War Play


Book Description

An expert on military innovation reveals how video games are revolutionizing warfare from the battlefield to the highest echelons of the Pentagon.




Playing War


Book Description

Explores the culture that made military shooter video games popular, and key in understanding the War on Terror No video game genre has been more popular or more lucrative in recent years than the “military shooter.” Franchises such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and those bearing Tom Clancy’s name turn over billions of dollars annually by promising to immerse players in historic and near-future battles, converting the reality of contemporary conflicts into playable, experiences. In the aftermath of 9/11, these games transformed a national crisis into fantastic and profitable adventures, where seemingly powerless spectators became solutions to these virtual Wars on Terror. Playing War provides a cultural framework for understanding the popularity of military-themed video games and their significance in the ongoing War on Terror. Matthew Payne examines post-9/11 shooter-style game design as well as gaming strategies to expose how these practices perpetuate and challenge reigning political beliefs about America’s military prowess and combat policies. Far from offering simplistic escapist pleasures, these post-9/11 shooters draw on a range of nationalist mythologies, positioning the player as the virtual hero at every level. Through close readings of key games, analyses of marketing materials, and participant observations of the war gaming community, Playing War examines an industry mobilizing anxieties about terrorism and invasion to craft immersive titles that transform international strife into interactive fun.




Playing War


Book Description

Skipping Stones Honor Award One summer day, Luke and his friends decide to play their favorite game of war, using sticks for guns and pine cones for bombs. But Sameer, who is new to their neighborhood, doesn’t want to join in. When the kids learn that Sameer lost his family in a real war, they realize that war is not a game. The gracefulness of their response and the power of friendship are the real stories here.




The War Play Dilemma


Book Description

As violence in the media and media-linked toys increases, parents and teachers are also seeing an increase in children's war play. The authors have revised this popular text to provide more practical guidance for working with children to promote creative play, and for positively influencing the lessons about violence children are learning. Using a developmental and sociopolitical viewpoint, the authors examine five possible strategies for resolving the war play dilemma and show which best satisfy both points of view: banning war play; taking a laissez-faire approach; allowing war play with specified limits; actively facilitating war play; and limiting war play while providing alternative ways to work on the issues. New for the Second Edition are: more anecdotal material about adults'' and children's experiences with war play, including examples from both home and school settings; greater emphasis on the impact of media and commercialization on children's war play, including recent trends in media, programming, marketing, and war toys; expanded discussion about the importance of the distinction between imitative and creative war play; and summary boxes of key points directed at teachers or parents. * New information about violent video games, media cross feeding, and gender development and sex-role stereotyping.




EBOOK: War, Conflict and Play


Book Description

"This informative and compassionate book challenges the negative picture of refugees and asylum-seekers portrayed in the media. Tina Hyder shows that despite the trauma that young children go through, only a small percentage need specialist help. For the majority their healing can be promoted through play, particularly in culturallyappropriate and anti-discriminatory settings. I strongly recommend this book to all practitioners working in today's early years settings." Babette Brown, author of Combatting Discrimination: Persona Dollsin Action and Unlearning Discrimination in the Early Years This book is about the experiences of young refugee children and asylum seekers and their families in the UK. It describes how war and conflict can interrupt the development of young children as relationships and communities are destroyed and looks at how play can help to restore these children's lost childhoods. Tina Hyder highlights the importance of early years and preschool provision as a healing and restorative experience for young children and their families. She sets work with refugee children into the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and helps readers to see beyond alarmist headlines and stereotypes presented in newspapers. The book provides: Useful summaries of research on child development, theories of play, and the impact of conflict on young children Practical examples of play-based activities to help young children A framework for early years practitioners to support refugee children and their families. War, Conflict and Play is essential reading for practitioners in early childhood settings and students on early childhood courses.




