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Deptfordx posted:It might be hyperbole to say that whole Wargames section was the worst thing I've ever read. But off the top of my head I can't think of anything worse. Its ok Its not like they are gonna have him re-enact a whole second movie as a challenge later on
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Mar 17, 2018 01:10
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 11:18 |
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Wargames is about the inherent Pyrrhic victory that lies at the end of nuclear conflict. Wade lives in a world where nuclear bombings have not only happened but continue to happen. But the only thing he thinks about it is that it's cool because Halliday liked it and it has a hacker teen for a protagonist. Where Clines imagination and intellectual curiosity should be lies a black hole.
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Mar 17, 2018 01:29
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There's also a scene where the bad guys use a robot that is modeled after Johnny 5 and Ernest makes fun of them for being so unoriginal
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Mar 17, 2018 01:30
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chitoryu12 posted:The masturbation stuff. The what? 
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Mar 17, 2018 01:34
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iospace posted:The what? Little man on the canoe, remember that phrase
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Mar 17, 2018 01:41
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Orthodox Rabbit posted:It says a lot about Wade's lack of actual personal character that in the same breath he basically says "Wargames was Halliday's favorite movie. Thus its my favorite movie." In a competently written piece that exchange could be read with a good sense of sarcasm. "Paris was her favorite city. Thus it was mine as well. And if I had to buy a few dozen guide books to learn about my beloved city of lights then who would know?"
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Mar 17, 2018 01:47
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Would it accurate to say that this book is like Citizen Kane, if Charles Foster Kane did nothing but obsess over pop-culture, and the dude trying find out about rosebud got billions of dollars after failing to figure out what the big deal was, and if it was also terrible?
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Mar 17, 2018 01:51
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It seems weird to me that people in this thread are like "this book is poo poo and stupid, how did it get so popular?!" The answer is pretty much in the question. Large numbers of people are poo poo and stupid, and like poo poo, stupid things. For example, Captain America: Civil War made more money than Watchmen. Cap isn't a badly made movie, but it is a very well-made stupid poo poo movie for the masses. Cline managed to tap into this market by being, himself, a poo poo, stupid person, and writing what he knows. A book for people who wouldn't normally read a book.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:02
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roomforthetuna posted:For example, Captain America: Civil War made more money than Watchmen. Cap isn't a badly made movie, but it is a very well-made stupid poo poo movie for the masses. Ah yes, Watchmen, Zach Snyder's magnum opus.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:15
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roomforthetuna posted:It seems weird to me that people in this thread are like "this book is poo poo and stupid, how did it get so popular?!" CD is thataway chief
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Mar 17, 2018 02:16
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iospace posted:The what? roomforthetuna posted:It seems weird to me that people in this thread are like "this book is poo poo and stupid, how did it get so popular?!" And it's not just the general populace; this was generally well received by critics. It made numerous "Year's Best" lists. The Onion AV Club gave it an A rating. The New York Times praised the "breadth and cleverness of Mr. Cline’s imagination". It is loving baffling, as if the entire population of literary critics was gripped by a low grade fever and a concussion during 2011. Also: Civil War is much more competently executed movie than Watchmen, so that's kind of a dumb comparison.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:16
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roomforthetuna posted:It seems weird to me that people in this thread are like "this book is poo poo and stupid, how did it get so popular?!" I like the Marvel films. They're not exactly high art, but they're all solid and competently made films with good jokes and expensive special effects. You go into a Marvel movie, you can expect to have a good time and leave happy unless you're really loving picky about your media. This book has none of that. It's dry "autistic man explaining his favorite video game" scenes intercut with racism and sudden swerves into weird sex poo poo that you don't see coming. It should have never become as popular with both critics and the general public as it has. On that note, depending on what people say about it I might actually watch the movie for this thread. So far I'm hearing that a ton of it has been changed from the book, so I might be able to watch it on its own merits.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:21
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chitoryu12 posted:We never get any hint as to what risk Wade actually faces, as he's such an obsessive nerd that he gets it all right on his first try. The game itself never tells him what the consequences are and he never faces any. This was my biggest problem with this book. Wade has no character arc because he never grows at all and never fails. He does everything exactly right the first time, every time, no matter how impossible it is. He plays video games perfectly, remembers movie lines perfectly, and has snappy comebacks to his school bullies. It's the most depressing high schooler wish fulfillment self insert ever. It's embarrassing to imagine someone writing an idealized version of themselves and coming up with Wade.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:21
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legendof posted:This was my biggest problem with this book. Wade has no character arc because he never grows at all and never fails. He does everything exactly right the first time, every time, no matter how impossible it is. He plays video games perfectly, remembers movie lines perfectly, and has snappy comebacks to his school bullies. It's the most depressing high schooler wish fulfillment self insert ever. It's embarrassing to imagine someone writing an idealized version of themselves and coming up with Wade. And the worst part is that there's parts where he does fail but they're in games that allow for failures. Like in Joust where it's a best 2 out of 3 game, he loses the first round and then aces the next two. Later he'll play more coin op games where he gets multiple lives or credits or whatnot and a sentence or two will be used to casually mention his past failures. We just skip to the part where he succeeds, sometimes with as little as two pages describing the game from start to finish.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:32
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:It is loving baffling, as if the entire population of literary critics was gripped by a low grade fever and a concussion during 2011. Three words: Amazing. Press. Junket.
