The Dom no I totally agree it's a shitty anime unless you are twelve but I do agree that the idea was creative it just had shitty characters and a plot that goes absolutely nowhere
Well it was hidden by a genius who created an entire basically single handedly. However with the huge amount of resources the Sixers had it probably would of been hacked eventually.
@@daedula7457 in the real world "genius" gets overpowered by sheer numbers in a matter of months if the genius doesn't continue putting in new efforts and update the security measures.
@@daedula7457 Why try to hack contest when it might get you disqualified? Cheating isn't allowed (Other then full walkthroughs of game layouts that is.) Remember that this is not just a contest but the contents of Halliday's last will and testament. People in this world treated him like unto a God so who would risk the wrath of the entire world just for quick gain? Look at how much people hat the Sixers, you really want that kinda flack coming at you 24/7?
I liked it, because I enjoyed all the references and such, but the Characters were so bad.🤦♀️ The end was basically ripped out of nowhere and felt like "and now kiss". There was no chemistry and the characters were so awkward. It was like they never talked to someone else.
A good summary of Wade that I've used to describe him when talking about this book is he feels like a very real character and I've definitely met people like him but by no means should this character have ever been the hero of a story
NICKname The problem with Wade imo is that the book doesn't seem self-aware about what a horrible person Wade is. If the story was about exploring why he is the way he is and how he gets better, he'd be a great protagonist, but the book seems to justify his bad decisions rather then examining them. For the kind of fun adventure story that RPO was trying to be, yes, it should have had a more charismatic main character that you want to follow along with.
I was kind of figuring that Wade was a guy who watched too many movies and read too many books and as such only really knew reality from that. So, to me it made sense why he was acting the way he was acting. You know he was imitating behavior like John Cusack with the boombox. However, I will grant that he never grows out of this at least in the book's narrative. So, yeah I understood why he acted the way he did, but there should have been more of an arc for him.
Bianca Mayer well, think about it the book is from his perspective. People usually justify their actions no matter how terrible. So its realistic for a guy like him to be the protagonist of this type of story.
Tamia Cook It's not just his internal monolog, everything he does pays of at the end. It's possible to have a first person narrative were the main character is aware of their own flaws or learns from them. None of the other characters even call Wade out on his obsessiveness - Artemis still gets together with him at the end, and a program saying "oh btw don't forget about the real world" after Wade has done nothing but forget about the real world the entire novel, and got money and a girlfriend because of is an incredibly hollow attempt at a theme.
NICKname The problem is that wade is a horrible person, sees woman as throphies and objects, only cares about himself and has a prepotent, narcissistic and egocentric attitude but he never learns how to be a better person, he never corrects his mistakes and is never punished for his actions or attitude. He never learns anything and is rewarded by said behavior. That’s the big problem. And he does not feel like a real character. He is just a Gary Stu self insert guy who knows everything, can do everything and is perfect.
To be fair, people don't hate sao for its premise, but for its execution (no pun intended). It starts out interesting with the death penalty seeming real enough the first episodes but then that goes away after a while and it just turns into a Kirito's harem anime.
Majime dude it was a harem anime by episode 3 when he forgot about the girl that made him actually think about the other players in the game and instead went around collecting other girls for his pokemon collection
also I might be misremembering, but from my memory it didn't have a death penalty upon release, but only when people were getting trapped in it by the insane developer. So the death penalty wouldn't have had any effect on the sellability of the game, again, before the literal inescapable death trap thing.
BurningOleander Yeah, funny what 500+ hours of sustained consciousness will do to a person. In case anyone is interested, that's a reference to SAO Abridged.
SAO abridged is amazing and everyone who's seen SAO (and loved it, hated it, or anything in between) should go watch it. The first arc of the anime is already complete.
As someone who went to school at a high school that was 25-30% Asian, yeah, Daito & Shoto were definitely written by someone who’d never actually known any Asians.
