elements of storytelling and in game design. Once this basis is established, the book then delves into the various issues and contradictions involved in the idea of interactive storytelling.

The first half of the book is an introduction to the fields of storytelling and of game design. While I already was fairly well informed about some areas covered, it was worth reading through, as there were interesting tidbits along the way. Glassner's writing style is engaging and enjoyable, and his frequent use of real-life examples makes even normally dry, definitional material interesting.

The meat of the book is its exploration of the contradictions inherent in the idea of interactive storytelling and its proposal of some solutions. How do you resolve the idea of someone designing a story with dramatic elements yet have a player feel in control of his destiny? One extreme is the "Planescape: Torment" school of having only one story path you can follow. It can be an entertaining one, but the person playing is mostly doing tasks so that the next part of the story is revealed, vs. making the story himself. The other extreme is "The Sims", more a dollhouse than a game (though "The Sims 2" is more gamelike), where there are a few story-like elements and considerable freedom of action. Here the story is told almost entirely inside the player's head, as the player imbues his character's actions with meaning (e.g., "my character is staying home on the couch because he's depressed about his inability to get into art school").

Glassner explores what is good and bad about current offerings and offers some possible solutions. Classic problems are covered, such as how some computer game task cannot be overcome by the player, thereby breaking the story flow and also making the game unfinishable. One solution he discusses is having the game notice when such a hurdle is encountered and attempt to make the task ease up in order for the game to progress. This goes against the grain on one level, as people consider getting through some games as accomplishments; if the challenge changes depending on the player, this feeling is diluted. But if the goal is to actually allow all interested players to finish the game and the story, this solution makes perfect sense.

It is the exploration of ideas like these that make the whole book a worthy addition to the literature. Is the goal of the experience being designed to tell an engaging story, or to provide the reader mental and physical challenges within some themed framework? Can both elements ever coexist? Games that purport to tell stories have, to me, been mostly a failure to date. Yes, there might be a climactic series of challenges to overcome at the end with a certain dramatic tension, but my normal feeling at finishing such games is "whew, glad that's over, it was a ton of work to overcome all those starfighters/dinosaurs/orcs at that last system/island/dungeon." Or worse yet, the relief is often along the lines of, "thank the gods I don't have to do that repetitive task/walk those corridors yet again/delivery yet another frobitz to those people anymore." Compare this to reading a book with a wonderful ending, where there is no sense of work or boredom.

So, what is great about this book, for me, is that it challenges me to rethink many of the elements of storytelling and gameplaying and how these can work together. It brings these areas and their overlap into focus, questions current flawed attempts to reconcile the two, and, ultimately, makes you think about what entertainment itself is. Some ideas from this book have stuck with me; you owe it to yourself to read it if you have an interest in this field. It won't change your life, but it's likely to influence how you think about things.

Lots of people have been thinking recently about the holy grail of computer games, that is the melding of good quality stories with fun computer games. On the surface, this seems like it should be easy, get some good writers together with some game programmers and voila, great things should result. This excellent book shows why things are not nearly as simple as they might appear to be.

The book first starts out with a basic summary of story structure peppered with examples from common movies and familiar literature. While this is a review for many, it serves as an easy read for the game programming side of the audience. It also helps establish a language so that everything can be discussed in a common way.

The next section discusses all games, not just computer games and looks at some of the elements that makes these games engaging and entertaining. Also a review for many, but helpful for the author side of the audience.

Finally, the really important section of the book looks at why these areas come into conflict. One fairly basic idea, which is that authors advance a story through conflict in the characters and that if a person has control of a character, they might justifiably choose to avoid conflict puts the author and the gameplayer at odds with each other. Another example shows why the commonly held notion of branching narrative structure has yet to yield a compelling experience.

While many of these ideas seem obvious, it's clear that they are NOT obvious to many of the game designers out there who over and over again fall into the same traps that are described clearly in this book. The great part of this book is that it pulls together these ideas in one place, with a common language for discussion all in a clear, conversational style. While the book doesn't offer a silver bullet solution to the merging of narrative and interaction, it does show clearly where first, naive assumptions can lead to supposed solutions that simply don't work.

