Purple Blurb presents:

Noah Wardrip-Fruin

EXPRESSIVE PROCESSING:
Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies

Monday September 14th, 2009
6:00 p.m.
MIT 14E-310, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

The MIT Press Bookstore will be exhibiting books at this event, and we encourage you to attend:

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is author of "Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies" (MIT Press, 2009), co-creator of "Screen" (among other works of digital writing), and assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Purple Blurb offers readings and presentations on digital writing by practitioners of digital writing. All events are free and open to the public. The Purple Blurb series is supported by the Angus N. MacDonald fund and Writing and Humanistic Studies. For a complete schedule see: http://nickm.com/if/purple_blurb/

"Expressive Processing" is published by the MIT Press.

CMS colloquium series presents:

ETHAN GILSDORF

FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS
An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms

Thursday September 17, 2009, 5 p.m.
MIT 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

The MIT Press Bookstore will be exhibiting books at the following event, and we thought you might be interested :)

Ethan Gilsdorf will present his recently released and much lauded
travel memoir/pop culture narrative, FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, which NPR's Adrei Codrescu calls a “breathless adventure/quest/memoir that is uniquely contemporary." Drawing from his own experience as a longtime Dungeons & Dragons devotee, Gilsdorf’s talk will explore the varied terrain of fantasy and gaming subcultures, illuminating what attracts game-players and fantasy fans to these worlds, and for what reasons.

Now based in Somerville, Massachusetts, Gilsdorf publishes travel,
arts, and pop culture stories regularly in the New York Times, Boston
Globe, and Christian Science Monitor, with articles appearing in such
publications as National Geographic Traveler, Psychology Today, and the Washington Post as well. He has also been a guest on talk radio as a fantasy and escapism expert.

This event is part of the Fall 2009 Comparative Media Studies colloquium series.

Read more about the book at http://www.fantasyfreaksbook.com/

THE IG INFORMAL LECTURES AT MIT

Saturday, October 3, 2009
1:00 pm
MIT 10-250
222 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Once again, The MIT Press Bookstore is proud to partner with some Improbable friends to bring you a half-afternoon of improbably funny, informative, brief (5 minutes each, plus a few questions & answers with the audience), high-spirited public lectures, in which the new Ig Nobel Prize winners will attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor people whose achievements have made people LAUGH, and then made them THINK. Ten prizes are given to people who have done remarkable things — some of them admirable, some perhaps otherwise. The Igs are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

All Ig Nobel Prize activities are organized by the Annals of Improbable Research.

The 2009 Ig Nobel Prize Winners have been announced!

Get a little dose of the fun in these Ig Videos!

Purple Blurb presents:

Mary Flanagan

CRITICAL PLAY:
Radical Game Design

Monday November 2, 2009
6:00 p.m.
MIT 14E-310, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

The MIT Press Bookstore will be exhibiting books at this event, and we encourage you to attend:

Mary Flanagan is author of "Critical Play: Radical Game Design" (MIT Press, 2009), creator of "[giantJoystick]", and author of "[theHouse]" (among other digital writing works). She is Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities at Dartmouth.

Purple Blurb offers readings and presentations on digital writing by practitioners of digital writing. All events are free and open to the public. The Purple Blurb series is supported by the Angus N. MacDonald fund and Writing and Humanistic Studies. For a complete schedule see: http://nickm.com/if/purple_blurb/

"Critical Play" is published by the MIT Press.

The Technology and Culture Forum presents:

PETER SINGER

WIRED FOR WAR
The Prospects and Perils of Robotic Warfare

Thursday September 17, 2009, 7 p.m.
MIT 6-120

The MIT Press Bookstore will be exhibiting books at the following event, and we thought you might be interested :)

Peter Singer is Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution.

This event is part of the Fall 2009 Technology and Culture Forum at MIT series.

This program is co-sponsored with the MIT Security Studies Program and CSAIL.

CMS colloquium series presents:

MIA CONSALVO

WESTERN OTAKU
Games Crossing Cultures

Thursday Decemberr 3, 2009, 5 p.m.
MIT 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

The MIT Press Bookstore will be exhibiting books at the following event, and we thought you might be interested :)

From Nintendo's first Famicom system, Japanese consoles and videogames have played a central role in the development and expansion of the digital game industry. Players globally have consumed and enjoyed Japanese games for many reasons, and in a variety of contexts. This study examines one particular subset of videogame players, for whom the consumption of Japanese videogames in particular is of great value, in addition to their related activities consuming anime and manga from Japan. Through in-depth interviews with such players, this study investigates how transnational fandom operates in the realm of videogame culture, and how a particular group of videogame players interprets their gameplay experience in terms of a global, if hybrid, industry.

Mia Consalvo is visiting associate professor in the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames and is co-editor of the forthcoming Blackwell Handbook of Internet Studies.

This event is part of the Fall 2009 Comparative Media Studies colloquium series.

"Cheating" is published by the MIT Press.

The MIT Press
Holiday Book Sale

Monday, December 14, 2009
10:00am to 5:00pm
MIT 10-105 - Bush Room

The Campus Sale is Back!

By popular demand, the MIT Press Bookstore will hold a December book sale! This sale will be in the style of our famous loading dock sales, but will be held on a weekday on campus. We have several tons of books ready to sell at drastically reduced prices. Each book will be less than $10 and the vast majority of books will be $7 or less.

All MIT Press subject areas will be represented: art, architecture, biology, cognitive science, computer science, economics, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, political science, and others. We're also bringing a significant number of books from other publishers including lots of recent popular science titles. Again, each book less than $10!

Hope to see you there, and happy browsing!

Some restrictions apply: No book dealers, Limit 30 books per purchaser, 3 copies per title. MIT ID required for admission. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone using price scanning devices and/or purchasing for resale.