Social Games

Bacca has it all. The most celebrated (and furry) star in the Overworld, he's the person others look to for help building their dungeons, mazes, and castles. He has a girlfriend, LadyBacc, and his most prized possession of all - a diamond ax called Betty. One day Bacca is approached by a mysterious dragon...made entirely of diamonds! The dragon is from a new biome - a secret land few have ever seen - where a special object has been stolen.

With Ravenskill hosting this year's games, all eyes are on Seven Salazar, Valley Pepperhorn and Thorn Laroux: the most famous Spares in the Twelve Towns. Thorn is ready to compete as a fashion champion, but when a hex is used to turn her fellow champions to stone, suspicion lands on the Witchlings. As the Witchlings attempt to unravel the mystery of the stonifications, future Uncle Seven is harboring a dangerous secret: While she's supposed to be able to communicate with animals, the voices she hears most clearly belong to monstruos, and one spine-chilling voice is the loudest of all.

In Pimpology, star of the documentaries Pimps Up, Ho's Down and American Pimp and Annual Players Ball Mack of the Year winner Ken Ivy pulls a square's coat on the unwritten rules that took him from the ghetto streets to the executive suites. Ken's lessons will serve any person in any interaction. Whether at work, in relationships, or among friends, somebody's got to be on top. To be the one with the upper hand, you've got to have good game, and good game starts with knowing the rules.

If you are stuck in someone's control or don't want to be, you must know this favorite mind game of great manipulators. It is so powerful that most people won't be able to detect it even for many years of being enslaved. Why? Gaslighting is a very common method of manipulation that when intentionally or even unintentionally used, you'll be so influenced emotionally that you cannot think for yourself or for your own good. Sound nasty? It is. But you'll never know when you're participating as the inflictor or the prey until you explore this book.

Thirteen-year-old Teddy Youngblood is in a coma fighting for his life after an unspecified football injury at training camp. His family and friends flock to his bedside to support his recovery - and to discuss the events leading up to the tragic accident. Was this an inevitable result of playing a violent sport, or was something more sinister happening on the field that day?

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” With this startlingly bizarre sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young traveling salesman who, transformed overnight into a giant, beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Rather than being surprised at the transformation, the members of his family despise it as an impending burden upon themselves.

Industry expert Alex Aniel spent two years interviewing key former members of Capcom staff, allowing him to tell the inside story of how Resident Evil was envisioned as early as the late 1980s, how its unexpected and unprecedented success saved the company from financial trouble, how the series struggled at the turn of the century, and, eventually, how a new generation of creators was born after the release of Resident Evil 4.

Today, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest between democracy and Islamist fanaticism. That war is real, but it sits atop an older struggle between Kabul and the countryside, between order and chaos, between a modernist impulse to join the world and the pull of an older Afghanistan - a tribal universe of village republics permeated by Islam. Now, Tamim Ansary draws on his Afghan background, Muslim roots, and Western and Afghan sources to explain history from the inside out and to illuminate the long, internal struggle that the outside world has never fully understood.

In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War.

In 2018, the gaming industry made over 100 billion dollars worldwide. Professional gamers, designers, programmers, and writers all received some of that money. Learn about the different jobs in video games, and maybe someday you'll get paid to game.

A massive zombies-versus-skeletons war has broken out in Minecraft, threatening to engulf and destroy the entire Overworld, and there's only one furry creature clever enough to stop it. Always a great teacher of crafting, as the conflict breaks out Bacca is tutoring his first zombie student - a young crafter named Dug - and decides to take his pupil with him on this important quest. Together they discover that the skeletons have stolen an ancient sword from the zombies that has a powerful prophecy surrounding it.

This book is more for men who like to build rotations, have long term non-monogamous relationships and maintain them, or men who like long term monogamous relationships whether that be marriage or just the regular committed relationship.

Simon, Michael, and Lily are playing on a multiplayer server when a strange lightning storm hits their town. In the middle of an intense game, a bolt of lightning strikes, sucking the three friends into the game! They discover that they've been transformed into their Minecraft characters. They try to escape, but they are trapped in the Overworld.

When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Why do so many organizations, teams, couples, families, and groups who should be working together end up wasting energy on unproductive conflict? Even when everyone has the same general goals, what’s often missing is a deeper alignment based on mutual trust, respect, and empathy. With Radical Alignment, top-level life and business coaches (and happily married couple) Alexandra Jamieson and Bob Gower share their potent method for helping groups to stop clashing and start working together.

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O'Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses.

A little over 100 years ago, East Africa was terra incognita to most whites: a land largely unmapped, sparsely settled by Europeans, and teeming with wildlife. It was the hunter-adventurer's paradise, and by the early 20th century, a small, lionhearted clan of explorers and big-game hunters began leading safaris there for money.

Everyone in Bayport can't wait for the biggest event of the season: the premiere of G-Force - the newest ride by the world-renowned Piperato Brothers. Their creation is going to change the fortunes of Funsport, Bayport's small and recently run-down amusement park. Frank and Joe are friends with Daisy Rodriguez, the owner's daughter, and are first in line for the ride's launch. Purple lights click off, a huge whoosh emanates from the floor, loud music pulses....

Why has one game, alone among the thousands of games invented and played throughout human history, not only survived but thrived within every culture it has touched? What is it about its 32 figurative pieces, moving about its 64 black and white squares according to very simple rules, that has captivated people for nearly 1,500 years? Why has it driven some of its greatest players into paranoia and madness, and yet is hailed as a remarkably powerful intellectual tool?

Kat, Tai, and Alex are obsessed with the video game Otherworld. They strategize and play together all the time but are famous for their arguments while playing. They can't help being passionate about what they love!