I’ve written an essay to expand on my previous blog in order to discuss some of the points that I was unable to in my initial post. I hope you enjoy! I’ll be including a link to the PDF of the full essay, including a MLA8 bibliography, in my next post, but to prevent any accessibility issues, I’ve posted it below as well.
Ready Player One was published by Ernest Cline in 2011 amidst the emergence of virtual reality as a new gaming platform. The book was adapted into a movie, with mass commercial success, in later years, and has become a cult favorite amongst gamers and fans of pop culture. Despite it’s success, the book reflects many of the problems inherent in gaming culture and has an extremely problematic protagonist. The book was drastically different from the movie, primarily in it’s depiction of the protagonist, Wade Watts, also known by his online username, Parzival. Ready Player One is set in a dystopian future where climate change, a lack of natural resources, worldwide war, and various other disasters have driven humanity to primarily dwell in an online, virtual reality space known fittingly as the OASIS (Cline, 2).
Created by game developer James Halliday, the OASIS is the heart of this new modern society. Commerce, employment, education, and entertainment are all based in this virtual world (Cline, 21). Users utilize haptic clothing that’s able to translate physical sensation to their real body in order to fully immerse themselves in this VR universe (Cline, 38). Upon Halliday’s death, the release of his will revealed an Easter Egg challenge (Cline, 2), wherein users must discover hidden gems within the OASIS and solve complicated riddles. The first to solve all the riddles and claim the final Easter Egg would claim ownership over the entire OASIS, essentially controlling the economy, education, and entertainment of all of humanity as well as claiming 240 billion dollars that Halliday left behind (Cline, 8).
Naturally, a frenzy to claim this fortune ensued, with millions of self described “gunters” (egg-hunters) searching for the elusive Easter Egg. One corporation, IOI, dedicated an entire department to the Hunt, with the goal of claiming the OASIS and creating an ultra-capitalistic online society. “They would charge a monthly fee for access to the simulation. They would plaster advertisements on every visible surface. User anonymity and free speech would become things of the past. […] the OASIS would cease to be the open-source virtual utopia [Wade had] grown up in. It would become a corporate-run dystopia, an overpriced theme park for wealthy elites” (Cline, 50). Employees of IOI become known as Sixers, due to the fact that each of their avatar names begins with a 6 (Cline, 51). Wade holds a particular disdain towards these individuals, believing that the corporation they work for is corrupt, even going so far as to describe “joining the sixers […] a lot like joining the military” (Cline, 51).
Wade’s quest to save the OASIS from the clutches of IOI is one of epic proportion, which is reflected in his choice of username- Parzival. Parzival stems from the Arthurian legend of the Holy Grail, wherein one of King Arthur’s round table knights, Percival, is the only knight pure of heart enough to claim the Grail for Arthur. This speaks volumes about Wade’s perception of himself. In reality, Wade is far from noble or pure of heart, and is the last individual one might consider to be chivalrous. In the real world, Wade is “a painfully shy, awkward kid, with low self-esteem and almost no social skills” (Cline 45). Face to face interaction makes him an anxious mess, and he has no confidence in his ability to hold a conversation with another person in reality.
His appearance, he believes, is a primary source of the problem. He is overweight, partially due to his working class origin and “bankrupt diet of government subsidized sugar-and-starch-laden food” (Cline 46), but primarily due to the fact that he is a self-described OASIS addict, “so the only exercise [he] usually got […] was from running away from bullies” (Cline 46). Once Wade enrolled in OASIS based schooling, even that bit of exercise was taken from him, and the only physical activity he is able to get is from going to and from the hideout where he keeps his VR equipment. Wade believes that his financial position contributes to his social ostracization as well, with his “limited wardrobe consisted entirely of ill-fitting clothes from thrift stores and donation bins- the social equivalent of having a bulls-eye painted on [his] forehead” (Cline 46).
