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15 Minutes of Fame: Cory Doctorow on gold farming
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. digg_url = 'http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/04/15-minutes-of-fame-cory-doctorow-on-gold-farming/'; A conversation with Cory Doctorow plunges into the matter at hand so quickly that it's almost impossible not to imagine yourself falling through an internet-era rabbit hole of pop culture and technology. Doctorow is all about synthesizing ideas and spitting them out in as accessible a fashion as possible, and the ground he manages to cover in a single stride can be mind-boggling; he's a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger, father, gamer ... A former WoW player and husband of gaming standout Alice Taylor (also previously profiled here in 15 Minutes of Fame), he's widely known as the co-editor of Boing Boing and author of the bestselling young adult novel Little Brother. Doctorow's latest young adult novel, For the Win, pries open the seams of the shady scene behind MMO gold farming. Its young protagonists are gold farmers and gamers themselves. Doctorow has woven his own experience and sensibilities with focused research to outline a world of gold farming that sprawls far beyond the lines of cartoon-image gold farmers that most of us have painted in our heads. We chatted by phone with Doctorow for this lengthy conversation on gold farming and game economies, plus a companion piece at our sister publication Massively.com on gaming culture and his recent fiction.
15 Minutes of Fame: Cory Doctorow on gold farming, part 2
Cory Doctorow: Well as practical matter, I think that you can't not. At the same time, here in World of Warcraft, we have the dungeon finder system that some people say may be actually helping to break down some of the server communities and relationships that exist in the game.
New sci-fi novel features gold farmer protagonists
Ever wanted to read about the exploits of young gold farmers toiling away in Asian sweat shops and ruining/enabling your MMORPG experience? Science fiction author and Boing Boing founder Cory Doctorow thinks you might, and has devoted his newest novel to fleshing out the torrid existence of a group of young grinders who decide to organize. When we say organize, we don't mean making lists or using spreadsheets to farm at the optimum rate, but rather, organizing as in worker's unions. Doctorow has made an audio excerpt of the novel, titled For the Win, available on his web site. He calls the book a spiritual successor to his Anda's Game short story, and has targeted it specifically to a young adult audience. For the Win debuts on May 11 and will be freely available online under the Creative Commons license.
