Eric C

Lackluster and incomplete

Revisado: 06-28-21

overall this was helpful, but also not very good. The Author should have lead with his qualifications not put them at the end, that colored everything.
He also forgot one of the most important jobs in games, which is the producer /project manager, I guess you don't really need one if your making mobile games, but it would have ben good to know the author has mobile games experience off the bat.
This was disappointing.
Also I was a bit concerned when he said an easy way to get people to spend money and not know they are spending money is to convert to another 2 currencies.. I can see how that help the developer, but that is exploiting your player.
What ever happened to paying once for an experience, we shouldn't be tricking people into spending money.

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little less action and a little more conversation

Revisado: 05-10-20

This is a ok book, but it had too much action in my opinion, The other books had a good balance of action vs, conversation, but seriously is seems he is killing his way across the entire world.
I compare this series to Ascend online, where there was a great balance, and it's clear that the author took some inspiration from that series, but things are just too predictable. He kills X, saves X, and kills more X. rinse and repeat.

Sure, he is killing evil monsters, but there must be another way to handle the conflict? He is continually dragged into larger and larger conflicts, which no reasonable player should be able to fight out of without dying once. I predict that he never dies,

I find it annoying that The main character never shown to be weak. vs. lvl40? Np, Vs, a lvl 50? Np. Vs. over whelming ods time and time again, np.

It makes it sound like he is the only player that has completed his nightmare start. And because of that, he has been given god like status.

75% of these books is just about fighting and killing monsters, Diplomacy seems to be something reserved for just making his forces bigger. Also, There are too many characters now. I have a hard time keeping track of all the NPCs, they seem like dime a dozen.

I'm not straight, so it's tiring to constantly get descriptions of sexual content, that seems to go no where. There is even a scene, where he is dismissive of gays.

Overall I like this series, and it seems good, but it feels like the same thing over and over again,

Oh, another thing, It seems no one in modern society would have the time to hold a 9-5 job and play this game. In Ascend online the economy is explained but here it seems like it takes at least 5 continuous hours to complete any quest.

It's disturbing to see so many people forgo their real life responsibilities.

Also, in the beginning of book 1, he said he had a guild, so I thought this would be like Ascend online, where the guild fights together. We are at the end of book 4, and he has not hooked up with any of his original guild makes. It makes me wonder what the point is of having a guild in this book series, if he doesn't play with his original mates. It makes everyone else seem like flat characters.
Didn’t one of his guild mates make it to the friend he is helping by rushing through the wild? He is taking like 3-5x longer to get there, by massing a horde of NPCs.
If he can resurrect NPCs, it makes it all seem less impactful.
Also, why is he the only one who has the resurrect spell? That shark boss said he could do it too, but part from that, no one else has it.
Also, I seem to remember it saying that holy shield can be cast only once at a time.
He is too over powered, compared to everything else there isn’t enough of a challenge, and when he is on the ropes he is saved miraculously at the last minute time and time again.
He also happens to have exactly what he needs at any given time. I understand this as a thematic issue, but it like need to talk to other races, well, I have a helm for that, need to save NPCs from eggs inside, along comes a water shaman who happens to be there. Need a ride on water? Here is a giant squid, need to breath in water? I have a potion for that. He seems to blunder around just happening to get everything he needs, it makes it sound like the author planned everything out, but instead of making a natural progression from A to Z, he is using duees ex machina Star seems always prepared for whatever challenge that he is to face, never losing, never having any setbacks.

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A Classic concerned parent: a bit alarmist

Revisado: 10-15-19

Let me just start by saying I'm not a parent, I got this book because it had to deal with technology.
The author is a bit too preachy. I mean, I get it, your son didn't have an Iphone till 13, and it's good to have these discussions. But it came from the angle of someone on the outside looking in. Wouldn't a flip phone at an earlier age be helpful? A flip phone can only txt and make calls, no apps to worry about.

I'm a bit concerned with her complete obliviousness as to how gaming can be a powerful force for positive change. She even admits a few times that she does't get the appeal of video games. Great, then don't call yourself an expert on the topic,and don't include it in the headline of your book.
The one thing that I got from this book is how important it is for parents to check in with their children and have a discussion with them. My parents never really did that.
The other thing is it made me glad that I'm of the age that my parents don;t feel the need to take such an approach. I'm almost 30 and it's good to have the freedom without having such parental controls.
This irules is a good concept, but the author never discuses growing out of the contract,maybe because she has't gotten there yet, maybe she will write another book when Greg is 18, and will feel these parental controls are overbearing and no longer needed.

She fails to understand the simple fact that when your connected with a screen your often interacting with another person, not just a machine. Isn't that social?

All in all a great read, and good insight as to what parents are thinking these days.
Just wait until VR becomes more of a thing, then she will likely be more alarmist.

