Julian Dibbell

This book drifts between incredibly interesting moments and long drawn out stories for which I could not find the purpose at first. As the book wound to a close, I realized that these excessive stories were what made this book real to me. By being open and telling all of the story, he provides a way for me to connect to his experience. All the superfluous pieces added to his insights on what lambdaMOO meant to him, much in the same way the superfluous pieces have added to my experiences in other virtual worlds.
My Tiny Life is not simply a history of lambdaMOO, but it is a memoir of his time in this world. Though often romanticized, his insights still ring true.… (altro)

I had a chance to see Julian Dibbell give a talk about his latest book, Play Money, at the University of Idaho. He was absolutely engaging, and I’m glad I took the opportunity to pick up a copy of Play Money at the university book store before his presentation. This is definitely the best book about games I’ve read all year, and Dibbell once again manages to make a thoughtful excursion into a compelling story.

Play Money focuses on Dibbell’s efforts to make a living selling things he makes/accumulates in the game Ultima Online. He proposes that he can make more money selling virtual goods than he can selling his writing. While his experiment is flawed and doomed, the journey is well worth a read. Dibbell has a way of writing that unites the emotional and intellectual experiences, and the result is part soap-opera and part scholarly dissertation.

If you’re the least bit interested in the economics of game worlds or game studies in general, I highly recommend this one.… (altro)

Julian Dibbell always impresses by making a very thoughtful study into an engaging piece of literature. I enjoy reading the books as much as I value them for pushing the boundaries of how we think about virtual and game worlds.

In My Tiny Life, Dibbell studies the world of LambdaMOO. Digital culture and arts scholars will already be familiar with this book already — it was a common reading-list member when I was in college. I read this for a second time after reading Dibbell’s latest, Play Money. This time through was much more casual, and I appreciated it for being a compelling story more than I had in school.… (altro)