I know it's been 4 years, but I'd like to share a headcanon I have formed; Daito and Shoto are jsut Americans who either discovered that they are 1%-5% Japanese and decide it was their whole thing OR a set of brothers who are weebos who decided that their online personalities should be mirrored of their favorite anime
Eve isn't a total reset. You don't lose your ISK and you don't lose your player or your skill-points. It is only the ship you're flying in at the time that you lose due to your mistake, and the "thousands of dollars" lost only really applies to certain people who do spend real-world money on the game in large amounts.
@@batnacks and the implants of your clone. and the ships of your fleetmates, if you're an FC and thus responsible for that (and usually also responsible for covering their losses). and the ships and stations of your corpmates (and the systems controlled by your corp/alliance), if you're a CEO. the longer you play and the further you get, the more you're putting on the line each and every (and all) time you play and the more it will take to recoup the losses (but if you know how to play well, then the more effectively and quickly you can recoup those losses). oh, and sometimes you lose people. and illusions. I've been a witness to our CEO and basically the whole corp realizing that somewhat of a years-long "icon" that they revered is kind of an asshole, during the months after our corp joined his alliance and flew in his ops in a war. the ops were insanely cool and complex and thought out, with literally half a dozen to a dozen separate but synchronized fleets across dozen of systems, and it was incredible to watch/listen to/be part of (even as a lowly peasant), but... yeah, the guy turned out to be a bit of a narcissistic asshole. probably at least partially comes with/is required for being such an effective leader of such alliance and operation(s), but I could still feel and hear the disillusioned disappointment of all the high ranks about their years-long "role-model" turning out to be how he was in practice. and I as well have lost some people who I've come to consider friends... by stupid mistakes I did... and it's still the only game ever where that stung (and still stings) the way it did, and does, even years later. i de-facto quit the game after that, because i wanted to play... but I wanted to play *WITH THEM* . And I still do, and still hope that one day I'll return and mend those friendships because... I love the game, but I... love those people, and playing without them, either alone, or with some other people... just isn't... what it should/could be, what I want/need it to be...
The book shows that certain places are labelled " no pvp" or "no pvp " Ludus was the first, since it focused on education not combat [ Also, i cant tell if this was a meme answer or genuine. Thank you for listening to my tedtalk]
"No video game has ever allowed only one life before in the history of gaming!" Actually a lot of small, cheap 80s games (and big budget 80s games) included this function, so that might just be a tie in to the whole 80s thing.
@@AMcAFaves To be fair, Roguelikes are usually pretty low commitment. And on top of that, you can try again over and over, usually without repercussions. It's not like you gotta re-buy the game every time you fail.
Regardless of whether you get the references or not, the mere fact that "Hey look, [insert 80s property] is a thing that exists!" apparently makes up such a large percent of the content in both the book and the movie just rubs me the wrong way in general. Nostalgia-pandering and references to outside media can be entertaining in small doses, but when it's 80% of the details of your story, that just makes me feel like the author was using it to try and hide the fact that he lacks the creativity to fill The Oasis with actually unique stuff. Like he can't create an exciting world that inspires the imagination on his own, so he has to use props and characters other people created instead. I mean sure, Wreck-it Ralph was largely an homage to classic videogames, but at the end of the day, the three games that received the most focus by far (Fix-it Felix, Sugar Rush, and Hero's Duty) were ones that _the movie's writers made up on their own_
That's one of the reasons I liked the Psych tv show. They made a lot of pop culture references, but it was always somehow tongue-in-cheek and also relevant to the plot. But they were always just asides. The show itself was ABOUT the mystery of the week and the interaction of the characters.
"...Rubs *me* the wrong way" "Makes *me* feel like..." Wow you're so right, those personal clarifications I made sure to use TOTALLY give off the impression that I'm stating my opinion as fact and calling the book objectively bad. I mean it's completely impossible that I was just talking about why RPO's premise in general turns me off, personally. Nope. Not only was I trying to "review a book I haven't read", it also follows that I must be insulting said book and everyone who likes it. You got me. See? I can spout passive-aggressive bullcrap too, bud. It's not hard.
