Have you ever treated some aspect of your life as a game? Like when you are doing hours of monotonous data entry? I am sure that anyone who is a gamer(and even some of those of you who aren’t), have tried this. Work is a lot more fun if it feels rewarding or if you challenge yourself to beat yours or someone’s high score. Now just image that these little mini games we all play were made formal? What if they actually affect your job rating and what if it really affected your day? This is what life would be like for you inside the world of MetaGame.
MetaGame is a SciFi cyber punk novel that takes the reader to a world where everything in life is a game. It was my first cyber punk novel and after reading it, I am much more interested in those types of books. As a gamer, I really felt that the book had a lot of depth and I found it very hard to put down. I want to talk more about it but I also don’t want to give away the story. This is one that you will just have to read for yourself. If you keep reading this review then just be warned that there might be some spoilers but I will do my best to not include them.
There are a few things about the book that I think are just awesome. One big one is the characters names. The main character’s name, for example, is D_Light. Many of the other characters have gamer sounding names as well. It makes me wonder if that is what we have in store since every year it seems like people name their kids crazier and crazier things. And having every person in this world have a name like a gamer really fits since everything is a big game.
Throughout the story, you get to see a few of the different games but you get an idea of how far the scope goes which is to pretty much everything. This includes every job in the society from street sweeper to cop. Everything is about spending your money to buy gear or equipment(think of it like putting in a quarter at the arcade) and trying to use that efficiently to complete the goal. There is even a possibility to make money just by wearing the new fashion and trying to earn extra sales of that product line. I really got a kick out of the fact that everyone was name-dropping in the middle of talking in hopes of getting a sale. Reminds me a lot of Idiocrazy’s, “Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.”
Another thing that I find very interesting is how society gets restructured over time to reach the level it is when the story takes place. Basically there are no more real businesses like we think of them today but there are “corporations”. These corporations are a combination of marriage and business. You have to fight for a spot to be considered the mother or father and you work as a team to get the highest overall score against the other corporations. It is a pretty interesting idea and really it gives a whole new meaning to being part of the family.
Overall I would say that this is on of the best books I have ever read. I loved the futuristic world where your personal computer is an animal that follows you around. And I really liked the idea that every job is a game and that you are always fighting for the high score. Really makes me wish that some companies today would work that way. Seems like it could make boring work a lot more interesting.
Hope you find my review useful. And stay tuned because I will be reviewing some of my other favorite books in the future!
Useful Info/Links:
Book Name: MetaGame
Author: Sam Landstrom
Barns and Noble: Link <- Couldn’t find the digital one on the site anymore which makes me sad.
Amazon Kindle: Link