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Mar 17, 2018 02:57
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So, how deep are we into the book now? Because based on your excerpt sizes and summaries, I'm imagining like, 40 pages tops. And he's already gotten 1 out of 3 of the "epic" goals, with almost no fanfare whatsoever. This is not how you write an adventure story. Also, it hit me how to describe this book--its press lies, it's not about 80s nostalgia. It's a book about Ernest Cline's nostalgia, and nothing more whatsoever. Hence how like, 35-40% of the geek references in the book have nothing to do with the 80s but are still treated like they are.
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Mar 17, 2018 03:00
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Choco1980 posted:So, how deep are we into the book now? Because based on your excerpt sizes and summaries, I'm imagining like, 40 pages tops. And he's already gotten 1 out of 3 of the "epic" goals, with almost no fanfare whatsoever. This is not how you write an adventure story. We just passed the 30% mark. The next chapter is page 116 of 375 (including an Armada preview and acknowledgments).
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Mar 17, 2018 03:03
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Mar 17, 2018 03:28
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I liked that Wade could only beat the demi-lich Joust boss because he told the lich to let him play as player 1. He only knows how to play games as the first player because he's never had any friends to play games with.
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Mar 17, 2018 03:54
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Orthodox Rabbit posted:I liked that Wade could only beat the demi-lich Joust boss because he told the lich to let him play as player 1. He only knows how to play games as the first player because he's never had any friends to play games with. Congratulations on putting more thought into the implications of Wade switching sides than the author did.
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Mar 17, 2018 04:26
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Here's a detail that jumped out at me: he says there's a deep, ominous hum and then Also Sprach Zarathrustra starts playing. He probably got this from watching the movie. Here's the thing: the deep, ominous hum is part of the music. That's how the piece starts. The movement everyone knows (Also Sprach Zarathustra is a suite, not a single piece) is called Sunrise, and the low note (a Bb, I think?) represents the darkness before dawn. That would be exactly the kind of detail an obsessive nerd (  ) would love to point out, but of course Cline doesn't care.
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Mar 17, 2018 04:55
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Poulpe posted:Just caught up, this thread is so great What I think is a dumber conceit is that he'd rather kill 6 kobolds all day than let his well to do friend help him get to the fun stuff, that is until he lets his friends help him do the fun stuff when it's needed for the plot.
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Mar 17, 2018 05:08
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I don't think that he actually likes any of this stuff. Like... there's no passion or interest in it at all. Why does he write about this? he obviously doesn't give a poo poo about a single one of these subjects.
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Mar 17, 2018 05:24
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Correct me if I'm wrong here, but does it feel like one massive PvE fest? Like, there's no conflict between the MC and other player characters.
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Mar 17, 2018 05:28
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Memento posted:Congratulations on putting more thought into the implications of Wade switching sides than the author did. The name of the book isn't "Ready Player Two".  Solumin posted:That would be exactly the kind of detail an obsessive nerd ( FTFY
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Mar 17, 2018 05:41
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Wapole Languray posted:I don't think that he actually likes any of this stuff. Like... there's no passion or interest in it at all. Why does he write about this? he obviously doesn't give a poo poo about a single one of these subjects. From an authorial perspective, it's nostalgia. But for Wade to get into it, as a kid in the future, would require him having a taste for certain dated media that Cline is unable to articulate. Like it would actually be interesting if there was some reason Wade was only interested in media from 30+ years before he was born. Is he pining for a time before the world fell apart? Does it represent a more innocent time for humanity that he is trying to return to?
