History Headscratchers / ReadyPlayerOne

* So this is a headscratcher from somebody who enjoyed the book, but found this to be the largest plot hole. How did OASIS get popular as an mmo with a permadeath system in place? I understand the idea of an extremely immersive mmo that has slowly replaced traditional life, but who in their right mind would devote so many hours into an mmo where if you slip up once it's game over, restart from the beginning. Could you imagine if VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft launched with such a system? Now I understand from a narrative point of view it's important to have a constant threat, but why couldn't a system like in .hack//SIGN work? In that franchise, you need to log out properly to save your level and progress, and if you die, you log back in to your last save, or you revert to a previous save. It just feels like a misunderstanding to why rogues are interesting. It's a small investment, usually a few hours overall, and when you die, you get to experience a new game entirely with a new character and load-out. Generally, it sounds like OASIS is a static environment, so if you die, you just have to slog through the same stuff again, if you even get that far after resetting. And I don't remember reading any proper explanation in-universe to the permadeath.

*** This also accounts for why he helps the remaining High Five members: because Dungeon Masters provide resources to players that help out in a campaign. Og provided a resource for the remaining High Five by giving them a safe place to log into the OASIS for the final fight.

*** Yes, of course I can. The moment I glanced at the clue I immediately said "oh, it's Zork, that's painfully obvious; that's the famous game where you need to collect all the trophies in an abandoned house in order to proceed." Someone in the future might not know the ''instant'' they glanced at it, but a team of researchers pouring over the things Halliday used as sources for stuff in the game (ie. pop-culture from the time when he grew up) would include at least one expert on old games, who would recognize the reference instantly.

** Halliday has, basically, asked him to take on the role of a Dungeon Master once again for the Egg Hunt. When you look at it in this context, a Dungeon Master provides some information about the situation but leaves the actions and possible solutions in controls with the players. Og stepping in and bringing down the shield would have crossed the line that Halliday had set for him. When you look at the Egg Hunt as a D&D campaign, and Og as a Dungeon Master, the reason behind why he didn't step in becomes clear: this is a campaign that Halliday has written, Og cannot participate any more than being a Dungeon Master, providing resources that the players can use (both in and outside the OASIS), but cannot intervene.

** Halliday has, basically, asked him to take on the role of a Dungeon Master once again for the Egg Hunt. When you look at it in this context, a Dungeon Master provides some information about the situation but leaves the actions and possible solutions in controls with the players. Og stepping in and bringing down the shield would have crossed the line that Halliday had set for him. When you look at the Egg Hunt as a D&D campaign, and Og as a Dungeon Master, the reason behind why he didn't step in becomes clear: this is a campaign that Halliday has written, Og cannot participate any more than being a Dungeon Master, providing resources that the players can use (both in and outside the OASIS), but cannot intervene.
* So was the Plymouth Fury in the Copper Key race supposed to be someone's vehicle, or someone's avatar? Because if somebody's vehicular avatar can compete, then technically you wouldn't need to be driving ''anything'' to win. Which begs the question as to why someone hasn't run the race ''on foot'' as the Flash or Quicksilver or Sonic or whoever, blown right past the traps, sidestepped Kong without the giant ape even seeing them, and revealed that winning the race doesn't win the key, ages ago.

* So was the Plymouth Fury in the Copper Key race supposed to be someone's vehicle, or someone's avatar? Because if somebody's vehicular avatar can compete, then technically you wouldn't need to be driving ''anything'' to win. Which begs the question as to why someone hasn't run the race ''on foot'' as the Flash or Quicksilver or Sonic or whoever, blown right past Kong without the giant ape even seeing them, and revealed that winning the race doesn't win the key, ages ago.

** Halliday has, basically, asked him to take on the role of a Dungeon Master once again for the Egg Hunt. When you look at it in this context, a Dungeon Master provides some information about the situation but leaves the actions and possible solutions in controls with the players. Og stepping in and bringing down the shield would have crossed the line that Halliday had set for him. When you look at the Egg Hunt as a D&D campaign, and Og as a Dungeon Master, the reason behind why he didn't step in becomes clear: this is a campaign that Halliday has written, Og cannot participate any more than being a Dungeon Master, providing resources that the players can use (both in and outside the OASIS), but cannot intervene.

*** But the dwelling long since abandoned could be anything, not JUST video game related. Wade went to multiple abandoned dwellings when trying to figure out possible clues, including some in films, with Wade citing the cabin from ''The Evil Dead'', all because they fit that description. The clue was vague enough that it wouldn't have been easy to find, even with the trophies mentioned. It was just as vague as the inscription above the third gate (where even Googling the words forwards or backwards would have pulled up everything except the Schoolhouse Rock lyrics). Even Googling "house, trophies", "abandoned house, trophies" or "dwelling long since abandoned, trophies" in RL dooesn't pull up anything ''Zork'' related with the exception of the usage of it in the book. And even Anorak's Almanac may have mentioned hundreds of text based adventures by title, not by descriptions of settings from the interactive fiction. The reason why Wade didn't realize it was Zork was because he played it one time a long time before the start of the story. [=Art3mis=] may have figured it out because she may have gotten to that part of the Almanac, started playing Zork and realized the description seemed to fit and she went to ''Zork'' in the OASIS on a hunch much like how Wade did with his guesses. As Kevin Flynn best put it in ''TRON'', which applies to all fiction works, "One the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy." For readers who read the novel multiple times, it's easy to know it's ''Zork'' having read the novel. Can you, fellow troper, honestly say that you knew it was ''Zork'' the first time you read it?

* This is certainly going to negatively impact the film adaptation even with Spielberg at the helm, but were all intellectual property laws suddenly abolished? How did OASIS get off the ground without massive legal battles over its content? Surely the CrapsackWorld's big media companies aren't going to lose creative control over their works without a fight. YouTube barely escaped shutdown by Viacom lawsuits after implementing draconian automated ContentID. How would Disney feel about its brands (Star Wars, Marvel, etc.) being treated as if they were public domain in the OASIS?

* If Ogden Morrow is pretty much a physical god inside the OASIS, with powers no other avatar has, and he is at the same time acting as a referee to see the contest remains fair, why didn't he step in and destroy the shield the Sixers put over Castle Anorak the moment they put it up? Parcifal eventually finds a way to destroy it yes, but by that point the Sixers have had unchallenged access to the castle with no gunter being able to get near for over a week. It's a good thing they didn't figure out how to open the final gate before Parcifal was able to put his plan into motion.

** Probably the same way as everything else: the companies bought into the OASIS platform and adapted their games to fit the virtual environment while keeping the gameplay mechanics the same.