Customer Reviews

FOR THE WIN

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, thanks are due to the author for his continued decision to release his works free on the Internet. Traditional media would believe it counterintuitive: why would consumers pay for something free? Counterintuitive or not, it works: it reduces the barrier to entry for a consumer. I first got my taste for Doctorow's writing with a free download, but it's one I enjoyed enough that his books -- in traditional form -- reside on my bookshelves and have survived several culls of my collection. Something to consider, publishers.

I may give younger readers too little credit, but this book is lengthy. That's something enjoyable to an adult, as it gives the complex stories time to develop and weave together. But as the book is supposedly oriented towards young adults, I wonder whether the novel's length will prove a barrier to completion.

The book reminds me of other polemic fiction I've read whose main theme is the portrayal of the triumph of a particular political ideal. This plays to one of Doctorow's strengths -- his zealotry. Doctorow believes in his ideals and thus crafts his characters so they do.

Additionally, Doctorow has a particular knack, very enjoyable for the reader, of putting together ideas in a way that have the ring of common sense, yet in a way in which they hadn't quite yet been put together -- a certain "sticky", memorable way that sits easily in the brainpan. Certainly, reputation economics has been around since time immemorial ... but only Doctorow termed it "whuffie" in his first novel, and since then, that's what many people know it as. That knack is in full display in this novel.

Still, for this reviewer, the "triumph" of this particular political ideal ended up also causing problems with suspension of disbelief. Despite my desire to be optimistic about the world, this book displays a grand-scale triumph over big business interests -- and an act of enlightened behavior on big business' part -- that I just don't see happening in reality. Of course, that opinion may easily be attributable to cynical elements within my own worldview, and, given that this is a young adult book, hopefully such elements will not have had as much time to take root in younger readers.

An additional "flaw" I found is one on a larger scale: Doctorow's novels have recently begun trending more towards polemics, and away from individual character growth and development. When I read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe, or Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, it is clear I'm witnessing events happening to a single character, a life experience that involves growth and development, set in a Doctorow "geek world" I'd love to inhabit with Doctorow-style geek characters I'd love to have in my life. The geek relationships in those books are reminiscent of one of my most favorite books, Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland ... and that's one of the best compliments I can give an author.

Nowadays, though, the brush he's wielding with Makers, Little Brother, and now this novel -- it is one that strikes me as far more broad and less subtle. To borrow film directors as an analogy, Doctorow seems to be writing in the style of Michael Bay lately, instead of character studies such as one might see with Scorsese or Kubrick.

I'd like to see him work more towards those character studies he first worked with. I hope to see him work more with the framework of characters interacting in near-future worlds, a framework used in his earlier works, rather than the grand tales of polemic futurepolitik he has recently begun writing.

You can't sum up For The Win, by comparing it to other books. Instead when you think of it you have to take pieces from many different entertainment icons. For example when I try to describe For The Win, I would compare it to a combination of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, Halo, and the movie The Sting. Only after having considered all of these pieces can you get an inkling of what For The Win is like.

And yet it is more than all of that. For The Win also included important and accurate descriptions of financial definitions and schemes, such as buying futures, economies of scale, and even a ponzi scheme. But these inter-chapters detailing financial issues are critical to understanding the book, and so I was amazed at how well Doctorow is able to convey these issues to the reader.

But as I mentioned For The Win is more than that. It is an enthralling action packed novel that has detailed memorable characters, detailed plot twists, and an engaging story. Because of this I would recommend this book to anyone, teen or adult, as it is an exceptional novel that both teaches and entertains, a rare feat in any book. And so everyone should go out and get it today.

[...]

Maybe it's just me, but Cory's books are beginning to read like libertarian fanfiction. As with Makers, this book was didactic and segued into "let's study economics" a little too often for my liking. As always, the bad guys are demonized and the good guys get all the sympathetic ink.

"Heavy-handed" is the word one would use for Cory's books. I applaud the clarity of the writing--there is no way to mistake what Cory's trying to say--but if there's one thing that turns me off, it's preaching. Little Brother was the strongest of all Cory's books, and on the strength of that (and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom) I have given all his books a chance, but honestly, the pedantism throughout Makers was a letdown, and For the Win did not score a Win with me for the same reason. Cory needs to cut down on the lecturing, stat.

