Reality Game

Fake news posts and Twitter trolls were just the beginning. What will happen when misinformation moves from our social media feeds into our everyday lives? Online disinformation stormed our political process in 2016 and has only worsened since. Yet as Samuel Woolley shows in this urgent book, it...

"Tom Reissmann brings us a novel of big ideas, pulse-pounding action, and deep emotion that will keep you guessing as Max and Olivia struggle to uncover the mysteries behind The Reality Games." –Hayden Trenholm, award-winning author of The Steele Chronicles. ***** “The Reality Games is a page-turner that keeps you guessing until the very end.” –Steve Peters, Experience Designer and Founder of No Mimes Media. *****In 2061, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Professor Max Wheeler welcomes a synthetic into his home – a construct that looks and acts exactly like his late wife, and...

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST AND THE GUARDIAN “Absorbing. . . . A revealing look at the hidden role that games have played in human development for centuries.” —Kirkus “By turns philosophical and polemical, this is a provocative and fascinating book.” —The Economist...

Eternal Realm is famous for one thing above all else: 99.9999% realism. It isn't merely a full-immersion VRMMO. It's humanity's second world. In an age where prices climb and paychecks don't, a decent job is hard to come by. Daisy couldn't find one either — not for lack of ability, but because her staggering beauty proved to be a liability rather than an asset. Then she happened to see an ad for Eternal Realm. She logged in, named her character Nightfall, and found two impossible numbers staring back at her: Charm: 999. Luck: 999. And something more — a unique Talent called Apotheosis. ...

People paid me to make their characters legendary. Then the game turned real — and trapped them inside. I’m a booster — a carry. You pay me, I grind your character to the cap while you live your ordinary life. Launch night of the expansion, I deliver one last rush order. At zero, my rig goes dark. Fine. I needed cigarettes anyway. Except the hallway is gone. My one-room apartment is a concrete cube in black grass under two moons. No logout. No support. Just a welcome panel for a classification no player has ever had: [Service Provider] The System rebuilt my account into a unique class...

Level up. Build your crew. Save the Galaxy. Byron Jones was just another lonely gamer until saving a mysterious old man earned him a once-in-a-lifetime invite to VENUS ONLINE, the most immersive sci-fi VRMMORPG ever created. Inside the game, Byron becomes commander of a starship with a crew of beautiful alien women, each with their own skills, secrets, and charms. But paradise becomes a nightmare when he realizes he can’t log out and the galaxy is ruled by Lady Necralia, a cruel warlord who thrives on the suffering of trapped players. To survive, Byron must grind levels, upgrade his ship,...

A chance for fortune. A killer that wants them dead. Reality gone horribly wrong. This is not like any reality show Lexi Zimmer had ever seen. Her excitement quickly fades when she realizes that her time in the Ozark mountains, along with 29 others, is complicated by a murderer set out to make sure that no one reaches the end and claims the prize. Jake Ward, a cop hired to catch a killer, finds his job complicated by the presence of wide-eyed participants out for money and a tiny slip of a beauty who is much tougher than she looks. Can these two survive until the end and find a love bigger ...

Luna Rossi is a veritable crafting genius — she can bedazzle and bead so hard her Etsy site is one of the hottest in the world. So it’s only natural that Luna would convince her brother and his husband-to-be to compete on The Wedding Game, a “do-it-yourself” TV show, for the title of Top DIY Wedding Expert.

The problem of online disinformation is only getting worse. Social media may well play a role in the the US 2020 presidential election and other major political events. But that doesn't even begin to describe what future propaganda will look like. We may not be able to alter how the internet was used to challenge democracy in years past, but we can follow the signals to prevent manipulation in the future - and to use these powerful new tools not to control people but to empower them. 

Are you one of those individuals who have taken gain by others for their benefit? Has somebody you loved came to your life quickly and then left without explanation after they took everything from you? If your answer to these questions is yes, then this is the right book for you! The majority of individuals have a difficult time identifying false statements and distinguishing fake from genuine emotions. That’s especially true, even with the individuals around them. Indeed, the small lie about how amazing your mother’s pie tastes won’t hurt. It might even be needed for smooth and ...

