No comments about Secret Codes 2008 (Secret Codes).

5 comments about The Legend of the Syndicate: A History of Online Gaming's Premier Guild.

1. I picked up this book after reading about it on Slashdot. I play World of Warcraft and help manage a guild, so I was interested in the subject matter.
   
   
   The story and history of the guild is interesting, as is the explanation of the guild structure and how they've managed to last for more than ten years (which is remarkable).
   
   The book, however, was hard to read. The author writes in the third person about himself, which made for awkward reading and promoted a certain self-satisfied tone that I really had trouble with. As other people have mentioned, the editing is atrocious. Typos, missing words in sentences, etc. A lot of the chapters feel like standalone essays that were pieced together to make a book, so there is some repetition.
   
   I would recommend this book if you're interested in learning about guild structure and management, but I didn't enjoy reading it.



2. This book should be used as a blueprint for how to build a guild in a MMORPG. Yes, The Syndicate started in the perfect storm, but it was true leadership from Dragons and others that built this group into the power and friends they are now.
   
   The book covers the history of gaming as well as the guild, worth the read for that "insiders" look at the Syndicate.



3. The Legend of the Sydicate, while a good book overall for the MMO Industry, didn't live up to my expectations. The book goes over the same few topics over and over. In addition, there are TONS of 'facts' within' the book do not appear to have been researched. For example, they list they are the 1st guild to last 10 years, which is incorrect. It is just a bunch of little things, that add up for me to not reccomend the book. If you are just interested in MMO's in general then it will be a good read.
   
   If your going to base claims, you need to be sure that you are correct when you write them in a book, otherwise you look a little foolish.



4. This book really embodies a great idea that suffers from a very amateurish execution. This is one of the first (if not only) books focused on describing the history of an online gaming guild, and its an ambitious aim that I'm sure we'll see much more of in the future. To his credit, the author clearly knows a great deal about his subject matter, and his passion and enthusiasm for the guild being described is evident.
   
   The biggest problem unfortunately stems from the author's enthusiasm, as it tremendously colors the story. The author literally has nothing negative to say about the Syndicate, and every decision Dragons (the syndicate's leader, and the author) makes is one that ultimately leads to the triumph that is the guild today. The tone of this book reminds me of an autobiography of Kim Jong Il published by the North Korean government...in reality, a guild this long running must have had more interesting situations than the way they are described here (which is invariably 1) Crisis happens, 2) Dragons presciently thinks it over and decides on the best course of action, 3) said course leads gloriously to today's wonderful guild). Ultimately, the consistently glowing descriptions of everything involved with the guild are just boring.
   
   The less said about the tiresome fantasy sections, where the author describes the guild's activities as if it was a fantasy novel, the better. Suffice to say, your 12 dollars could get you two good fantasy paperbacks, and about 100 times more value if your looking for fantasy stories.
   
   On a more technical level, the writing and especially editing is really haphazard. In addition to numerous typos, grammar errors, etc, the chapters don't flow particularly well together, and occasionally it veers off into tangents that can't possibly be of interest to the casual reader; several chapters, for instance, are basically just recounts of happenings at the various conferences the guild has organized ("John got drunk thursday night", "the hotel guards let us use the pool late," etc.) A quick google search seems to indicate the publisher is an arm of this guild (their only other published book is a fantasy story by one of their guild members); the book definitely could have used the services of a professional publisher.
   
   The basic idea here is a good one (describing the history of a long running fantasy guild). Hopefully it will pave the way for other books like it that will benefit from a more experienced author and more professional development. I'd save your money for those.



5. The guild creator (and probably the same guy who is hocking this book + wrote it) runs The Syndicate like a business, not like a guild. It's a sad dilution of what the word "Guild" actually means. Basically he cares more for the reputation of his "pet creation" than the individual people/members that make it what it is. If you've ever been a part of The Syndicate you'll see how the turnover rate is that of Mcdonald's and it is quite the mass of cluster soup.

5 comments about Super Mario Galaxy Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. The guide loks great, I haven't finished the game yet buy I have read the guide and I have to say that is very clear. It have 3D pictures and at the end a few hand-made pictures, but onlyn a few pages.
   
   Miyamoto's signaure is in the lasta page and the poster IT'S FANTASTIC, it really bright in the darkness, but it only one and I will keep then save inside the guide



2. Super Mario Galaxy was the only thing my son wanted for Christmas.
   I found the guide also. He is estatic and I didn't have to fight the holiday crowds. I love shopping on-line.



3. I picked up this "collector's edition" mainly because I loved the corresponding one for Twilight Princess. This one is written by a different author, but is published by the same company, so I figured they'd be similar. Not so.
   
