The vast desert is treacherous and without mercy. But for travelers willing to battle the harsh climate and brutal winds, the desert can reveal riches unimaginable. In Through the Desert, two to five players each control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. By establishing lines of caravans and taking over oases, the players gain points as their tribes increase in power. Although gameplay appears to be straightforward, Through the Desert actually has many underlying lessons and concepts that players ultimately incorporate into their actions. Through the Desert encourages college-aged individuals to seize limited resources and dominate as much land as possible, which teaches the concepts that territory is power and selfish actions …show more content…
This categorizes Through the Desert as an abstract strategy game. Much like Chess and Go, all of the game’s information is displayed to all players, so that each participant can base a decision in accordance with the current setup. Perfect information games, as well as abstract games, provide the foundation for one or more favorable strategies to be used. For example, in this game specifically, players can choose which tiles camels will be placed on to accumulate the highest amount of points. Because of this, success is directly related to which choices players make - not attributed to the element of luck in any …show more content…
Through the Desert sends the message that if you want to succeed, taking limited supplies away from others is a must. Selfish actions are rewarded while cooperative ones are looked down upon, pushing players to act on their own needs and thwart the needs of others. Humans are generally selfish by nature, so this concept is easily incorporated into the gameplay. For example, if a player encloses an area of the board with their caravan, all points within the area exclusively belong to that player. Being selfish in this case is advantageous because it diminishes the opportunity for other players to earn the points within the enclosed area. Along with this, points are partially earned through collecting, or “drinking”, watering holes available all over the board. So not only are players selfishly collecting as many points as possible, but according to the gameplay, they are also taking away as many water opportunities as possible from other players. Water is undeniably a crucial resource in the desert and can mean the difference between life and death - that being said, a much more morbid insight into Through the Desert’s gameplay is revealed. It isn’t possible for a caravan to die in the game, but the consequences that comes with a limited supply of resources is still implied in the way the game is
His expertise may attract an array of readers, both newcomers and old-timers. It seems that his intended audience might be those who share his love of the desert and also those who want to know more. The essay is quasi-organized like an educational brochure or an expert interview with an inveterate desert denizen. An unintended audience of course might include the fledgling environmental activists who were emerging in the 1960s to fight for the protection of wilderness. Because of its focus on natural history, the article and the anthology, Desert Solitaire, in which it was published, might...
Walking Across Egypt & nbsp; Mattie Rigsbee is the main character in Clyde Edgerton's southern-style novel, Walking Across Egypt. Mattie is a seventy-eight year old widow with two middle-aged children. Living alone in a small house, she makes sure that everything is taken care of. Although begins to display some signs of aging, and her family is trying to convince her to slow down her lifestyle, Mattie's character and mind setting prohibits her from becoming the stereotypical elder. She must make a decision on which direction to turn. "I'm too old to keep a dog," she says to the dogcatcher as he is leaving with a brown fice that showed up on her doorstep. "Besides, I'm slowing down," she says to her son during lunch.
However contrary to many critiques of author’s goal Abbey made his intention in writing Desert Solitaire quite clear in his introduction. He says: "Do not jump into your automobile next June and rush out ... to see some of that which I have attempted to evoke ...Most of what I write about in this book is already gone or going under fast, This is not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial. You 're holding a tombstone in your hands. A bloody rock." Abbey accentuates his overall idea, topic, goal is to praise that which was--that which came before tourist-attracting changes--so that it may be reminisced in its natural magnificent
This highly charged physical setting plays a crucial role in the book, almost as if the land is a character in the story. The land takes on
The desert is home to Jassim and Salwa Haddad. Leaving their native Jordan for the American deserts of Arizona, heat is their habitat. Unfortunately, the sun serves as the only source of warmth in their cold relationship. Married and childless by choice, Halaby's reader meets the Haddads in the center of their unconscious rut. Jassim's career as a successful hydrologist, which cemented their roots in America, consumes him and he is aware of little else. His life revolves around water – unpredictable, ever changing, H2O. This first love keeps Jassim's wife suppressed in his peripheral vision, where she has remained for far too long.
There seems to be a central theme to Sears’ book, Momaday’s book, and the various films we have reviewed, that there are old stories told about all of these "sacred places" that show us how to understand, care for, preserve, and protect the land around them. There are two aspects that stem from this main theme: that the words of these stories are traditional and sacred, and that people value different parts of the land in different ways. Some cultures value land as a worshiping center while others use it merely for entertainment and recreation. A problem comes into play when the culture’s views clash and the people don’t respect each other’s customs. When people don’t understand native’s points of view, they don’t understand how important their values are either.
