MegaGames and Cass Tell, author of Social Code, the fast-paced story of gaming intrigue, the virtual world and the dangers that lie within, have gotten together to host the Social Code Competition.
By now the first nine chapters of Cass Tell's book Social Code are available to all MegaGames readers by following the Screens tab above. For those of you interested to find out more about the book, read on for a full review.
The Competition
Answer the five simple questions below, set by Cass Tell himself, and win a full free copy of the book. Over the next month 10 lucky winners will each receive their copy by mail.
Chapters 1-9 contain all the information you need to answer the 5 questions and on Friday January 14, a draw will be held for the first five lucky winners. All you have to do is send your replies to book_competition@megagames.com making sure that your subject is Book Competition. All winners will be contacted by email.
The 5 Questions
1. Where does Doby work from?
a) A penthouse in New York
b) A beachhouse in California
c) A farmhouse in Switzerland
2. What alias name does Doby use for playing Social Code?
a) Pitbill
b) Gumbo
c) Runner
3. What is the name of the virtual character that leads Doby through the
game?
a) Angelica
b) Pamela
c) Lynette
4. What is the special 'gift' given by the Social Code Society for playing
the game?
a) A special set of joysticks
b) A special computer keyboard
c) A special computer mouse
5. How does the Social Code game influence and control its players?
a) Offering cheap products
b) Hypnotic techniques
c) Offering free software
If you are interested in the book or have questions regarding the process of writing one, please put your own questions to the author, through a forum topic which has been specially created so go ahead and ask Cass Tell..
For those of you wondering what a book, of all things, is doing on a gaming website, a brief look at the Prologue and Chapters 1-9 (available by following the Screens tab above) should help you realize exactly how relevant it is.
What is the Social Code Society?
Doby, a curious and resourceful software engineer, plays an online computer game that rapidly invades his computer and his life. After encountering a sensual virtual character, and discovering how the game manipulates and controls its players, he attempts to keep from being sucked into the game ... and to say alive...
The book is an exciting and extremely relevant look at the world of gaming and the challenges which one day we may have to face and one which every gamer should be interested in.
For further information visit the author's website.
At last, a unique novel for gamers.
Gamers, don't accept the free gift! So comes the warning from Social Code by Cass Tell, a novel about a gamer who gets sucked into a realm of danger and intrigue. It is the story of Doby, a computer engineer, who plies his trade in a world of internet connections, firewalls and data bases. Working for a small group of select clients, he is given projects to find out information, of all sorts, but a problem occurs on his computer and it gets him sidetracked. He finds out that unwanted software has been imbedded into his computer which results in incessant popup ads, and then they mysteriously stop when he plays an online computer game called the Social Code Society.
In the game he encounters Lynette, a virtual character who seductively leads him from level to level in the game. But, a chain of events causes him to be suspicious and he realizes that the people who made the game have evil intentions to program the minds of the game's players and to reign over them. Eventually Doby ends up playing a cat and mouse game in both the virtual world and the real world . . . and he attempts to stay alive.
In this gleefully erudite suspense novel, Cass Tell deals with a world where the internet is used to track one's personal preferences, not only in an effort to sell products, but as a means to manipulate and control. Doby and the other people who are playing the game Social Code are being led through a series of mind-controlling techniques that include deception, attempts to isolate them from reality, programming their minds, dictating their actions, and refusal to let them leave The Social Code Society. It actually shows how you can get sucked in, demonstrating how immensly influencial and powerful the Internet and online games have become.
But there are themes deeper than that. Dependency and addiction form a backdrop, with the book drawing parallels to the methods used by cults to form their religious communities. The book is more of a psychological battle played through various characters, but with significant action to form a breathless page turner. On its website, the publisher, Destinee S.A. www.destinee.ch has made available a free study guide that deals with the themes in Social Code.
One thought comes to mind when considering Lynette, the virtual character in the game. You wonder if she is somehow a representation of a virtual pagan goddess? Is she a modern Madonna? In our Internet era, have we substituted icons and statues with a computer image? Do we worship these images and how much is the internet becoming our new religion? Social Code definitely leaves you with some lingering reflections.
This is an extremely engaging book and the publisher reported that it received the following feedback from readers.
From a high school gamer: I received the book last Friday at about 4 pm and finished it in it's entirety at around noon the next day. I have never completed a book in that short of time. I mean it had my full attention from start to finish. I know countless people at my school who would fit the demographic for this sort of novel perfectly. There is a very large crowd who are really into the online gaming sites. I lent it to a friend to read the first chapter in class and he was not willing to give it back.
From a manager at a high tech company, The book was great. I read it almost without putting it down, within 24 hours or so of receiving it.
A computer engineer communicated, I've been waiting for a book like this for years.
As far as the author, Cass Tell is a full time writer living most of the year in a small chalet in a Heidi village in the Swiss Alps. In the fall, Cass lives in a village in a remote part of the Costa Brava in Spain. Having spent a number of years traveling around the world, while studying art, philosophy, economics and culture, Cass has a diversity of professional and personal experiences that are reflected in Social Code and other novels written. Social Code is his first novel to be published, but four more have been finished and will soon be released.
Fundamentally we find that Social Code is an extremely engaging book. It is not to be considered as a complex literary study, but is fast-paced and exciting. At the same time, there are deeper undertones. It is something that all gamers and internet users will enjoy.
