Ready Player One approaches the subject
of what would happen if there were a catastrophe and an MMORPG became a
widespread escape from reality. In Wade Watts’s everyday life, he lives in a
trailer park where the homes are stacked in towers and he has few people to
talk to. His only family members do not treat him well and steal anything of
value he brings into their trailer so he sustains a hideout where he can go
into the virtual world, OASIS. The novel combines nostalgia for the 1980’s with
extensive description of the OASIS and a Willy Wonka-like quest for an Easter egg
hidden in the game that would make the finder a billionaire. The money would
rescue Wade from poverty and allow him to start anew and support himself
financially. Gunters are a group that seek out the Easter egg and their
motivations range from helping others, to getting themselves out of their own
difficult situations, and finally to the Sixers that seek out the ability to
buy and run the OASIS.
The
use of the OASIS in the novel for people to conduct every aspect of their day
to day lives set it apart from the experiences in MMORPGs currently. There is a
headset that fully immerses the player into the game and since the game is free
to sustain a subscription to they use money for other in game purchases, such
as vehicles, transportation, real estate, etc. There are real people selling in
game real estate for cash and the most serious example of in game work is that
of Wade’s mother, which is briefly touched on when he describes his family and
the loss of his parents. “My mother, Loretta, had raised me on her own. We’d
lived in a small RV in another part of the stacks. She had two full-time OASIS
jobs, one as a telemarketer, the other as an escort in an online brothel. She
used to make me wear earplugs at night so I wouldn’t hear her in the next room,
talking dirty to tricks in other time zones. But the earplugs didn’t work very
well, so I would watch old movies instead, with the volume turned way up,”
(Cline 15). The inclusion of this detail points towards the transfer of issues
from the outside world into the OASIS as the population increasingly relies on
it as a way to get away from reality. While at a glance it appeared to solve
many of their problems because it allowed for new job opportunities for people
who were trapped in poverty, like Wade and his mother are, but at the same time
it left those opportunities limited. While some could sell realty, attend
school, and teach, others remain trapped in jobs that do not allow them to gain
much autonomy within the OASIS, and thus also are unable to pull themselves out
of poverty.
MMORPGs
generally offer the opportunity for the player to separate the game from their
everyday life and effectively escape from it. They can learn skills in problem
solving and social collaboration in a safe environment where they can learn
through attempting without consequences that will effect their outside lives.
The OASIS breaks away from this by intricately linking the two in such a way
that decisions overlap between the two worlds. Wade experiences this throughout
the novel but most notably when he finishes his meeting with Sorrento and is
warned, “And we also know where you
are. You reside with your aunt, in a trailer park located at 700 Portland
Avenue in Oklahoma City. Unit 56-K, to be exact. According to our surveillance team,
you were last seen entering your aunt’s trailer three days ago and you haven’t
left since. Which means you’re still there right now,” (Cline 142). The privacy
and anonymity that create the sense of safety in an MMORPG is removed in Ready Player One as Wade’s personal
information is compromised and his life both in and out of game is in danger.
Sorrento has an explosion kill his remaining family and neighbors in real life
while aiming to kill Wade while in the game he has the Sixers searching for
Wade in areas that allow Player Vs. Player combat that, if his character were
killed, would prevent him from being able to win the money.
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