I think I'm done with Cory's books for life unless he pulls out something significantly different in the future. Don't get me wrong, I sympathize with the gold farmers and I deplore the exploitation that occurs, but I read For the Win hoping he would describe a solution (as he did in Little Brother). I was at least all right with the way Makers ended. With For The Win, I had the distinct feeling the ending was a cop-out. I am not impressed.

If you have ever read another Cory Doctorow book, then you may already be a fan of 'For the Win.' It is a fast-paced and intelligent story that qualifies as young adult literature, but pleases audiences much older. At times it rings of Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' or the dim almost-futures of certain Phillip K. Dick stories. A few sci-fi references are peppered in as easter eggs for true fans.

But, if you are new to the author, then please consider this an invitation to join Doctorow's clever world.

'For The Win' starts in the world of gamers and teenagers, two groups who don't seem to get enough respect from their "real world" co-inhabitants, but as soon as implementations in the game affect real-world labor, Doctorow takes his readers down a very real road of economic and strategic warcraft that is played everyday among hackers or world leaders. He showcases an impressive ability to use complex economic ideas in his plot with only limited, though sometimes pedantic, explanations. These economic plotlines allow a frighteningly fascinating glimpse into esoteric economies that proceed everyday.

I read through the novel with the same enthusiasm as 'FTW''s dedicated gamers. This excellent novel of action and revolution makes an excellent addition to Doctorow's teeming book list.

Cory Doctorow's gospel of the brave new world of the future that isn't all that far removed from today continues with For The Win. Like the novel that preceded it, Makers, which proposed a consumer-led society and a necessarily flexible business model with no great vision other than to churn out disposable crap and cater to nostalgia through self-evolving theme park rides, many will also "blame" the author here for not giving them a more idealistic, utopian society that they believe the rapid advancements in technology should bring, rather than the continually dumbed-down one that is more likely to be the case.

Doctorow is not here to offer any comforting visions in For The Win, finding instead a near-future where it's gamers who call the shots and potentially earn the big bucks, even if it is just virtual gold in worldwide-networked computer games. When you think about it, is this any less unlikely a scenario than banks and investors trading in "virtual" stocks and shares with your borrowed money? It's a potential economic "reality" that Charles Stross has already recognised in his novel Halting State, considering the impact that the robbery of a weapons store in a computer game can have on the players and the business who need to protect their customer's interests and investments - even if that investment is nothing more than virtual treasures, weapons and gold.

Similarly with "a connection to the net and a brain in your head", in For The Win, there's money to be made in the virtual world of Svartalfheim, Mushroom Kingdom or Zombie Mecha for enterprising gamers, gold farmers, willing to collect precious objects, weapons and powers that can be speculated upon and traded with other players too lazy to do it themselves, or just looking for an easy entry into a popular game without having to put the necessary hard work and the hours into it. Not unsurprisingly, the workers earning the little money that this brings in are all based in China, India and Indonesia, and they are exploited, much in the same way as today by the greed of the Western world. The net can however also make it possible for those exploited workers to join up and form a powerful global union and maybe do something about it.

And again, Doctorow is absolutely right. Ok, so maybe the computer game will not become the stock market of the future (some people do unfortunately take Doctorow a little bit too literally, regarding him as some kind of prophet) but the principle is sound, the author considering historical examples of economic theory and extrapolating on how this could be affected by a new global community with new rising economic forces and the potential offered by great advances in technology. When I say "gospel" however, Doctorow can be annoyingly preachy at times, using his characters more as mouthpieces than real people, having one sit down with another and condescendingly explain economic theory in kiddie terms. Ultimately, the ideas take precedence over the story - the characters are interesting, but never come to life when they are used as little more than sentimental pawns - but the lesson is an interesting one and it's one worth going over in detail in order to consider where the future might take us, or whether to a large extent we're not already there.

This is one of the best YA books I've read this year. You want to understand the world children live in, what they can do for hours and hours in a game, this is a book for you. Do you want to be enlightened to the fact that sweatshops exist in all shapes and sizes? This is the book for you. Are you interested in economics, stocks, ponzi schemes and other scams, unionization and it's future? This is definitely the book for you.