Playing War


Book Description

Between the First and Second World Wars, the U.S. Navy used the experience it had gained in battle to prepare for future wars through simulated conflicts, or war games, at the Naval War College. In Playing War John M. Lillard analyzes individual war games in detail, showing how players tested new tactics and doctrines, experimented with advanced technology, and transformed their approaches through these war games, learning lessons that would prepare them to make critical decisions in the years to come. Recent histories of the interwar period explore how the U.S. Navy digested the impact of World War I and prepared itself for World War II. However, most of these works overlook or dismiss the transformational quality of the War College war games and the central role they played in preparing the navy for war. To address that gap, Playing War details how the interwar navy projected itself into the future through simulated conflicts. Playing War recasts the reputation of the interwar War College as an agent of preparation and innovation and the war games as the instruments of that agency.




War Game


Book Description

A special lavishly illustrated new edition of Michael Foreman's classic story. It's 1914 when everything changes for a group of boys growing up and playing football in the Suffolk countryside. Far away, in a place called Sarajevo, an Archduke has been killed and a web of global events results in a call for all British men to do their duty 'for King and Country' and join the army to fight the germans overseas. The boys sign up for what sounds like an adventure and a chance to see the world. After basic training the boys sail to France where they find themselves fighting on the front line. Living in the trenches in constant fear for their lives is nothing like they expected and only a bombed-out wasteland, no-man's-land, separates their trenches from those of their German enemies. Then, on Christmas Day, something remarkable happens as the German and British armies stop fighting and meet in the middle of no-man's-land. The enemies talk, play football and become friends. But the war isn't over, the two sides resume fighting and the group of Suffolk lads are ordered to charge across no-man's-land... From the author of War Boy, After the War Was Over, Farm Boy and Billy the Kid and the illustrator of Platinum Jubilee picture book There Once Is a Queen.




Deep Violence


Book Description

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the First World War, and with it comes a deluge of books, documentaries, feature films and radio programs. We will hear a great deal about the horror of the battlefield. Bourke acknowledges wider truths: war is unending and violence is deeply entrenched in our society. But it doesn't have to be this way. This book equips readers with an understanding of the history, culture and politics of warfare in order to interrogate and resist an increasingly violent world. Wounding the World investigates the ways that violence and war have become internalized in contemporary human consciousness in everything from the way we speak, to the way our children play with one another, to the way that we ascribe social characteristics to our guns and other weapons. With a remarkable depth of insight, Bourke argues for a radical overhaul of our collective stance towards militarism from one that simply aims to reduce violence against people to one that would eradicate all violence. Her message is judicious and vital: knowledge about weapons and the violence they bring has simply become too important to cast aside or leave to the experts.




War Plays


Book Description

WAR PLAYS by Christine Evans collects for the first time three of this US-based, UK-Australian playwright's remarkable plays about war and aftermath: Trojan Barbie, Mothergun and Slow Falling Bird. With an introduction by esteemed filmmaker Peter Davis, this collection is a terrific introduction to Evans' astute theatrical voice.




Playing with Fire


Book Description

A volatile nation at the heart of major cultural, political, and religious conflicts in the world today, Pakistan commands our attention. Yet more than six decades after the country’s founding as a Muslim democracy, it continues to struggle over its basic identity, alliances, and direction. In Playing with Fire, acclaimed journalist Pamela Constable peels back layers of contradiction and confusion to reveal the true face of modern Pakistan. In this richly reported and movingly written chronicle, Constable takes us on a panoramic tour of contemporary Pakistan, exploring the fears and frustrations, dreams and beliefs, that animate the lives of ordinary citizens in this nuclear-armed nation of 170 million. From the opulent, insular salons of the elite to the brick quarries where soot-covered workers sell their kidneys to get out of debt, this is a haunting portrait of a society riven by inequality and corruption, and increasingly divided by competing versions of Islam. Beneath the façade of democracy in Pakistan, Constable reveals the formidable hold of its business, bureaucratic, and military elites—including the country’s powerful spy agency, the ISI. This is a society where the majority of the population feels powerless, and radical Islamist groups stoke popular resentment to recruit shock troops for global jihad. Writing with an uncommon ear for the nuances of this conflicted culture, Constable explores the extent to which faith permeates every level of Pakistani society—and the ambivalence many Muslims feel about the role it should play in the life of the nation. Both an empathic and alarming look inside one of the world’s most violent and vexing countries, Playing with Fire is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand modern Pakistan and its momentous role on today’s global stage.