Ready, Player, One by Ernest Cline

Characters: Wade/Parzival, Nolan Sorrento, Art3mis's, creator, James Halliday/Anorak, Og, Aech, the samurai Daito and Shoto, and the Sixers

QUESTIONS (Issued by publisher.)

1. The OASIS becomes a part of daily life for users around the globe. What virtual realms do you depend on? What is at stake in the war against IOI, the Internet service provider that wants to overturn Halliday’s affordable, open-source approach? Is it dangerous to mix profit and dependence on technology?

- We depend on Google, Facebook, iPhone and so much more

- The radio was oen source in the past

2. What do the characters’ avatars tell us about their desires and their insecurities? In reality, does our physical appearance give false clues about who we really are? How does Parzival, transformed into a celebrity gunter, become Wade’s true self?
- We use Avatars in our Facebook games, and some of our communications that are not games

- In our experience, many people make Avatars look like themselves

3. Would you have given Art3mis the tip about playing on the left side to defeat the lich (page 99, chapter ten)? Did you predict that she would turn out to be a friend or a foe?
- Maybe.

- We were mixed on whether of not Art3mis was be good or not

4. How does public school in the OASIS compare to your experience in school? Has author Ernest Cline created a solution to classroom overcrowding, student apathy, and school violence?
- Some of us felt that it created access for folks who were disabled or bullied.

- Some felt that it would affect social skills

- Some felt that some courses couldn’t really have the same effect, especially if they required hands on experiences

- Others knew that learning styles (the need to talk and interact) would make on line learning not a good choice

- The benefit of being able to simulate “being” in a virtual historical world might be extraordinary

5. Wade’s OASIS pass phrase is revealed on page 199, at the end of chapter nineteen: “No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.” What does this philosophy mean to him at that point in his life?

- You are not hungry, so you don’t push

- Answered and unanswered prayer

- Keep going, strive

- Sometimes the hunt (journey) is really what’s beautiful

6. How is the novel shaped by the 1980s backdrop, featuring John Hughes films, suburban shows like Family Ties, a techno-beat soundtrack, and of course, a slew of early video games? Did Halliday grow up in a utopia? Were there any 80’s things that were a surprise or unknown to you?  Did you wish something was there?

- Cyndi Lauper was missing

- Some folks might be too young to understand the 80’s, though it is an opportunity to learn

- for some folks, they were too busy (career, family) to notice the 80’s

7. Wade doesn’t depend on religion to make moral decisions or overcome life-threatening challenges. What does the novel say about humanity’s relationship to religion? What sort of god is Halliday, creator of the OASIS universe?

- Why did “god” reach in and help everyone?  It seemed to cheat the characters of their ending.

- They could’ve done it themselves

- Gamers like to build in “back doors” to the games they create, so this is like real life

8. Despite their introverted nature, the book’s characters thrive on friendship. Discuss the level of trust enjoyed by Halliday and Og, and among Wade, Aech, Art3mis, Daito, and Shoto. How is true power achieved in Ready Player One?
even while working individually, you work together

they were a clan

Real life forums are built around the game so people can communicate about ways to get to the next level

9. In the closing scenes, Halliday’s reward proves to be greater than mere wealth. What is Halliday’s ultimate prize? How did the rules of Halliday’s game help him determine the type of player who would likely win?
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ending J

10. In his quest for the three keys, Wade is required to inhabit many imaginary worlds, including movies, video games, and a simulation of Halliday’s childhood home. Which of these virtual realities appealed to you the most? What sort of virtual reality is provided by a novel?
- The book is its own world (and my favorite video game)

- We liked the War Games model where you had to interact with virtual characters just like in the movie

Here is an interesting “take” on translating the book into a movie – It’s about copyright and royalties!

http://www.sparknotes.com/mindhut/2012/06/13/4-hurdles-of-the-ready-player-one-movie

Warner Brothers will have to work hard to make this movie accessible for everyone, even if it means watering down certain story elements and going with pop culture references that are more universally understood.

And, their summary is the bomb:  If you’ve read the book, then you know: Ready Player One’s story is huge! Even though the novel is slightly under 400 pages, there is plenty that goes on and it’s safe to assume that the film won't have a run time on par with The Lord of the Rings. There’s a lot of ground to cover: quite a few characters to introduce, a love story, multiple (and lengthy) quests steeped in ‘80s pop culture, conflict with the main villain, main character’s self-discovery (plenty of that), the epic final battle, etc. Pretending that Ready Player One was forced to be divided into two or three separate movies, the performance of the first decides if it merits a sequel and other subsequent installments. And if this is the case, part one would really have to bring its A-game if wants to see its story completely told—and earn moviegoers’ hard-earned dollars.

Here’s another summary: The hero wins the game, defeats the big bad corporation, inherits bajillions of dollars, gets the girl, and learns a life lesson: you can't live your life in virtual reality. Could it get more perfect? It's just like your favorite '80s movie, you know, the one with the geeky guy against impossible odds, but it all works out in the end and he even gets the dream girl? Yeah, that one.

Interesting words: bajillions, wackadoodle, OASIS, Shmoopers

http://www.shmoop.com/ready-player-one/  

The Steps in the Game

The prologue consists of our as-yet-unnamed narrator telling us about the death of James Halliday, an eccentric billionaire.  When Halliday died Howard Hughes-style (friendless, single, and insane), he left a digital video of him planning his own funeral. His faux funeral is attended by digital copies of celebrities like Winona Ryder (to older Shmoopers: Lydia Deetz, to younger Shmoopers: Spock's mom) and other 1980s icons.

