Game Studies Books

Expanding on the work of Keirsey & Bates, Eve Delunas has not only managed to create a guide that offers highly effective methods of establishing a subject's psychological type with extraordinary clarity, but also provides a fantastic look into how differently each temperament reacts under stress. As if that weren't enough, Delunas then reviews viable treatment options before presenting eight case studies which allow the reader to put all of his/her newly learned skills to the test.

I must say, this book left me impressed. Delunas' discussion of the weaknesses of each personality and how they deal with excessive mental pressure results in a truly unique piece of work that is an invaluable source for anyone eager to discover typology.

With the knowledge I gained from this excellent book, I plan to follow this with the classic, "Personality Games Survivalists Play," by the Donner Party family.

As an Idealist it was EXTREMLY enlightening for me to read about the loved ones in my life and the "games" that we play with each other.

Eve Delunas does a good job at identifying and disecting the different games that each personality is likely to play, and gives ideas on how to stop the "game playing" that is going on within yourself and the loved ones around you.

Using her examples you can easily identify what games are being played and what you can do to take control and stop / counter them in an effective fashion.

Easy to read with little background knowlege needed, this book is a must for everyone - parent, spouse, sibling. I recomend it highly.

It alowed me to see the hidden agendas going on underneath the surface facade that we present to the world... A definite 5 stars!!!

Wow! A life-changing book for me, and I'd already read several books by Keirsey on personality types. In a nutshell, what happens when personalities go bad, and what you can DO about it!

Have you already read "How to Get Along with People You Can't Stand" and were left wanting? This book will put you inside the mind of that malicious backstabber in your life, that stone-cold robot (I once didn't speak to my backstabbing rommate for a month!), that constant complainer or shape-shifting masquerader you understand so poorly but are forced to come to terms with. If you have the courage to take simple action, you can truly change your life and relationships with the help of this book. My rating? 10 stars with gold clusters.

Dr. Delunas has practiced individual and family therapy in California for many years. The ideas contained in her book are rooted within an impressive lineage of psychotherapeutic theory, including: (1) the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), as explicated by her mentors, Dr. David Keirsey and Dr. Marilyn Bates; (2) Transactional Analysis (TA), the movement begun by Dr. Eric Berne, author of Games People Play, and carried on by Dr. Claude Steiner; (3) cognitive therapists in the school of thought of Alice Miller (Drama of the Gifted Child).

The concept of neurotic defense mechanisms rooted in childhood abuse and neglect seems to be one of the few areas of Freudianism that continues to wear well historically, remaining firmly perceived as a useful construct in virtually all sub-specialties of psychotherapy in the U.S. today (rape and general trauma, addictions, grief, anxiety, deviance, violence, identity, childhood emotional and learning disorders, marriage counseling, family systems, etc.). Thus, a book devoted to this topic couched in the combined language of Myers-Briggs (MB), Jung (via MB) and TA is bound to be an exciting find for a great many therapists.

Dr. Delunas offers a typology of unconscious "survival games" (neurotic defense mechanisms in action) based in the four MB types: Artisan (SP), Guardian (SJ), Rational (NT) and Idealist (NF). Each of these type-specific games shares distinct qualities: (1) They are destructive and potentially deadly if carried to extremes. (2) They are unconsciously chosen in hopes of improving serious life situations, but, instead, cause new problems worse than those they were supposed to fix. (3) They are based in feelings of worthlessness due to poor adjustment to life trauma, usually severe childhood trauma. (4) They invariably continue until the player is able to master the original traumatic event symbolically in a present relationship by responding this time around in a healthy, functional way (stop compulsively hurting himself or others in the same patterned way, in an unconscious, neurotic attempt to restore the painful past).

I believe the MB type most likely to be enthusiastic about Dr. Delunas's ideas is the INTJ, for these reasons: (1) Observing your clients carefully in order to assess where they fit into MB allows you get to sit back quietly and analyze in a clear, systematic manner. (2) Identifying whether your clients are involved in any of the four survival games, how intensely they apply them and how firmly they are entrenched in them, allows further orderly armchair analysis. (3) Designing interventions, such as guided visualizations, for ending your clients' destructive games allows for additional analysis, with a fun fillip of N creativity thrown in. (4) Approaching your clients (in a standard cognitive-therapy manner) in the role of instructor/parent by assigning "homework" at the end of each session involves actually talking to the client, but it is still pretty safe for the introverted NT, because it allows you to maintain a position of superior, scientific detachment.

