Ready Player One: An analysis in a new media context
Tanner Liddiard
Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One follows a young man, Wade Watts, living in a dystopian 2045, as he strives to find the fabled golden egg hidden in a virtual reality known as the OASIS. As I read the book, I thought about how Wade is experiencing this futuristic media that is emerging in it’s infant stages now. Cline explores the unimaginable potential such a system provides mankind, while also predicting possible dangers and pitfalls of the ubiquity of such hardware and software.
One of the aspects that new and emerging media that specialists are examining is the understanding of immersive experiences. To date, perhaps the most inherently immersive experience one can experience on a contemporary screen is actually a pair of screens, placed a few inches from the eye, allowing the user to navigate a 360 degree, stereoscopic virtual space. Further techniques that companies like Oculus and HTC have created include cameras that track a location of each eye in 3D space (first that were stationary, and now with certain systems being self contained in the eyewear), and controllers, also traceable in 3D space, that allow the character to interact with the world through 3D “hands.” This allows for the user to fell, at least to some degree, as if he or she has a physical presence in the world of the game or experience.
In the book, James Halliday has created the OASIS to be a place where people can escape the real world, and it's heartache and complexity, and immerse themselves in a world where they can be who they want to be. We learn of his own social anxiety helping to fuel this invention, and as a result, those who struggle with IRL interactions have the opportunity to express ideas and listen to others across a digital platform, taking the edge off of these experiences.
A challenge that media presents, in particular emerging media such as VR and other immersive experiences, is the tendency for the users to use them as a means of escape, and develop an addiction to the overly stimulating world that exists inside that headset. One way I think the movie adaptation depicts the problem with such a vivid and dopamine producing world is the contrast of saturation between the real world and the world of the OASIS. In Wade’s “neighborhood”, the Stacks, the world is largely colorless, with muted grays and blues. The OASIS, by comparison, is so bright and stimulating. At first, the audience enjoys being in the scenes with the OASIS, with its epic sweeping camera movements and vibrance. However, after awhile, the harsh saturation begins to hurt the audience's eyes and give them headaches (at least, that is what happened to me).
I have a personal experience with escaping into a form of new media. I hadn’t played video games for over three years, but in the summer of 2019 I was rooming with a videogame-loving friend in Los Angeles and I decided, after a strong recommendation, to download Kerbal Space Program on Steam. I began to play and found myself instantly hooked. I think I played 10 hours that first weekend. The game was challenging, yes, and I failed constantly. But the thrill I felt from finally getting my rocket I had built to space, and then improving and tweaking and getting it to orbit, and then to the moon, and then to mars and beyond...it was exhilarating. It felt immersive, like I was somehow contributing to human spaceflight by playing this game. When I started a mission I was motivated to finish it until it’s completion, and if it failed and I left astronauts stranded on Mars, I would not be content until I got those people home. Before I knew it, over the course of only six months, I had clocked over 300 hours on it. I justified like crazy, saying that I was learning about real science and technology (which in part was true), and I loved being a part of that creative community. I’ve since been fasting from KSP, and while I may return at some future date, the immersive, rich environment and gameplay stimulate my brain far too much to get me to find motivation to accomplish my real-world goals by comparison.
I believe Cline wants the readers of the book to contemplate the impact VR will have on society. It will be used for good, it will be manipulated for bad, but in the end, it’s how we chose the role it will play in our lives that really matters.
Comments