Welcome to the OASIS, a hyper-realistic, 3D, videogame paradise. It's 2045, and pretty much everyone logs in to the OASIS daily to escape their terrible lives, lives affected by overpopulation, unemployment, and energy shortages.  Halliday invented OASIS, an immersive, online, multiplayer game that changed the world at a time when Earth was in catastrophic peril: climate change, energy shortages, widespread disease and war. No wonder everyone wanted to escape to virtual reality.

Halliday tells the world that he's hidden an Easter egg, a well-concealed videogame secret first made famous in the Atari game Adventure, inside OASIS. Whoever finds it first will inherit Halliday's entire fortune.  In order to find the egg, users must first find the three keys of copper, jade, and crystal, and unlock their corresponding gates. Eighteen-year-old Wade Watts he has a mission: to find an Easter egg hidden inside the OASIS.

Included with the video is a downloadable document: Anorak's Almanac, named after Halliday's avatar, Anorak, and including over a thousand pages of details about Halliday's favorite things.  People trying to find the egg start calling themselves egg hunters, or "gunters" for short. Almost five years pass, and still, no one has found the Copper Key. The narrator tells us that he found it on February 11, 2045 and he's about to tell us his story.

In order to get to the egg, a player must first find three keys and unlock three gates. Wade—playing as his avatar, Parzival—finds the first key, the Copper Key, inside the Tomb of Horrors. There he also meets Art3mis, a young blogger with a sexy, shapely avatar that catches Wade's eye. Ooh-la-la the flirtmance begins. Wade handily unlocks the First Gate by re-enacting the entire movie WarGames. He gets a hint to the location of the second key, the Jade Key.

Back in the real world, Wade meets Art3mis (for real) for the first time. She's as beautiful as he had imagined. He tells her he loves her (she doesn't respond in kind, but he doesn't notice), and together they ponder what to do with their newfound fortune. An eternity of leisure and videogames, or world peace?

While trying to find the Jade Key, Wade investigates the planet Archaide. There, he plays a perfect game of Pac-Man and wins a quarter. Not even a real quarter—it's an item for his inventory, and it doesn't appear to have any practical use whatsoever.

Art3mis finds the Jade Key first, followed by Aech, the samurai Daito and Shoto, and the Sixers, employees of IOI, an Internet Service Provider putting all its resources into finding the egg so that they can control the OASIS. Things are getting dicey. Aech gives Wade a clue to the key's location, sending him to the planet Frobozz, a recreation of the classic computer game Zork. Wade gets the key no problem, and proceeds to unlock the Second Gate and grab the Crystal Key with little effort, heading through worlds that re-enact Blade Runner, the game Black Tiger, and the Rush album.

But there's a problem: the Sixers already have the Crystal Key. The good news is that they have no clue how to unlock the Third Gate, so the game ain't over yet. Thanks to their knowledge of Schoolhouse Rock! Wade and the gang know how to unlock the Gate: they need the power of three.

After an epic giant robot versus Mechagodzilla battle, Parzival, Aech, and Art3mis unlock the Third Gate just as the Sixers set off the Cataclyst, killing everyone instantly. Thankfully, the quarter Wade received after his perfect game of Pac-Man serves as an extra life. Parzival survives. He enters the final gate, triumphs over its challenges—a game of Tempest followed by a recreation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail—and finds himself in Halliday's office. There, he meets Anorak, Halliday's avatar, and is awarded digital immortality and Halliday's billions of dollars in assets. Bonus!

In the end, Wade learns that reality is "the only place where you can find true happiness" (38.48), and that leads Wade to say he "had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS" (39.53). It pretty much tells us that Wade now thinks virtual reality is all a sham.

If Wade really thinks that now, we wish he had learned that lesson a little sooner. Like, maybe before he prompted Nolan Sorrento to detonate a bomb—a real-life bomb—that killed dozens of people—real people—in Wade's hometown, just to save the integrity of a virtual reality video game that Wade couldn't care less about anymore.

It's like killing your family to save your favorite toy from being thrown away, and then throwing the toy away yourself when something better comes along. It's not just immature and dangerous. It's borderline sociopathic, suggesting that Wade somehow thinks life is a game and he's in control. Let's hope for Art3mis's sake that a prettier, geekier girl doesn't come along, because there are no extra lives in the real world.

THEMES

Versions of Reality
Everyone needs an escape. Whether it's movies, television, books, or something else, everybody has their own method of getting away from reality for a while.
 
Identity
The concept of identity has always been a bit complicated. As Popeye always said, "I yam what I yam and tha's all what I am."
 
Appearances
People put a lot of time, effort, and money into their physical appearance. Aging celebrities have made entire second careers out of it.
 
Competition
Video game competitions are a big deal, sometimes offering thousands—even millions—of dollars in prizes. And that's just for mastering one game. 

Friendship
If you think of video games as a solo affair, you couldn't be more wrong. As the pastime has grown and evolved, it's becoming more and more about teamwork.

Perseverance
Any contest is ultimately about perseverance. Whether it's training for 18 hours a day to be an Olympic gymnast or buying lottery tickets twice a week for 20 years, the moral is the same.

Dissatisfaction
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. If this is true, then dissatisfaction must be necessity's step-sister. Sick of getting up to turn off the lights? Buy the Clapper. 

Immortality
Videogame characters have it easy. Sure, they might get shot in the head, dropped into boiling lava, or squished by falling blocks, but they always come back. 

The Home
A home isn't necessarily a house—it's just where you feel the most comfortable. Just as Harry Potter felt Hogwarts was more of a home than the Dursleys' house ever was.

Dreams, Hopes, and Plans
Some people dream of becoming billionaires. Some people dream of saving the world. Some people dream of being the best video game player the world has ever seen. In Ready Player.