For the Win: A Novel
Cory Doctorow
Language: English
Pages: 496
ISBN: 0765333848
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
It's the twenty-first century, and all over the world, MMORPGs are big business. Hidden away in China and elsewhere, young players are pressed into working as "gold-farmers," amassing game-wealth that's sold to Western players at a profitable markup. Some of these pieceworkers rebel, trying to go into business for themselves―but there's little to stop their bosses from dragging them back into servitude. Some of them, like young Mala in the slums of Bombay―nicknamed "General Robotwallah" for her self-taught military skill―become enforcers for the bosses, but that only buys them so much.
All the way over in L.A., young Wei-Dong, obsessed with Asian youth culture and MMORPGs, knows the system is rigged, knows that kids everywhere are being exploited. Finally, he and his Asian counterparts begin to work together to claim their rights. Under the noses of the ruling elites, they fight the bosses, the game owners and the rich speculators, outsmarting them with their street-gaming skills. But soon the battle will spill over from the virtual world to the real one, leaving the young rebels fighting not just for their rights, but for their lives….
Dragon and Soldier (Dragonback Series, Book 2)
Earth Star (Earth Girl, Book 2)
Hurt you to be more careful.” Lu said nothing, but his lips were pursed and white. The old man brought them their dumplings and they ate them in silence. They were miserable dumplings, filled with something that tasted like shredded paper, but they were still better than prison chicken’s feet. Matthew looked at the boy. He was always thoughtful—a strange thing for a tank to be—and considerate, and brave. He hadn’t been in Matthew’s original guild, but when Boss Wing had put him in charge of the.
Noise. “Hello?” a woman’s voice said, in English. “Do you speak Chinese?” he said, in Cantonese. There was a pause, then the phone was handed off to someone else. “Who is this?” a man’s voice said in Mandarin. “My name is Matthew,” he said. “You called me?” “You’re one of the Shenzhen group?” the man said. “Yes,” he said. “We’ve got another survivor!” he called out and sounded genuinely elated. “Who is this?” “This is The Mighty Krang,” the man said. “I work for Big Sister Nor. We are so.
Bananas. Throw out the frozen (there it was again) bread. He’d eat fresh from now on, and relish (and again) every bite. Up until the moment that his finger pressed the green button, he believed that he was going to switch his phone off. But his finger came down on the green button and the anxiety sizzled up his arm and spread out from his shoulder to his whole body as the distant voice from the phone’s earpiece said, “Hello? Connor?” Connor watched as his hand wrapped itself around his phone.
Had to look up from under the brim like a boy wearing his father’s hat. “You okay?” the boy said. His eyes were wide, his face pale. Matthew patted himself down, wincing at the pain in his ear, and the shooting, stabbing feeling in his neck. “I think so,” he said. “You’ll have to pay for the door,” the guard said. “Thanks,” Matthew said. “Thanks so much.” “It’s okay,” the boy said. “It’s my job.” Matthew clenched and unclenched his fists and headed out into the Shenzhen night, limping down.
Well, first, let’s see how much the movie is worth. One way to do that is to look at how much someone would have to pay you to convince you to give up on going to the movies. Another is to raise the price of the tickets steadily until you decide not to see a movie after all. Once you have that number, you can calculate your Coase cost: you could ask how much it would cost you to pay someone else to make the arrangements for you, or how much you could earn at an after-school job if you weren’t.