In Real Life - Outside of a Dog

library binding, 192 pages

Published Oct. 14, 2014 by Turtleback.

ISBN:: 9780606382199

(1 review)

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 -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but 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, In Real Life is a sensitive, thoughtful look …

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 -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but 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, In Real Life is a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash.

5 editions

Elska Bee reviewed In Real Life by Cory Doctorow

Review of 'In Real Life' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Overall a bit shallow. If you need a several page author's note at the start to explain the point of the book your reader is a about to read... well you're not letting the work speak for itself.

The art was pretty cool, and I liked how in the in-game sections were portrayed and blended with the IRL sections. I think more could have been done with the concept, but it's just such a short work. I guess that sums it up; it's nice but too short to really give any meaningful depth or memorability.