As an INTJ/INFJ myself, I was, not surprisingly, initially quite attracted to the validation I found in Dr. Delunas's work. I always experience a strong hunger within my INT self to learn as much as possible about my clients (often, unless the client is also an N, far more hunger than the client will ever feel him/herself). So I was understandably comforted at being reassured that a drive for incessant information gathering on the part of a therapist is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, I find it difficult, based on professional and personal experience, to agree with why Dr. Delunas thinks it is so great: (1) While claiming to dislike the vast majority of Freud's ideas, most cognitive therapists continue wasting enormous amounts of valuable (and very expensive) therapy time digging around in their clients' pasts looking for childhood miseries to explain present neurotic behavior--an approach Dr. Delunas directly and indirectly encourages. I have come to agree with opposing thinkers such as William Glasser, who states that the only practical reason for digging around in a client's past is in order to come up with success stories of when clients managed, without harming themselves or others, to get their basic human needs met. (2) The approach recommended in this book is paternalistic, and, therefore, inevitably, even in cases where the client is a child, patronizing. This is so, because the therapist is doing for clients what they desperately need to learn how to do for themselves: become aware of their actions, think objectively about them, and make better choices for future actions. Unfortunately, when the therapist is the one doing all the thinking and choice-making, as Dr. Delunas recommends, the client is reduced to a docile, obedient child.

Having said all that, you might well ask, why am I rating Dr. Delunas with 4 stars when I disagree with her this much? Because her insights on the defense mechanisms of the four basic MB types are brilliant. I rate this portion of the book at 5 stars. However, her paternalistic therapy techniques rate, in my view, only 2 stars. I averaged these two scores to get 3.5, and bumped it to 4 because her thinking on survival games is extremely well written, fascinating and innovative.

This was on a list of suggested reading from a class I attended with Second City. I bought it hoping to use some of the ideas for my middle schoolers. There are many ideas in the book for younger kids, like songs. There are some good ideas that can be adapted into a middle school room.

As a teacher of drama to many low-income, urban, and "difficult" adolescents, this is the book that I find most useful, alive, and inspiring! Simply wonderful for anyone trying to bring the best out of young actors!

I teach sixth grade math, and have a group of students for an exploratory class. We talk about current events, esteem building, community building, fun non-academic skills with an emphasis on social awareness. I have been using this book for most of the year so far, and my students look forward to it,a nd ask for it. I don't have a background in theater, but this book has several premade units that have a focus on different skills. The one I am just completing focuses on community building for the group and concentration and focus for the individual. I find it easy to use, and I like the skills that it is building and reinforcing in my students. If you don't want to do a whole unit, the individual exercises and warm-ups can be set up and completed in 5-10 minutes. Great,and quick!
I strongly recommend this for any classroom!

EXCELLENT!! Inspiring. Well Organized. So many great ideas for the new or seasoned acting teacher.

I teach drama/theater in a low income public school. I bought the book because my school has very few resources and I thought this might be useful. As it turned out the book was hardly used during my first year teaching. My biggest problem with this book is that it is not very user friendly for a teacher who just wants to add some fun to a class but not a complex game. In other words the book needs to make the games simpler so the kids can pick them up faster and have more fun. This might not be problem for teachers in high school as your students might be more mature and able to handle more complex games. But for middle school teachers tread lightly. Also if you have a bunch of behavior problems in your class then forgot about it. In my experience I found the worse the behavior the better they were at spoiling fun classroom games. Be warned.

After nearly fifteen years of being away from the classroom, I was a bit nervous about teaching drama again. In searching for a resource that would get me back in the swing of things, I debated between this book and the classic Viola Spolin books. I finally decided on this one, and I couldn't be happier! The lessons in this book are easy to follow, easy to prepare (there's not much to preparation at all!), and, best of all, fun for the kids in class! The lessons are also easily adaptable to different circumstances, such as short class periods, environmental concerns (like needing a quieter activity), or needing a quick activity to warm the kids up. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in integrating drama into a classroom, or as a stand-alone resource in a full-fledged drama curriculum.

Maria Novelly's book was one of the first I purchased as a new drama teacher, and I'm very grateful to have had such an excellent resource so early on. Most of the the theater game compendiums I've read before or since have been hit-or-miss; I'd get use out of some suggested activities, but the others lacked depth or educational merit. Not so with Novelly's book--I've used every activity outlined in her book, and I continue to use them with great results. Children love these exercises--especially "Walking Through," "Imaginative Journeys," and pretty much everything in the Improv chapter--and importantly, they learn a lot about what it means to be a performer through their engagement with them. Highly recommended!