When did I ever claim I did read the book? All I was doing was explaining why the premise behind it, and my impression of it based on what The Dom described, did not appeal to _my_ personal tastes. I already pointed out where I clarified that in my original comment, so I don't know what more you want from me. But hey, you're the sort of person who says "triggered" as a joke/insult outside of its appropriate psychological context, so I guess I really should know better than to try and waste my time reasoning with you.
I don't think people were angry with the Iron Giant stuff because it was "out of character" (or at least that's not why I'm annoyed by it). It's because it shows that the film values the knowledge of existing texts (i.e. that The Iron Giant is a film people like) over actually understanding why people like those texts so much, what makes them so enduring. Ready Player One (the film at least, I haven't read the book) doesn't care about crafting a compelling narrative with these existing characters and texts like The Lego Movie did, it only cares if you recognise them, then quickly moves on to the next pile of references. As a result the whole thing feels shallow and empty. I could go on for a while, like about how this film has literally no reason to exist, but I should probably stop at this point because this is getting pretty long for a RU-vid comment.
I'd say that the book presents pop culture stuff with a lot of reverence, often taking several lines to mention the full details of what thing is about. It definitely though also isn't very good at crafting a narrative with them, as while it gives a lot of love to the description the references it doesn't really use the themes and stories of those things. It's mainly just behind-the-scenes details or name recognition
Tbh, as unnecessarily evil as the big bad was, I was still symapthetic for the Sixers as a whole. They say that they get 1 million dollars a year (which I assume is still alot in this time) along with getting food and housing paid for them. I just assumed that most if not all were down on their luck men and women using their knowledge of 80's pop culture to pay their bills. Even a college graduate programer can't get more than a tech support job, so I wouldnt jugde someone for taking a sixer job.
Quite a few of the sixers were there because they were 'owned' by the company. They owed money they could not pay... and the company snagged them and forced them to play. They did not have to know any 80s trivia because the specialist in the company would tell them specifically what to do. It was honestly a horror show of a job.
andres rey Nah, that's fair. It just surprised me, is all. I thought he was about my age (25). EDIT: I want to clarify that when I say "nah, that's fair", I don't mean "nah, that's fair, 30 is REALLY OLD". I mean "okay, duly noted."
I hated the romance. It was creepy as hell. Probably reflects on the author’s own stupid fetishes. Also Wade was a Mary Sue, Art3mis was just an embodiment of the authors own preferences, and the only good character was (spoiler) his best friend, Aech, who was actually a girl.
Keyser94 I know people would rather idealise the past and in the great cycle of nostalgia we are at the height of 80s and working our way through the early 90s, but I would like an occasional nod rather than a being steeped constantly in it. I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s and the real world right now is kinda shit and people are look for comforting escapism, but it gets tedious and I want to rip off their nostalgia glasses and remind them the 80s and the 90s were kind of shit too.
Nostalgia goes in 30 year cycles. It's just the way of things. many of the filmmakers of today were kids in the 80s, and they want to make things for their children and friends that reference their childhood.
There are a lot of similarities in premise, yes. It's not an accident that "pure imagination" from Willy Wonka was in the trailer. In some ways I'd actually argue this premise fits that song better than Willy Wonka, regardless of your opinion of the respective qualities of the individual works.
The references make it painful to listen to as an audiobook. (Not Wheton's fault. He was working with what he had!) It felt like half the book is lists of stuff. I liked the worldbuilding (and, yes, found the protagonist not particularly likeable), but I did experience most of the 80's and still found the nostalgic bits mind-numbing.
Can I just say that you help me with your book reviews a lot with my own writing? Thanks to you I know what to look out for with my story-telling, how to portray characters better, how to make dialouge more real, and what are absolute no-goes and things you should avoid. Seriously, your series is so helpful to me as an aspiring writer even if it's only one persons opinion and logic.
