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cpt_tusktooth's review against another edition
4.0
Technically sci-fi but more likely a glimpse into a possible future, For the Win examines a world captivated by online gaming and the economic and social repercussions such a world would encounter. Doctorow does a great job of putting economic policies and theories into layman terms so than even a dummy like me could comprehend. Many characters have their stories weave together and make this novel a fun read from a multi-national point of view.
maddox22's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
ashtardeza's review against another edition
3.0
I like Doctorow's style of writing, and in general he gave a very vivid description of the world of gaming.
What got on my nerves was the lecturing tone and the chaotic nature of the story. Ironically, where he spends pages lecturing the reader on general economics, he seems to skip a lot of detail about how exactly fighting virtual battles fits into the greater scheme of things.
What got on my nerves was the lecturing tone and the chaotic nature of the story. Ironically, where he spends pages lecturing the reader on general economics, he seems to skip a lot of detail about how exactly fighting virtual battles fits into the greater scheme of things.
abmgw's review against another edition
4.0
Good book about interresting and important issues... i did not like the open end. Feels like book 1 of a trilogy.
treyhunner's review against another edition
3.0
This book has less technology focus than Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and less government/corporate corruption than Little Brother and Pirate Cinema. The primary focus is abuse of workers around the world and unionization.
sandraagee's review against another edition
4.0
More than anything this book is a lesson in economics and labor issues. But it's a really interesting lesson - some of my favorite parts were the scenes where the narrator pulls back to explain exactly how the economics works. You don't have to have a lot of gamer knowledge to understand what they're talking about as Doctorow does a great job of giving you the details that you need as you need them without (and this is the impressive part) talking down to those readers who actually do have some gamer knowledge. There's an awful lot going on in this book - lots of different characters dealing with a number of different situations - but they all come together very nicely in the end.
I list this book as being both for teens and adults. Yes, two of the central characters are teens and teens are certainly part of the major gaming demographic that is likely to be immediately intrigued by this book. But there's so much going on on so many levels that I truly think that any adult could pick up this book and fully appreciate the humanity of what happens in this story. Besides, there are plenty of grown-up gamers too - the largest demographic by far is actually between the ages of 20-25 followed closely by the 25-30 crowd. What does that say about the target audience for this book? The book isn't really about gaming per se, but that's going to be a big pull for a lot of people.
The great thing about this book: It's all very realistic. I've seen a few other reviews of this book that say otherwise, but this isn't a book set in the future about what could happen if everything goes wrong. There truly are huge game economies out there and gold farming is major business for a lot of people. It's partially this realism that makes the story so intense. Something like this could really happen either now or a few years down the road and it's interesting to see how it plays out in this fictional account.
I list this book as being both for teens and adults. Yes, two of the central characters are teens and teens are certainly part of the major gaming demographic that is likely to be immediately intrigued by this book. But there's so much going on on so many levels that I truly think that any adult could pick up this book and fully appreciate the humanity of what happens in this story. Besides, there are plenty of grown-up gamers too - the largest demographic by far is actually between the ages of 20-25 followed closely by the 25-30 crowd. What does that say about the target audience for this book? The book isn't really about gaming per se, but that's going to be a big pull for a lot of people.
The great thing about this book: It's all very realistic. I've seen a few other reviews of this book that say otherwise, but this isn't a book set in the future about what could happen if everything goes wrong. There truly are huge game economies out there and gold farming is major business for a lot of people. It's partially this realism that makes the story so intense. Something like this could really happen either now or a few years down the road and it's interesting to see how it plays out in this fictional account.
whatulysses's review against another edition
4.0
Good concept, but at some point I had my fill of the concept/universe and was a little too old for the economics & social theory monologues that intersperse the actual story. Probably a pitfall of a YA book that includes labor unions?
Maybe would have gone differently if I'd read instead of listened to the audio version, and my library didn't keep yanking the files away after 1 week.
