I have nothing against SF, and I am a roleplayer myself. I even own (and like) the Dreampark RPG.In fact, I was eager to find this in paperback, because a lot of people seem to rate it highly both as adventure fiction and for its portrayal of role playing and roleplayers.I was severely disappointed. The characters are pretty wooden, and the world itself is pretty unconvincing. The authors try to convince us that the "Game" is a big thing, carrying huge monetary gains for TV rights and novelization, but I really fail to see how public could really be interested in this.The attempts to make us sympathize with the players and seeing how they are so engrossed in it to actually care more for the game itself than the rest of the world are pretty unconvincing, too, and the story seems flat and forced in more than a place.Characters' psychology is probably not a forte for Niven, but unfortunately all the SFX razzle dazzle fail to carry the story... just like an Hollywood action film, in fact.