   First of all (and perhaps beside the point) Super Mario Galaxy is not that difficult or expansive game as to require a guide. The way this thing is laid out makes reading it difficult and looks like a highschool yearbook staff could have thrown it together. Definitely not of the quality and depth of the Zelda book. I definitely DO NOT recommend this to anyone. If you really must use a guide for the game, pick up the cheaper one that isn't bloated and poorly done like this. I'm really disappointed b/c the Zelda guide was so great!



4. My son got this for his 10th birthday, and hasn't been able to put it down. He has read it cover to cover at least twice, and studies every page. It was definately worth the price.



5. Hardbound and colorful edition which made playing the game more fun and less frustrating for my kid. Can be a relief from reading schoolbooks on long trips in the car.

5 comments about Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering (New Riders Games).

1. "Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering" is clearly a guide every video game designer could read as long as they weren't dyslexic or something. And if they are dyslexic, maybe they could get someone to read it to them. Come to think of it, that would be a great pick-up line: "Excuse me... I know we've never met, but would you mind reading this book, 'Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering' to me? I seem to be dyslexic." In the midst of an everchanging world, it's nice to see that, throughout the centuries, one thing rings true: Games still can be emotional as long they are emotioneered properly with appropriate use of craft and art and creation.



2. I'm surprised by the reviews from people claiming to be game industry veterans who say they've found this book to be useful. Either they're not really in the game industry (possibly PR flaks?) or they haven't learned much in their time here.
   
   General comment on content: Between the massive amounts of interior artwork, the big body type, the big (and frequent) headers, unusually wide margins, and lots of white space, there's probably only about 75 pages of actual information in this "500-page" book. Think of it as more of a booklet.
   
   Mr. Freeman's credits are hard for me to verify. Web searches turn up some titles he's gotten credit for contributing to, but none of them were AAA titles. And there's no way to know for sure how much he actually contributed to them. Having been both a freelancer and internal writer/designer, I know outside writers who've been completely useless to games' development, so a claim of credit doesn't mean much, IMO. I have no clue what expertise he has with movies or other media, but I'm not too hopeful after reading his book on game writing.
   
   One big problem I have with his book is the jargon he insists on excreting everywhere. This isn't game industry jargon, movie jargon, or any sensible jargon that I know of. It's jargon he seems to have made up to try to claim writing techniques and mechanics as his own. And he really, really likes to capitalize the (sometimes excruciatingly long) names of "his" techniques. A sense of impending doom approaches when you first see the word "Emotioneering" (capitalized, of course), looms high overhead when you see such phrases as "Plot Deepening Technique" and "Dialogue Interesting Technique," and crashes down with skull-crushing force upon reading the phrase "Player Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Technique." Ouch. Lack brilliance? Try BS!
   
   How can anyone read a sentence such as "A Character Being Genuine is an NPC Rooting Interest Technique, but not a Character Deepening Technique" without laughing? (And, yes, the capitalization and comma fault are the author's.)
   
   The bottom line is that this book doesn't seem (to me) to have much of value to offer anyone who's been in the industry for any length of time. If you're trying to break into the industry, however, you could be deluded into thinking that you're learning something useful here. FWIW, that's the opinion of someone who's actually been in the games industry since 1984. I keep trying to read this book, hoping to get something out of it, but can't get more than 20% into it before giving up.



3. It does tell you a lot of techniques, but it doesn't tell proper practice. Its ok for game design since the (western) industry isn't very sentimental when it comes to games. Mostly the Japanese are coming out with RPGs with a lot of sentiment. I think its good that someone is trying to help with dry gaming. I do like games like unreal, tetris, street fighter, which have little to no plot, but I don't like to be a weapon of mass destruction without a cause.
   
   The book can be comparable to a core paper-pencil rpg book for storytellers.
   
   As far as "emotioneering," I think its a catch phrase. And many of the dimensions used for creating characters you could get out of a white-wolf book.
   
   Overall, the book is good at telling you how to use techniques for characters and story/plot. Its cheaper than taking a scriptwriting class or a creative writing class.



4. A definite don`t buy!
   This guy takes credit for something that`s not his own and he dares to Trade Mark it!
   Emotioneering is his! Hahahaaaa....
   He just took ideas for other authors that on story,acting,character...etc...
   Some of those authors might be furious about it when some others just rool in the grave.
   I could read only a quarter of it and I realized that I`ve read all this before!
   I feel lucky I didn`t buy it! Fortunately I`ve borowed it for the studio I work in.
   
   Anyways...KnockOff,ShowOff with a flavor of TV Shopping.How cool is that?
   
   Don`t buy.
   
   I am an 2D/3D animator.



