Let's Read Ready Player One - The Ultimate Showdown as a book

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Let's Read Ready Player One - The Ultimate Showdown as a book

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Happy Landfill posted:

Notch. Cline included Notch in his book.

Holy poo poo.

I can�t believe I never made the connection.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2018 04:46

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 22:46

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

chitoryu12 posted:

IOI is the biggest ISP in the country and owns tons of other business like news networks, taxi companies, etc. Morrow openly insults the news anchor in his interview by implying that IOI has tattooed a bar code on his rear end to claim ownership. They're like a cross between Google, Apple, and Fox.

Winning the Hunt will give them total control over GSS, since OASIS is the biggest business on the planet right now.

IOI is like Comcast married to Disney and Viacom.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2018 15:36

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Mel Mudkiper posted:

wait, if they are the biggest ISP in the world, don't they already essentially own the OASIS? Like, they don't control the system, but they control all access to it.

That would be like saying Comcast owns WoW.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2018 15:40

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

chitoryu12 posted:

Even keeping the rest of the story exactly the same, a better writer could have extended the action sequences like the Tomb of Horrors to actually show Wade cautiously making his way past all the traps and narrowly avoiding being killed. Or even have him get killed by the bullshit traps (maybe more than once) to follow up on his plan to just keep trying as a Level 1 avatar until he brute forced his way through it.

And then instead of just playing an arcade game, he actually gets his avatar transported to a huge 3D version of the Joust game board and has to fight Acererak for real, including the stomach-churning change when he reaches the "end of the screen" and wraps back around to the other side.

This is how I'm hoping Spielberg does it.

Or even better, changes how the contest works. Or at least how to get the keys and open the gates. Can you imagine? A re-enactment of War Games in a simulation inside a simulation that's part of a movie? There's no way Spielberg keeps any of that.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2018 19:48

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

mlmp08 posted:

The catch is that he only knows how to program in dead 80s programming languages.

So, FORTRAN, Pascal, LOGO, and QuickBASIC?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 17:17

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Gnome de plume posted:

So basically it could have been a good book if someone else wrote it. I could get behind that.

Going back to something else, we're told IOI getting control of the Oasis would be bad because they would charge lots of money for everything, as opposed to the current situation where everything costs lots of money... ?

I think it�s the difference between a FTP (or a very cheap BTP), where you need to either spend time leveling up/farming or joining a clan/guild to get bussed to other zones. Transport seems to be the only real barrier in game cost wise to playing well.

IOI wants to make everything PTW.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2018 00:52

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

Oh, here's a fun tidbit:

WHERE ARE HIS EYELASHES

# ¿ Mar 23, 2018 23:58

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Mel Mudkiper posted:

Like, cut your hair, shave that loving neckbeard, and wear some decent clothes

He�s like a big, blobby leprechaun.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 03:23

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

nerdz posted:

I mean, I remember watching those movies he mentioned at the cinema on the early 90s, pretty sure they are

It's half and half. Late 80s/early 90s.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 23:28

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

PJOmega posted:

Well, let's be entirely honest. Even if the sixers did come and attack Wade's hotel fort his escape would last at most a page.

"And then my escape shoot opened beneath me, dropping me and my entire rig into the subterranean garage. My car started automatically, a technological marvel only slightly less advanced than KITT, the one from the hit television show Knight Rider starting David Hasslehoff. Only this was armored with a half inch of steel plating.

It was also equipped with a state of the art satellite uplink for my rig. Of course all the interior had been removed. With the auto drive enabled I wouldn't even have to split my attention from fighting the suxorz in the Oasis. If they thought they could distract me with something as trivial as a forty man strike force they were shown to be fools. I chuckled as I was whisked to my second, even more fortified bunker. Silly IOI, I'd always keep a step ahead of them, and I'd always be in another castle.

Like Princess Peach from Mario for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Only I didn't need to be rescued by any short italians."

Only about a tenth as interesting as that vomit.

You have a real shot at writing RPO fanfic.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2018 05:42

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

PJOmega posted:

"I killed a rat. It dropped two gold coins and a rat tail. I needed nineteen more rat tails to finish my quest. I cast fireball at another rat. It dropped two rat tails and 3 coins. I needed seventeen more rat tails to finish my quest"

That what you're referring to?

Yes. But somehow worse.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2018 01:17

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Ars Technica not a fan of the movie.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/ready-player-one-film-review-wheres-the-secret-code-to-unlock-the-heart

quote:

Instead, we're stuck with something I prefer to call Ready Player None.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2018 14:35

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Shark Sandwich posted:

Otherworld

gently caress yes. It�s really good.

Be prepared, it�s four volumes and clocks in at around 4000(ish) pages overall. It�s been a while since I read them (I have the hardcovers squirreled away somewhere), but I think the shortest one was just shy of 900 pages. It�s a dense read, with a lot of different PoV characters and intertwining plots.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2018 20:18

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Liquid Communism posted:

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

God drat. That phone booth would have been perfect for an ~~intra-~~ ~~inter-~~ intra-planetary teleportation mechanic.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2018 14:53

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

chitoryu12 posted:

Finally, I'm going to consider Lacero canon because it actually gives Sorrento a motivation deeper than just being a greedy 80s businessman villain. This means we can work his motivation properly into his actions and dialogue.