Maybe would have gone differently if I'd read instead of listened to the audio version, and my library didn't keep yanking the files away after 1 week.
phronk's review against another edition
4.0
[Review originally published on Phronk.com: Book Review - For the Win by Cory Doctorow]
Cory Doctorow's upcoming young adult novel, For the Win (or FTW), may not sound all that interesting on the surface.
At its core, this is a book about economics and the formation of unions. Boooring. Yet Doctorow weaves an intense story around these potentially dry topics, resulting in one of the most riveting books I've read this year.
For the Win takes place in the near future, when multiplayer online games—descendants of Everquest and World of Warcraft—have continued to rise in popularity. Gold farmers work long hours under harsh conditions to harvest digital items and currency from the games so they can be sold for real cash. When they realize they are being mistreated, they begin to come together and fight for their rights, in both the real world and in gamespace.
This isn't exactly science fiction. All of the technology described in the novel already exists, in only slightly less advanced form (e.g., the most exotic technology I can recall is a retinal scanner that starts a car). This grounding in our reality means that the struggles Doctorow deals with will become reality, where they haven't already.
Indeed, the economies of online games will begin to rival the economies of small countries; they're already worth billions of dollars per year. When that much money is involved, the line between online worlds and the real world is bound to get fuzzy. For the Win emphasizes that, at their hearts, life is a big game, and games are serious business. Economics, power, gambling, risk, violence: they're all just games that will be played in any place people gather, real or virtual.
It's interesting to see Doctorow's vision of social media, as well. He demonstrates that, in a world where text, pictures, radio broadcasts, videos, etc., can be instantly created and transmitted to a network of people anywhere in the world (the main characters are in the U.S., India, and China, yet all work together), the organizations that used to control the transmission of information no longer have power. It's like an effortless novelization of Clay Shirky's ideas about technology and social networking.
For the Win breaks some rules of the typical YA novel by being longer than it needs to be, and having so many characters that they can get mixed up. "Show don't tell" doesn't apply, with character-free tangents explaining complex economic topics that I found fascinating but could be dry to most. But you know what? Cory Doctorow can break the rules, because he's a fucking genius. He has great ideas coming out of his ass. He could bang out unedited thoughts into an unordered list and it would still be a great read.
It could, however, be considered too one-sided. While it all makes sense in the context of the story, there is nary an anti-union word in the book. With London [Ontario:]'s month-long bus strike just coming to an end yesterday [this review was originally published on December 15th 2009:], I'm of the opinion that there are situations in which unions can become the greedy organizations they were designed to combat. It's often not possible for all workers to come together, like when the workers who need buses to get to work can't do so because the workers who drive the buses want more money.
In any case, the story of unions, economics, and video games that Doctorow has created is exciting and eye-opening. It will probably appeal most to nerdier, technology-oriented types with an interest in the money game that makes the world go 'round, but almost anyone could find something to love here. for the win ftw.
----------
Note: This book doesn't come out until May of next year. As far as I can Google, this is the first review on the entire internet. I pledged Cory Doctorow my eternal love if he'd send me a copy, and he was kind enough to email me an early draft. It's full of errors both small and substantial, but I'm sure they will be corrected. My copy of For the Win, for the record, is the "second manuscript printing," dated October 8th 2009. If anyone expresses a problem with the existence of this review, I will certainly take it into consideration.
----------
P.S. Somebody needs to actually create Zombie Mecha (one of the games in the book), right now.
Cory Doctorow's upcoming young adult novel, For the Win (or FTW), may not sound all that interesting on the surface.
At its core, this is a book about economics and the formation of unions. Boooring. Yet Doctorow weaves an intense story around these potentially dry topics, resulting in one of the most riveting books I've read this year.
For the Win takes place in the near future, when multiplayer online games—descendants of Everquest and World of Warcraft—have continued to rise in popularity. Gold farmers work long hours under harsh conditions to harvest digital items and currency from the games so they can be sold for real cash. When they realize they are being mistreated, they begin to come together and fight for their rights, in both the real world and in gamespace.