5. I have to agree with the other negative reviews given here - this book was nothing more than a fluff filled, gimmick driven, repetition of screenplay advice which honestly isn't even all that good. What primarily irked me right off the bat (besides the horrendous titles and terms) was the blatant assumption the author has that games and movies are basically driven by the same forces, therefore, anything that works in movies would work in games too. They're both visual entertainment right? Poo on you sir, your assumption cannot possibly be wholly correct in that one is an active medium and the other passive. Are you really going to tell me then there are no differences in creating meaningful emotional experiences when the audience is passive in one and active in the other? I couldn't believe that he consistently used movies as examples and not a single real game. Shouldn't a book about games use games as examples? I'm not even going to attempt go in depth into all the basic concepts which were flawed and unsupported by any research - I'd basically end up writing a work as long as his. Just this - reader beware and save your money.
   
   I had to unfortunately read this for a class in my game design MFA and was severely disappointed and angered that this was considered good literature in the field. Its poor scholarship and reads like a time-share brochure, out to entice and enthrall the reader with flashy shiny things without providing any real content.

5 comments about 3DS Max Lighting.

1. If you are already good at modeling and texturing, you really owe it to yourself, your models, and maps to pick this manual up and study it so that you can coax the most out of the many lighting options 3ds max gives you. You may say, well, I already know alot about 3ds max lighting. You may know enough to get by, but after you read this book, you will be doing more with 3ds max lighting than just getting by. This author will teach and give you alot of insight into how to properly manufacture different lighting situations. The majority of the book is of the ideals, practices, and methods you should employ while being concerned with lighting. There is not very much actual 3ds max lighting work or training, hence the 4 star rating, but the way in which this type of information is presented is probably the best choice for "understanding lighting for the long haul." The author takes the approach of explaining everything about light to you in detail, then essentially leaves it up to you how you proceed from there based on what you have learned about light, NOT JUST 3DS MAX LIGHT! I agree with this method. I would rather understand light, and in turn be able to apply that in 3ds max with much greater effect than just knowing what the 3ds max tools do, but not why they work the way they do. 2 different mindsets really, and I'll bet that the student of light first, will produce higher quality overall results most of the time if not all of the time. This author writes very well, and I liked his book alot. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because although the included tutorials are reasonable and serve the purpose, perhaps at least one or two complex/advanced lighting effects, or exercises could have been included to really blast the reader off in the right direction and give the user a concrete notion of how to tap the lighting power. Even without this though, this book is worth your time. It will make a very noticable difference in renders, and will unlock the world of lighting to you. Maybe it would be nice to see this author offer other cg topics in the future!



2. This book is really not very good at all. Looking at the cover you can see the standard of lighting in the book is not going to be great. The examples consist largely of scenes constructed from primitive spheres and cubes and don't go into any real depth...they are so far removed from real-world production problems that it is laughable. This is no surprise when you discover that the author has actually written a book on Lightwave lighting and though his production experience is fairly lengthy, these all seem to be Lightwave productions, as there is nothing within this book to suggest that the author's knowledge of 3ds max is anything but cursory. I think that if the makers of 3ds max saw this book they would be very disappointed that a book is available that makes their great application look so very very bad.



3. As a newcomer to 3DS Max, I was delighted to find this wonderful book to teach me about how to use lights properly. The author has written the book to give beginners a good grounding in lighting theory, and follows that with numerous examples of how to use lights to effectively light scenes.
   
   I found the step-by-step approach very helpful in learning each and every parameter. I believe my lighting is much better now that I have read most of the book. I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to learn lighting in 3DS Max



4. I got through, maybe the first eighty pages before I realized that I hardly new anything about lighting. This author is the master. He understands and explains real light so well that any artist could walk away with a brand new understanding of how to light. I never new before how inadequate MAX lights are, and how much has to be done to make them work like real lights. Now I know. My lighting will always be better and I owe a debt of gratitude to the author.



5. Overall its a good book.But the author is explaining the physical qualities of light too much which sometimes confuses & may not be required that much.Because physical qualities of light is different from CG lighting.So there is no point of comparison explained randomly.Well this book gives you fair understanding of 3DMax lighting interface & some techniques for intermediate users in good detail.And it evokes in you a quest to study the lighting in reality first with the eye of an artist.Then try to implement in your Max scenes.Which i think is a very good approach.e.g I improved certain elements of my lighting scenes like source of light,intensity,interaction with materials.I would like to read any advance book as well written by Mr Nicholas.

5 comments about Star Wars Battlefront: Prima Official Game Guide.

1. One of the great mysteries about the game Star Wars Battlefront is why the manual is so incomplete. It provides only a limited subset of the keyboard / mouse commands (PC version), and it further fails to describe in adequate detail the key abilities of the different character types (e.g., pilot, scout, infantry, etc.).
   
   I purchased the "Official Game Guide" in hopes that it might fill in some of this information, and, surprisingly, it didn't. For example, it includes statements to the effect "Use your pilot to heal other characters," but nowhere in the guide, or the manual that came with the game, does it illustrate HOW to do that. (For what it's worth: by pressing "g," you have to choose heal / repair as a pilot's secondary weapon. Then, right-click the mouse to deploy a healing kit.)
   
