Ready Player One, the film of the book

I confess I'm confused by the way this franchise burns some geeks.

If it's not your thing, don't watch it.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

It probably burns some people because those who are of its fanbase claim it to be something along the lines of 'The mouth piece of the gaming generation!' (that's how my friend explictly tried to sell it to me on) and then others read it and find it lacking on certain things about the gaming communities or storytelling or what have you.

Particuarly if your a female gamer and maybe find some parts... really fucking creepy.

Ok, as a seque, question: How should the movie adapt the Art3mis subplot to fix some of the issues there or should they just leave it as be?

Because I do know some fans of the book who will be very unhappy if Art3mis doesn't get a better representation, all things considered.

edited 15th Dec '17 8:45:30 PM by InkDagger

Honestly, I think the movie will benefit a bit from Hollywood Nerd-ing Parzifal a bit. Making him not a undesirable creepy nerd obsessively following a famous gamer girl will remove some of the issues with him being the romantic lead.

Having them just be two teenagers meeting and falling for each other will make the moment when she breaks up with him to follow her career and try to help the world with the money she plans on winning stand out more.

That was a really good moment in the book, personally. I just hope in the movie it spurs his decision to become a better person instead of causing him to become even more of a creep like it does in the book.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

This movie looks like a fucking mess, and I cannot wait to see it.

I hope they do that and I hope they give Art3mis an update a bit too.

Let's take focus away from "she could totally be hodunk chuck rather than a hawt gamer gril" because that didn't feel right and I think it'd be more interesting to just simply take it as a given that they could be anyone and spend more time getting to know her as a person. I don't know. Have them debate different types of games? Maybe she likes FPS fast paced shooters and he prefers turn-based tacticals and role playing?

And, I'd either do something more interesting with the 'you wouldn't like how I look' angle or just drop it. Real gamers who feel that way tend to have more serious problems than a small birth mark. I can't remember the exact description, but I don't remember it being something people would actually flip out over. We could do something really cool like, maybe she's a double-amputee with some scarring (maybe an injury from one of the trailer towers being destroyed?) and she feels like she can have her arm and leg back in the game or something? That might be a really cool angle to take.

Also, maybe drop the 'she's the prize at the end of the maze' ending?

Heck, you don't have to have some dramatic amputation stuff, you could just have her be plain or fat or anything that she might feel insecure about that makes sense.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

I didn't actually think she was that self-conscious about her looks in the book, just annoyed he automatically assumed she was beautiful like her avatar. She was picking up on the fact she was his fantasy girlfriend and irritated by it.

Mind you, it'd be hard to top X-wing: Wraith Squadron where one perfectly attractive Rogue still spelled out how that was a crappy worldview.

"I am not your fantasy girlfriend just because we share some hobbies."

edited 15th Dec '17 10:40:20 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Only reason I went that dramatic is that it could provide some world building on the healthcare in this dystopic world. But anything more extreme than a small birthmark would be welcome.

No, she's self-concious about how she looks. She makes a big deal about Wade seeing what she looks like in her profile and I believe the last scene of the book is her crying because he accepts how she looks and thinks she's beautiful anyway.

The book doesn't make a huge deal out of it, it comes up about twice — and the first is mostly in the context of "for all you know I'm a fat ugly dude in his 50s, because internet". Personally, I think making her OMG horrifically disfigured misses the point. She has a birthmark. It's not a huge deal, but she's really insecure about it. The fact that it's not a huge deal is the point — she's blowing it way out of proportion in her own head. Which is a real thing that people do, so making her actually horrifically unattractive in some way or another completely changes the tone of that whole situation.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

It comes up way more often than that. Mostly because he used the same name and description every time he brought it up. Even then, I felt like he was more trying to convince himself than tell me. He spends a lot of time describing her "Rubenesque" figure and his obsession with her stems purely from looks in the first place. Its a major thing that he peaked in her profile to see her actual face. Which is a MASSIVE violation of trust. And she wasn't happy with that. Why look in the profile if you really truely don't care what she looks like? Its not like the plot really needed it since the ending would ultimately play out the same either way.

I kind of think that you're reaction to the idea of something more serious is why I'd prefer it to be more serious. We've had a lot of movies that do this 'I'm hedious!' 'No, you're not. You're beautiful' plotline with really minor things. I get that some people really work things up in their head as a bigger deal than they are, but its a trite plotline now and one that really could go a lot deeper into something that people really do have to deal with.

There are gamers that genuinely hide behind their online persona's to avoid some real world issues they have. There are a TON of gamers that have diabilities and are kind of underpresented in our gaming culture. They can be able bodied or have non scarred skin and other things in video games that they might not have in the real world. And that speaks to a deeper truth that I feel like the book is trying to represent, while not really going there. "Well, we can't make her paralyzed! That's really difficult to live with and people might not be able to relate to that! Hmmmm, we'll give her a birthmark! People get super self concious about everything! And it won't be too out there that people will get turned off!"

edited 16th Dec '17 1:08:18 PM by InkDagger

I remember her appearance coming up exactly three times: once when he first starts hanging out with her, once when he sees her picture, and once when he sees her in person. Maybe he thinks about it at some point between the second and third, I guess? But I don't remember it.

Because he was checking to see what information IOI had on her — which was kind of important, because it turned out they had her under surveillance and were ready to kill her if necessary.