In all actuality, the majority of Wade’s social issues stem from a need to overcompensate for his insecurities, which is evident by his constant need to one-up his peers with his 80’s knowledge and gaming skills. That knowledge and skill set are Wade’s sole redeeming attributes, but he tends to shove them in the faces of his peers, which ultimately just further contributes to his ostracization. In his interactions with his friend Aech and bully I-r0k, he repeatedly feels the need to show off and call others who choose to spend their time following other, non-Hunt related pursuits posers (Cline, 67). He invalidates anyone he feels threatened by, and even seems to flip the script on his bullies by taking things too far and humiliating them publicly in front of their friends and peers, even questioning their intelligence and posing questions that he knows full well that only he knows the answer to (Cline, 68).
When Wade defeats I-r0k in their informal trivia competition, the “crowd burst into applause”- a common trope in falsified stories told by individuals on social media seeking praise from their peers. It seems inevitable that an individual with these behavioral patterns would be excluded by their peers, considering that Wade’s hubris and holier-than-thou attitude are generally considered to be character flaws by the majority of people. His self-perception is simultaneously that of an inflated ego and insecure child, which can be seen in how he designs his avatar.
Despite stating that he designed his “avatar’s face and body to look, more or less, like [his] own,” (Cline 41) Wade also states that his avatar “had a slightly smaller nose than [him], and he was taller. And thinner. And more muscular. And he didn’t have any teenage acne. But aside from those minor details, [they] looked more or less identical” (Cline 41). The changes Wade describes, if made in reality, would require extensive plastic surgery, weight loss programs, an extensive and consistent workout plan, and either medication or laser treatment. Those are not minor details. Those are the sort of modifications that drastically change one’s appearance- a full make-over, more extensive even than most movie makeovers. Wade’s perception of himself is so distorted that he considers these modifications to be inconsequential, while in reality, they would likely make him unrecognizable to any of his peers that he may run into in reality.
Wade is a problematic protagonist. Examining Ready Player One as a reflection of the under-addressed culture of sexism, ego, and toxic competitivity in gaming and nerd culture as a whole reveals disturbing conclusions about that world. Wade’s relationship with Art3mis, for example, is genuinely terrifying to female readers, as it reflects many of their own toxic experiences with male gamers in a glorified, normalized and romanticized light. Wade has a longstanding history of putting women up on pedestals and assigning almost mythic qualities to them in a way that’s dehumanizing and invalidating as well as toxically unrealistic.
In real life, he doesn’t even consider himself worthy of speaking to a woman. To him, “they were like some exotic alien species, both beautiful and terrifying. Whenever [he] got near one of them, [he] invariably broke out in a cold sweat and lost the ability to speak in complete sentences” (Cline 46). This is an extremely toxic and dangerous way of thinking, and is unfortunately common in modern society. Women are constantly held to unrealistic standards, portrayed almost as a form of deity right up until the moment that they no longer fit the description assigned to them, at which point the illusion shatters and they’re often rejected. In his interactions with Art3mis, this toxic ideal is reflected constantly in his descriptions of her appearance, personality, and their dialogue.
Before meeting Art3mis, Wade had stalked her blog for over three years, rabidly consuming every bit of content that she had posted. He became the worst kind of fanboy, even going so far as to obsessively save every single screenshot she posted of her avatar to his hard drive, most likely for masturbatory purposes (Cline 53). This behavior alone is a major red flag. He describes her avatar’s appearance in a manner that indicates a distinct disconnect from reality, idolizing Art3mis’s attractiveness because it “had the distinctive look of a real person’s, as if her true features had been scanned in and mapped onto her avatar” (Cline 53). She was beautiful, but she wasn’t perfect in the unnatural manner that many other OASIS avatars are, which means that she’s less threatening to Wade.
Wade is clearly intimidated by beauty, most likely due to his own insecurities, and Art3mis’s realistic (by Wade’s standards, and it’s important to remember here that his interactions with women in reality are limited) look is able to allow him to feel attracted to her without feeling like she’s better than him, which satisfies his inferiority complex. Wade describes her body as atypical as well, noting that the majority of female avatars choose from one of two body shapes- “the absurdly thin yet wildly popular supermodel frame, or the top-heavy, wasp wasted porn starlet physique” (Cline 54). The fact that he relates both of these body types to industries where women are exploited for and reduced to their physical appearance is telling to Wade’s view of women.
