Ready Player One
Project by: Daisy Yin T3 English
A Science-Fiction/ Realistic-Fiction Novel written by Ernest Cline
In 2040...
The world is slowly dying of pollution, and the only place for true happiness is a virtual world called OASIS, created by a deceased genius, James Halliday. Inside this virtual world, Halliday hid his fortune for all of his players to find. Five years later, when the world lost interest in the Hunt, Parzival finds the first key and gate and sparks a renewed obsession worldwide. The competition for finding the Egg first is so intense that Sorrento tried to bribe and kill Parzival for information. When all of the keys are discovered and all gates but the last one are unlocked, the gunters and IOI face each other in a fierce war to unlock and open the final gate. Unfortunately, IOI set off a deadly bomb and killed everyone in that sector; luckily, Parzival had an extra life and managed to find the Egg and gained wealth and power. Through all of these experiences, Parzival’s new friends helped him realize that the world outside of OASIS should be the one that he really enjoys.
Characters
Parzival
Parzival, aka Wade Watts, is an 18-year-old obese orphan. His single purpose in life is to find the Egg, which includes cramming his brain with every detail and fact about James Halliday. Wade was going absolutely nowhere with his life until he found the Copper Key. Then he started to gain fame and fortune. He slimmed down, got a new apartment (though he was basically forced to) and had millions of supporters all around the world. Using his vast knowledge of all things in the 80’s, Wade was the one to find the Egg.
Art3mis
On OASIS, Art3mis is a renowned gunter blogger, also obsessed with finding the Egg. Her honest personality made her Parzival’s love interest, but because of the competition, they never started to date until Parzival finally found the Egg. Despite her fame and valor image in OASIS, Art3mis in real life is more reserved. Her real name is Samantha Cook, and she is a 20-year-old college student.
Aech
Even though on OASIS Aech appears as a Caucasian man, that is not the real case. In real life, Aech is an 18 year old woman who is African-American named Helen Harris. She was raised up with a mother who solely believed that women—especially black women, could not get a good job in life. So when OASIS gave the opportunity to work online, without ever having to see anyone face to face, Aech was forced to create her avatar as a man. Though Parzival was deceived after all of these years, Aech still remains as Parzival’s best friend.
Daito
Daito, or Toshiro Yoshiaki was another devoted gunter. He lived in Japan and was unfortunately murdered (in real life and on OASIS) during a mission with Shoto. On OASIS, Daito and Shoto decided to team up and be brothers. Daito was the ‘gaming’ half of the team, with his prodigious skill with video games.
Shoto
Shoto grew up in the United States with his Japanese parents. This made Shoto familiar with much of America and Japan’s pop culture. This made Shoto or Akihide Karatsu the ‘knowledge’ part of the half. Extremely devastated after Daito’s death, Shoto then decided his mission was to gain revenge for Daito’s murder.
Nolan Sorrento
Sorrento is the head of the company IOI and the enemy of all gunters. Using his power, Sorrento plans to take over OASIS and everyone will fall under IOI’s “imperialist rule”. On the Scoreboard, Sorrento’s name only shows as his employee number, IOI-655321. Sorrento tried to murder many people that are seen as threats, including Parzival.
The Creators: James Halliday and Ogden Morrow
James Halliday was the genius creator of OASIS. He started his game-programming career at the age of 15, with his game Anorak’s Quest. He created it just for fun, but, who knew, fifteen years later, he would be a billionaire with his company GSS, decking out ingenious and addictive video games left and right. Despite his brilliant creations, James Halliday suffered Asperger’s, and had just about no social skills. He spent his last years in his office programming for OASIS, preparing for his death and starting the wild competition for the Hunt.
Ogden Morrow was also an exceptional programmer, but his true talent was for business. While James handled the programming, Og was busy selling and campaigning for GSS. Halliday’s dying request for his best friend, Og, was to make sure that the competition for the Egg did not get too out of hand. Og’s role as a supervisor for the game of OASIS became a key role for the gunter’s defeat of IOI. He housed Parzival, Art3mis, Aech and Shoto during the Gunter and IOI war.
What is OASIS?
OASIS is the final game created by James Halliday. The Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory-Immersive Simulation is a legendary game known all over the world, as it is basically the only happy place for humans to “live”. This virtual world has 27 sectors, and patterned in the shape of a Rubik’s Cube. Each sector is 10 light hours wide and contains hundreds of planets, all differing in size and purpose. For example, Ludus (the planet Wade goes to school on), is modeled for only educational functions and contains only schools. Lots of businesses, shopping centers, clubs, etc., are built in OASIS.
Each person in the world of OASIS may only have one avatar, and like in reality, has only one life. You can be whoever you want to be, without ever having to reveal who you really are. Each player varies in power level, strength and abilities. All of these are increased by XP points. Every player in the game of OASIS can create their own planet as long as they have enough credits. Using credits, you can also buy gear, weapons and basically anything else. Sometimes, when you complete a mission, the monster you fight may leave behind a weapon or artifact.
To play on OASIS, you must purchase the OASIS visor and haptic gloves. The game itself may be purchased with a sign-up fee of only 25 cents, which made it all the more appealing to GSS’s consumers.
IOI
IOI stands for Innovative Online Industries. IOI is the largest Internet service provider in the world. IOI hires/bribes many people to work and help find the Egg for them. The gunters have nicknamed those employees the “Sux0rz”. Using their immense team of people, they plan to find the Egg and gain power over OASIS. They will start charging the players unreasonable fees in the game, which was previously free. IOI will demolish the entire purpose of the game, which was to provide a happy place for humans to interact and “live”.
The Three Keys and Gates
To find the Egg, one must first find the three keys and unlock the three gates. There is one key of copper, jade and crystal. Each key unlocks a gate that corresponds to each material. The task is not so simple. There are many challenges to face in between. For example, to obtain the Copper Key, Parzival had to beat Acererak the lich in a game of Joust. Every key and gate all have different challenges and are all located on different planets. But, the good thing is, if a gunter does enough digging, they can find clues that will help them find the next key, gate or the Egg.
Glossary
Artifact: A very rare object that bestows the owner with a unique and special power. They may not be duplicated in any way and there is only one model of each artifact. For example, a famous artifact was the Cataclyst, a deadly bomb that kills every single player in the sector. Another artifact was a coin that Parzival won on a game of Pac-man that gave him an extra life.
Credits: The money of OASIS. The OASIS credit is one of the most stable currencies in the world.
Easter egg: A term used for something hidden in a game that nobody knows where it’s located but the creator.
Gunter: A person who is devoted to finding Halliday’s Egg.
GSS: Gregarious Simulation Systems, James Halliday’s company, previously known as GG, or Gregarious Games.
Sux0rz: The employees of IOI. Each avatar looks exactly the same, and the only way to differentiate each avatar are the six number codes each employee has. For that reason, the gunters nicknamed them “Sixers” and eventually, they became the “Sux0rz”.
The Egg: The Easter egg that James Halliday hid in his final game OASIS. This Easter egg contains Halliday’s entire fortune.
The Hunt: A nickname for the hunt for Halliday’s fortune.
Scoreboard: The scoreboard on Halliday’s website that keeps track of the top 10 players that have progressed through the Hunt.