Comments on: Book Review: Synthetic Worlds

By: Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:13:30 +0000

Looking for reviews, I saw this one, but hardly any others. Most “reviews” consist of press releases reprinted on game sites ahead of the release, but not much engagement with the book itself.

This book is really vital to read. I read through it quickly back in 2005 but skimmed the hard bits. Now I’m reading it in earnest. I violently disagree with a lot of it, but it is the definitive work in the field now, providing the categories for thinking about virtual worlds and the one-line slogans to argue vehemently — until Uri’s book comes out, I guess.

I think he makes a compelling case for saying that people will in fact all move to virtual worlds and online games, you won’t be able to stop them, and life will get rearranged around it. And he even has a very compelling reason for why people won’t want to go outside and meet with other people anymore — we’ll all be living in compounds due to rampant disease, crime, and the threat of either political terrorism or miscreants replicating diseases.

That’s why you have to start taking these things seriously now and fighting them now.

By: Marsellus Wallace

Marsellus Wallace — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 11:59:11 +0000

He was always a big shot I though? Hense, how he ended up on the Herald. Granted he’s bigger now, but he was doing press interviews long before the Herald was ever featured in the press.

Marsellus Wallace
Just my 2 cents.. Are you filled with mirth now? haha

By: Urizenus

Urizenus — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 11:43:53 +0000

and let's not forget the interview he did with the Herald, back before he was a big shot!

By: Dean

Dean — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 10:53:45 +0000

An interview with Edward Castronova has just been added to the University of Chicago Press website, in conjunction with the publication of his book Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games.
See http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/096262in.html