His description of Art3mis, however, still describes an unrealistic beauty standard. “Big hazel eyes, rounded cheekbones, a pointy chin, and a perpetual smirk. […] Art3mis’s frame was short and Ruben-esque. All curves” (Cline 53-54). When describing her armor, he uses sexual imagery to evoke a sensual mental picture of her, describing the pistols as “slung low on her hips” (Cline 137), and her melee weapon as a “long, curved elvish sword” (Cline 137-138), even reducing her entire image to “in a word: hot” (Cline 138). Later, when considering facing her in combat, he merely describes this as he would any male gamer’s armor- “Body armor. Body pistols. And that elvish sword she was carrying might be vorpal” (Cline 140), in distinct contrast to his initial description, which confirms that he was viewing her as a woman first and a gamer second, which invalidates her entire character.
Art3mis as a character exists solely to reinforce Wade’s ego and to be the secondary “prize” to winning the Hunt, as the protagonist inevitably gets the girl of his dreams after successfully claiming the final Egg. Wade repeatedly describes her writing style as self-deprecating, rambling, and assumes that her posts are full of misinformation, despite never mentioning any evidence to support that (Cline 53). It’s necessary for Art3mis to be self-deprecating, because this ensures that she lacks the confidence to be any real threat to Wade’s success. Her rambling, mentioned repeatedly in almost every description and interaction with her, is a reflection of the stereotype that women talk too much and makes her socially awkward enough to be Wade’s peer. It allows her to maintain her celebrity status while still being accessible to someone as socially incompetent as Wade, which is vital to their romance. Wade needs a Player Two, not a Player One, and Art3mis’s personality is a convenient way to ensure her role as his secondary once their relationship develops. This is a deliberate authorial choice, intentionally made to allow for the protagonist to “get the girl” at the end, despite him stalking her online for three years before they even met.
Known today as “stan culture”, stan is a shortened abbreviation of the term “stalker-fan”. It originated in 2000 when the rapper Eminem released a song entitled “Stan”, about a fan who becomes alarmingly obsessed with the rapper and eventually comes unhinged and violent when his fan letters went unanswered, according to Lauren Miller in her article about the psychology of stan culture (Miller, 2018). Kaitlyn Williams, a graduate of Stanford University, in an award-winning essay detailing videogame harassment towards female gamers, details some of the horrific experiences some female gamers commonly have. In the world of gaming, female gamers are frequently stalked online and harassed, even receiving multitudes of messages threatening murder, rape, and violence, among other threats and abusive comments (Williams, 72).
Wade’s obsession would most likely be alarming, in Art3mis’ eyes, even frightening. Her behavior is unrealistic and indulgent to the author’s own fantasies, and her lack of reaction to the multitude of red-flag behaviors Wade displays in her presence is telling to the Cline’s own lack of understanding of women and female gamers in particular. In addition, the invalidating nature of the author’s description of her skills speaks volumes to both Wade’s and his own inferiority complexes. In the Tomb of Horrors, where the first challenge of the Hunt takes place, Art3mis is unable to defeat the enemy after five weeks of grinding, yet Wade manages to succeed on his first try. In everything Art3mis does, she’s the best of the best, but always seems to come second to Wade, despite his own apparent lack of skills (Cline 149). This is because of her function as Wade’s Player Two. She has to be the best, so that his skills look that much more impressive when compared to hers.
Ready Player One is a cultural classic, one which predicts the advancement of virtual reality technology and the downfall of human civilization with startling clarity, but it is also reflective of many of the problems currently facing the industry. Rampant sexism, egos reinforced by valueless skills, and unrealistic views of others are all issues that the gaming industry is currently experiencing. The author, Ernest Cline, is far from exempt from these issues, and the evidence is clear in his depictions of his characters and online romance. Cline himself is a victim of that disconnect from reality that Wade experiences, and much of the book seems like a self-indulgent fantasy meant to fulfill a savior complex. The sense of entitlement that Wade feels for Halliday’s fortune likely reflects Cline’s own sense of entitlement to recognition and fame. Wade’s relationship with Art3mis is unbalanced, toxic, and dangerous, yet he still manages to win her over in the end, because she’s his Player Two. As virtual reality continues to develop and gaming becomes increasingly popular, many of these issues are coming to light in the media, with massive controversy as to how they should be handled. Moving forward, it is important to consider these implications while developing new games and platforms.
