Set in the bleak future of planet Earth, player one, Wade lives among the "land registers" of Oklahoma City. Towers of campers placed one on top of the other up to 24 units high, coming from the stacks and from his home. As the global gas crisis continues and more and more people are forced to live on government food stamps to survive. Wade sleeps in his unit's laundry room with his heartless aunt and whatever bag of dirt she's currently dating, along with two other families. Being a poor orphan, he has no choice but to stay. His only escape from his unfortunate life is OASIS, the virtual reality video game that has consumed most of the world's population. He enters the game every day for academic, social and leisure reasons and, more recently, in search of the prize in a competition that will lead him to the fortune of the game's creators. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay OASIS has been a part of Wade's life since his childhood. His mother used him as a tool to keep him busy while she worked to support them. Now he uses it mostly to attend school, hang out with his best friend and hunt for the world's biggest prize: the "Easter egg" hidden in the game by the billionaire creator, which brings the winner his fortune. The user enters the OASIS using the face shield and tactile gloves. To create an account you sign up using your email and your retinas. Each login is enabled via a retinal scan, so the haptic gloves track your actions in real time. OASIS appears to be a more advanced version of the pre-existing gaming system called Oculus Rift. It's a similar concept but is still in its primary stages of development. The Oculus headset goes from one side to the other of your peripherals to try to give a full immersion experience. OASIS projects the scenery directly into your retinas to completely immerse you in its world. The Oculus Rift lets you play video games using an X-Box-like game controller. OASIS allows the user to actually experience and participate in any of its thousands of worlds. Especially since opening an account only costs a quarter, it's understandable how almost everyone in the world has integrated OASIS into their daily lives. Ready Player One is very similar to the Hunger Games trilogy. Both are set in a dystopian future where most people are poor and struggling. Both stories have major competition but with two very different goals. The Ready Player One contest involves looking for a virtual Easter egg in the OASIS that brings good luck to the game's creator. The aim of the Hunger Game is to try to get out of the game alive. Both of these stories focus on the importance of perseverance and determination. I think Ready Player One made me think of the trilogy for these reasons and also for the message they both convey. Both stories give us a glimpse of what our future might look like if we don't start really trying to make a difference and solve our problems. If we don't stop caring so much about what's happening on our favorite TV show and start caring about what's happening to the polar ice caps in the Arctic, then maybe we can avoid a situation like The Hunger Games. If we focus more on healing an enemy's hit point and not healing the environment, the environment can end up looking like something out of the mind of Ernest Cline. The point is that we need to start taking our problems seriously, otherwise these popular novels will very quickly turn into history booksnon-fiction. Ready Player One's plot is built around the OASIS creator's "Easter egg hunt." James Halliday has hidden three keys, which open three doors, which will lead whoever finds them all to his fortune of billions. Halliday has almost never spoken to the media, despite the initial release of the OASIS and throughout its run to the level it is at now. In the years before the pageant was introduced, no one had seen or heard from Halliday for years. His partner at the company hadn't spoken to him in years and simply thought he was inventing a new game. According to the partner, Halliday was always trying to create new games and new things. No one could have ever predicted an event of this magnitude. Cline's character is very similar to someone who recently died. Steve Jobs was a man whose achievements relatively mirrored those of Halliday. Jobs created what is probably one of the most used electronics brands today. Apple Inc also started small but has transformed into a global company that has its hold on most of the world. Halliday's company, GSS (Gregarious Simulation Systems), started in his partner's basement and is now a staple in most people's lives. Jobs was always looking for new ways to improve the company, always looking outside the box. This is what led to a three-picture deal with Disney, giving us Toy Story. Although it took four years to make, Jobs' creation of the globally popular film led him to start Pixar Animation Studios. Halliday was also always looking for ways to improve the game. By always inventing new games and pushing the limits, he was breaking new ground in the world of gaming; a path that leads to the OASIS. The virtual reality simulation was unlike anything before. Jobs was an extremely creative man, as was Halliday. Unfortunately, I wasn't alive at the time of Steve Jobs' rise to fame, when the world really got to know him, but according to Lesley Phillips, "Steve Jobs would definitely do something like that." The English teacher refers to the “egg” that Halliday hid in his game. He believes Jobs probably would have done the same thing if he hadn't had heirs like Halliday. It was impossible to put this book down. The characters keep me on my toes and make me root for them. The story and concept are so interesting that it makes the book almost as compelling as a real video game. Excitement barely describes my feelings towards reading the rest of this book. The second section of this story took a turn for the worse; at least for our heroes. Many people died in this section and all at the hands of the “Sixers”. Furthermore, the romance between At3mis and Parzival is also dead. A lot of things happened in this section that we didn't expect. In the first section, I said that I was excited to continue reading the rest and I believe my high expectations were met. Cline spends a few pages in this section describing Wade's current living conditions. He rarely leaves his tactile immersion chair; it is supported by 2 robotic arms, which rotate the chair on all 4 axes. In fact, most of his room was taken up by the newest and most complex electronics. Its massive dive gear, complete with odor-emitting tower and its top-of-the-line visor. Essentially the entire description of his life in a small futuristic apartment brings back memories of the humans from Wall-E. The people in this film evacuated the land after leaving it overrun with garbage. They all live on a giant spaceship where they do nothing but sit in their floating chairs, eat, and stay connectedto their holographic computers. Whether they are video chatting with