Con/Game

In Real Life #1.5

by Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang (Illustrator)

Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It’s a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It’s a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing.

But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer—and Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person’s real livelihood is at stake.

From acclaimed teen author Cory Doctorow and rising star cartoonist Jen Wang, Con/Game is an original comic story set in the world of Doctorow and Wang's In Real Life, a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash.

Genres: Comics, Short Stories, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Comics Manga, Young Adult

13 pages, ebook

First published September 30, 2014

About the author

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and Little Brother and novels for adults like Rapture Of The Nerds and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Libbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The same cute and beautiful artstyle but at only 13 pages long I just simply don't understand the point.

This adds nothing to the story or themes. The formatting of this little comic is pretty all over the place as well.

[Jyanx]

I refuse to rate this as I have had personal experience with having an account hacked by a gold farmer.



I just can't feel bad for them. Just can't. Especially after all the hoops I had to jump through to get my account back.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters from In Real Life take down a crooked gamer who has been put in charge of security and using it as a cover for exploitation.

I didn't know there was an extra little short story addition to In Real Life, my fellow librarian clued me in this week. This is only 13 pages of graphic novel frames, but it succinctly conveys fighting for justice through gaming. Something that totally seems non sequitur at first, but is also a reminder that gaming is a platform and can be used just as much for good as it is for bad. It's short and sweet food for thought.

Notes on content: A few mild swears. A video game monster gets killed.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminded me a lot of Felicia Day's 'The Guild', both mixing real life and an interactive online game, gently mocking with love. No way that upcoming Dungeons and Dragons movie comes anywhere close.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, fun short story set in the same world as Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang's In Real Life. You can read it for free at the url in the description.

[dayoldcoffee]

https://www.tor.com/2014/09/30/con-ga...

[emely memely]

Noentendinadaaiuda

[Patelnia (Taylor’s Version) · Rating 1 out of 5]

i just dont understand why

[Natalia Wajman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[elbow ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars
i mean you know. it's a 13 page graphic novel. so.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A take it or leave it slice from the same world as Doctorow and Wang's In Real Life. The short story is better than the graphic novel in some respects, the graphic novel is better than this. Read all of them for yourself. You decide if you agree with me.

[The Book Nerd's Corner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't get the point of this short story. Despite the fact that the world was already familiar, I felt no attachment to anything that was happening. And besides, its a bummer when your accounts get hacked. NOT cool. If you loved "In Real Life" I would take a gander at this, but beyond that, it is very skippable.

You can read the short story here: https://www.tor.com/2015/04/30/con-ga...