Ready Player One, published in 2011 by Ernest Cline, depicts a decaying dystopian world destroyed by pollution, lack of sustainable energy options, mass extinction events as a result of climate change, war, poverty, starvation, mass urbanization, and other man-made catastrophes, set in the year 2044. As available real estate rapidly shrinks (and prices increase) due to more and more people emigrating to cities, working class families are forced out of small towns and towards massive metropolises. To maximize the use of ground space, trailers began being stacked on top of one another. The majority of major cities are now surrounded by massive networks of stacks, sometimes lacking accessibility to clean water or sewage systems. Energy is generated with old solar panels tacked to roofs, and the stacks are connected by old pipes, support beams, and other recycled materials, with footbridges added to assist mobility. These stacks can range from fifteen to over twenty trailers high, resulting in massive structural instability that can cause collapse, sometimes even bringing down as many as five neighboring stacks as well, displacing up to 100 households at a time. With the increasing wealth inequality and caste-like nature of people’s economic status, people were desperate for an escape. In this world, humanity has turned to fully immersive virtual reality for almost any function. Aside from food, sleep, medical attention, and procreation, the majority of human behaviors occur on this virtual reality platform.
The platform is called the OASIS, and with sensory input targeting users hearing, sight, touch, and even smell, users are able to fully immerse themselves within virtual reality seamlessly. Parents turn to the OASIS to raise their children for them, employing virtual interactive education programs free for public use to teach basic motor, socialization, and academic skills. As children get older, they turn to virtual schools to receive their free public education, entertainment, and socialization. The school provides equipment necessary for accessibility, giving students the bare minimum technology required for class; an OASIS console, haptic gloves that translate hand movements to VR and can transmit physical sensations, and a visor. Eventually, many of these children go on to join the virtual work force in the OASIS. The OASIS has only a small fraction of it’s content available for free, and many individuals work multiple jobs for various independent companies within the OASIS in order to survive. The OASIS has a virtual currency known simply as credit; a currency worth more and more stable than the majority of actual currencies in reality. This currency, and the internal economy developed in the OASIS as a result, are key to the commercialization of virtual reality in Ready Player One.
Developed by retro-aficionado James Halliday, the OASIS evolved far beyond Halliday’s expectations and goals. Before his death, he pre-programed a script to be run that would supposedly allow users to attend the funeral he staged for himself for this specific purpose. Users soon found out that Halliday was offering the deal of a lifetime- one dedicated gamer that finds the 3 keys hidden amongst various Easter Eggs (subtle references inserted by the creator) and uses them to unlock the 3 gates, also hidden amongst Easter Eggs, will receive full ownership of the OASIS. The Easter Eggs, keys, and gates were presented in ways that, once discovered, users would immediately know what they had found. Naturally, such an opportunity sparked millions of players to get involved in this hunt. Easter Egg hunters would eventually be simply called “gunters”, and as time goes on, their numbers begin to die down. Five years after the challenge was issued, we meet our protagonist, Wade Watts; one of the few remaining dedicated gunters.
Wade is antisocial, has few friends both in the OASIS and in reality, and comes from a difficult upbringing. His mother passed away when he was at a young age due to drug overdose, causing him to be sent to live with his aunt in the stacks. His Aunt Alice is generally too busy working her day job as an OASIS telemarketer, her night job as an escort in an online brothel, and dealing with her bum boyfriend to be any sort of positive influence on Wade. She struggles to support her family and her drug use, at one point forcibly taking Wade’s laptop to pawn it, claiming that the money is to pay rent. Wade owns the barest minimum number of possessions, at one point describing his entire winter wardrobe as a single outfit consisting of “warn corduroys, baggy sweater, and oversize coat.” (Cline, 29) Wade doesn’t get along with his family whatsoever, and seeks solitude in his hideaway- a broken down van hidden in a pile of half-crushed cars and trucks no longer in use. Here, within the pitch-black, empty-of-seats, interior, Wade is able to be undisturbed while logged into OASIS. Wade has stored two extra laptops and hooked up a power strip and desk lamp to ensure that he’s never without OASIS access.
