Hardcover, 480 pages
Published May 11, 2010 by Tor Teen.
Young adult science fiction set in the present or near future. The characters are "gold farmers" extracting virtual resources from online games and selling them to richer players. Their exploitation leads them to unionize, which leads to violence and trickery. In the virtual future, you must organize to survive
At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual “gold,” jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless “gold farmers,” bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.
Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat …
Young adult science fiction set in the present or near future. The characters are "gold farmers" extracting virtual resources from online games and selling them to richer players. Their exploitation leads them to unionize, which leads to violence and trickery. In the virtual future, you must organize to survive
At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual “gold,” jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless “gold farmers,” bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.
Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of “General Robotwalla.” In Shenzen, heart of China’s industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.
The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power—including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister’s people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once—a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.
Imbued with the same lively, subversive spirit and thrilling storytelling that made LITTLE BROTHER an international sensation, FOR THE WIN is a prophetic and inspiring call-to-arms for a new generation
Interesting mingling of story with passages on economic futurism and labor theory. I like the style, although it does come off as a bit didactic. It definitely makes me want to read more Doctorow. Sort of a weak ending, but overall a great ride.
I loved Little Brother, and For the Win comes from a similar place, a desire by Cory to identify something that's broken in the world and spin a tale of one possible way to fix it. With Little Brother it was our basic freedom from State interference. With For the Win, the target is just as universal: worker's rights amd global economic theory. With this tale, however, there are multiple points of view from multiple characters - no way to get around this given the subject matter, but it diluted the narrative drive of the books somewhat. I read the free ebook version direct from Cory's website so perhaps the final edit of the print version tightened up on that slight failing. But the issues the book deals with are well set out and the way Cory can explain complex economic theories in an entertaining and informative way means this …
I loved Little Brother, and For the Win comes from a similar place, a desire by Cory to identify something that's broken in the world and spin a tale of one possible way to fix it. With Little Brother it was our basic freedom from State interference. With For the Win, the target is just as universal: worker's rights amd global economic theory. With this tale, however, there are multiple points of view from multiple characters - no way to get around this given the subject matter, but it diluted the narrative drive of the books somewhat. I read the free ebook version direct from Cory's website so perhaps the final edit of the print version tightened up on that slight failing. But the issues the book deals with are well set out and the way Cory can explain complex economic theories in an entertaining and informative way means this is another must read for people who like their spec fic grounded in meaningful real-world politics.