This book is not based on sound acting principles. It directs teachers to ask students to play emotions rather than objectives, thus breaking one of the cardinal rules of acting. Once I saw this, I refused to read on and immediately returned the book. It literally made me physically ill to read this book.

I love this book. I use something from it at least once a week in my classroom. It's wonderful for teaching the basics. Pantomime, expression, scene building, creative thinking... As other reviews state, it doesn't get into playing objectives, but you can cover that in other lessons and activities. That's simply not the scope of this book and that's fine by me. The activities are especially good for sixth graders. Seventh and Eighth, you'll have to play it by ear depending on your group. Most of mine are "too cool" for some of the activities, but a lot of the games are pretty adaptable for that age group if you get creative.

I found this book very easy to follow and the ideas are great for both regular classroom teaching and one off drama workshops. The excersises are even split into catagories depending on their topic and energy/noise level.

I found this book to be terrible for young children! There are a lot of big words that my daughter did not understand. All she learned from the story was it is ok to go into a burning house to save someone you love. And it was ok because the blanket was magic. What kind of lesson is that?! I have read the book,and I think it should be for third,forth and fifth graders. I am very upset that this was read at school to my five year old and she came home talking about magic blankets being ok to hide under when there is a fire. And that is what she taught my three year old son! God forbid-if there is a fire-will he remember me saying " crawl below the smoke and get out fast " or is he going to remember his sister(the light of his life) saying " I heard at school that some blankets are magic and will keep you safe in a fire!" I pray I never have to find out whose words he remembers! I do not recommend this book for kids under 8.

A positve children's story for all nationalities but especially for African Americans!

I am a third grade student.

I really enjoyed this story. Although, I didn't like it when the snowman melted. The way they talked was funny to me and I liked that. I really liked the Kente cloth.

I think everyone would really enjoy this story.

This book is one that I knew I had to buy immediately. The illustrations are beautiful, and it is a story that will help children who are dealing with differences in life they feel are due to the color of their skin. It encourages pride in ethnicity.

Christmas is a time filled with traditions mostly associated with European values. Many families in this country come from different cultures and do not feel that they fit or are comfortable with the traditional celebrations. This book offers a peak into one Black families experience during the holiday times. Within the story are samples of African values of character and bravery. There is a warmth within the characters as well as exciting action filled ending. Enjoy!

I have been in this industry for almost 20 years, and in my position always on the lookout for the scammer. However, you don't find many people who rival Ralph Taylor's knowledge in this field. His apprehension and understanding of the gaming industry enabled him to always be two steps ahead of the scammer.Every day there are more crimes and scams sucessufully attempted in the casino's. It's too bad Ralph retired we don't have enough people with his expertise. He was truly the sentinel of Crimes and Scams in the Casino Industry.

I like to watch CSI and Law & Order on TV. While I was reading about how each crime occurred I learned from begining to end how actual thefts were committed and the process used to catch the bad guys which was just like episodes from my favorite TV shows.
I highly recommend to anyone that ever wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes at casinos.

I have worked in the gaming industry for over 10 years ,but until I read this book I was completely in the dark about the complex goings on everyday in my workplace. I now think of my casino as a small town.I have a new respect for the security folk whom I once though were just there to expel an unruly drunk.I realize a casino provides a criminal mind a new playground with visitors from all over the world with money to spend and the only thing on the tourist mind is having a good time and therefore have their guard down.The mere fact that the average Joe sees none of the this is a true attribute to the men and women who provide us protection as we enjoy our gaming experiance.This book opened my eyes and I learned something on every page.Great work Ralph Taylor

On the day I received the book, I started reading it and had to stay up and finish it that night. It keep my interest and left me wanting to know more. I found myself trying to guess about the outcome of each situation. You don't realize how many "insiders" try to cheat and scam the casinos. Many people think that it is the so called "customer" doing the cheating. Excellent, easy reading. I highly recommend.

I image most people who buy this book will do so because they are interested in sophistocated crimes that rob the casinos of huge amounts on cash. This book is written by a security officer who details all the petty crime he pbserved while working at the casino, like employees selling restaurant supplies out the back on the sly. Not very interesting...

This is the best textbook I have found for my introduction to building codes course. The study guide makes it an indispensable tool for teaching the basics and the complexities of modern building codes.

Good for interior design students- must have this book to understand how to comply with todays' design laws.

I am a registered architect, and purchased this book for the purpose of studying for the NCIDQ interior design licensing exam. I had no idea how clearly, simply, and comprehensively it would cover the IBC code (and some others). I'm sure it will be an asset for my NCIDQ preparation, but even more so, I have been able to reference it for my architecture practice.

