Bookbanter Column: In an MMO Far, Far Away (December 16, 2011)

There are many people on this planet who know what an MMO and/or an MMORPG is, but by the same token – like so many things in life – there are also many people who don’t what those acronyms mean.  MMO stands for Massive Multiplayer Online, and MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.  Some examples of these MMOs include EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and the forthcoming and constantly-growing-in-popularity Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is still in beta and scheduled to be fully released December 20.  They’re essentially online video games that allow for much more ability and opportunity than usual console-based video games, and have no real end point: with each new expansion, players have higher levels to achieve, more quests to do, and more of the world to explore.  Players get all this and more for a monthly fee, or some MMOs are free to play (ftp), but payment is required for certain quests or items.  There are literally millions of MMO players across the planet, and I’m proudly one of them.

What’s interesting is that MMOs are starting to show up in fiction, mainly science fiction, usually as a construct of the fictional world the author has created.  Sometimes it is a quasi dystopian future where playing the game is all there really is, while other books have the MMO be a main part of the story and play off it in the real world.  It is an interesting growing sub-genre of science fiction that seems to get new additions each year.

Below are the books featuring MMOs that I have come across in my reading and reviewing, though I am sure there are more out there and invite anyone reading this column to elucidate on them in the comments section.  As you read about these books and their respective MMOs, what do you think it says about our world and our society?  More importantly, what do you think it says about where we’re headed?  How likely is it that some form of one of these MMOs will come to be our reality?  You be the judge.

Reamde by Neal Stephenson: Richard Forthrast is our approaching-middle-age hero who is one of the big brains behind the multi-billion dollar MMO, T’Rain, which is known throughout the world, whether you’re a rich white kid who likes to pretend he’s an elf, or a gold farmer somewhere in Asia looking to make some good money.  T’Rain was in fact created with that in mind – Richard’s past is not a completely clean one by any means – to be open and available and possibly profitable to just about anyone on the planet with a good Internet connection.  And then a very specific virus attacks T’Rain, known as Reamde, which immediately begins making a lot of money for its creators and screwing over a lot of the regular players.  Richard and his team of brainiacs are now working round the clock trying to bring a stop to this.

Meanwhile, one of Richard’s family members – Zula – originally from East Africa and adopted into the family as a young girl, was hired by Richard to work for T’Rain, and becomes involved in a really big problem when her boyfriend Peter – who happens to be a renowned hacker – is looking to make good money selling credit card numbers to a shady, unknown character.  Things take a turn for the worse, when the Reamde virus hits and screws everything up for him.  Before they know it, the Russian mafia is breaking down their door, kidnapping them, and taking them to Asia by private jet to find the perpetrators of the Reamde virus and get their revenge. (Read the full review.)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: In the not-too-distant future, the world is quickly going to hell in a hand basket.  It’s very much a dystopian world, but within this gloomy, depressing place is an MMO that just about everyone plays.  OASIS is not just a game, but a way a life for most, where you can have fun, meet friends, got to school, and pretty much lead a full and entertaining life under the guise of your anonymous avatar (whose façade is of your choosing).  Depending on what people can afford, the experience can be fully sensory so that players feel as if they are actually existing in the world of OASIS and experiencing it in just about every way possible.

James Halliday, who grew up in the 1980’s when computers were beginning to take off, quickly became addicted to video games and then began making his own.  He is the creator of OASIS, which has gone from a game to life and reality for so many people in this world, and he is many times a billionaire.  When he dies, he activates his will which states that whoever finds the three keys and solves the puzzles will be entitled to his entire fortune.  Wade Watts is an eighteen year old nerd who has hopes of finding all three keys and gaining those untold riches.  His parents are dead and he lives with an aunt who treats him terribly and he cares little for her, scraping by in abject poverty.  And now he thinks he might’ve just found the location of the first key. (Read the full review; read an interview with the author.)

Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane: There are two worlds here: the compelling fantasy world of the massive multiplayer online game (MMO) Omnitopia and the real world where video game companies fight to keep doing what they do best and keep the fans hooked, and make lots of money.  It is the near future and when one sits down to play an MMO – like Lord of the Rings Online or World of Warcraft – they can use the familiar screen and keyboard set up, or there is the full immersion into the game, akin to virtual reality only better, where one experiences almost all senses of the game.  It is an incredible complex world of fighting and raiding, of gaining levels and increasing your wealth, and even eating and drinking with friends, while discussing your next strategies.  But Omnitopia is unique as every once in a while it selects one of its subscribers to create their own unique world of their own choosing and actually make money from it.  So there is the world of Omnitopia, and then there are the thousands of other user-created worlds covering all of history and the imagination.  The result is a game that one can quite literally be completely absorbed by, almost forgetting the real world.

Rik Maliani is an ordinary person with an ordinary job who’s been a fan and player of Omnitopia for years.   Then he gets selected to create his own world; it’s a dream come true, especially with the possibility of making serious money, but the question is what type of world to make?  What would make it truly unique and encourage people to come see and play?  As Rik begins creating his world, he notices some unusual events happening in the world of Omnitopia that seem to affect the one he is creating, but at the same time to be affected by his world somehow.

Dev Logan is the CEO of Omnitopia and started the whole enterprise many years ago as a college student, and is now the eighth richest man in the world because of it.  He has a crack team of computer whizzes and geniuses who spend their days monitoring Omnitopia, making sure it’s running as smoothly as possible, and preventing the constant attacks and hacks against the worldwide popular MMO.  And now things are really heating up, as the new expansion is about to be released.  Everyone is working pretty much nonstop and none more so than Dev, who forgets to even eat at times.  Delia Harrington is doing a story on Omnitopia for Time Magazine about the company and the expansion.  As Dev deals with the reporter – who seems to be snooping around a little more than she should be – he’s constantly being barraged by updates and news on what’s happening with Omnitopia.  It seems there are an absurd number of attacks building against the MMO, more so than usual, even for an expansion, but then that’s all in a day’s work for the CEO of Omnitopia.

Finally, there is Phil Sorensen, who was a good friend of Dev’s in college – they were going to revolutionize the gaming world together, but then had a falling out – and is the CEO for Infinity Inc. with his own giant, money-making MMO.  He would like nothing more than to see everything that is Omnitopia come crashing down, and have Dev come crying back to him.  He’s going to stop at nothing to make this happen. (Read the full review.)

For the Win by Cory Doctorow: For anyone who’s ever played an MMO game like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online, you know it can be a lot of fun.  What you might not know is that if you’re really good at it, play it just right, and know where to advertise, you can make a lot of money from it.  There are certain quests or missions that can be repeated over and over for maximum experience points and/or gold; that gold can be turned into cash.  People who do this are known as gold farmers; it’s illegal; thousands of people around the world do it for profit. (Read the full review; listen to an interview with the author.)

Daemon by Daniel Suarez: Daemon begins with Matthew Sobol, a renowned computer programmer and video game designer, dead from cancer.  It is upon his death, when the obituary is posted online, that the dormant daemon is unleashed upon the world.  In this world – just like our own – everything is automated and computerized: banking, transportation, defense, government, patient records; there are few things remaining “off the grid.”  The daemon works fast and incredibly efficient, beginning a systematic takedown of technology and world systems, causing deaths and the collapse of companies, and a financial meltdown that is scarily similar to the current economic climate.

It’s up to Detective Sebeck and computer genius Jon Ross to try and stop the daemon somehow from destroying everything.  Then there is The Grid, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game – in the style of World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online – created by Sobol, where the daemon secretly begins recruiting the disaffected but brilliant youth who play the game as part of its efforts to bring down technology and society. (Read the full
review; listen to an interview with the author.)

