Sorry, no bootleg available.

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Many of the articles from the New York Times web site don't stay online for long. They get sent to the archives where you can read the first 50 words of the article and, if you decide you want to read the rest, pay to have it sent to you. For that reason I can't link to Unsimulated Suburbia by David Brooks. Quite frequently a little bit of searching brings up bootleg copies of articles that deal with issues of cyberspace from the New York Times and other publications. I'll often find these in pdf format in the required reading sections of numerous online classes on internet culture. I've found about fifty references to this particular article via Google, suggesting that though it wasn't a bestseller, quite a lot of people found it noteworthy. That being the case, having it (and other articles) available on the web would be beneficial to anyone trying to examine a subject like online gaming. This time, however, it seems that nobody has posted a copy of this particular article.

Before the web, referring to an article that might only be available in academic libraries, or through special subscription services, was standard operating procedure. But today, when we write for the web, readers have the right to expect that we'll link to our references. Not doing so leaves a feeling of a lack of completeness. Whether or not we find anything inherently wrong with having to pay for content, the basic availability of that content shouldn't be jeaporadized. In this respect, the free day pass from salon.com is a much more satisfying solution.

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Go to: It's all in the game.