This isn't exactly science fiction. All of the technology described in the novel already exists, in only slightly less advanced form (e.g., the most exotic technology I can recall is a retinal scanner that starts a car). This grounding in our reality means that the struggles Doctorow deals with will become reality, where they haven't already.
Indeed, the economies of online games will begin to rival the economies of small countries; they're already worth billions of dollars per year. When that much money is involved, the line between online worlds and the real world is bound to get fuzzy. For the Win emphasizes that, at their hearts, life is a big game, and games are serious business. Economics, power, gambling, risk, violence: they're all just games that will be played in any place people gather, real or virtual.
It's interesting to see Doctorow's vision of social media, as well. He demonstrates that, in a world where text, pictures, radio broadcasts, videos, etc., can be instantly created and transmitted to a network of people anywhere in the world (the main characters are in the U.S., India, and China, yet all work together), the organizations that used to control the transmission of information no longer have power. It's like an effortless novelization of Clay Shirky's ideas about technology and social networking.
For the Win breaks some rules of the typical YA novel by being longer than it needs to be, and having so many characters that they can get mixed up. "Show don't tell" doesn't apply, with character-free tangents explaining complex economic topics that I found fascinating but could be dry to most. But you know what? Cory Doctorow can break the rules, because he's a fucking genius. He has great ideas coming out of his ass. He could bang out unedited thoughts into an unordered list and it would still be a great read.
It could, however, be considered too one-sided. While it all makes sense in the context of the story, there is nary an anti-union word in the book. With London [Ontario:]'s month-long bus strike just coming to an end yesterday [this review was originally published on December 15th 2009:], I'm of the opinion that there are situations in which unions can become the greedy organizations they were designed to combat. It's often not possible for all workers to come together, like when the workers who need buses to get to work can't do so because the workers who drive the buses want more money.
In any case, the story of unions, economics, and video games that Doctorow has created is exciting and eye-opening. It will probably appeal most to nerdier, technology-oriented types with an interest in the money game that makes the world go 'round, but almost anyone could find something to love here. for the win ftw.
----------
Note: This book doesn't come out until May of next year. As far as I can Google, this is the first review on the entire internet. I pledged Cory Doctorow my eternal love if he'd send me a copy, and he was kind enough to email me an early draft. It's full of errors both small and substantial, but I'm sure they will be corrected. My copy of For the Win, for the record, is the "second manuscript printing," dated October 8th 2009. If anyone expresses a problem with the existence of this review, I will certainly take it into consideration.
----------
P.S. Somebody needs to actually create Zombie Mecha (one of the games in the book), right now.
djhobby's review against another edition
3.0
This was a good read.
It wasn't great, but definitely worth reading. It kind of dragged on near the end but I still liked it. I would love it if the author's intention of the whole world's workers organized into one large labor union. This book is pro-labor, and so am I.
My biggest complaint about this book is the phrase "chin waggling." Doctorow must have used that phrase 200 times, which is about 197 times too many. His use of that phrase started to get distracting from the actual story, and I'm still not 100% sure what he means by it...
Short review: Good book, glad I read it...Would I recommend it? Only to other pro-labor, liberal readers. Or to right wingers who need their blood pressure raised.
Keep up the good work Cory Doctorow.
It wasn't great, but definitely worth reading. It kind of dragged on near the end but I still liked it. I would love it if the author's intention of the whole world's workers organized into one large labor union. This book is pro-labor, and so am I.
My biggest complaint about this book is the phrase "chin waggling." Doctorow must have used that phrase 200 times, which is about 197 times too many. His use of that phrase started to get distracting from the actual story, and I'm still not 100% sure what he means by it...
Short review: Good book, glad I read it...Would I recommend it? Only to other pro-labor, liberal readers. Or to right wingers who need their blood pressure raised.
Keep up the good work Cory Doctorow.