Parzival, Wade’s avatar, is a sort of upgraded version of Wade. As Wade himself says, “I’d designed my avatar’s face and body to look, more of less, like my own. My avatar had a slightly smaller nose than me, and he was taller. And thinner. And more muscular. And he didn’t have any teenage acne. But aside from those minor details, we looked more or less identical.” (Cline, 41) Wade’s description of the changes he made to his avatar were drastic; he’d changed his facial bone structure, weight, fitness level, and appearance of hygiene. These differences are the sort of traits that magazines frequently get criticized for photoshopping onto women specifically because of how unrealistic the final image is. He himself views these changes as inconsequential, which speaks towards his ego. Wade’s ego is prominent throughout every challenge he faces, especially in regards to the sheer amount of (outside of Halliday’s challenge, useless) information that he knows about the 80′s.
For the sake of avoiding spoilers, a more in depth analysis of the book with more complete plot details and examples will be posted later in the form of an analytic essay. Anyone hoping to avoid spoilers should not read this essay, although that should have been evident by my previous statement. In this essay, I’ll be examining the elements of interactive fiction within the OASIS as a whole and within Halliday’s Egg Challenge specifically. I’ll also be analyzing the problematic nature of Cline’s approach to gender through his depictions of Wade and Art3mis, and discussing the implications of these problems in the world of gaming and VR as a whole. Highlights will include a step by step examination of Wade and Art3mis’s initial reaction by discussing the sheer number of red flags that Wade displayed that would have been disturbing to any normal woman. Spoiler alert- there are TOO MANY.
I recently interacted with three different works, all of which were incredibly whimsical in nature. First was Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge, a story told through different locations on a google map. Each location pinned had a description when clicked, which allowed the reader to follow the protagonist along the narrative. Because the story was set primarily in Pittsburgh, which happens to be my hometown, I was able to recognize a lot of the locations mentioned in the story, making it a rather immersive experience for me. To the average viewer, however, Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge might not be as interesting of a work. The story didn’t feel interactive; I simply followed the locations in order, rather than inputting any sort of command or having any influence over the narrative. In addition, there was no puzzle to solve; the story was mysterious, sure, but nothing I could do would affect that. I did enjoy the rather humorous, if mundane, ending, but I’m just not sure that this work could qualify as interactive fiction.
Next, I interacted with The Last Performance. In this work, one can sort of advance through by clicking various words after watching them dance around the screen. The Last Performance is made up of multiple pieces of poetry, each called a lense, all arranged in circles. The words dance in formation, in a way that’s vaguely reminiscent of synchronized swimming. Interactors can also explore the Performance through the Performance Dome, where they can click through all the lenses at once. In the Performance Dome, things aren’t organized in a way that necessarily makes sense. I included a screenshot of one such screen that one can come across, where the words are all overlapping and what appears to be some sort of error code descends down the screen. I’m not sure if this is a programming error, or if it’s intentional. There are a lot of aspects to this piece that can go either way in that sense. Words frequently overlap to a point that they’re unreadable- I only able to read a small portion of the lenses in their entirely due to this hindrance. I thought this work held a lot of potential, but it either is full of programming errors, or the intentional glitches are so distracting that they take away from the piece and make it almost unreadable rather than adding to and enhancing the experience.
Finally, I interacted with That Sweet Old Etcetera. This was by far my favorite of the works that I interacted with for this post. Based off of the works of E.E. Cummings, That Sweet Old Etcetera uses ideograms to draw abstract pictures of what the words describe with the words themselves. For example, two parentheses placed together like so, (), becomes a leaf, or the letters of the word “grasshopper” hop across the screen much like a grasshopper itself. The interactor moves through the piece by clicking various words or portions of words that highlight red when hovered over with a cursor. The further you get, the more elaborate the picture becomes- grassy hills made of blocks of text, a tree with branches waving in the wind, red watercolor background, asterisk flowers that hop and spin; a whimsical wordy wonderland. There was something very nostalgic about this piece as I played through; perhaps the light music that played, little chimes at pitches each unique to the thing clicked, combined with the simplistic, visually driven poetry reminded me of elementary school language arts.
