Diane Carr

This is a practical guide to all you need to know about papering techniques throughout the home. It features easy-to-follow techniques for papering walls, corners, ceilings, stairwells and arches, around doors, windows and radiators, with 160 photographs and diagrams. It helps you how to prepare walls for papering, including techniques for removing tiles and old wallpaper, how to use lining paper and how to hang borders. It includes all the tricks of the trade revealed to solve common wallpapering problems, including air bubbles, tears, overlaps, gaps, poor pattern match, shiny patches and curling edges. You can advice on choosing plain and patterned wallpapers, and estimating quantities. It covers information on equipment, work platforms and ladders, and tips on safety. If you want an impressive decorative finish in a room, or just want a new look, papering is the answer. With this book, even the novice paperhanger will achieve a professional-looking result. The book offers advice on materials and equipment, preparation and techniques, with many tips throughout for papering trickier areas. And, you will need very little equipment to get started.

Computer games are one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving media of our time. Revenues from console and computer games have now overtaken those from Hollywood movies; and online gaming is one of the fastest-growing areas of the internet. Games are no longer just kids' stuff: the majority of players are now adults, and the market is constantly broadening. The visual style of games has become increasingly sophisticated, and the complexities of game-play are ever more challenging. Meanwhile, the iconography and generic forms of games are increasingly influencing a whole range of other media, from films and television to books and toys. This book provides a systematic, comprehensive introduction to the analysis of computer and video games. It introduces key concepts and approaches drawn from literary, film and media theory in an accessible and concrete manner; and it tests their use and relevance by applying them to a small but representative selection of role-playing and action-adventure games. It combines methods of textual analysis and audience research, showing how the combination of such methods can give a more complete picture of these playable texts and the fan cultures they generate. Clearly written and engaging, it will be a key text for students in the field and for all those with an interest in taking games seriously.

Computer games are one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving media of our time. Revenues from console and computer games have now overtaken those from Hollywood movies; and online gaming is one of the fastest-growing areas of the internet. Games are no longer just kids' stuff: the majority of players are now adults, and the market is constantly broadening. The visual style of games has become increasingly sophisticated, and the complexities of game-play are ever more challenging. Meanwhile, the iconography and generic forms of games are increasingly influencing a whole range of other media, from films and television to books and toys. This book provides a systematic, comprehensive introduction to the analysis of computer and video games. It introduces key concepts and approaches drawn from literary, film and media theory in an accessible and concrete manner; and it tests their use and relevance by applying them to a small but representative selection of role-playing and action-adventure games. It combines methods of textual analysis and audience research, showing how the combination of such methods can give a more complete picture of these playable texts and the fan cultures they generate. Clearly written and engaging, it will be a key text for students in the field and for all those with an interest in taking games seriously.