How far are you willing to go to protect your interests? For one Japanese vending-machine enthusiast, the answer is “to the grave.” Crushed by his favorite contraption, his life as a fanboy of dispensed goods may be over, but his close connection to vending machines can only grow—when he’s reborn as one in a fantasy world! Is a land of monsters and magic ready for this modern marvel of convenience?! INSERT COINS FOR ADVENTURE
After dying in a traffic accident, I find myself standing near an unfamiliar lake. My body won't move, I can't hear my voice, and when I try to shout in confusion, words that I never expected come out! "Get one free with a winner." I-it seems I've turned into a vending machine...! I can only do what actual vending machines can. It's impossible to move by myself, and there's no way for me to have any meaningful conversation-how am I going to survive some fantasy world's dungeon like this?!
I'm gonna survive-just watch me! I was your average, everyday high school girl, but now I've been reborn in a magical world...as a spider?! Wait-this isn't how these stories are supposed to go! Can I get a do-over? ...No? But how am I supposed to survive in this big, scary dungeon as one of the weakest monsters? It's "every spider for herself " in here! I gotta figure out the rules to this QUICK, or I'll be kissing my short second life good-bye...
Maid: The Role-Playing Game is a comedic take on a uniquely Japanese cultural icon: The fetishized modern maid. Injecting the concept of Maid with 50ccs of anime and comedy, the players take on the roles of maids, serving the master (played by the GM). Sheets are left unfolded and mantelpieces undusted when giant robots crash through the mansion, ninjas attack and kidnap the young master, and a demonic pit to Hell opens up in the pantry... and all before teatime! Play in the modern comedy setting, or mix it up with 9 additional settings including Victorian era, old Edo period, fantasy and post-apocalypse; and 6 genres including romance, horror, and action. Due to the rules system and random events that form the backbone of the Maid RPG, the game practically runs itself: Go from opening the book to playing a game with friends within just minutes! Three game styles in one: The traditional scenario-type; the random event-driven type; and the "favor race," a race to the master's heart! Make characters and start playing the game within minutes of opening the book. Everything about the game gears it for Fast Play, Now. Optional character types including player-character masters and butlers, and optional rules for seduction and romantic tragedy. 11 complete adventure scenarios. 3 complete "replays," actual play scenarios in screenplay format. Great for learning the feel of the game. The first ever Japanese tabletop role-playing game to be released in English! ...which, when you think about it, totally makes sense in a weird sort of way. Hundreds of optional items, costumes, genre and setting events, all presented in a way to easily bring them into the game! Combines the original Japanese core book and two supplements into one huge, complete edition of the game in English. A $75 value!
I used to be a normal high school girl but in the blink of an eye, I woke up in a place I've never seen before and-and I was reborn as a spider?! How could something that's nothing more than a tiny spider (that's me) possibly survive in literally the worst dungeon ever? Are there no rules? There should be some rules! Who the hell is responsible for this? SHOW YOUR FACE!
Reviews of over 300 graphic adventure games, focusing on games from prominent publishers such as LucasArts, Sierra On-Line, and Legend Entertainment but covering games from independent developers as well. Reviews primarily cover games published 1984-2000. Interviews with game creators/developers Al Lowe, Corey Cole, Bob Bates, and Josh Mandel are included.
Since its inception as an art form, anime has engaged with themes, symbols and narrative strategies drawn from the realm of magic. In recent years, the medium has increasingly turned to magic specifically as a metaphor for a wide range of cultural, philosophical and psychological concerns. This book first examines a range of Eastern and Western approaches to magic in anime, addressing magical thinking as an overarching concept which unites numerous titles despite their generic and tonal diversity. It then explores the collusion of anime and magic with reference to specific topics. A close study of cardinal titles is complemented by allusions to ancillary productions in order to situate the medium's fascination with magic within an appropriately broad historical context.
As for film and literature, the horror genre has been very popular in the video game. The World of Scary Video Games provides a comprehensive overview of the videoludic horror, dealing with the games labelled as “survival horror” as well as the mainstream and independent works associated with the genre. It examines the ways in which video games have elicited horror, terror and fear since Haunted House (1981). Bernard Perron combines an historical account with a theoretical approach in order to offer a broad history of the genre, outline its formal singularities and explore its principal issues. It studies the most important games and game series, from Haunted House (1981) to Alone in the Dark (1992- ), Resident Evil (1996-present), Silent Hill (1999-present), Fatal Frame (2001-present), Dead Space (2008-2013), Amnesia: the Dark Descent (2010), and The Evil Within (2014). Accessibly written, The World of Scary Video Games helps the reader to trace the history of an important genre of the video game.
The title story of this collection — a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s model” — was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while “Probiscus” was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story.
Video games have been a central feature of the cultural landscape for over twenty years and now rival older media like movies, television, and music in popularity and cultural influence. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to understand the video game as an independent medium. Most such efforts focus on the earliest generation of text-based adventures (Zork, for example) and have little to say about such visually and conceptually sophisticated games as Final Fantasy X, Shenmue, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and The Sims, in which players inhabit elaborately detailed worlds and manipulate digital avatars with a vast—and in some cases, almost unlimited—array of actions and choices. In Gaming, Alexander Galloway instead considers the video game as a distinct cultural form that demands a new and unique interpretive framework. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, particularly critical theory and media studies, he analyzes video games as something to be played rather than as texts to be read, and traces in five concise chapters how the “algorithmic culture” created by video games intersects with theories of visuality, realism, allegory, and the avant-garde. If photographs are images and films are moving images, then, Galloway asserts, video games are best defined as actions. Using examples from more than fifty video games, Galloway constructs a classification system of action in video games, incorporating standard elements of gameplay as well as software crashes, network lags, and the use of cheats and game hacks. In subsequent chapters, he explores the overlap between the conventions of film and video games, the political and cultural implications of gaming practices, the visual environment of video games, and the status of games as an emerging cultural form. Together, these essays offer a new conception of gaming and, more broadly, of electronic culture as a whole, one that celebrates and does not lament the qualities of the digital age. Alexander R. Galloway is assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University and author of Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization.