As you can see, each MMO is quite different in each book, and in how the MMO is used as a construct.  Sometimes it is a tool for good, sometimes a tool for evil, and sometimes a tool for something completely different.  Regardless of what the future may hold for us in the growing world of MMOs, and whether any of these possible and seemingly plausible realities will come into being, the fact that this subject is being written about by a growing number of different authors sends a message that this is not something we can just ignore or assume will go away.  MMOs are here to stay, whether some of us like it or not, for good or ill; the question remains: how are they going to stay and what affect will they grow to and continue to have on our lives.  Only the future knows.

“Pirate Cinema” by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen, 2012)

After the success of Little Brother and For the Win, bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns with another young adult novel about an oppressed youth who is looking to change the world for the better in an uncertain near future.  This time Doctorow jumps across the pond to Britain, where he spends a good portion of his time, and writes about the subject of internet piracy.

In a near future, Trent McCauley is a smart sixteen year-old who does his school work but spends most of his time downloading videos of a fictitious celebrity and creating vids about him using clips from all the movies the person has been in, telling a specific story, usually played to music.  He has a lot of fun doing it and there’s definitely an artwork and talent to it.  Then the internet is cut off in the household under the recent law for internet piracy, and the family is now severed from the internet at home for a whole year; which is really important.  Trent’s sister needs it to do all her school work, she simply won’t pass her classes without it; his mother needs it to get support for her medical condition; and his father needs it because he’s unemployed, and needs to claim his unemployment checks, as well as look for jobs.  It puts the family in a dire situation, with Trent feeling really guilty about the whole thing.

So he does what any teenager would logically do: he runs away from home.  He arrives in London with high hopes of living on the street, which are soon dashed when his belongings are stolen and he finds himself hungry and terribly alone, and wondering if he’s made a terrible mistake.  But he soon makes some new friends who show him the ropes and how to get by pretty easily in London, eventually leading them to squat in an abandoned pub, where they get the power back on, the internet going, and life begins to go pretty well.

Their goal is to have lots of movie viewing parties via a secret internet website that gets people together, to support the vid-making industry and create awareness about what they’re doing and why it isn’t wrong and shouldn’t be illegal.  They’re also looking to fight back against the passing of a recent law in Parliament that is now imprisoning teenagers and children for internet piracy.  Their numbers begin to grow, and gain support; the question is how they are going to make this change happen, without coming off as a radical group of homeless people.

Pirate Cinema feels a lot like the British version of Little Brother, as Doctorow has done his work with how the government works and how the internet is used and perceived in Britain.  He even goes so far as to use a British vernacular, with plenty of slang thrown in.  The weakness of the book is in the conflicts and issues the main character has to deal with.  Trent definitely gets himself into some direct situations and problems, but they’re never really that hard or tough, and he always gets out of it real easy.  It still makes for an enjoyable story that is lacking in potential dramatic tension.  Readers — especially teens — will nevertheless enjoy the book for what it’s trying to do.

Originally written on December 5, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Pirate Cinema from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“The Chronicles of Harris Burdick” edited by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton Mifflin, 2011)

Many readers, no matter what age they might be, are familiar with Chris Van Allsburg’s unforgettable, award-winning classic, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, presenting fourteen unique and incredible illustrations that spark the mind and begin moving the gears of the imagination.  The illustrations have gone on to serve as great starting points for many schoolkids around the world looking to engage and develop their storytelling and writing abilities; a number of them still have those original stories they created when they were kids (my wife is one of them).

Now, over twenty-five years after the publication of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, fourteen renowned and well-known authors put their own minds to the task of creating original stories from these iconic works of art.  The likes of Louis Sachar, Sherman Alexie, Kate DiCamillo, Cory Doctorow, Lois Lowry, and even Chris Van Allsburg himself, create their own moving and special stories, most of them published here for the first time.  Stephen King also takes on the story of the house launching itself into the sky, originally published in his Nightmares & Dreamscapes short story collection, it is reprinted here.  The Chronicles of Harris Burdick also features an introduction from Lemony Snicket, with some of his thoughts on where these illustrations might have come from.

