Mafiaboy – How I Cracked the Internet & Why It’s Still Broken
Michael Calce with Craig Silverman
2008

Mafiaboy – How I Cracked The Internet & Why It’s Still Broken reads more like a “what I did last summer” essay combined with a school research project than a true authoritative look at the problems inherent with security and the internet. I found Mr. Calce’s tale to be built more on ego and teenage swagger than on remorse. Granted, he did learn some good coding skills in his early career, but I find it hard to believe that an otherwise seemingly well-behaved kid had no foresight into the wrongness of his activities. At times I did wonder who he was trying to convince – himself, his family, or readers – that his foray into piracy, hacking and bot herding was nothing more than an innocent quest for knowledge gone wrong.

While I understand the lure of power and being able to do something no one else (or very few) can do, Mr. Calce broke the law, and he deserved all he got. Although he cautions others against following in his footsteps as the end result is not worth the brief intoxication of power, my respect falls on the side of the RCMP and FBI agents who put an end to Mafiaboy’s thoughtless attacks. I do not feel that his inclusion of very basic internet security information in any way redeems the millions of dollars in damage and lost time he caused.

I freely admit to harbouring ill-feelings towards script-kiddies and bot herders – feelings developed through firsthand experiences as our own network fell victim to botnet DDoS attacks. That said, I tried to not let that experience influence my opinion of this book, and I think that for the most part I succeeded. I was able to read this book more from an educated point of view in regards to internet and network security rather than as a neophyte. However, try as I might, I found very few redeeming qualities in Mafiaboy. He alone did not crack the internet as the title seems to imply – there were many before him and many more after him who saw the internet as their personal crime-filled playing field. I don’t understand why Mr. Calce felt that a full-blown book was required in order to “clear the air” other than to draw further attention to what he did and perhaps earn himself a little notoriety and fame within a new generation of young internet criminals. Despite his words to the contrary, I view Michael Calce’s book as nothing more than a way to make money from his crimes. Perhaps this is why there is yet another version of his book being published in 2009 – but the new title is “Mafiaboy – A Portrait of the Hacker As A Young Man” – perhaps others took exception to the boastful claim in his title – or perhaps there was another reason, but either way, it’s a new title I won’t be picking up – reading this story once was more th

On The Way To The Web: The Secret History of the Internet and its Founders
Michael A. Banks
2008

On The Way To The Web is one book which I highly recommend to anyone who wants a definitive history on the internet. The amount of research and time which was obviously spent on compiling and organizing the short but colourful history of this wonder known as the Web is very worthy of recognition.

For those of us who remember the coming of the internet, On The Way To The Web is a journey back in time, revisiting many events, products and ideas which seemed so futuristic and impossible twenty years ago which have now become common place or fallen by the wayside. I personally had forgotten all about ventures such as GameLine – the innovative download service for Atari 2600 games and game updates. While I’m sure that many of today’s gamers think that XBLA, Wii Shop and PlayStation Network were all 21st century inventions, GameLine was here first. Reading about GameLine again, I have to wonder where our games industry would be today if Atari hadn’t experienced the downslide it did right at the time of GameLine’s launch.

Like spelunkers finding their way through a deep dark cave, technology innovators such as Bill Louden, William Von Meister and others lead the way forward from the days of ARPANET, primitive BBS systems and proprietary communication software to the birth of ISPs, TCP/IP, global email, portals and that entity we all love to hate, AOL.

On The Way To The Web presents a comprehensive time line of where we started and the complicated path we took to get to where we are today in our global internet community. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how we became such an inter-connected society, the wonders and miracles of communication technology.

Get Rich Playing Games covers almost every aspect of the game industry, from pre-startup stage to getting the product on the shelf and beyond. Scott Steinberg doesn’t only focus on the game developers and designers, though. Throughout the book he discusses the important roles other people in the industry play, from the number crunchers and audio designers to the journalists who write the reviews. What I consider important about the inclusion of these different vocations within the videogame industry is that almost anyone who has the passion to work within the industry can probably find a career position for which they are perfectly suited. Not everyone has the knowledge, talent or passion to be an engineer or an artist, and Get Rich Playing Games shows that you don’t have to be able to paint the next fantasy art masterpiece to work in gaming.

As with Scott’s other books, he has enlisted the opinions and experiences of those who have been involved in the gaming industry for a very long time and know of which they speak. Throughout Get Rich Gaming, and especially in the Expert Insight section, readers are given the chance to tap into the collective intelligence of the videogame industry without leaving home. Scott Steinberg talks with the CEO’s of the biggest companies, such as Bruce Hack of Vivendi, and he talks with those who came up through the gaming ranks such as Dennis Fong and Jonathan Wendel. You can read about both the good and the bad experiences of industry gurus such as Will Wright, Richard Garriott, Tommy Tallarico, and Jane Jensen to name but a few.

