Ready Player One, Week 3

Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Book Club discussion of Ready Player One.

How did this section treat you? Are you still enjoying this universe? 

Two of the most amazing things in this section were the descriptions of Wade's apartment and his gaming bodysuit. Could you believe all the high-tech things that Wade had going on in his apartment? The WarDoor, X-ray machines that examined all food and packages, and all the OASIS gear were incredible. His suit was wild. Could you believe that it allowed him to feel the things he was experiencing in OASIS? I couldn't imagine it all. Max, the virtual personal assistant, was interesting as well. 

What did you think of Wade's daily schedule? I thought it was pretty clever that he motivated himself to exercise by tying his exercise requirements to his OASIS account. I still have a really hard time imagining that he never talked to another person or got fresh air, but at least he was more active. 

Art3mis and Wade make more of a connection in this section. Were you surprised that she wanted to stop interacting with Wade? How do you think their relationship together will continue? Do you think Wade needs her to get the egg? 

Why do you think there was that whole section about the perfect Pac-Man game that Wade played? I thought for sure that he was going to figure out something about the Jade Key through that game, but he didn't. He didn't find out anything about the key until Aech messaged him. 

Could you believe the Sixers killed Daito? That section was incredibly sad. I feel like it was needed, because it pushed Wade to continue on with the quest. He had been stagnating, but by the end of the section, he was motivated again. 

Wade had to play through the game Black Tiger to defeat the Second Gate. I had never even heard of that game before reading this section. If you're interested in reading a review of the game from when it came out and seeing pictures of the graphics, check out this 1989 article from Computer and Video Games Magazine. I really enjoyed the fact that Wade had to enter the game, and I thought it was awesome that he got a giant robot as a prize. It will be interesting to see how the robot comes back into the story. 

If you're interested to see how Steven Spielberg and his team created all the OASIS special effects for the movie version of Ready Player One, check out this article. It's really interesting and has a few cool video clips that explain the process. 

I hope you enjoyed this section, and I hope you'll leave me a comment about any interesting parts that I didn't have space to mention. Make sure to finish the book before you join us next week!