Zynga's bajillion dollar bid to go public came with oodles of fun insight into the company, thanks to that filing with the securities and exchange commission. It also landed around the same time that the Facebook game developer launched a new game, one all about your privacy.

Before there were virtual farmers in FarmVille and virtual shop owners in CityVille, there was Ultima Online.

[This essay was given as a talk at SUNY Buffalo, 28 January 2010, the day after Howard Zinn's death. I have left the text unaltered, to better reflect the spirit of the talk.]