GREAT BOOK!

Could studying building codes actually be fun? Much to my surprise, when you combine this book with the companion study guide workbook it is. The author presents the information on the codes clearly and in logical order. I am studying for my NCIDQ exam and was really nervous about the "codes questions" until I got this book.

I own each of the 3 editions of this book, and have found the information to be a well source of sound, practical advise concerning the application of codes as they relate to interior projects. I am an Interior Designer and I refer to my copy of Codes Guidebook for Interiors regularly for projects I am involved in. This book and the companion study guide are part of the recommended resources for studying and preparing for the NCIDQ examination. I believe this book should be a part of every commercial practitioners library, whether they be an architect or interior designer.

Great practices - I just wish that the pages were "erasable" so I could have my other children practice too, without 'tracing' over what was already done.

This book is really great! There are a lot of activities to do as well as practice worksheets. I'd recommend it.

As a second grade teacher I'm always looking for fun ways to teach my students. This book is a terrific resource for teaching cursive. The pages are easy for the children to complete and give them a solid base for learning to write in cursive.

I am using this with a Third Grade class. They love the little extras as well as the cursive writing practice.

My 3 star rating is not of the book mentioned, it is for what the book teaches. This style of handwriting is archaic. If you're learning it for the sake of your own entertainment, please ignore this review. If you're planning on learning or teaching handwriting for practical (daily) use, you (or your child) will be much better served by learning some form of cursive italic writing instead. Something along the lines of, "Write Now: The Complete Program For Better Handwriting", By Getty and Dubay or similar would be a good choice.

P.S. I would have liked making a comment without rating the item. I thought about giving it one start, but that seemed inconsiderate to the author (directing potential buyers to another product may not be considerate either, but I wanted to be clear that I'm not saying this book is "bad" -- only that better subject matter is available).

This book provides an indepth look at all aspects of falconry. The section on preparing to recieve a bird was very helpful and detailed. I have never read a book which has provided such a detailed description of all common birds used in the sport. I recommend that everyone who is beginning in this sport, or is considering taking it up should read this book. The only problem about this book is that it talks too much about the law in England, which is not relevant to us in North America.

This is a great book for anyone interested in falconry! EmmaFord describes everything in detail and she guided me through myapprenticeship with ease. However, it also contains sound advice for the experienced falconer.

She discusses the most common hawks used in the sport and guides one through the manning and training of the three main groups: Shortwings, Broadwings and Longwings. At the end of the part dealing with the training of the group, she explains hunting with them in detail.

There is a complete chapter on equipment and will help the apprentice to choose the right equipment, with the hawk's safety in mind .

For those unfamiliar with falconry terms, there is a nice glossary explaining them in detail.

I would advise anyone interested in hunting with birds of prey to get this great book by one of the leaders in the field! END

As a somewhat informed novice, I found this book very interesting and informative. It has good descriptions of the birds used in falconry as well as thorough beginning training techniques. However, the buyer should know this book was written for falconry in the UK. Topics such as governing laws, terrain terms and types of quarry are often "foreign" to ours in the U.S.

I found "Falconry: Art and Practice" very interesting and fascinating. The author included personal details, sometimes humorous, describing the beauty of the art, not just the instructions and facts, helpful as they were. The book was also easy and enjoyable to read.

This book was great!! It had so much information I had to read it 3 times to get it all. It has so much info like how to make your own equipment,how to train your bird, tells all the equipment you need to have, and so much more.

The book is very good except that most of the book is from a UK point of view. The book has some good adresses in the back for all of your falconry needs. If you are a novice a seasoned falconer,or just someone interested in Birds of Prey you should get this book.

I teach middle school language arts (6th-8th) and was looking for the next step in literature circles that would bring my students past their dependence on role sheets. This book is a must have for any classroom teacher that wants to focus more on the quality of discussion and interaction during literature circles. My students are more aware of what constitutes a good discussion and how to ask open-ended questions that add to the talk and draws out more from their peers. I highly recommend this resource!

This is a teacher-friendly book, as well as being based in recent research. The text is easy to read with useful appendices and bibliography.

This is a great book for those who are beginning to experiment with literature circles in the classroom. From start to finish this book gives ideal situations, practices and real examples. It also recognizes that literature circles often have many problems and frustrations and walks the reader through scenarios step by step. There are mini strategy lessons as well as reproducibles that are very helpful. I love this book and have already recommended it to many of my colleagues.

This book is good but Harvey Daniels book provides a better explaination. This is a great second resource.