This book is for anyone who's interested in the principles of game design from a high level, and not just pushing bits to make the next, best looking, video game. It belongs on the bookshelf along with other great explorations in the field including Chris Crawford's The art of Interactive Design.

A cyberpunk book of the slightly later variety. Live tattoos, jokes, and others. How do you feel if your girlfriend only loves you for you tatts?

A bit of espionage, industrial and otherwise, computer virus smuggling, dodgy underworld, dodgy characters, and more abound.

Think sort of a Charlie Stross or Ken Macleod flavour for the general tone. Probably a 3.25 this one.

The author is excellently descriptive, I enjoyed many of the author's imaginative ideas (sentient tattoos, Hail A Lama taxis, etc.), and enjoyed his obvious love for the Bay Area (obvious echos of Philip K Dick's love for the same). However his ideas were possibly too fruitful often colliding with each other rather then meshing, leaving the story line in tatters.

The concept of the "Hail A Lama" taxi cabs were a stroke a brilliance that could be the basis for an entire novel. However in MIR it is only given a quickly discarded backstory and then used as impersonal plot continuation device. The character's backstories were often just as rashly introduced in brief flashbacks only to be basically ignored. Thus leaving the characters feeling as if they were only hollow pivot points for a runaway plot. By the end of the book I was reading fairly quickly and mainly only to get it over with -- not that the ending was really worth it anyway.

While I did not dislike the book. Beshers second novel seems to have lost some of the edge apparent in the first.

All the elements are there, a cyberpunk/buddist setting, a deadly virus that could destroy the world and a few attempting to fight against it. However after a good start the plot seems to meander and the frequent jumps from character to character and in and out of various sub plots that Besher makes can lead to confusion on the part of the reader. I am going to go back to it a second time and feel that it may then grow on me but at the moment I can only say that it is readable but nothing special.

I loved the book, but I think that Besher needs to work on the ending. It just sorta ends, there isn't much to it. All in all the book was excelent, and I would recomend it to anyone.

Epidermal programming is a cutting edge fetish. Sentient tatoos and the Mir 3.0 virus are loose in a world that exists both in consciousness and physical form -- and techno-pagan rituals can assist in moving both from body to body.

Original, intelligent, expansive and truly entertaining. The author is creating an epic story arc that is sure to become a classic. Highly recommended for those who can use a bit of altered reality!

The book that i recieved was not the correct book and I put in the isbn number so I think it would be good if you put a picture of all the books you are selling so people can see before they buy it. What am I going to do now with the wrong book?

Price is not reasonable to buy to a new comer to the computing inductry, even though book is very good.

I purchased this book (11th Ed. paperback) to prepare for my CLEP Info Sys and Comp Apps exam. I was able to ace my CLEP by relying primarily on this excellent book. This book provides a general but comprehensive coverage of the entire breadth of computer science and technology and is an excellent test preparation, not only for computer novices and newbies, but also for students with a strong IT background. It has something to offer everyone. It is written in an easily readable and enjoyable format with plenty of attractive graphics and images. The authors have worked hard to keep the material up-to-date and relevant. I have decided to keep this book even after taking my CLEP because I find it to be also a very handy and useful reference book. I understand there is a 12th Edition out there now. I would suggest buyers consider purchasing the 12th Edition. Overall an excellent purchase.

not a bad book however my lecturer has noticed several factual and historical mistakes about the subject matter which it simply shouldnt have done for a book used by many students.
But the fact that your never quite sure weather what your reading is fact or not is not what gets me. The truley annoying thing about this book is the American propaganda. The little bits that the authors have put in to "prepare" students for when they vote. for instance they say things like "terrorists now are researching ways to destroy one of most valuable personnal and commercial assets- the contents of our disks. They do this by seeking points of vunerability in PCs and servers and by planting destructive viruses......cyber terror is now part of the terrorists arsenal of evil."
what the hell? Did i just pick up a academic book or a copy of the Daily mail!