People hated this book? Wow. I'll admit, it's been a few years since I read it, but I certainly didn't hate it. I don't remember Wade being much of a douchebag, honestly. I remember him kind of going crazy when Art3mis dumped him, but nothing creepy. I was younger so I might've just missed it, though. And I also didn't get most of the 80s nostalgia so I wasn't blinded by that. I think I just liked the idea and the hunt for the Easter egg. Looking back on it, I do agree with another commenter who said the story would've been better if it was told from Art3mis or Aech's perspective. I did think they were both cooler than Wade, who I remember... you know what actually scratch what I said before, I do remember him being a bit of a condescending hipster douchebag. I bet if I read it again I'd see it in an instant.
Casey Heidt the thing about it being told from their perspectives has a major issue with it. They seem cool because they where talked about from Wade's point of view. Wade thought they where cool which mad them seem cool. If it where to be from Aech's or Art3mis's perspectives they most likely wouldn't seem as cool.
So? They may not seem AS cool, but they're cool either way. And it's not even that they're cool, it's that they're interesting. Art3mis is a self-conscious young woman who throws everything into the hunt and becomes one of the best gunters ever, while Aech is a black lesbian masquerading as a white man so she'll be taken seriously. Neither of those have anything to do with how Wade sees them. They're also both, you know, not annoying self-righteous douchebags like Wade is. I don't mean to sound rude, I just fail to see how it's a "major" issue.
I don't get the hate. Didn't even know it got hate in the first place. So what if none of the characters are perfect! I had a ton of fun reading the book. , It's still one of my top ten favorites.
See I read this book way before the backlash was as big as it is now and while I had issues with parts, I finished it in one day and it quickly became one of my favorites. I must be the only fan of it in the world who didn't understand half the references and didn't care. It wasn't the 80s nostalgia that made me love it, it was the world building and the excitement of the quests. Anyway despite its issues and despite its enormously problematic author, I'm glad you don't hate it and didn't just trash it to pieces.
Now that I've actually finished this video, gotta say you hit the nail on the head for everything. Although I was definitely able to put the bad parts aside a lot easier than you.
Don't worry, me too I loved it without understanding all the references ^^ And I'm born in the beginnning of the 90's so 80's nostalgia don't work on me either. Did you watch the movie ?
Born early 90's as well and really like it, but i didnt finished it yet but im pretty close :D eh i dont even know the backlash... maybe i should google it, chances are its something irrelevant sjw complains or something.
i feel the same way!! i founf the world building and every single one if the key/gate quests sooo very cool. also, i really enjoyed reading all about the OASIS and Halliday
sigh...so i hate doing this but i feel its only fair...regarding the anime he mentioned (SAO) it wasnt bad because of the premise,,,it was bad because of everything else...the premise was what got everybody hooked on the show but the characters are terrible and the story is lazily executed.
Yeah the premise was interesting. However as Twilight and SAO show us, having good ideas means /nothing/ if you can't execute them properly. (And yeah, the ideas for Twilight's filler characters are actually REALLY interesting and messed up. Meyer just never capitalizes on their potential because she's too busy fapping off to the blandness of the main plot she cooked up.)
The show only gets as much crap as it does because it went mainstream... in the anime community anything that goes mainstream is automatically scrutinised much more than stuff that doesn't become popular with large audiences.
Reki Kawahara isn't a good writer. When literally anyone else takes his work away from him and reworks it the story gets better. Gun Gale Alternative is proof of this.
I've had a friend who had a bad break up with a "Wade" and saw how it affected her, so I have issues with Wade style characters in media. I skipped the book because of all that I've heard about it. My love of Spielberg is the only reason I'm watching the film.
All I got from this books premise was 'This guy either saw or read SAO and thought, I can do this!' so thank you Dom, thank you for the one reference I got! Also, I know that not MEANT to be the Iron Giant but let's be fair, THATS the bloody Iron Giant!!
Minezum I know, me saying that was only partially a joke since the two seem to be unbelievably similar and The Dom made the ref as well; but if I wanted a more similarity reference I probably should have said .hack since that's about a major global disaster which if I remember was linked into the rise of this MMORPG. This came out in 2002/2003. Then again I doubt the guy who wrote this book watches anime or plays anime games but that's just my thought, maybe he does?