 The book is a keeper, to be added next to one’s own copy of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and to be picked up and read, as well as read aloud to others, over and over again.

Originally written on November 20, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

11/09/11 On the Bookshelf . . . “The Prague Cemetery” & “The Chronicles of Harris Burdick”

   

The new one from Umberto Eco, which sounds real interesting, and maybe I’ll finally read my first Umberto Eco book!  And then we have a certain well known book by Chris Van Allsberg with some truly unforgettable images, and Stephen King happened to write a great short story off of one of them in Nightmares & Dreamscapes, and now 13 other authors have done the same and we have this great collection of stories on these images, featuring original writing by Sherman Alexie, Kate DiCamillo, Cory Doctorow, and more.

“With at Little Help” by Cory Doctorow (CreateSpace, 2011)

By now many people will be familiar with the bestselling co-editor of Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow, after the young adult novel Little Brother, and his great adult book, Makers.  Doctorow clearly has a knack for not just being to be able to string a bunch of words together creatively and skillfully, but each and every story is an important “What if?” to tell.  Sometimes Doctorow offers dates, sometimes not; but readers can usually guess his stories are set in either the near future or within the next hundred years, involving a possible future that will capture, delight, and sometimes terrify.  Doctorow seems to grasp at our idle thoughts of this century and the next, transforming them into a believable possibility that really makes us wonder.

With a Little Help collects thirteen of his short stories that have seen publication in anthologies or magazines or other media over the past few years revealing Doctorow’s ability to tell a great, captivating science fiction story not just in long form, but also in short with developed characters you can connect with and a story that will haunt you and stay with you long after you have finished it.  Whether it’s the Internet, government, politics, or religion, Doctorow seems to have a unique take on it all, presenting a world that we’re encroaching upon right now, or will be in the ensuing decades.

The book is also an experiment in itself, only available as a print on demand in printed form, or available free as an ebook, though donations are politely requested through his website.  One might think in this day and age of piracy and scouring the Internet for illegal free items, this concept would result in failure, and yet this great collection continues to make money, which Doctorow isn’t ashamed to hide with monthly financial reports.  Perhaps, then, this is the message he is trying to share in his compelling stories: there is still hope . . .

Originally written on June 7, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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“Brave New Worlds” edited by John Joseph Adams (Nightshade Books, 2011)

1984 came and went without Big Brother rearing his ugly head in quite the way he did in the book; though one could say things got a little hairy during George W. Bush’s eight years of the Patriot Act and Home land Security, and yet in today’s world can you really say that you are completely free to do as you please without feeling like anybody’s watching you?  Perhaps you see this world in a different light: do you use a disposable phone, screen your calls, use “incognito mode” in all your online browsing, and feel like various agencies within the government are watching you constantly, whether it’s where you’re shopping, what you’re eating, or perhaps what books you’re checking out of the library.  If this is the case, you’re going to want to own a copy of Brave New Worlds, and if it’s not, well, you should read it too, because it’s a really fantastic collection of stories of a dystopian future where freedom is a whispered, secret word, not to be uttered aloud to anyone.

John Joseph Adams, bestselling editor of such great anthologies as Wastelands and The Living Dead does a fantastic job of collecting stories of dystopian worlds, covering just about the entire history of the science fiction genre.  Brave New Worlds starts off with “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson – a story many of us became familiar with in high school and college, but can now be read for sheer enjoyment; to Ursula LeGuin’s unforgettable “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” – a story of a paradise where every day is a joy for its citizens, except for one child locked away in a cell in constant suffering.  Many big name authors make the cut, with the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and Orson Scott Card; as well as some more recent bestselling names of the genre, like Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow and Carrie Vaughan.