Are you baffled by computer jargon? Do you find `Help' facilities meaningless because you don't use the right words? Are you confused by the metaphors used on an interface? If yes, then this book will certainly help you with your design problems. The reader is guided through the maze of interface design by consideration of language. Whether English is your first language, or if you are a non-native speaker hampered by communication difficulties, the hostile vocabulary of computer-screen terminology will be clarified by enhanced meanings and understanding. If every designer of user interfaces read this book, the world would be a better place purely as a result of thinking about other people's awareness and perceptions. People strive to be `computer literate' - but are computers `people literate'? The author here strives to ensure that in the future this will be so. The text uses plenty of examples from differing interfaces as well as giving an historical perspective; thus the reader can see that whilst progress has been made, there is still some way to go in establishing universal user-friendly interfaces. Essential reading which supplies much food for thought concerning interface design.

Reading "Language and Communication" is like being a golfing amateur being taken round a course you're trying to master by a championship pro - one with a sense of humour, a great stock of anecdotes and an intimate knowledge of the course. Ms Kukulska-Hulme sets-out to describe "a range of language and communication concepts to ... professionals working in other fields" by "describing, explaining and questioning". She succeeds marvellously, inviting us to consider what real people do, think and say, both in the real world and when they use computer applications: she teases-out the problems they might have and then gives a linguistic perspective. In the process, she introduces us to precise and often subtle ideas, but avoids blinding us with linguistic jargon. A central theme of the book is that when a user is trying to master a new user interface s/he is effectively learning a new language - a process that is often complicated because the user interface gives new meanings to words the user already knows. A simple example of the consequences is that any index to the help system is acting as the boundary between the user's existing use of language and that of the application - so the index should be based on the language that the user might use to ask questions about the application, rather than just including the words used in the interface itself. The journey through the book is a stimulating one which leaves you with a deeper and wider general understanding of the issues, and with a very useful set of intellectual handles on the problems - and you can let yourself go with the flow, because each chapter ends with a very helpful bullet-point summary of what's in it. Along the way, the author makes many references to the work of other linguists, and the bibliography is a wonderful catalogue of further reading - as is another appendix on sources such as collections of English texts available on the Internet. These text banks let you to check whether the rest of the English-speaking world really does use words in the same way as you (think they) do! The final chapter is called "Making it Work" and is a grand collection of practical advice, from the philosophical to nitty-gritty detail - again all in bullet-point form, and an ideal set of guidelines in the making. "Language and Communication" is a fascinating read and a great resource to be kept to hand.

As a content strategist doing Web design everyday, I found this book to have a refreshing point of view, as well as an interesting and unique approach to the subject matter. The author uses specific examples to illustrate higher-level linguistic and, well, even philosophical principles. While the examples were generally taken from relatively "old" (in Web time) interfaces, it was these interfaces that shaped our expectations for what we see on the computer screen. And really, the examples aren't the point. The author makes an excellent case for the predominance of common language over technospeak, and in the process validifies the importance of linguistics in interface design. This book is a must-read for all user-centered Web designers.

From a software developer's perspective, Kukulska-Hulme's book is rather disappointing. The approach was very high-level and didn't introduce many concepts that aren't already well-known. The real-life examples were taken from obsolete software products. Reference was made to the pitfalls in developing software for the international market, but only a couple of examples were given, and those only from the French. Perhaps this book was intended for teachers, but there are better and more modern sources, including Nadine Kano's 'Developing International Software' from Microsoft Press.

Usually, I value the writing of scientists for the clarity, reason and sometimes poetry found. But this is just awful. It almost seems like one of those self-help books with BIG letters and about two paragraphs per page.

The idea is that we can create "mirror worlds", identical but virtual representations of any entity - social, geographical, testable - that we desire. At first this sounds exciting but as he explained it, I slowly got the idea that it was nothing more than (pardon the pun) "smoke and mirrors". I just could not understand the ultimate use of such a structure except perhaps for traffic control or future predictions of population trends or growth. Nice try but no cigar.