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Surprising to hear in the main stream

Revisado: 10-15-19

Let me start by saying that i don't necessarily believe in the new world order, but I was surprised to find this on audible. If this was run by apple, then this book would have been redacted and censored. It's good to see Amazon & Audible is fine with controversial views. Maybe it's a sign things are changing in this country. Access to information is one of the most important things in this day and age, I'm glad we at least have the option to hear content like this.

On to the book itself, It's light handed on the new world order. (At least if you know how heavy handed this topic is usually treated)I t's good.It feels like a personal appeal to the reader.

If you don't like trump you may still like this book, but if you like trump, you'll most likely like this book.
If you don't believe or know anyone who believes in conspiracy theories, you will find this book surprising and eye opening.

A good read and worth the time.
By the presence of his book , it shows there could be a shift and that people are at least willing to believe in conspiracy.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Good but wrong industry name

Revisado: 09-28-19

It's the "Games" industry, not the "Gaming" industry.
Normally this is a common mistake and Let it go, but this author just kept making the mistake over and over and over again. Gaming refers to gambling.

Also this narrator was quite good, but was weird in a way, her acent makes her sound British in a weird way.

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very bad Fantasy not science fiction

Revisado: 09-03-19

This is by far one of the worst books I’ve ever read. This book makes me not want to read any of the other works by this author.
This book starts off with a good hook premise, but the summary blurb about the book is totally misleading. It makes it sound like this technology is actually put to some good. And it makes it sound like there is a point to it all.

Bit world sounds like an incredibly large waste of time and a bad investment in resources. Who cares if you can live forever, if you don't remember who you used to be? What is the point of having dead people come back if they have nothing more interesting to do than to do what they did or even do stuff that is less than what they did while living? Why spend resources on a digital immortality if you can't communicate with it?
At one point in the book it mentions that a full 3rd of the worlds power grid is suck up with this project. There is no measurable return on investment. There is no defined benefit this provides. I argue that this isn’t even immortality but what sounds like tabula Rasa protocols in a digital purgatory.

This book makes the afterlife sound boring and has no mysticism at all. There are so many pointless plot points and so many flat characters here it's hard to keep track. I wanted to stop listening 2/3 through, but I wanted to finish, so i could leave an informed review.

L makes a very good point in the book, where he says Dodge just copy and pasted most of what he knew about the world we come from in the new world, where if he wanted, things could have been more imaginative. This is an excellent point. One it seems the author himself seems to overlook until he got to this point. Hell, Dodge is meant to be a game designer, right? He is meant to be able to think of more creative systems.

With all the time that passes in this book you think they would have figured a way to bring them back from the dead and upload them into robots or bio printed bodies, but no.

The other issue is the dead have nothing to do. some of them find purposes but most just sit around doing nothing.
in We are legion, we are bob, the dead are given jobs and purposes. that sustain their function.

I give this 2 stars instead of 1 because most of the discussion around the tech is interesting.

A very long confusing and distracted journey later....this sounds like hell indeed.

oh ya, and what was teh deal with the Moab hoax? it all seemed like filler to me. Sure, it proves a point that there needs to be a more secure internet, but why not just propose and build one from a conference,

Overall this book was dry, repetitive, and a huge waste of time.
This book suffered from trying to be too many things, thus succeeded in being not much of anything.

Another point is I got this book when it 1st released in June, and I'm just now finishing it in September, I had to really chip away at his slog of a read over time.

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Good, but very slow pacing

Revisado: 10-04-18

So, I'm a bit conflicted with my ratings, for a few reasons, specifically the overall and the story, the audio narration performance his hands down great. I normally don't give such low story ratings, but the main issue I have with this book/ series is that the author set up the central cliffhanger in the end of the 1st book, and he makes it sound like the main character is doing what he is doing to get the answers from the main bad guy, and although it was interesting to hear the same events from the other perspective in book 2, it seemed like largely a delay tactic, to stretch it out as long as possible. This was confirmed, when this book started, and we don't get the conversation that we been expecting until the last 1/5th of the book. The author does lead up to it, and sets it up well, and it is largely fulfilling, but I can't help but think there must have been a quicker way to get to this point.

I know this kind of topic is largely unexplored, beyond the old conventional means, which is one of the reasons I like this series so much. However, usually when you tell a story, it's best to get to the point as soon as possible. A great example, is in an interview with JJ Abrims about the show Revolution. He says when they were crafting the core narrative, as to why the power went out world wide, he asked if there is any real reason why the characters who knew what happened and how, would not tell people. and he realized, no. So he made the decision to explain tings early, instead of dangling the question for a long time, which is what this author has done. Sure, it's important to keep people hooked, and sure you want them to keep coming back, but at points in this series, and especially this book, it felt like he was purposefully dragging his feet. This series is my 1st exposure to this author, so I don't know if this is a series thing, or a systematic thing.

