The original guide to writing for games returns! Every chapter has been revised and expanded, and there are new chapters covering storytelling for MMOs, urban narrative, interactive script formats, and the different kinds of relationship players can have with a game's story. Available from Bloomsbury now as a paperback, hardback, or ebook!
If you can't go a day without using a computer, a smartphone, or a car, you are inescapably a cyborg. But how would you tell if you were a good cyborg? Find out with The Virtuous Cyborg, out now as both a paperback and a new ebook edition.
Pleased to announce the imminent publication of the ebook edition of The Virtuous Cyborg. Now, you can explore your hybrid relationship with computers and other devices from the comfort of your phone or ebook reader. Are you ready to ask yourself the question: what would it mean to be a good cyborg?
The new ten part mini-serial, Arcade Cyborgs, making up parts 51-60 of A Hundred Cyborgs, has been held back to coincide with the release of the ebook edition, and will begin later this month.
The Virtuous Cyborg ebook will be available for all devices in two weeks.
How would you know if you were a good cyborg? My latest philosophy book explores this and other problems of contemporary cyberethics. From arcade machines to social media to Pokémon Go to Google, encounter our strange relationship with technology from an entirely new angle. The Virtuous Cyborg is out now from Eyewear Publishing.
Go to cyborg.ihobo.com or click the book in the sidebar to learn more!
How often do you go out without your smartphone? What’s the longest you’ve gone without the internet?
Whether you’ve noticed it or not, we have become cyborgs – human-machine hybrids. Whether it’s Facebook selling our personal data to be ‘weaponised’ by Cambridge Analytica, or Google suggesting answers to questions like “are women evil?” to people who asked for no such thing, our lives are affected by the machines we are living with. Cybernetic networks are all around us – and thinking about ‘neutral tools’ is no longer helpful. You’re already a cyborg… join us to help find out what would make a good cyborg!
Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, 2-4 Hoxton Square, London N1 6NU - order your free tickets here!
A special night as part of of Justin Robertson’s “It’s Alive!” Exhibition, and Book Launch Event for Chris Bateman’s new book The Virtuous Cyborg, from Squint Books. Order your free tickets here!
Working on who to send out review copies of The Virtuous Cyborg, and I could use your help! Do you know any journalists, firebrands, iconoclasts or other strange and wonderful people who are out there making their voices heard? I’m particularly looking for those who are raising concerns about contemporary technology, but anyone who might be interested in cybervirtue and who is out there making some noise would be great to hear about.
Looking for journalists, firebrands, and iconoclasts who are raising technology concerns. Suggestions? https://t.co/gNWLJXxHzS
— Chris Bateman (@SpiralChris) March 6, 2018
Please reply to this post or to the Tweet that goes with this. Many thanks for your assistance!
The publisher has kindly sent me four variants of the new cover for The Virtuous Cyborg and asked me to pick one to run with. I have a favourite… but I do so like to procrastinating a decision by asking for advice that I agonise over before disregarding. Here are the options:
So what do you think? You can either vote using the embedded Twitter poll, or leave me a comment.
Which of the four covers for The Virtuous Cyborg do you like best?
— Chris Bateman (@SpiralChris) February 15, 2018
The choice is mine – but you can influence it!
Through a mutual decision between myself and the publisher, The Virtuous Cyborg has been put back to early 2018. This is mainly because I am too busy with both consultancy and teaching commitments this Autumn, and will not be able to get fully behind promoting the book before January-February 2018.
We are now listing the release date as ‘Spring 2018’.
Opening image is Abstract Modern Tree Landscape by Amy Giacomelli, which I found here on Fine Art America. As ever, no copyright infringement is intended and I will take the image down if asked.
Just this second, I finished going through the copy editor’s version of the manuscript for The Virtuous Cyborg. She did a great job! Very attentive to the grammar, which I’d expect, but also thoughtful about the way emphasis had been applied. There's lots of good copy editors around, but the truly great ones can get into the head of the author and think through the book as well as the grammatical minutiae... great to encounter.
She also had this wonderful capsule review that she sent the editor:
The book was really excellent. Compelling and well-written, it provides an introduction to the complicated intersection between technology and philosophy, which proves exceptionally relevant to everyday life. The addition of a glossary and author's note with reference attribution simplifies the main text while still allowing for further clarification.
Completing this step moves me from ‘unedited MS’ to ‘edited MS’. One step closer to publication!
It gives me great pleasure to announce that The Virtuous Cyborg will be published by Squint Books, the cultural and political imprint of renowned poetry micro-press Eyewear Publishing. We are planning for an Autumn 2017 release date.
You can read the blurb, and a short introduction for the publisher and author, over on the new book blog at cyborg.ihobo.com.
Check it out!
It gives me great pleasure to formally announce my new book project, The Virtuous Cyborg, which builds upon the cybervirtue discussions going on here at Only a Game this year. A publisher has already invited me to place the book with them, but I will not announce who it is until later this year when we’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. I will just say for now that they are are a small independent press with a commitment to virtuous publishing and nurturing talent outside of the mainstream corporate system, and they feel like a great fit for my philosophy writing.
The new book will be another short form text like Wikipedia Knows Nothing, but will not have a free edition as I am committed to repaying the investment of both trust and money the publisher is making by publishing me, and their situation means they have to be practical about making ends meet. (ETC Press, as an academic publisher, had different priorities, and I’m very grateful to them for being there when WKN needed a home).
At this time, I am inviting pre-readers to read the draft manuscript, that will be ready some time in April. All you need to be as a pre-reader is someone I have already spoken to (in any medium) with an interest in my philosophy and the time to read a 30,000 word manuscript in April-May this year. I will need feedback in less than a month, so please make sure you have the time to help out.
Interested? Contact me through the usual channels, including comments here if you have no other option.
The opening image is a free texture from TextureX.com which I found here, used under their license and remaining under their copyright.