others or watching some show, humans never leave their chairs or the online world. He seems quite similar to most of the Gunters in this story. Especially the “Hikikomori”, the Japanese people who have been so stuck in the online world that they never leave their rooms. Known as the missing millions, they have much in common with the people of Wall-E who lack life and actual social interaction, much like the hikikomori. Another thing these two stories have in common is their main source of nutrition. Every morning Wade drinks a can of “Sludge,” a drink rich in vitamin D that provides him with the nutrients he doesn't get from staying indoors. The people at Wall-E drink “Big-Gulp” size cups every meal. Both versions of humanity's future imply that we become so lazy and Internet-involved that we no longer cook, but just drink. Just put something of nutritional value in a drink and this is what future meals will look like according to these textures. These two stories also feature companies that have a tight hold on the human population. In Ready Player One, that company is obviously GSS, while in Wall-E that company is “Big 'N Large”. They own virtually everything in human life, banging their mark on the enormous jumbotrons that are plastered on every foot of wall. I, as a reader, am very angry at who Wade has become. He became self-centered and let fame get to his head. In the beginning, he was so focused on his research, even when he didn't have the means to explore the OASIS for clues. Now that he has all the equipment and gadgets to push himself even further forward, he got too confident and fell behind. He also fell in love with someone he met online, which is understandable, but he let it ruin his friendship with Aech. He and Aech were almost inseparable for years but as soon as a good simulation comes along he leaves his best friend. In my books, abandoning friends for partners is the worst thing in friendships. There's no reason why the people who have been there for you should suddenly take a backseat to what is likely just another passing face. And when Art3mis drops the disruption bomb on him, he finds himself friendless and with no one to talk to other than his assistance software. But I think he understood what was going on, he doesn't know Art3mis as well as he knows Aech, but he still put him aside. I think Aech made the right choice in cutting Parzival out of his life, especially after Wade said what he did about the copper key. Aech ended the friendship by repaying his “debts” and I think that was the best way possible, to the point with an attitude. Also, karma hit Wade in the face when Sorrento beat him through the Jade Gate and to the Crystal Key. I don't even want IOI to win, but this brought him back to trying to solve the puzzles. The book section was interesting, don't get me wrong, it had a lot of twists and turns that I wasn't ready for for example Sorrento becoming leader of the board, but it also made me very sad. It opened my eyes to everything the Sixers are willing to do to win the contest. They killed everyone in Wade's group, they're still trying to kill the "High Five", even after they broke into Daito's apartment and killed him too. The Sixers are ruthless in the OASIS and in the real world because they know that the best Gunters probably can't defend themselves in the real world. I'm still excited, but now also nervous to find out the final outcome of this book. The final section of the book took me to ajourney through the twisted mind of Parzival and his elaborate and dangerous plan to win the contest. Once past the second gate, he quickly solves the puzzle to access the third gate, only to encounter the entire Sixer army and their impenetrable shield. This is where Cline really hooks the reader because Wade tells us he has a possibly fatal plan, but we don't actually learn about it for a few more chapters. Wade's plan involves him falsifying his credit account to be $20,000 in debt to IOI. Between now and the next eight days, everything that happens to him will be a pre-planned move. His arrest led to him entering into a contract, which gave him access to the company's intranet software, which he then used a bug in the system to obtain 10 zettabytes of information on the Sixers. He was able to achieve everything they ever did; their original plans to kill Parzival and Daito, their current plans to kidnap Art3mis and Shoto, and most importantly live footage of the Sixers inside Anorak Castle and everything they had attempted to enter through the gate. Although this plan was exciting to discover, I didn't like the way the author slowly gave us one piece after another. It was very confusing trying to follow Wade suddenly being arrested and thrown into slavery at IOI. But it was thrilling to follow him as he worked his way into all the Sixers' secrets. I felt less angry at him after his behavior in the previous section because now he was doing something that could lock him into the IOI system forever. But once he got into the software, he slowly started to break out of that prison. His escape looked like a modern version of the infamous Alcatraz escape. The prisoners at Alcatraz literally managed to drag themselves out of their cells using nothing more than a spoon. Yes, it took a lot longer than Wade's escape, but it's 2043, people no longer have to physically work so hard to get what they want. Wade managed to "get out" by always making sure his monitoring cameras couldn't see what he was doing on his IOI access point. He then freed himself from the monitoring devices and used a disguise to literally walk out of IOI headquarters. Of course, his path was easier than the prisoners of Alcatraz, but it was just as interesting to read his strategies. After his escape, Wade met with Aech, Shoto, and Art3mis to tell them everything that had happened. Including the rest of his plan to take down the Sixers and enter the final gate. As they were discussing the plan, the co-founder himself, Ogden Morrow, appeared in the room. He offered everyone an invitation to go to his house to play from there. Og seems like the typical mentor who is constantly seen to me. In the previous description of Morrow, he has a beard, which also gives him the look of the typical mentor. A wise old man with strong power; this describes Morrow as well as other characters such as Dumbledore and Gandalf. Even though he isn't really a mentor to the players, he has been watching them since they became the “High-Five”. And finally, when they needed him most, he provided for them in every way possible. The biggest “plot twist” in this section probably should have been the reveal of Aech's appearance in real life. I put the twist in quotes because the reveal was very predictable. From the beginning, Aech's reluctance to reveal anything about his true self was based on the fact that he wouldn't be the same as his avatar. Then, when he warned Wade that he looked nothing like his avatar, his serious tone also revealed that the difference would be something”.