Get Rich Playing Games is an honest look at the methods which worked, and those which didn’t. It shows that with the drive for success, a roadmap is an excellent plan, and so is having a sense of humour, but what I think is the most important lesson in this book is – if you don’t take a chance and leap, you don’t know how far you will go. Scott shares an honest – and humourous – view of his own leap of faith into the gaming industry, and he tells it like it was – sink or learn how to swim. Unlike many of you reading this review, it took me decades to find my passion – or perhaps the passion was there all the time, I just hadn’t opened the right door. I highly recommend that those of you currently toying with the idea of working in the videogame industry take the time to read Get Rich Playing Games, you will garner new insight and you will definitely learn how to focus your talents and interests into finding a place among those who have achieved success in this great industry.

Games Boys: Professional Videogaming’s Rise from the Basement to the Big Time by Michael Kane is the best inside look at the competitive videogaming industry I have read to date. He peels back the layers of this very complex subculture and lays it all out there for anyone to read – from the gamers themselves to the parents who try to understand. Game Boys has it all – the celebratory victories, the heartbreaking losses, the passion of its supporters and he doesn’t leave out the backroom dirty laundry either.

This book is an informative, exciting, unsanitized read; he does not sugarcoat the competitive gaming industry; instead he offers an outsider’s perspective of a largely misunderstood section of today’s society. Author Michael Kane has managed to translate the excitement of competition into his words, and sometimes I found myself reading faster through the competition gameplay to get to the moment of victory – even though I already knew the results of many of the matches he wrote about.

Author Michael Kane has managed to translate the excitement of competition into his words, and sometimes I found myself reading faster through the competition gameplay to get to the moment of victory – even though I already knew the results of many of the matches he wrote about.

As a participant full of passion for the videogame industry, there were so many times I found myself identifying with CompLexity GM Jason Lake and harbouring feelings of resentment towards Craig Levine. Like Jason Lake, I believe in the grassroots foundation of this wonderful industry, and even though Craig Levine has done much to get competitive videogaming out there into the main stream of today’s world, I often felt that Levine’s tactics were less than honourable, and I am of the generation when honour was at the forefront of how you conducted your life. These are elements which make for a great book – eliciting emotion and appreciation from the reader, making the reader care about the characters in the story.

Michael Kane has artfully included every aspect of our advancing technological world – global friendships and rivalries, heroes and villains, supportive families and families who feel the gamer is wasting his or her time. Corporations who only look at the biggest and the best for exposure, instead of looking at and supporting the grassroots events and players who keep the industry churning forward on a daily basis. Event promoters who are in it for the dollar, and to heck with the injury they do to our industry by scamming the players who have poured their heart, soul and often their last dollar into feeding their passion for gaming in hopes of making it to the winner’s circle.

I commend Michael for the honesty of his words, even the ones which cast a less than idyllic light on the e-sports industry, because the end result shows that our cyberathletes truly are no different from the mainstream sports athletes. They train, they play, they do things they shouldn’t, but when it comes right down to the final seconds it’s all about the game and the opponent in front of them. Game Boys shows how far we as a competitive market have come, but also shows how far we have yet to go. Michael touched very briefly on the girls in gaming, and while some things have changed since Game Boys went to print, much has stayed the same, from the disdain which meets many girl gamers head on, to the insults and unwelcome photos hurled at them on XBL. While the industry is still very much a boys’ club, the girls are rapidly gaining ground – perhaps in the future we can look forward to a book on Game Girls to compliment Game Boys – what do you say, Michael?

Next – it’s really freaking hot here – 33 Celcius, to be exact. That’s approximately 98 Fahrenheit for the uninitiated. I like summer and all – other than the fact that light is evil – but does it need to be this hot? Why can’t we have just a nice temperate 23ish degrees? Ah well, maybe some fluffy clouds will roll in and there will be some good shot opportunities tonight.

Now, back to Game Boys for a minute – because I can talk more in-depth here about goings on in the book. I meant every word that I said in my review, the book really is a great read. It also gave me a few ideas for the projects we’re working on with KillaNet and its various properties and productions. I very much relate to Jason Lake and the trials, tribulations and disappoints he went through on his journey to see competitive videogaming reach the DirecTV level.