The book was never going to win me over, I don't think, since I have a very ambivalent relationship with 80s nostalgia and I really can't stand adolescent protagonists (they remind me of me at that age, and I was a horrible person back then). It doesn't help that every fragment of Cline's prose I've seen is cringe-inducingly bad, especially the oft-quoted passage where Wade lists out his nerd trivia cred, which is just a long, unfunny checklist of memes delivered with absolute po-faced seriousness. The back cover blurb "The grown up's Harry Potter" is pretty fucking hilarious and sad to me. Yes, because apparently being grown-up is to sit around thinking about pop culture references from 30 years ago.
Iain iwakura What does GoT have in common with Harry Potter, aside from being popular fantasy stories? RPO doesn't have anything in common with Harry Potter either, but it's not like GoT is any closer. Besides, I've heard people refer to Martin as the American Tolkien over and over, because apparently the only way to market genre fiction is to compare it to either Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.
kate71342 I admit that that one makes far more sense, but it's still really noticeable that every fantasy book that becomes somewhat popular is compared to either Harry Potter or Tolkien. I can think of at least four bookseries in my room right now that have blurbs on them comparing it to either one of the two (Eragon, everything Sergej Lukianenko ever wrote has "the russian Tolkien" on the back, Rivers of London is "Harry Potter but grown up", and ASoIaF like I mentioned). I'm sure I could find a few more if I tried to look for them.
I've heard nothing but bad things about the book and movie, so I really appreciate such a thoughtful review of the book. Thanks for continuing to make such great content.
Love your review! As an 80’s child (born in 1970), I did love all the references, played d&d and remember most of it as a female nerd. It was a much better read for me. I also like the movie even though it is in name only.
Microtransactions have been a part of free to play MMOs for a long, long, long time. Generally it's seen as alright assuming it's not pay to win and the game is actually free to play. The recent hate is more about having to pay for the base game AND microtransactions over that when things should have just been included from the base price.
In the ancient roguelike gente (games like Rogue, Nethack, Angband, etc...) you have only one life and if you die is forever. It's a very different way to play in terms of risk and reward and I love it.
6:15 This is why you got to 100,000 subscribers. You go into detail why they broke up but still agree that Wade's actions to get her back were misguided and stalkerish. Most would just condemn it wholesale without the context that went before it. Same goes for every review you've done. I'm surprised when people catch you missing an un-turned stone.
I wasn’t even aware of the controversy to be honest, I read this book back when it came in a Loot Crate.... I really did read the book as pretty self-aware. Yes Parzival was a creep, but I thought he was supposed to be. From what I’ve watched of 80s films.... Judd Nelson straight up stuck his face up Molly Ringwald’s skirt, and we all love The Breakfast Club!
I hated the Breakfast Club, and not for that. I just thought it was horribly overrated and preachy and melodramatic in parts. To be fair, I saw it for the first time as an adult, so maybe I saw it too late and my opinion would be different if I saw it as a teenager, especially if I was a teenager in the 80's when it came out. But I was not. Either way, it didn't even resonate with my teenage self and my experiences as a teen.
Those uncomfortable scenes in the book felt somewhat relatable because of being depressed or agitated for so long that you drown yourself in whatever gives you comfort or lessen the pain. In fact THATS what most alcoholics do.
"No one would play a game where you lose thousands of dollars in real life." AHHAAHAHAHAHHAA! Oh Dom... Oh Dom... let me introduce you to a little thing called EVE Online, look up some of the stories... and it's not losing microtransactions, because of the way the subscription model works, it's actually a REAL WORLD ECONOMY... like economists actually study it.
point being, much like EVE, a game like that wouldn't attract as many people as the Oasis ultimately does. I mean, Oasis makes even WoW at its heyday look niche.
Well, "Don't Starve" is a one life game. And people enjoy that game, right? Apart from me, since I die way to fast and can't be bothered to start anew..