   The manual does however provide useful maps and a decent description of the strategies either side of a battle might use to their advantage.
   
   In sum, the manual that comes with the game is incomplete, at best, and this "official guide" does not fill in all of the gaps. It is surprising to me that there isn't a good summary of the keyboard / mouse commands, nor gamepad commands for other platforms.



2. Wats the point of getting this I beat the whole game in an hour. It was that easy. the bodys dont stay when the die which was stupid. and abouve all it showed who had killed u. that was horrible. game gets 4-5 book gets 1-5



3. I bought this guide because I (38 yrs old) was losing my edge to my son (9 yrs old) and I particularly needed some winning strategies on Dune Sea.
   
   Unfortunately, most of the strategies are written assuming you're playing as part of a multi-player online team. Not so much for those us that play offline (splitscreen). We splitscreeners have a hard time attacking multiple objectives as different soldier classes in the first two minutes of battle - we need advice on what is the "key" objective, and which secondary objectives are better left to your lower-intelligence AI comrades.
   
   But you learn a lot about the maps and some esoteric details you might not pick-up by playing even as much as we do. Plus, we get to extend our battlefront experience even when "Mom" has made us turn the t.v. off. I still can't beat my son on Dune Sea, though.



4. First, the book is really for online playing only. No hints or tactics for offline play. Second, it isn't very helpful or detailed for online players either. Example:
   The chapter on the Kashyyyk Docks explains tactics that either the Clones or the Droids could use. But nothing about how to play it as the Empire or the Rebels. As they have different equipment and vehicles the same strategies might not work for them. Also, some of the strategies are too simple.
   For example, using the same map as an example, they suggest you take the village command post, City Hall, to cut off the supply of Wookiees then hunt them down. Well, duh. If I could get my troops to City Hall I wouldn't need to hunt down the Wookiees because I would have won already! It's a Catch-22 - to get to City Hall to cut off their reinforcements you have to wipe most of them out to break thru their lines to take City Hall to cut off their spawning point. What I need is information on how to do that as a offline player! Online players have dozens of human controlled troops who know what to do. I don't. I have dozens of AI controlled troops standing around, running the wrong way and charging into enemy gun fire without dodging!
   Pretty worthless unless you can get it used and even then reading The Art Of War would get you better ideas.



5. This book is pretty good whats with negitive reveiws? I mean its not that bad! :( Good game guide though little pricy

2 comments about Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. This guide does exactly what a strategy guide should do: It tells you how to play the game. Of course, the game is somewhat open ended within each mission. I often found myself going different routes than the guide suggests, but even then, the suggestions made by the book are valuable.

   Note that this covers both the base game and the expansion, which makes it a good value. Unless you already had the book for the base game... ;-)




2. Typical of Prima's guides this book contains all the "how to" suggestions of completing the game. Part I of the book focusses on the original "Generals" which gives good hints including an overall map of each mission. This section would be a 5 out of 5.

   Part II is where it seems to fall apart. Part II has a nice guide on new abilities but as far as a guide for each of the fifteen missions, it divides the mission with a step by step of how to go through the mission with little windows into what you can expect to see along the way. The one large omission is that it doesn't have an overall map for each mission or any mission in "Zero Hour" which I've found is probably the biggest help in these guide books. With the overall map, the reader/player can get an overall perspective of where the dangers lie and how best to avoid them. This is especially helpful if you want to attempt to complete the mission by a different method. Why this was included for the Part I "Generals" missions but not the Part II "Zero Hour" missions is a mystery.

   For a book on the original "Generals" this is a 5 out of 5. For a guide on "Zero Hour" it would probably be more of a 3 out of 5. Frankly I'm disappointed with this supposed "Zero Hour" guide for the reason above.

No comments about Official Nintendo Power Pokemon Gold Version and Silver Version Player's Guide.

2 comments about Eragon (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. This is an excellent book but unfortunately it was not the one that i needed. However when I told amazon this they very kindly refunded me the cost. I consider that the service from amazon is first rate and I would definitely use them again.



2. A little confusing, many pictures are to dark and hard to see, but info helps to manuever through. I would have been lost without it.

2 comments about EverQuest II: Desert of Flame (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. I got this book a while back, shortly after the "Desert of Flames" expansion was released, and was very pleased with it. This book has many maps, quest walk throughs and lots of general info on the game. With the newest expansion "Kingdom of Sky", SOE made many very huge changes in the game, including dropping lots of quests, character advancement revamp, spell names changes and many other things that almost render this book useless. It's still usefull for some very basic game hints but a newer updated book is needed.



2. If you've ever been at a loss as to what to do next you'll love this guide. Detailed and informative, you'll be zipping through quests and zones in no time. Very useful.