I recommend That Sweet Old Etcetera to anyone looking for something soothing; perhaps a quick piece to interact with while winding down for bed. Any Pittsburgh natives should enjoy Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge, as well as those who prefer stories more rooted in realism than fantasy. As for The Last Performance, if you have a free hour and don’t mind a splitting headache, it’s incredibly interesting to attempt to navigate through this piece, but don’t put too much hope towards being able to read the poetry itself.
At least, that’s what Arthur Dent does when the Vogons, an evil alien race, destroy the Earth to make room for an intergalactic bypass. Arthur is a generally well mannered British man who has no previous knowledge of aliens when his world is abruptly ended, however the intervention of his friend Ford Prefect results in his survival. Ford is an alien, exploring and cataloging the Earth for a book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Naturally, when the Vogon ships arrived, Ford saved his friend by getting him to press a now-iconic green button and hitchhiking to safety.
Perhaps safety is a relative term, however, for although Arthur and Ford were indeed saved from absolute annihilation, they faced an all new peril by finding themselves in the cargo hold of the Vogon ship. After escaping the Vogon’s torturous poetry and being shot into space, they hitch a ride on the to the Heart of Gold, a passing ship. From there, they embark on a wild adventure across space, picking up a variety of zany and improbable companions along the way.
The individuals aboard the Heart of Gold are unlikely people to run into while in the vast, infinite expanse of space. Zaphod Beeblebrox, an old friend of Ford’s. Zaphod has two heads (and the ego to fill them both), and three arms. Trillian McMillian turns out to be an acquaintance of Arthur’s, despite the odds; a girl he had met at a party some time ago. Finally, there’s Marvin the Paranoid Android- a failed prototype with severe depression. Arthur and Ford accompany this trio to Magrathea, a planet which Zaphod believes holds a great secret.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a multimedia work, of which the Infocom game shown in previous posts is only one small part of. Douglas Adams debuted the series as a radio show initially in 1978. Next came the self-described trilogy, a book series that actually had five books. The series acknowledged the misnomer in it’s titles, however, calling itself “increasingly inaccurate”. A television series was produced in 1981 by the BBC, which was then soon followed by the Infocom game released in 1984. In addition, a relatively successful film was premiered in 2005, starring Martin Freeman as Arthur, Zooey Deschenal as Trillian, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod, and Alan Rickman providing the voice of Marvin.
When Infocom released the Hitchhiker’s Guide as a work of interactive fiction in 1984, the game sold over 59,000 copies that year alone, making it a wildly successful release. Players must solve complicated puzzles without necessarily even being told there’s a puzzle to be solved, and use terms that are likely unfamiliar without being told they need to be used.
One of the first such puzzles is relatively simple compared to those to come. When first waking up aboard the Vogon ship, nothing Arthur does seems to have any effect, and in fact he may appear to be dead at first. The player must sniff repeatedly in order to wake up, thanks to the strange liquid Ford is waving under Arthur’s nose to wake him.
Next, Arthur must look around the room and examine everything in order to realize that there’s a babel fish dispenser, then consult the guide (or use previous knowledge of the series) to realize that the babel fish is necessary in order to understand any of the Vogon language, which is essential for the next puzzle. By pressing the button on the dispenser and failing a few times, Arthur learns how to get the babel fish, using objects around him to overcome various obstacles.
The player is driven by plot, but solving puzzles are the only way to move the story forward, and failure to do so within a certain number of moves will result in disastrous consequences. At times, the narrator flat out lies to the player- for example, by saying that an exit is available in the port direction, when in reality it is aft and listening to the game will result in death. In addition, unlike some works of interactive fiction, there is no “undo” function, which means that mistakes are permanent and the game must simply be started over. Indeed players will likely die over and over again and continuously restart the game as they make their way through and find what works and what doesn’t. I myself only got as far as attempting to use the Infinity drive, as the plotter has a long dangly bit that I can’t quite figure out what to do with, and every attempt I’ve made so far has resulted in explosion.
If you’re looking to bang your head off your keyboard in frustration for hours on end while attempting to solve impossible puzzles and work around a narrator that deliberately misleads you on multiple occasions, than this is the game for you. The feeling of triumph upon finally solving a puzzle and advancing the plot is sublime, and I highly recommend it to any players looking for a fulfilling challenge.
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