Geek Speak — HabitableZone

Geek Speak » in reply to Shades of "Ender's Game" !

Worth more than an "n/t"...
Robert — (archived)

Interesting comparison, Fox. I'd assume that if Card were to write "Ender's Game" today, he'd have Ender being recruited through a more subtle process than the brute-force testing and involuntary induction he portrayed. "America's Army" is recognizably an example of "viral marketing", a technique developed in the Internet world that involves creating "buzz" and word-of-mouth referrals, usually centered around some freebie like game software.

I wouldn't bet against the possibility that the game reports high scores to a Pentagon server. And, at the risk of straying into paranoia, I wouldn't be surprised to find that some of the players you encounter are shills. "How old are you?" could be the lead-in to a recruitment pitch if your answer is 18 or older, and you've demonstrated skill in the simulator. You too could be a real-life Ender!

(Well, maybe not anybody on this thread. But if Ender's out there, "America's Army" will find him.)

You can approach a series of books as a sort of archeology problem. I remember in one of the later books when it seemed as if Card had just discovered the Internet (allowing one to date the book if the publication date were missing). That was when Valentine and Peter began posting on a future version of the newsgroups ("John Locke" and "Hegemon", wasn't it?), and started influencing world public opinion through their essays. Don't you wish posting on the HabitableZone brought that kind of influence? Maybe someday...

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