I get it, it's important to set up characters, so you can find out who they are, and how they want to be seen and all that, and the author does a good job with showing each character, and yes, even though a lot feels more like filler, it is still tasty filler. The point in proper design no matter what your designer, form story, to art, to mechanical things, etc. is to be strategic, and most of this book, is somewhat strategic in the character stories, but as said, other times it feels like the author is hammering a previous point in again, maybe not overly so, but it is there.

The most interesting chapters for me were X, seeing things from his perspective did definitely help lay the foundations for the conversations near the end of the book. His 1st chapter was really good, but I can't help but think, that given X can stay longer, his central goal could have been taken care of with his 1st body. In my mind, that might have also shown a bit more about him, and it would have been a cleaner break, since this guy's family wouldn't know he wasn't at school, and he could just disappear. I get the purpose of Xs last body, and why he liked it, but there were more attachments. Anyways.

I get the point of keeping A a blank slate in some aspects, so the reader can project themselves, but the author is running the risk of making A a bit too like the stereotypical liberal ideal of a person who doesn't identify as as male or female, who doesn't have preferences to body type, who never uses any sexuality terms, such as gay or strait for himself, who thinks deeply about everyone's social economic status. It makes sense, A is only 16 or so, while X seems like he's at least 30., likely older. And in a way it's pure and fascinating, not subscribing to societal norms of how people should be. But this can also bee seen as the ignorance of youth. Or as I said, some sort of liberal ideal. Don't get me wrong, I like A, and I like how he seems things, depicting pure ideals are one of the only ways that can inspire people to work twprds and active those ideals.
I really hope we don't have to wait years for the next installment. The issues around identity that this seines deals with are indeed hard issues, and very relevant for our times, and I commend the author for coming up with such a good technique to explore these issues. And for some reason. I've always had this interest in the concept of biddy swamping.The great thing about this series, is it treats the issue in a different way than I've ever seen before.

honestly, I'd would have given this all 5s if the author had just taken a more direct path to where he was going, and giivng us more theories and explanation as to why they body hop. But I can see the mechanics of that as a very difficult line to walk, if you get to religious, you alienate. if you get too scientific the same thing, I also understand why As 16, and why X sounds way older. It's easier to write and identify with someone so young, not just because they are coming into their own, but any older, a lot of these biases and preferences, and educational and career interests, and hobbies get locked down.

A could be anyone that young, and that is what makes him relocatable, no matter how old you are. Another thought that came to mind, is this seems like it's at base a pG 13 series, or with that in mind. X, and some of the others could have sworn at a few times, but they didn't.

Another thing that is touched on, but not fully explored is the potential of online communications and relationships, we do get to explore it a bit with the other traveler's in this book, but there is so much more that can be explored, and so many ways to make sure you stay in communication with people. As simple example is social media, which is explored, but if these traveler's really wanted to know how their presence effects the people they ride, they can just take note of their name, and information, and look them up, track them down, and talk to them. They could do this over and over again, if they really wanted to, and being different people, asking questions from different angles.

They could also keep things and records and stuff in secret places, or under different names, or anonymously.

If you want something bad enough, eventually you will find a way. It may not turn out how you imagine, and it might be harder and take longer than others, but I believe where there's a will, there is a way. (sometimes that means waiting around until technology catches up) But ya.

Almost goes without saying, but this is a great series for understanding LGBT people, especially trans, which is one of the main points, obviously.

This is probably TLDR for most, so in short:
Love this series, good book, Great performance, slow story.
A is almost like a liberal ideal.
Hope we don't need to wait for years for the next installment
Hope we explore more of life's big questions, beyond just identity.
Great for LGBT+ perspectives.

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A lot of fluff

Revisado: 06-19-18

This book should’ve ended after China. Not much happens for most of the ending 2/3 of the book. I finished it just to check, but was very disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, there is some action, But most of the book is people just moving around. The plot doesn’t even Tie in The title of the book very well, The main bad guy doesn’t even have a plan to do anything. Overall very disappointing, for some reason I did dream about the book, which must say something about it. Not much on gaming, not much on survival prep.Apart from the romantic relationships, most of the characters seem to end up in similar places compared to where they started. If you decide to get this book, just read up and tell the part where they left China, everything else is just filler. There is no hero, there’s no epic shoot out. There’s not even that much Gaming action. I do have to admit the game in the book does seem kind of interesting. And the Tyann to the real world is a good thought. However it could use some more flashing out.

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Just Amazing!

Revisado: 11-08-16

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes. This book made me feel in ways I knew, but never understood, until it was over. This is hands down, one of the best books I've ever read, and I usually don't leave reviews for books. I feel like I was there, through it all, all A's struggle, and R's as well. The way it all ends brought me to tears. In short, this book resonated with me so hard and I binge listened all the way through, even getting lost from coming back from the airport that it was so dam engaging. I'm so glad I found this book and author, will now be at the top of my list to look for from now on.

If your on the fence for any reason, just get it, this was not the story I expected from this kind of genre, but it surpassed all expectations, and I have high standards.

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