Fun and Art of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. You should probably read that one before this one, unless you don’t mind coming across articles with titles such as “Games You Should Have Played #8” without having read “Games You Should Have Played #1–#7”. I wrote both books at the same time and originally planned to publish them as a single unit. Unfortunately, the physical practicalities of book manufacturing put to rest that idea, but the connection between both volumes still holds. It’s not like a comma-relationship, in which MMOs from the Outside In flows seamlessly from MMOs from the Inside Out and I could have broken up the narrative at any theme boundary; neither, however, is it like a period-relationship, with both books as stand-alone discourses on unrelated topics. It’s more of a semicolonrelationship, in which the second says something that should be considered in the light of the first but that does make sense all on its own. The difference between the books is one of perspective. MMOs from the Inside Out spends its time arguing that MMO design is an exalted profession, asserting that players can gain from MMOs in ways that can’t be even attempted elsewhere and concluding that this gives us untold power that would liberate humanity if only we recognized it. Yes, there may be a modicum of hubris involved. MMOs from the Outside In, as its title suggests, comes from the other direction. Rather than preaching to the converted, it examines what the yet-to-beconverted preach about MMOs. Reality always wins, so what wider society thinks is actually important. It’s also important that MMO players and designers understand this. I’ve presented the case that they have the power to change the world, but of course if they do have power, then they must also have responsibility. They can’t simply do what they want to do and tell the real world to suck it up. They must accept and appreciate the implications of their actions beyond the magic circle of the virtual world, so as not to make the real world worse instead of better. That said, in many areas the real world misunderstands MMOs to such a degree that, frankly, it deserves all that MMOs can throw at it. It genuinely has it coming. However, in other cases it’s the real world that has it right and MMOs that are going to cause damage.