Review: For the Win by Cory Doctorow

For the Win by Cory Doctorow

There are a lot of MMO's being played, and this story is about those who work in the MMO's - gold farmers, enforcers, game masters, and contracted game designers. Their stories collide over labor issues. This is a journey of unions as a concept for these various workers as they clash with the game owners, gold company owners, and police states.

For those perennial players of MMO's this is actually an easier story to get into since you can skip the many explanations of in-game mechanics and slang of MMO's, which are provided for those non-gamers. Some of the economics explanations were helpful though.

There were a lot of viewpoints and not all of them were as fully fleshed out as they could have been, but the collective story they told was well thought out. The ending is what one would expect of a dystopia book and was actually quite fitting if not entirely satisfying.

Be warned there is actually quite a bit of violence. Doctorow is again wonderful in his portrayal of an only slightly altered present day. He take today's societies and tech affixations and adds a dose of need to control opposed by a rebellion element and creates a very interesting world to read about.

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