I love the history of films and video games. If I’m not watching or playing them, I’m usually researching them, how and when they were made, what was happening around the time it was being made, who was involved with making it, and why did it turn out the way it did. For my favourite films and games, I also digest every morsel of information I can surrounding it including interviews, behind the scenes documentaries, fan theories, analyses, and more. It is all part of being a fan in my eyes, if you like something then why not try to learn everything you can about it. It also gives me the great ability to regurgitate useless information at the drop of a hat, which is always a great party trick even if its often got no practical use.
So when I read Ready Player One I was overjoyed to find the book jam packed with references and information about films, TV shows, video games, and music; and to top it all off it was a book about someone just like me, a geek who was way too interested in fictional worlds than the real one. Suffice to say the story clicked with me, now nine years later and I am days away from re-entering the Oasis and re-uniting with Wade Watts and his fellow Gunters for another epic adventure in Ready Player Two. So, here’s a look back at Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, Ready Player One.
The year is 2045 and the Earth is a crappy place to live. There have been numerous wars for the last of the fossil fuels, giant corporations control day to day life, and the majority of what is left of humanity is stricken with poverty and simply waiting out their final days before either the planet dies or they do. There is one escape for humanity though, the Oasis, a virtual reality video game that allows you to be anything you want to be and go anywhere you want to go. The Oasis is so robust that day to day life tends to operate inside the confines of the Oasis rather than in the real world. People don’t go out and meet each other, that’s too dangerous, instead they just meet up online where the only danger is losing your digital avatar & currency and starting from scratch.
Five years ago, the creator of the Oasis, James Halliday, died and started a contest to find an Easter Egg hidden inside the near infinite user generated landscape of the Oasis. If someone is able to solve the riddles, obtain three keys, and pass a series of trials left by Halliday then they will find the Egg and in turn will gain control of the Oasis and become the recipient of his immeasurable fortune. For five years, nobody has been able to crack the first clue and many have given up believing the Egg Hunt to be impossible. But a group of dedicated Halliday fans who call themselves Gunters are still trying to find the Egg in the hope of stopping mega corporation Innovative Online Industries (IOI) from finding it first and turning the Oasis into a subscription based service for the rich and powerful. Our hero Wade Watts, a teenage boy from Ohio, believes himself to be among the biggest Halliday fans but his avatar, Parzival, is stuck on a starting planet because he is too poor to afford transport off world. But then he solves the first riddle and uncovers the Copper Key which re-ignites the contest with explosive results.
I remember reading a quote on the back cover of the book which labelled Ready Player One as Willy Wonka meets The Matrix and you know what, it kind of is. The whole contest where the winner takes control of everything angle is almost identical to Roald Dahls iconic children’s novel, whilst the technological angle as well as many of the high-octane action sequences are very reminiscent of The Wachowski’s seminal action series. The characters are varied, generally likeable, and very memorable. I say generally likeable because Wade is kind of an asshole for most of the book. He is incredibly misogynistic and arrogant for the most part, and whilst the characteristics are worked out of him by the end of the book, it’s kind of difficult to root for the guy at first because he’s just such a douchebag. That being said, it is extremely indicative of the gaming community where there are still major issues of sexism and elitism, usually perpetuated by people Wade’s age because they have the power of anonymity. So, whilst it’s not desirable in your main character, at least it’s representative of the community.
Wade’s companions and competitors are generally far wiser and well-rounded people that make up for Wade’s shortcomings. For example, Art3mis is Wade’s biggest competitor, a female Gunter who despite proving herself to be of greater skill and intelligence than almost anyone she encounters struggles with being a woman competing against men. She is just one of the people that builds Wade into a better person over the course of the book by challenging his perceptions, and by putting him in his place when he is wrong.
The main villain of the story is Nolan Sorrento, one of the higher-ups at IOI who heads an army of IOI avatars who all seek to be the first to solve Halliday’s Hunt, an army referred to as the ‘Sixers’ due to their avatar ID’s all starting with the number six. Sorrento is actually very similar to Wade in personality, but its what the each stands for that divide them. Sorrento is a very ruthless and very cunning villain however, and although he doesn’t get a lot of face to face time with Wade over the course of the story, he does have a looming presence over everything.
The story is ultimately one of pursuing your dreams and not running from reality. It’s kind of interesting how Halliday slowly changes from a figure of hope to one of despair over the course of the story. The main character who idolise him too beginning to realise that he was nothing more than a man who made a game, and he made some questionable decisions in his life that meant he died regretting things he had done.