It is sometimes -no, make that often- very frustrating on the sponsorship plane, and while I understand the theory behind supporting the big events which get all of the press attention, it’s the events and players at the grassroots level which continue to feed the pipeline of upcoming new talent to the massive events, and it’s those events and gamers who need support too. Not necessarily in the thousands of dollars in sponsorships, but even the gift of a few tournament prizes, or the lanyards most corporations seem to rain down on the masses at big events – even discount coupons for new games or products, something these corporations can easily track – would be most welcome. These are, after all, the kids who are out there on a regular basis buying the new games, participating in the community forums and upgrading their systems as new and cooler stuff comes available. They are the ones paying the daily wages for those who supply the products. These are grassroots players are tomorrow’s stars -whether it’s on the competitive circuit or on the design and development end- they all have dreams which deserve support. By the way, I would like to thank Michael Kane and Viking Penguin for graciously donating autographed copies of Game Boys to be given away at Digital Storm 2008. Their contribution is very much appreciated – and in no way influences my opinion of his book.

Michael Kane touched on so many areas in his book which I have been a champion of for many years – videogaming is definitely not anti-social, it’s not a bad influence on the psyche of our children, it won’t turn them into mass murderers, and they are a huge opportunity, through global tournaments and multiplayer game modes, for gamers around the world to learn from and about each other. Yes, there are the dangers of addiction, or predators, or scams – but that goes for almost any aspect of life, does it not? All things in moderation is a good adage to live by, no matter what your interests are. While it’s true that no one gets anywhere without hard work, dedication and passion (unless they have a money train, then things are a bit easier), there still needs to be some kind of work-life balance. In today’s world of constant connection with the outside world, though, that’s not always easily achievable.

As for the part girls play in gaming – so many people underestimate us. Just like the boy gamers, girl gamers inhabit all levels of the playing field – from casual to hardcore, from newcomer to elite. Why then is it so difficult for some males to just accept that we can, and often do, play just as well as they do? Why does there so often have to be a sexist angle to it? Why do girl gamers have to be submitted to rude comments, or be the recipients of very inappropriate photo messages on both computer and platforms like Xbox Live? Some girls even get booted and banned from game servers when it’s found out that they are *gasp* female. That’s not 100% of today’s gaming scene – there are many guys out there who are great to game with, I have some of them on my XBL Friends list. It’s the minority, however, who make it difficult to get the girls out to play. I’ve been a gamer since the first days of Pong and Space Invaders. I was one of those early Doom players – this is my playing field too, and I have just as much right to play in it as the boys do.

Wow – that was a bit more of a rant than I had actually planned on, but it doesn’t make things any less true. The game industry as a whole is full of very talented women who both play and design, and as more women come into the industry, perhaps we will finally see our presence more widely accepted. Perhaps we will see more realistic women characters who aren’t scantly-clad over-developed, under-proportioned eye-candy for the boy gamers to ogle. Maybe the armour we’re given to wear in some games will actually look like it could stop an attack while still looking pretty. That’s one thing I really like about Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 – the female characters look realistic, their attire is realistic, and the game isn’t full of eye-candy NPCs. Thank you, Ubisoft, for that.

I bought this book quite some time ago, and I’m regretting not getting to it sooner. Having read a previous title by Scott Steinberg, I should have known better. Videogame Marketing and PR is packed with literally decades of knowledge and experience. Mr. Steinberg not only imparts freely with chapter after chapter of methods and ideas which he has practiced in his own career, he has presented a collection of brief articles from many of the key people in the videogame industry. From these men and women come gems of wisdom, because they have literally been there and done that. While there are many books sitting on shelves in many stores which can tell you all about how to market, none of them carry the unique situations which sets the videogame industry apart from other retail markets.

Videogame Marketing and PR is almost like having your very own personal set of industry mentors sharing with you the methods they have used to get to where they are today. Mr. Steinberg is a very personable author, infusing humour into his wisdom and along with catch phrases and quotes, he manages to get the reader’s mind into gear and thinking about his or her product, company or project. In a world where consumers are bombarded almost every minute with product messages, it is important to find a formula which works for you, and as is mentioned in this book, there is no one single way to do things that will work for all products or all companies.

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone considering going into not only game development, but for anyone working in area of the industry. It will help the non-marketers on staff understand what is needed to make titles and companies successful in the never-ending battle for market share and profitability. In my opinion, Videogame Marketing and PR should be on the required reading list of anyone entering the industry, regardless of the employment track they are following. I am greatly looking forward to the second volume in this series, Videogame Marketing and PR: The Essentials, because I have a feeling that Volume 1 barely touched the surface of all that readers can learn when it comes to videogame marketing. We are in a creative industry, and this book encourages us to create our own marketing success and to reach for the upper pinnacles of this young industry by using the knowledge of our predecessors and contemporaries as our foundation.

Videogame Marketing and PR – Volume 1: Playing to Win is available for purchase from Amazon.com