For The Win by Cory Doctorow
Jul. 16th, 2013 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Not far in the future …
In Industrial South China Matthew and his friends labour day and night as gold-farmers, amassing virtual wealth that’s sold on to rich Western players, while in the slums of Mumbai ‘General Robotwallah’ Mala marshalls her team of online thugs on behalf of the local gang-boss, who in turn works for the game-owners. They’re all being exploited, as their friend Wei-Dong, all the way over in LA, knows, but can do little about it.
Until they begin to realise that their similarities outweigh their differences, and agree to work together to claim their rights to fair working conditions. Under the noses of the ruling elites, the owners in China and the rest of Asia, they fight their bosses, the owners of the games and rich speculators, outsmarting them all with their gaming skills.
But soon the battle will spill over from the virtual world to the real one, leaving Mala, Matthew and even Wei-Dong fighting not just for their rights, but for their lives …
In the near future MMORPGs are big business. Companies like Coca Cola run games with economies bigger than that of some countries, their wealth built around scarce objects used within the game like weapons and armour. But not everyone shares the financial benefits. The actual gamers - youngsters in India, China and other far eastern countries - work for criminal gangs, earning little money and working long hours and while they start off loving the opportunity to play games and get paid, their bosses turn nasty should they want to set up business on their own.
But everything changes when a group of gamers decide to unionise. They form the Webblys and it’s not long before they’re recruiting new members worldwide, determined to take on the game owners to get fair wages and working conditions for all gamers. What follows is an on-line revolution but no revolution is without casualties …
Cory Doctorow’s YA economic thriller is a plodding, dull polemic with two-dimensional characters weighed down by economic and financial theory. Although I admire the attempt to get teens engaged with politics, ultimately the story’s smothered by the message and moralising.
The story hangs around a number of recurring characters. Mala’s a young girl in a poor neighbourhood of Mumbai whose skill at gaming and ability to organise other kids to fight for her has earned her the nickname ‘General Robotwallah’. Matthew’s a Chinese gamer who was badly beaten by his cruel boss after trying to set up his own gaming business with his friends. Wei-Dong’s actually Leonard, a well-off LA kid whose love of gaming has hit his grades and worries his parents. Finally BSN or Big Sister Nor is the heart of the Webblies, organising and co-ordinating the campaign and recruiting new members. However none of these characters get much development and the use of jump cuts between scenes to allow for sudden and unexplained changes in motivation irritated me.
The struggle against the game owners didn’t hold my attention. The villain’s capitalism, which is difficult to relate to while large chunks of exposition on how the economics and financial markets work, which deadens the pace. Crime bosses like Bannerjee are almost cartoonish but while there’s a lot of death it’s confined to side characters so there’s little sense of jeopardy.
Ultimately I felt that the message smothered the story and characterisation, making for a dull read.
The Verdict:
Cory Doctorow’s YA economic thriller is a plodding, dull polemic with two-dimensional characters weighed down by economic and financial theory. Although I admire the attempt to get teens engaged with politics, ultimately the story’s smothered by the message and moralising.
In Industrial South China Matthew and his friends labour day and night as gold-farmers, amassing virtual wealth that’s sold on to rich Western players, while in the slums of Mumbai ‘General Robotwallah’ Mala marshalls her team of online thugs on behalf of the local gang-boss, who in turn works for the game-owners. They’re all being exploited, as their friend Wei-Dong, all the way over in LA, knows, but can do little about it.
Until they begin to realise that their similarities outweigh their differences, and agree to work together to claim their rights to fair working conditions. Under the noses of the ruling elites, the owners in China and the rest of Asia, they fight their bosses, the owners of the games and rich speculators, outsmarting them all with their gaming skills.
But soon the battle will spill over from the virtual world to the real one, leaving Mala, Matthew and even Wei-Dong fighting not just for their rights, but for their lives …
In the near future MMORPGs are big business. Companies like Coca Cola run games with economies bigger than that of some countries, their wealth built around scarce objects used within the game like weapons and armour. But not everyone shares the financial benefits. The actual gamers - youngsters in India, China and other far eastern countries - work for criminal gangs, earning little money and working long hours and while they start off loving the opportunity to play games and get paid, their bosses turn nasty should they want to set up business on their own.
But everything changes when a group of gamers decide to unionise. They form the Webblys and it’s not long before they’re recruiting new members worldwide, determined to take on the game owners to get fair wages and working conditions for all gamers. What follows is an on-line revolution but no revolution is without casualties …
Cory Doctorow’s YA economic thriller is a plodding, dull polemic with two-dimensional characters weighed down by economic and financial theory. Although I admire the attempt to get teens engaged with politics, ultimately the story’s smothered by the message and moralising.
The story hangs around a number of recurring characters. Mala’s a young girl in a poor neighbourhood of Mumbai whose skill at gaming and ability to organise other kids to fight for her has earned her the nickname ‘General Robotwallah’. Matthew’s a Chinese gamer who was badly beaten by his cruel boss after trying to set up his own gaming business with his friends. Wei-Dong’s actually Leonard, a well-off LA kid whose love of gaming has hit his grades and worries his parents. Finally BSN or Big Sister Nor is the heart of the Webblies, organising and co-ordinating the campaign and recruiting new members. However none of these characters get much development and the use of jump cuts between scenes to allow for sudden and unexplained changes in motivation irritated me.
The struggle against the game owners didn’t hold my attention. The villain’s capitalism, which is difficult to relate to while large chunks of exposition on how the economics and financial markets work, which deadens the pace. Crime bosses like Bannerjee are almost cartoonish but while there’s a lot of death it’s confined to side characters so there’s little sense of jeopardy.
Ultimately I felt that the message smothered the story and characterisation, making for a dull read.
The Verdict:
Cory Doctorow’s YA economic thriller is a plodding, dull polemic with two-dimensional characters weighed down by economic and financial theory. Although I admire the attempt to get teens engaged with politics, ultimately the story’s smothered by the message and moralising.