Ready Player One is a fantastic thrill ride of a book, however, perhaps its biggest problem, it does seem to have a baseline requirement that you understand some technical terminology regarding video games, and it doesn’t hurt to have an understanding of how MMO video games function on a basic level seeing as the majority of the story is set in one. Whilst it may seem like a story aimed at a niche group of people, Ready Player One is an adventure story everyone can enjoy. It’s also way better than the film adaptation, which whilst not being a bad film, almost completely missed the point of the story.
So when I read Ready Player One I was overjoyed to find the book jam packed with references and information about films, TV shows, video games, and music; and to top it all off it was a book about someone just like me, a geek who was way too interested in fictional worlds than the real one. Suffice to say the story clicked with me, now nine years later and I am days away from re-entering the Oasis and re-uniting with Wade Watts and his fellow Gunters for another epic adventure in Ready Player Two. So, here’s a look back at Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, Ready Player One.
The year is 2045 and the Earth is a crappy place to live. There have been numerous wars for the last of the fossil fuels, giant corporations control day to day life, and the majority of what is left of humanity is stricken with poverty and simply waiting out their final days before either the planet dies or they do. There is one escape for humanity though, the Oasis, a virtual reality video game that allows you to be anything you want to be and go anywhere you want to go. The Oasis is so robust that day to day life tends to operate inside the confines of the Oasis rather than in the real world. People don’t go out and meet each other, that’s too dangerous, instead they just meet up online where the only danger is losing your digital avatar & currency and starting from scratch.
Five years ago, the creator of the Oasis, James Halliday, died and started a contest to find an Easter Egg hidden inside the near infinite user generated landscape of the Oasis. If someone is able to solve the riddles, obtain three keys, and pass a series of trials left by Halliday then they will find the Egg and in turn will gain control of the Oasis and become the recipient of his immeasurable fortune. For five years, nobody has been able to crack the first clue and many have given up believing the Egg Hunt to be impossible. But a group of dedicated Halliday fans who call themselves Gunters are still trying to find the Egg in the hope of stopping mega corporation Innovative Online Industries (IOI) from finding it first and turning the Oasis into a subscription based service for the rich and powerful. Our hero Wade Watts, a teenage boy from Ohio, believes himself to be among the biggest Halliday fans but his avatar, Parzival, is stuck on a starting planet because he is too poor to afford transport off world. But then he solves the first riddle and uncovers the Copper Key which re-ignites the contest with explosive results.
I remember reading a quote on the back cover of the book which labelled Ready Player One as Willy Wonka meets The Matrix and you know what, it kind of is. The whole contest where the winner takes control of everything angle is almost identical to Roald Dahls iconic children’s novel, whilst the technological angle as well as many of the high-octane action sequences are very reminiscent of The Wachowski’s seminal action series. The characters are varied, generally likeable, and very memorable. I say generally likeable because Wade is kind of an asshole for most of the book. He is incredibly misogynistic and arrogant for the most part, and whilst the characteristics are worked out of him by the end of the book, it’s kind of difficult to root for the guy at first because he’s just such a douchebag. That being said, it is extremely indicative of the gaming community where there are still major issues of sexism and elitism, usually perpetuated by people Wade’s age because they have the power of anonymity. So, whilst it’s not desirable in your main character, at least it’s representative of the community.
Wade’s companions and competitors are generally far wiser and well-rounded people that make up for Wade’s shortcomings. For example, Art3mis is Wade’s biggest competitor, a female Gunter who despite proving herself to be of greater skill and intelligence than almost anyone she encounters struggles with being a woman competing against men. She is just one of the people that builds Wade into a better person over the course of the book by challenging his perceptions, and by putting him in his place when he is wrong.
The main villain of the story is Nolan Sorrento, one of the higher-ups at IOI who heads an army of IOI avatars who all seek to be the first to solve Halliday’s Hunt, an army referred to as the ‘Sixers’ due to their avatar ID’s all starting with the number six. Sorrento is actually very similar to Wade in personality, but its what the each stands for that divide them. Sorrento is a very ruthless and very cunning villain however, and although he doesn’t get a lot of face to face time with Wade over the course of the story, he does have a looming presence over everything.
The story is ultimately one of pursuing your dreams and not running from reality. It’s kind of interesting how Halliday slowly changes from a figure of hope to one of despair over the course of the story. The main character who idolise him too beginning to realise that he was nothing more than a man who made a game, and he made some questionable decisions in his life that meant he died regretting things he had done.
Ready Player One is a fantastic thrill ride of a book, however, perhaps its biggest problem, it does seem to have a baseline requirement that you understand some technical terminology regarding video games, and it doesn’t hurt to have an understanding of how MMO video games function on a basic level seeing as the majority of the story is set in one. Whilst it may seem like a story aimed at a niche group of people, Ready Player One is an adventure story everyone can enjoy. It’s also way better than the film adaptation, which whilst not being a bad film, almost completely missed the point of the story.