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Mar 17, 2018 05:46
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Ccs posted:
We're going to be saying this a lot, aren't we? 
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Mar 17, 2018 05:53
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PJOmega posted:In universe it is because Halliday's quest has loving destroyed a generation of culture. Millions of kids and content generators don't see any other avenue out of abject poverty but to pour themselves into the mold of an autistic old man with a raging nostalgia boner. The hilarious part is, I'm pretty sure that's an entirely unintentional reading of Cline's work. He honestly thinks 80's kitsch is superior enough that it would overwhelm the current pop culture if people just had a reason to dig into it.
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Mar 17, 2018 06:24
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crossposting https://twitter.com/goji_guy/status/974331646592856064
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Mar 17, 2018 09:08
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Ccs posted:From an authorial perspective, it's nostalgia. But for Wade to get into it, as a kid in the future, would require him having a taste for certain dated media that Cline is unable to articulate. It could have been a genuinely interesting approach if Wade actually hated all this stuff and was deeply cynical about it. Like, he's poor as poo poo and sees this as his only way out, so he spends hours researching the 80s nonsense some crazy old billionaire was obsessed with, but for him it's just a means to an end and he's sick of it. Maybe he could even develop as a character by coming to enjoy it by the end as he learns to engage with it for fun and not by dementedly learning every pointless thing about it, which might function as a critique of geek culture and the kind of trivia-based gatekeeping that goes on there. But then Ernie wouldn't get to wank off about being a kid in the 80s, so I suppose that's that.
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Mar 17, 2018 14:06
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Wapole Languray posted:I don't think that he actually likes any of this stuff. Like... there's no passion or interest in it at all. Why does he write about this? he obviously doesn't give a poo poo about a single one of these subjects. Other than retro arcade and home computer games, where he does seem to possess a fairly deep well of knowledge, Cline's actual knowledge about 80's subject matter comes across as surprisingly shallow. He thinks Highlander is an obscure reference. He fucks up really basic dungeons and dragons facts. His Star Wars stuff seems confined solely to reading the IMDB quotations page for the original trilogy. I don't think he knows any comic book characters not in the Avengers or Justice League. The whole realm of "Girls Stuff" 80's nostalgia is a closed book to him. Also, I don't think we've hit a single Nintendo reference in the entire book so far, which is absolutely shocking in its absence. Not one "It's a me, Mario!" And that's fine; God knows we don't need more references in the book. But it does say something about the author.
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Mar 17, 2018 14:22
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Ugh, the replies https://twitter.com/jesserocket01/status/974446734712635392
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Mar 17, 2018 15:01
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quote:I slept for over twelve hours and missed school entirely. I like how after explaining and even showing us the Scoreboard (I'll include a screenshot of it later, but just know that the Scoreboard actually makes an appearance many times in this book), he has these news anchors immediately recount what Wade told the audience just a page later. Wade turns off the channel before he can listen to more of the anchors mistaking him and his crush for allies and coincidentally flips to an interview with Ogden Morrow talking about the Hunt. After explaining that even he doesn't know who Art3mis and Parzival are because of the tight regulations GSS has on user identification data, he says that he hopes they keep their identities secret because of the danger they would face in real life if identified. The news network admits to having emailed both of them, offering a lot of cash for an exclusive interview. quote:“I’m betting that those other eight empty slots will fill up pretty quickly.” We take a break from the plot to learn more about Halliday and Morrow. Remember that British exchange student who nicknamed Halliday "Anorak"? Her name was Karen Underwood, though she changed her name to Kira after watching The Dark Crystal (again, not even loving kidding). quote:In his autobiography, Morrow wrote that she was the “quintessential geek girl,” unabashedly obsessed with Monty Python, comic books, fantasy novels, and videogames. Oh so she's another one of Cline's perfect women. Kira was the lone girl in their D&D group, and like every D&D group with only one girl everyone began crushing on her. Kira was the only woman Halliday ever spoke to, even though he could only address her as her D&D character, Leucosia. Despite Halliday's crush, she fell in love with Ogden and returned to the United States to date him after they both graduated high school. Kira took the role of artistic director at GSS, then married Morrow and resigned from her position a few years after the launch of OASIS. quote:Morrow stayed on at GSS for five more years. Then, in the summer of 2022,he announced he