...and it is good that way. The cover may not apeal to everyones tastes and may not make its "meaning" clear immediately, but its definatly fitting the "new" ways of the hacker. Also it may transport the way a hacker is supposed to work in a team much better, than an abstract matrix-landscape would. All it all its stays a matter of likes, dislikes and opinion.

So far the emphasis in the BBB seemed to me on using hacking closely tied to physical scenes - hacking the door, hacking the commlinks, etc. to keep the hacker in the loop with the meat team, so to speak.

I wonder though if Unwired will also shift some focus on the matrix as a space where stuff happens, as a world of its own, with it's own denizens, like astral space.

with free spirit like sprites in the anomaly chapter, i would guess so.

hell, to we really know all that goes on in the net today?

Then there's the question: Is that a good, bad or neutral thing? Will it herald the return of the "Guys, go get the pizza, we'll do the matrix part here for the next hour" style, or just add another option for "solo runs" like astral quests are?

I'm not saying I do not like it - I actually think it is a better piece than the media place. I am simply saying that I don't feel it fits as a cover trying to catch the concept of the matrix for the book, not because of what's in the background, but because of how prominent that background is.

When I look at the Unwired cover art, my attention is first drawn to the Predator in his hand, and then to the AR overlay. When I look at the media picture, my attention is drawn to the AR first, and the character second. You can have whatever you like in the background, but if it is not directly part of what the book is supposed to be about, it should remain as background.

i would say neutral, but thats me being hopeful.

from what i see, the "go get the pizza" problem in SR4 is more about gm's setting up these elaborate node constellations and requiring the hacker to run the gauntlet to get any kind of data. when most of it could be done as a matrix search with a high treshold and a matrix wide timeframe. do the rolls, then do other stuff with the rest of the group as the ingame time ticks by...

also, with the matrix being everywhere, and wireless, one can maybe spring a nest of free sprites as a kind of WTF?! moment when a hacker tries to do something. doing a data search and rolling a couple of glitches? maybe you got their attention for some reason and they will try to take over your hardware as part of some plan?

maybe the corp your team is breaking into has a AI living in their network, and do not take kindly to the intrusion as the hacker is looking for the door override?

but this is me going creative without seeing the actual book. but with the AR option now, a hacker can do a couple of rolls, go with the team on some trip, and then do more rolls later on. i dont recall seeing the infamous null action in the main book, and unless it comes back hanging around the node for extended periods will result in whatever the GM comes up with.

The cover is great! And I´m not saying that because the GF worships the drawings of Klaus... great detail on the web interface, very realistic style.

As for the speed of matrix runs, I assume that the Hackers Handbook will help greatly. The description of that chapter alone sounds like a reason to buy the book.