Yes. I�ve been thinking about how Sorrento could be better and this bit of backstory not only humanizes and gives depths to Sorrento, but it also adds more to Wade�s (and the other Gunters�) motivations.

Just some ideas:

* During that in-OASIS face to face Wade and Sorrento have, Sorrento goes �off the record� so no recording happens and tells Wade his real motivation thinking it might sway Wade to his side. NOW we have two diametrically opposed goals, making this less �win money and control� and more �save the OASIS from Armageddon�.

* Throw out the blowing up the stack, since that�s just �fridging and a lazy way to motivate Wade to �I MUST WIN�. He already has that knowing Sorrento wants to destroy the OASIS.

* Don�t have Sorrento send tech ninjas out as a first option. Work in sabotage on OASIS links, set up gunters as griefers. Use psyops first, death squads as an absolute last resort (during the final battle, maybe?)

* Sorrento should actually be someone that the general OASIS user admires or at least respects. Sort of a corporate celebrity. Wade and the reader are the only ones that know his end-game. That kind of turns Wade into a Cassandra trying to convince everyone of his true agenda.

* Have Sorrento actual admire and like Wade, and consistently try to bring Wade over to his side.

Young Freud posted:

A third faction that actively fucks with the gunters and Sixers by giving out false clues and rumors, luring out hunters into traps and ambushes, and dry-gulching them, coercing them into giving them coin or gear, piracy, etc. Doesn't have to be Goonfleet, although I'm guessing people have already jump to that conclusion.

gently caress YES. And absolutely make it GoonFleet. This is OUR version, so let�s add some Goons to play Coyote/Crow to the OASIS.

Young Freud posted:

Unpleasant poo poo that makes OASIS not perfect cyberutopia. Absolute freedom enables absolute horror. In the dark corners, there's.all manner of prostitution and sexual vice, including simulated rape and snuff. In sequestered parts, real-world guerrillas and terrorists act out training with virtual representations of real world weapons systems and stage simulated attacks on real world targets. Racist sims where all the offensively-caricatured NPCs act in grossly stereotypical manners, with no consequences if you abuse or kill them.

I feel this is ground trod by other, darker works. Remember this is supposed to be an adventure novel at its heart.

Proteus Jones fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Apr 5, 2018

# ¿ Apr 5, 2018 05:21

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

chitoryu12 posted:

I think I have a good compromise for letting people stretch their creative muscles at writing while still maintaining a coherent narrative and tone.

I'll still assemble the actual text, but anyone who wants to can contribute text that they think would fit well in the thread. Anything from a whole chapter to a single quip. The final "published" chapter will be a combination of submitted work (which may be put into the chapter wholesale, or might be edited to adjust the narrative voice or clean up any unsavory or overly spergy content that a weirdo slipped in) and my own writing. I think this is the best way to make it a really collaborative work without creating a schizophrenic bounce between each chapter, or letting people put their pet weird stuff in that other people find uncomfortable.

The thread will start with three main posts that can be edited as a sort of quick reference guide on canon:

1. The OP, which will have the general chapter-by-chapter plot outline.

2. A list of characters with their backstory and personalities. I'd like to keep the character list pretty much unchanged (again, we're fixing the book rather than throwing it all out) but adjusting the characterization to be more rounded and likable.

3. A "canon bible" for our version of the RPO universe. This includes a timeline and information on how stuff like OASIS works and the state of the world, so we can maintain consistency when doing world building in the text.

This sounds good.

Other question. Do we want to hew as close as we can to the POV of the book or are we going to move into 3rd person territory? If we keep 1st person, do we want to use present tense to remove the certainty of the narrator surviving? Or am I wandering too far into the weeds?

Ultimately, I can't wait. I've already roughed out a couple vignettes reworking a couple scenes in the book.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2018 14:02

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Choco1980 posted:

It kinda bugs me that they went with KK when Donkey is far more 80s and has the added feature of throwing oversized barrels at foes.

Did they have other Nintendo characters in the movie? If so, then yeah that's a huge swing and a miss.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 12:43

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

chitoryu12 posted:

I actually don�t think I remember any major Nintendo characters.

Nintendo probably wouldn't license them, rightly distancing themselves from this whole poo poo-show.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 12:50

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 22:46

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Osmosisch posted:

I've finally figured out what this book reminded me of: the novel Wyrm
https://www.amazon.com/WYRM-Bantam-Spectra-Book-Mark/dp/0553378716

Anyone else read this? It's schlocky good fun though probably at least as regressive as RPO. It's been a long time since I read it.

I thought I was the only one that read that. Such a weird, funny novel. I also liked that instead of footnotes it had little info insets since the 1st person narrator couldn't add hyperlinks in the ancient editor he was using.

The military grade VR suit interface was inspired.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 19:36

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Let's Read Ready Player One - The Ultimate Showdown as a book