With a patient hand, Cory Doctorow gives clear, easy to understand examples of everything I talked about in my previous paragraph. Even if you are not a gamer, an explanation is always handy when gamer terms are brought into this story. If you are a teenager, then no worries - every single scheme is detailed out with easy to understand analogies.

The story flips back and forth between China, India, the US .. the entire globe. Everywhere children are being mistreated by the "bosses", those monopolizing the gold farming market - but these kids are good. They're really good, and now they are demanding the decent rights that every worker should have. This is not your typical video gaming set of kids - these are children who play 15+ hours a DAY farming the same area over and over - why? Because they love the games.

I could seriously rattle on and on about how much I loved this book, but I want everyone to read it. Gamer or no, this book should be on your list - give it to the teenagers you know, recommend it. I feel like, for the first time, I have some understanding with regards to how economics works .. all because of a book about gaming.

This is my first taste of Cory Doctorow, and I confess myself hooked.

FTW is ostensibly a YA novel about kids who play videogames. A few chapters in, though, and you realize it's much more than that--it's about economics and labour unions, about people and cultures, and very adult in how real and brutal all of it is. If you see the young adult label and are leery that it will be childish wish-fulfillment material, there's no need to: the young protagonists don't make the novel childish. Quite the opposite; their age emphasizes the harshness of their circumstances. They're beaten. They're put in labor camps. They're murdered. Doctorow pulls no punches.

The material is also very *now.* The author is in touch with geeks, Internet memes and gamer subculture as few other writers of near-future sci-fi are. The concept of virtual gold selling for real-world money is already alive today, and Doctorow takes it to its logical conclusion with earnest passion and thorough research. Sweatshops and overworked gold farmers, oppressive bosses and the factory girls they terrorize. Sure, much of the text is taken up by gamer slang and massively multiplayer games, but I don't think any of that is barrier enough to the average reader; after all, Doctorow can simplify economic theories down to a point where non-economists like you and I can understand them, so what's a "tank" and "buff" or two? And despite the scope and rapidly leaping perspectives, the characters are well-drawn, each engaging and vibrant. As is Doctorow's visualizing of their surroundings. It's rare for a writer to manage characters not of their own culture and background this well, and rarer still for a writer to cross not just a gulf of culture but also a huge giant chasm of privilege, but end up without condescending stereotypes. A miracle, even.

It's a book that's got it all. Fun, excitement, intelligence. What more could you ask for?

If somebody alked up to me and said, "I have a book I know you're going to love. It's all about economics, labour unions, and the unfair working conditions in developping countries," I might suspect this person doesn't know my reading tastes very well. Such a book might appeal to those with specific interests, but me, well, that's not my thing.

And then this person would hand me For the Win, and I'd be intrigued because it involves gaming, something I'm familiar with. And then I'd read it, and be blown away.

That's Doctorow's genius in this book. He can take all of the above concepts and make them not only interesting, but make them into something that anyone can relate to, especially today's game-happy youth culture. He can take economics and break them down into the simply complex and absurd things that they are, and make it comprehensible. He makes the legnths that some companies go to to control virtual wealth seem like what it is: ridiculous and yet incredibly valuable. This book makes you look at the world, see it in a different light, and get outraged that it isn't better. It's hard-hitting, heartbreaking, and like the games it talks about, endlessly entertaining.

The characters are, above all else, wonderfully human. There are sides of right and wrong, and the lines are clearly drawn, but the people on the side of good are still flawed, violent and angry and they make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes end up fatal. These are people you could pass on the street, could see at school; they don't have to be half a world away in some poorly-ventilated sweatshop, and that just seeks to underscore the message of labour equality that's the main focus of the novel. "There are no Chinese workers. There are just workers."

If you think this books comes across as being a bit preachy, you'd be right. But when your characters are fighting for the right to refuse 22-hour shifts without being beaten, fighting for the right to not be raped in order to hang onto their jobs, I think a little preachiness is allowed.

This book came to me highly recommended, and it leaves my hands in the same state. Go, pick up this book, read it and learn things that you may not have even thought about before. And I dare you to tell me that at the end of it, you didn't feel your moral centre being tugged at, even just a little.

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.

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.

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

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