Mirror Worlds
Gelertner
3 stars

The book, first published in 1991 by Oxford University Press,
must be read in the context of its day to be fully appreciated.
At that time, in the pre-web world, there was a great deal of
discussion devoted to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the
Fifth Generation Project driven by the Japanese. If Gelertner
had limited his offering to only those topics this book could
be left in the pile of such books from that era without loss.
Luckily, Gelertner gave us more.

While there is much of the book relegated to the AI ideas of
that time, there are also insightful and practical observations
that have a more lasting appeal. For example, Gelertner delves
into the question "What is a program? What does 'software' mean?"
Such questions are explored in some detail and other observations
are made in the discussions. "Managing complexity must be
your goal... we can call it the pursuit of 'topsite'. Topsite--
the understanding of the big picture--is the essential goal of
every software builder. It's also the most precious intellectual
commodity known to man."

We've all heard talk about someone who "sees the big picture."
That, according to Gelertner, is "topsight": having perspective,
clarity, and a sense of proportion. Why is this important? If
we want to have machines (programs) help us see and understand
our world (in a "Mirror" of our world), we'll need to teach
these machines how to make sense of the information. Minimally,
they'll need to be able to sift through the volumes of data
and find that data which is "interesting." The very best programs
will be able to find those interesting things and present
them in a compelling way. All of this demands "topsight."

To drive this ideal, Gelertner and his colleagues created
"Linda" which serves as the basis for the
machinery of such a Mirror World system. The idea is simple:
create a Space where information (called a Tuple)
can be put, taken, or simply read or examined. Many programs
put information in the space. Other programs notice items
in the Space, take them, and perform some processing, and
put a different item back into the space in its stead.

This part of the book, the very practical nuts-and-bolts
part, is alive and well today and in active use. While
Gelertner's system Linda may not have achieved widespread
acceptance, the same idea in another form is quietly
thriving: JavaSpaces. The same notions described by
Gelertner to support his Mirror World now serves as the
heart of many commercial applications.

Gelertner has a lot to say. Yes, some of it now appears
dated and some of the ideas he touts have been
discredited. But, nobody said predicting the future was
easy business!

My recommendation is thus: forgive Gelertner the detours he
takes (that we all took) and find within the book all those
things which have inspired--and will continue to inspire.
There are ample enough thoughts within those pages to make
the time invested in a careful reading well worthwhile.

"Mirror Worlds" sketches, on a broad canvas, what we will be able to do with (virtually) infinite bandwidth and storage capacity. Gelernter's book provides key concepts and mental models for envisioning technological futures.

We're never quite prepared for the future when it arrives. Exponential technology curves yield thousand-fold gains in capacity and speed, but humans can't imagine thousand-fold improvements. One solution: remove the limits completely. For example, assume that infinite bandwidth and data storage capacity are available to everyone for free. What would this enable us to do? Explore the new applications -- the new ways of organizing work, communication, commerce, thought, and art -- that would become possible. Then work back from that vision of the future, to find the paths that will take us in that direction.

Example 1: Put video cameras everywhere, and record every moment. -- Remember, infinite and free storage and bandwidth! Why throw anything away? -- Use that real-time data to build a virtual model of your city - a mirror world. Then have your software agents roam through all those data/video streams and flag - or respond to - events that might impact your neighborhood or your decisions. The value is in the filtering!

Example 2: Any human with a PC and a net connection can become a television broadcaster. The TV broadcasting infrastructure becomes obsolete, just as the telephone companies' infrastructure does in the Stupid Network vision With millions of producers creating and broadcasting content streams into infospace -- and all prior broadcasts stored for viewing as well -- a highly selective "TV Guide" will be a key to survival in the post-literate society.

Higly recommended reading for visionaries, product planners and science fiction writers. END

Gelernter's treatment of the phenomenon of software development does clarify things considerably. We sometimes remember the author as one of the Unabomber's victims. If I remember right, he lost his hands to a mail bomb.

If you liked this book, please read "1939: The Lost World of the Fair." I enoyed the hell out of it; I'd love it if he'd consider writing more fiction.