Some of these dystopian stories are similar, some are completely unique and surprising; all playing on the concept of having our necessary freedoms stripped away from us, leaving us hollow shells; the question is whether we choose to go along blindly and submit, or fight.  Perhaps you’re wondering if there’s a story about a future where young people donate their organs to old people, or looking forward the original short story of Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report”; either way,  Brave New Worlds will be an absolute delight for anyone who enjoys a story about a doomed future.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on March 6, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

“Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow (TOR, 2008)

With the end of the Bush presidency, some may be forgetting those times, with the war on terror, the propaganda of fear; while others may still be living and experiencing the horrors perpetrated by the Department of Homeland Security.  In Little Brother, Cory Doctorow gives his response, in his own, unique, techie way.

Marcus is a seventeen year old boy who seems ordinary in many ways.  He’s a nerd who plays MMOs with his friends, and is a computer geek who can hack his way in just about anything.  He’s essentially the exact sort of person the Department of Homeland Security and the government wants to be watching and trying to catch committing any illegal activity.  Then the whole world changes, as a devastating terrorist attack is committed in San Francisco, the Bay Bridge blown to pieces, sending thousands to their deaths.  Marcus finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying his best to get away from the horror and devastation; but the Department of Homeland Security thinks otherwise, capturing him and his friends and taking them to Treasure Island close by; a place that comes to be known as “Gitmo by the Bay.”  After three days of interrogation and being horribly treated, Marcus is freed, after being forced to sign a contract and the promise that he is never to utter a word of his incarceration and experience to anyone. Marcus finds himself in a different world where the DHS is in control and watching everyone.  It’s a world of fear and suspicion.  It’s not a place of freedom and free speech anymore.  Marcus plans on trying to change that and bring back the country he knows and loves.

Doctorow does what he does best in Little Brother, providing a riveting story with lots of computer tech and Internet shortcutting, making the reader wonder how much of this is possible, and how much the government is really watching.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.

Originally written on July 24 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

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07/21 On the Bookshelf . . . “Little Brother”

Received a review copy of Litter Brother by Cory Doctorow, which I’ve been wanting to check for some time.  After thoroughly enjoying Makers and For the Win, I look forward to reading one of Cory’s first books that made him big.

“For the Win” by Cory Doctorow (Tor, 2010)

For anyone who’s ever played an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online, you know it can be a lot of fun.  What you might not know is that if you’re really good at it, play it just right, and know where to advertise, you can make a lot of money from it.  There are certain quests or missions that can be repeated over and over for maximum experience points and/or gold; that gold can be turned into cash.  People who do this are known as gold farmers; it’s illegal; thousands of people around the world do it for profit.

In For the Win, Cory Doctorow goes into depth with this world, revealing the teenagers that love to play, but also the children in India, Malaysia and China that work nonstop grueling hours for little money.  But those who play these games, learn and know a lot about what they do.  Doctorow takes it up a notch by having these slave laborers fight back, forming unions and protective groups to fight for their rights as employees.  The result is a fascinating and fun story that kids, teenagers, or adults can enjoy.

If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Originally written on June 9 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

BookBanter Episode 31 with Cory Doctorow

AN INTERVIEW WITH CORY DOCTOROW

Cory Doctorow keeps himself busy with his nonstop writing and publishing of books, his many blog postings, the work he does for Boing Boing, as well as raising a child. He is the author of a number of books including Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. His latest books are Makersfor adults and For the Win for young adults.

In this interview, Cory Doctorow talks about what is was that got him into writing, how he got started with Boing Boing, where he got his idea for Makers from, and the new book he’s working on. He also talks about where he thinks technology and the Internet are head in the near future. Featured in the episode are my reviews for Makers, For the Win, Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, and Audrey’s Door by Sarah Langan.

Please join me next time, on July 1st, for a written interview with graphic novel artist and writer Brian Wood, who is the creator and writer of the graphic novel series DMZ and Northlanders.

Until then, keep reading!

Alex C. Telander.