Abbeys first survival hint to the desert is, “stay out of there. Don’t go. Stay home and read a good book.”(p. 204) What fun is staying home if people have the chance to go and explore the desert? Getting a hands on experience and being able to explore the desert in real life is more educating than sitting at home reading a dull book on the desert. David Alloway (1999) once said, “the historical fact is however, that the human race was cradled in arid lands and people are well adapted to survive in deserts.”( 1) Alloway is a teacher at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and he teaches a desert survival class. His class philosophy is “not to fight the desert, but to become part of its ecosystem.”( 1) So the first hint or suggestion before you attempt to go into the desert is being prepared.
“Food Deserts” are arears where people have a hard time finding affordable, healthy food. These places are usually low-income neighborhoods that do not have any supermarkets nearby but have convenience stores that sell junk food and fast food places around them. Ron Finley, a guerrilla gardener, lives in a “food desert” in South Central Los Angeles. He plants fruit and vegetable gardens to help nourish his community with healthy eating. In the article “Giving the Poor Easy Access to Healthy Food Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy It,” Margot Sanger-Katz states that “merely adding a grocery store to a poor neighborhood doesn’t make a very big difference” because the diets of the residents living in those neighborhoods did not change. I think “food deserts” are only a part of the bigger problem in America because obesity is everywhere, not just in low-income
Through the use of these literary devices, Roth proves how in the end, no matter how much effort is put in to keep an orderly life, chaos will eventually overtake everything. The life of the Levovs in this novel is used as a projection of what chaos is in real life. It is messy and unexpected. American Pastoral is an exaggeration of what happens in real life. The purpose of the novel is not to make it’s readers disillusioned and fearful of the unexpected. Roth is reaching out to his readers saying that yes, there is chaos and uncertainty in life. The unexpected is in store for everyone, but that is reality, life does not make sense.
Ever since you were a child you have unknowingly used game theory. When your parents gave you the option to choose a candy bar, your brain started thinking of all the possibilities that depended on which candy you chose. You would think which one would taste better, make your feel better, and maybe be healthier for you. In the end, you would narrow your choices down to one piece of candy and eat it happily. Game theory is the use of theory to think through all of the positive and negative possibilities that could happen in a problem and try to maximize the positive. Game theory is not just one theory, throughout the years is has spread into six main games. These games are: zero sum games, non-zero sum games, simultaneous move games, sequential move games, one-shot games, and repeated games. Each of these games will be covered more in depth in this essay, with the exception of zero-sum games. Dalton will be writing about the zero-sum game in his essay.
animals and make laws of the land for the inhabitants to follow. The story develops in four separate
Tales of a Female Nomad provides a welcome reprieve from materialistic societies. This book can transport readers to places where self sufficiency is the standard. Many of her stories give a refreshing glimpse at what makes up true communities. These stories would horrify a xenophobe, but are peacefully enrapturing for those who hope for true freedom, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
The location is best described as a vacant desert where the only living creatures surrounding it are the man and its camels and the accompany of
Imagine a life with no food, no shelter and no family. This is hard because most people have never been without these basic needs. Some people however, find it hard to imagine a life with these needs, as in “The Ultimate Safari” by Nadine Gordimer. This story takes place during civil war, where the greed of bandits along with the greed of rebels cause conflict which can only be solved through sharing and co-operation.
Resources such as food, water, energy, spices and space become limited in distinct scenarios. These resources are essential in the survival of the human population; therefore, people must conserve them in order to survive. By being selfish, people will be more successful in retaining resources, as well as acquiring more. In the novel Alas, Babylon, after the disaster struck, Randy was shocked to see Pete’s supermarket was barren. Pete said, "We'd sold out of just about everything by closing time yesterday. When I tried to close up they wouldn't leave. They wouldn't pay, neither. They started hollerin' and laughin' and grabbin'. (Alas Babylon 155). People in Fort Repose needed to get supplies. Since the whole economic system fell apart, citizens had to resort to violence to attain supplies. Instead of splitting the remaining resources evenly among residents, selfish people decided to keep assets for themselves. In order to make sure they survived themselves, people didn’t share supplies with others. Being selfish meant that people could keep more supplies, which would abet their survival. Similarly, after Dan Gunn was attacked by the highwaymen, he retold the chain of events to Randy. Dan said, “I’m sorry Randy. I was careless. I shouldn’t have stopped. I’ve lost our transport, our medicines and my tools,” (Frank 252). The highwaymen were selfish in their endeavor to survive. They stole resources from Dan Gunn because they were in desperate need of supplies. There aren’t enough resources for everyone during the disaster, so the highwaymen became selfish and decided to steal resources for themselves. It helped them survive in the meantime, but eventually led to their downfall. Survival requires selfishness because people will always keep limited resources to themselves. When certain supplies are needed, people will use such supplies on their own, instead of giving them away to