Mage: The Acension supposes that everyone in today's world carries the innate ability to do magic. Those that are unaware of their powers are "sleepers"; those who have become aware of their ability to reshape reality are the Awakened.[1]: 217–218 Digital Web explores those mages called Cybernauts who use the internet as a manifestation of magic power.[2] Divided into five chapters,[3] the book covers:
the Cybernaut's three main forms of ingress into the Web (Sensory Visitation using virtual reality goggles; Astral Immersion, projecting one's mind into the Web; and Holistic Immersion, transforming oneself into raw data to be uploaded into the Web.)
Digital Web was originally designed by Daniel Greenberg, Harry Heckel, and Darren McKeemen, with additional material provided by John Cooper, Jonathan Sill, Heather Curatola, Lee Chen, Bill Bridges, Brian Campbell, and Brad Freeman. The book was illustrated by James Crabtree, Darryl Elliot, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, Quinton Hoover, and Dan Smith, with cover art by John Zeleznik.[2]
White Wolf Publishing released the first edition of the book in February–April 1994,[4] and the second, Digital Web 2.0, in October 1998;[5] both have since also been released as ebooks.[3][6]
Rick SwanofDragon called the premise of Digital Web "audacious", saying that it "reshapes cyberpunk like so much modeling clay." But despite this, Swan found the book "hard to digest [...] the text is burdened with overstuffed sentences [...] and saturated with gobbledygook." He concluded by giving the book an average rating of 4 out of 6, saying "There's much to admire, particularly for those who believe that cyberpunk could stand to shed some cliches. But the text is so dense, so riddled with gamespeak and consumed by abstractions that a good portion of it borders on the incomprehensible. Digital Web is an impressive effort. But it needs a translator."[2]
^ abcd"Digital Web". Guide du Rôliste Galactique (in French). Association du Guide du Rôliste Galactique. 2018-01-12. Archived from the original on 2020-12-26. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
^"White Wolf". Casus Belli (in French). No. 80. Excelsior Publications. April–May 1994. p. 14.
^"White Wolf". Casus Belli (in French). No. 116. Excelsior Publications. October–November 1998. p. 12.
^"Digital Web 2.0". Guide du Rôliste Galactique (in French). Association du Guide du Rôliste Galactique. 2009-05-08. Archived from the original on 2020-12-26. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