was leaving the company. At the time, he claimed it was for “personal reasons.” But years later, Morrow wrote in his autobiography that he’d left GSS because “we were no longer in the videogame business,” and because he felt that the OASIS had evolved into something horrible. “It had become a self-imposed prison for humanity,” he wrote. “A pleasant place for the world to hide from its problems while human civilization slowly collapses, primarily due to neglect.” This is one of maybe....two times that OASIS gets presented as anything negative? The other time is at the very end. The rest of the book does everything possible to actually say the opposite of this ham-handed message. quote:Rumors also surfaced that Morrow had chosen to leave because he’d had a huge falling-out with Halliday. Neither of them would confirm or deny these rumors, and no one seemed to know what sort of dispute had ended their long friendship. But sources within the company said that at the time of Morrow’s resignation, he and Halliday had not spoken to each other directly in several years. Even so, when Morrow left GSS, he sold his entire share of the company directly to Halliday, for an undisclosed sum. Ogden and Kira left GSS as millionaires and founded Halcydonia Interactive, which made the interactive children's games that Wade was basically raised by, giving him the impression of the old couple as sort of parental figures. Tragically, Kira was killed in a car crash in 2034. Her widower stayed out of the limelight from then on, only emerging to talk to the press after Halliday's death. quote:Morrow had begun it by reading a brief statement, saying that he hadn’t seen or spoken to Halliday in over a decade. “We had a falling-out,” he said, “and that is something I refuse to discuss, now or in the future. Suffice it to say, I have not communicated with James Halliday in over ten years.” Yeah, there really isn't anything that much deeper to Halliday's Hunt. The guy who threw temper tantrums and fired people if they didn't get his obscure 80s references structured the fate of his entire company around making people finally obsess over them as he did. While Halliday is meant to appear as a quirky Willy Wonka character, this is less cool and more incredibly pathetic and spiteful: "You didn't appreciate my tastes when I was younger? All right gently caress you, dance like puppets." Wade opens his email to find over 2 million unread messages that his system automatically filtered into an unsolicited inbox. All that was left after the filtering is a message from Aech and one from Art3mis, so he quickly calls Aech back. Aech is practically bouncing off the virtual walls at his best friend suddenly becoming world famous, and Wade quickly summarizes his meeting with Art3mis. quote:Aech held up both hands. “No worries. I totally understand. I wouldn’t want for you to accidentally drop any hints.” He flashed his trademark Cheshire grin, and his gleaming white teeth seemed to take up half of the vidfeed window. “Actually, I should let you know where I am right now....” Most of the conversation here is pretty forgettable, just meaningless details like "I already went inside and the server still has to reset." What matters is that Aech is afraid that even though Parzival's identity is still private, he thinks some gunters who frequent the Basement like I-r0k will put two and two together about two Ludus students finding the Copper Key and spread the word until everyone descends on the school planet. After hanging up, Wade opens his message from Art3mis. It's actually an old fashioned email: quote:Dear Parzival,
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Mar 17, 2018 15:47
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"MTFBWYA"?
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Mar 17, 2018 18:05
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iospace posted:"MTFBWYA"? "May the Force Be With You Always" according to Google.
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Mar 17, 2018 18:15
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iospace posted:"MTFBWYA"? It's a star wars thing, figure it out nerdlinger
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Mar 17, 2018 18:30
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iospace posted:"MTFBWYA"? Edit: If he'd done this in the style of the rest of the book it would have been like MTFBWYA - this is an acronym for "may the force be with you, always" which Obi Wan Kenobi says in a Star War. I was confident that Art3m1s would understand the reference because it is a good one for people who know eighties things. roomforthetuna fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Mar 17, 2018 |
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Mar 17, 2018 18:57
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 See, part of the problem would have been solved if, you know, the VR tech came out in the 80s and such in the story, not "I LOVED THIS SO MUCH YOU MUST LOVE IT AS I HAVE" shoehorn. But that would change so much in terms of basic plot and gods this story is a mess.
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Mar 17, 2018 18:59
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If cringing persists for more than two hours, consult with a medical professional.
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Mar 17, 2018 19:03
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So what I'm seeing between the lines is that the 2 creators of Oasis had a falling out because the one stole the other's waifu?
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Mar 17, 2018 20:05
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