This book has good information and ideas. Howevever they promote a "discussion prompts" approach, rather than a "role sheets" approach. So if you're looking for help in teaching students about the Connector, Literary Luminary, Word Wizard and so on, this book is not it. However if the "roles" are not working for you, maybe this book would give you the different approach you need.

I really enjoy this book. I say that in the present tense because this is not a book you sit and read cover to cover. You select parts as selecting a piece of chocolate from a box of candy, read it, savor it, and save the rest for later. It offers wonderful artist profiles and then these featured artists offer a gallery of their favorite artists' works. It is biographical, inspirational, and instructional at an advanced level.

I especially enjoyed the work of Sergei Isupov and Michael Sherrill, but none of the other artists were less than spectacular including the gallery of complementary work. I'm especially appreciative of the artists for sharing their inovative techniques with us. Thanks to the Penland School, also, for bringing their art to our attention.

THE PENLAND BOOK OF CERAMICS is certainly large and colorful. The Penland School of Crafts, located in the mountains of North Carolina, seems large enough to be considered a community. "Today the school encompasses 43 buildings located on 400 acres of land. Each year approximately 1,200 people come to Penland for instruction and another 12,000 pass through as visitors." (p. 205). I expected to find more pictures in the book of the interesting three-dimensional conglomeration on the cover, which is probably not a bunch of bananas, but maybe the artist thought it was. The colors are similar to the "Yellowstone Rhododendron, 2001" and "Mountain Magnolia, 2001" shown on page 53. Even if it is supposed to be a bunch of bananas, that would not make it the most surreal thing in this book.

I have had difficulty thinking about objects that appear to be weird in three dimensions, so the complexity of many of the pieces seems miraculous to me, but the step-by-step explanations of the process of constructing a few items demonstrate the possibilities of getting there bit by bit. The first artist featured in the book, Clara "Kitty" Couch, produces terra cotta vessels that open out at the top with an edge so thin, looking so flimsy, that the first picture in the hands on series, "Rolling out the slab" (p. 17), showing the clay under a rolling pin, ought to produce an immense leap in the understanding of how the material is originally flattened before it is formed. There are also pictures of Joe Bova "Rolling out a 12-pound (5.4 kg) slab to a thickness of at least 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) on a piece of plywood" (p. 152) and Mary Barringer "applying texture with a tectured roller" (p.198). A description of Kitty Couch's work is called "Contemplative Coilings" (p. 12), but she does not try to make it all from one long rope. She describes adding flat coils, one at a time, "When the base has become firm so that it can support itself." (p. 13). More complicated layers of clay were used to produce Becky Gray's "Autumn Leaf Bowl" shown on page 24.

The works which I found most imaginative were by Sergei Isupov on pages 168 to 185. By painting faces at odd places, such as under the armpits of a figure called "To Cast a Spell" (pp. 168, 176 - 185 and back cover), the spooky line of Rilke's poem, "Archaic Torso of Apollo," `there is no spot that does not see you' (Translated by Walter Kaufmann in 20 German Poets, pp. 220-223) seems aptly illustrated.

There are some specialized techniques and equipment in this book that I will not try to describe. Some combinations are so much like architecture that it is not surprising to see a box that actually looks like a building, Angelica Pozo's "White Oak Temple Box, 1997. 17 3/4 x 10 3/4 x 16 inches (46.6 x 27.3 x 40.6 cm). Cut, carved, extruded, press-molded, and hand-formed mosaic tile from terra cotta; terra sigillata; glaze cone 04; glass mosaic. Photo by artist." (p. 27).

The pictures were great, also I liked the instructional part. The example of how to tell if the glaze is deflocuulated by putting your hands in and watch how it flows was so visual, I have used it every time I defluculated a glaze.
It also shwed a different way to have your way with the clay, like those things that look like bananaas, how do you do that with clay, the book explained it in enough detail for your to copy,in your own style. I am very pleased with this book.

The title of the book leads one to expect to receive the technical information needed to try any of the techniques demonstrated. The book does not always live up to this promise. For example, the multilayered slip technique presented by Mary Barringer demonstrates the use of slips before and after bisquing. The most critical factor here would be the composition of the slip to accommodate the shrinkage of the bisque. Granted, there are many slip recipes out there, but not all will work here. I don't need to see pictures of her brushing the slip on. That is the stuff of beginner books (if even) not "Master classes". The physical techniqes of building , modelling and shaping are well illustrated, and so the book does have its value. Michael Sherril's use of extruded clay to make his fantastic sculptures was eyeopening, and well demonstrated.