With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world—from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change—and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds.

THE FUTURE IS PERFECT. UNTIL YOU SEE WHAT’S HIDING INSIDE IT. In a world where climate change is fixed and life is better than ever, everyone escapes into SPACE—a fully immersive virtual universe where anything feels real. For Theo Wilson, it’s freedom. Until people start disappearing. Their emotions stolen. Their lives turned into entertainment. Then Theo’s mother vanishes. Following her trail pulls him deep into the darkest parts of SPACE—where vPolice, rogue AI, and a ruthless criminal network will do anything to stop him. Because in SPACE, losing isn’t virtual… It’s ...

Former Secret Service agent and star of Bravo’s Spy Games Evy Poumpouras shares lessons learned from protecting presidents, as well insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security force in the world to help you prepare for stressful situations, instantly read people, influence how...

Ten strangers locked inside an underground bunker. Only one person can win. It was supposed to be a YouTube reality show. Two million dollars to the last contestant standing. A red button by the door for anyone who wanted out. Then something went wrong. For fans of Gone Girl, Squid Game, and Stephen King's The Long Walk. A claustrophobic survival thriller you won't put down — and a final chapter you won't stop thinking about.

What the MECH is going on here?In a future where the line between man and machine blurs, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a daring mech pilot and his ragtag band of rebels. Amidst the unforgiving landscape of the Rocky Mountains, they wage a desperate war for survival and freedom against the relentless march of AI overlords. Enter a world ravaged by technological tyranny, where Hunter, once a noble defender of the people, now navigates the treacherous pathways of rebellion. Joined by Lee, a brilliant tactician with a knack for unraveling AI deceit, and Jester, the wildcard pilot ...

They don't execute rebels anymore—they broadcast them. Paris Book Festival Runner-Up (Wild Card) Perfect for readers of The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, and Black Mirror. A Dystopian Psychological Survival Thriller In a near-future America where poverty has become widespread and entertainment belongs to the powerful, human suffering has become the country's favorite spectacle. Inside the game, every failure is entertainment. Every contestant is expected to break. Rhea Schwartz never wanted attention. Now millions are watching. Ryker Vale entered the program for the money. He never ...

Galactic Harem: The Complete Series (Empire • Dominion • Ascension • Reign) When ordinary Londoner Alex slips on a mysterious VeeAre Deck, he awakens as Ryker Hale — a towering, dominant warlord with nothing but a failing escape pod and a dying galaxy at his feet. To survive and rise, Ryker discovers that true power in this universe is forged through raw, explicit, and passionately consensual bonding rituals. Every willing surrender from the extraordinary women who join him doesn’t just create unbreakable loyalty — it literally powers his technology, upgrades his fleets, and ...

There are the laws you’ve been taught — and then there are the ones you were never meant to know. In this chilling and atmospheric account, Lucian Vale reveal the seven forbidden laws hidden beneath the everyday rules of the world: truths that bend walls, stretch time, give thought physical weight, and open doors that should never be opened. Part memoir, part survival guide, part occult field manual, this book takes you from the first subtle cracks in reality to the shadowy custodians who patrol its edges — the Gatekeepers. But knowledge has a cost. Once you’ve read these pages, you...

Would you be prepared to work for free? How would you like to bust your hump for a large corporation 60-plus hours a week without a wage or a single day off for the vague promise of some mysterious perks in the distant future? You'd refuse point blank, wouldn't you? But what if the job in question was playing a state-of-the-art fantasy MMORPG game? And what if this was the only thing you're really good at? Especially considering that your in-game partner is someone really special to you - and this person already lives a virtual life?

Finn Harris should have been the one to die. But he wasn't - his wife took his place. What was worse, he only had himself and his company to blame. They let their passion outpace their prudence, determined to revolutionize the world. While all innovation comes with a price, he never imagined it would cost him Rachael. Nearly a decade later, Finn is content to hole himself up and wait out the rest of his life. That is, until his daughter intervenes, forcing him out of his grief and into a new virtual reality game developed by his old employer. They're calling it Awaken Online.