I don't think that the book is trying to represent that but doing it poorly — I think you want it to represent that, but it isn't. "The book isn't trying to do what I want" and "the book is doing something, but badly" are two very different things.

edited 16th Dec '17 1:32:32 PM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I'm wondering if they're addressing whether the OASIS is a good thing or not. There's some good arguments in the book it's a fundamentally toxic opiate of the masses that has allowed humanity to just coast along with fixing nothing.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Considering the book tries to claim its a book for gamers about gamers, it could be a lot better at doing that than 'Hawt Gamer Chick' and 'Japanese People Do Every Stereotype Ever'. No, if you're going to try and be a book about gaming/nerd culture and it does the bare minimum to be that, I'm going to call that out. I don't think its unfair.

I was also talking about looking into her profile and looking at her picture after she's already expressed that she doesn't want him to know who she is. That much, even if it were unavoidable, he gleefully does to get a look at his "rubenesque" not-girlfriend.

Ok, so, let's flip this. Art3mis just has a single birthmark that really no one would reasonably care about. What is this trying to say or do or represent within the story? What is its function?

edited 16th Dec '17 10:47:55 PM by InkDagger

Ok, so, let's flip this. Art3mis just has a single birthmark that really no one would reasonably care about. What is this trying to say or do or represent within the story? What is its function?

I think there's a bit of a zigging rather than zagging about this. A lot of people think the fact she brings up the fact she could be a 50 year old fat middle aged man up is important and she's concerned about the fact she has Doctor Blight's look (hot chick with splotch on face).

https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/e/e1/674px-Blightscar2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120610170457

The thing is I suspect the book won't be concerned with that element instead of the fact Art3mis breaks up with WW because he's slowing her down. As mentioned, it's not the typical "You don't know me, stop trying to fall in love with my fantasy" breakup. That's making her a straight up Tsundere.

Instead, she breaks up with him because he's slowing her down and the two of them are spending more time dating and having fun than they are searching for the Easter Egg. I think remembering that fact and keeping it in the movie is a lot more interesting than the idea she's insecure about her looks.

However relevant that is in our world of Facebook and Internet.

Weirdly, I'd be more upset about the fact he's a younger teenager and fat selfish butthead with no life ambitions but to be a RICH fat selfish butthead with no life ambitions.

edited 16th Dec '17 11:06:33 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Whether you love or hate this book, and I lean towards the latter, though see why some hate it, we can all agree the TV Tropes page on the book, especially the YMMV page, is a complete negative mess. At least with some other divisive works there's a fair balance of opinions, but in RPO's YMMV, sweet _Jesus_...

Love tearing bad movies to shreds? Join us every night at 8 PM

I'll try and do some clean up.

:)

Edit:

Did some cleaning up

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/ReadyPlayerOne

edited 17th Dec '17 9:08:29 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Spielberg & Warner Brothers have just over four months to replace TJ Miller's scenes with someone else. Ridley Scott just did the Spacey/Plummer swap in only a month, so they have no excuse.

Hey, does anyone know if it's true that Ernest Cline dislikes Nintendo, and that's why there aren't any Nintendo references (other than a throwaway mention of Donkey Kong) in his eighties pop culture avalanche?

Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

I'm not sure if it's that he doesn't like Nintendo or just that most of his video game references are pre-NES — Atari and classic arcade games and the like is about as modern as he gets there, outside a few throwaway references to MMO games when he's expositing on the nature of Oasis.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

For Context on this: an anonymous woman has come out with allegations of sexual assault and regular assault against TJ Miller from when they were back in college. Miller and his wife (who was in the same social circles at this college) deny these accusations, claiming that this is a false rumor that has been spread for years by the same woman.

Article that broke the story.
Millers' joint statement.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

Are they actually removing his scenes or is that just what people want to happen? I'm not saying that as an opinion, I'm just asking because I don't see RPO being mentioned in news reports about that?

The latter, as far as I can tell. And the above poster is the only person I've seen calling for it.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

Ok, randomly entering a thread demanding stuff with no context or anything strikes as a crusade....

You know, other than Daisho and Shoto being cringe-y as all hell and the Art3mis thing being so But Your Wings Are Beautiful it hurt, but I thought the book was a fun read.

My issue with the sheer number of references is that they either had to be pretty shallow or superficial and/or require an expodump to catch up a reader who doesn't know the property. And honestly, while it lead to a few instances of me rolling my eyes at the book for explaining something incredibly well-known to myself, I frankly think it did a solid job walking that line.

... and I'm pretty pumped to see the Gundam in there. Although to counter an earlier poster, I have literally never heard the phrase "Grandpa Gundam" in my life. I may have heard something similar like "Granddaddy of the Real Robot Genre" but definitely never "Grandpa Gundam." Not saying it's not out there (lord knows I've never heard every nickname for everything), but it's certainly not ubiquitous.

I think a lot of the backlash stems from (obviously) Hype Backlash, but the perception that the book goes "here is reference. You're welcome. You may applaud now" (in other words, The Big Bang Theory approach to references) but I don't think that's the case in the book. With its shorter run-time and less availability for expo-dumps, it's a real risk for the movie, though.

edited 17th Jan '18 7:17:03 AM by Larkmarn

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