Got this book in a loot crate a few years back tried to read it several time but couldn't get into it because of the writing style. Thank you for breaking it down for us.
I really appreciate the explanation of your feelings / reactions for this book "defense." -I'd never thought about it that way. Thank you so much for sharing. That was very insightful.
I'd like to make one correction: Microtransactions in games are not in and of themselves evil. People get mad because they are in premium (aka games you pay upfront) games, or are otherwise implemented in dirty, greedy, money-grubbing ways, or both. The fact that the Oasis is apparently totally with optional (I would assume) and fair microtransactions actually makes it a good thing and a positive use of them.
TheNN Actually, you have to pay money for almost everything. In the beginning, Wade can't get of the starting planet because he can't afford the real money fee to move through the universe (and he has been playing for years, so there isn't even a way to grind for it), and in a later scene, he has infinite ammo and mentions how his "bullet bill" for this month is going to be higher then usual, implying you can buy infinite ammo. It's actually a plot point at the beginning that Wade can't do anything in the OASIS because he doesn't have money, explaining why he is still level 1 despite spending most of his life there. The things you can buy on the marketplace don't stop at knife skins or rare weapons with marginally better stats, but at Death Stars and a bomb that kills everyone in its blast radius without fail. And remember, you loose everything when you die. I agree with you in general, but you're wrong about the microtransactions in RPO being fair.
Dihydrogen Monoxide That is true, but that doesn't make any of the things I said less bad. Wades friends actually took him to one of the real planets once, and he couldn't afford to make the trip again on his own, so apparently, it didn't pay for itself.
Love your reviews! Most of this is great, but my favorite this time was the part around 9:30 - I have never had this problem myself either, but some friends of mine did & told me how important good friends and the right help (for either side) at the right time can be. Thank you for your common sense & empathy!!
He (Will Wheaton) narrated the audiobook, yes. But The Dom mentioned that he thought is was funny that there was also a region of the OASIS named after Wheaton, and I think that the region he is thinking of is actually called referred to in the book as the Whedonverse (after Joss Whedon).
Brodie Crain Yes, I know. I'm just talking about the sector of the OASIS referenced in this video. The video implies there is a sector of the OASIS called the "Whetonverse" dedicated to Will Wheton. But I think he's mispronouncing it, and it's actually called the "Whedonverse", dedicated to Joss Whedon.
I think you're right. Wil Wheton does get a name drop as a political figure - I too don't remember exactly what his office was, but that was the only reference to him. The sector was Whedonverse - as in Firefly/Buffy/Angel/Dollhouse, and whatever new tiny asskicking female things fall out of his mind in the next 20+ years.
Thank you so much for your video. I usually watch them during the commute and the video essays which are fun, accurate and so full of personality make me look forward to my commute.
Blah Blah Yeah...no. 1. Because Mary sue is a moniker strictly for female characters. Garty/Marty sue is for guys. 2. Because, from the review he kind of isn't and he's not perfect at everything, the world more often than not won't bend to his desires when he's on his own. Of course if he didn't change throughout the course of the story at all, he's just a bad character, not a Marty sue
Titilayo Aderemi-Williams Stop being dumb. Yeah the literal name is different but the spirit of the phrase is the same, and you know what I mean. Also I'm not the one who originally called him a Mary Sue, that was the original commenter. I just brought up that there's less of a chance of that happening because of the character's gender.
So James Dashner, the author of the Maze Runner Series actually wrote a trilogy known as the mortality Doctrine that feels like a much more serious and flushed out version of a similar concept to Ready Player One. Heck the world building alone is ten times better and the plot twists are really impressive, as is common practice for Dashner for anyone who's read the later Maze Runner books.
There was actually a plot-relevant reason that all the IOI avatars are named with anonymous numbers: it's so they can use their hacked Oasis rigs to let any employee play as any avatar, which is not normally allowed. Also, no, games that run on micro-transactions are not considered the devil. Games that run on *randomized loot box micro-transactions* are considered the devil. As I recall, the Oasis' mtx are not random in any way, so it's actually a perfectly reasonable monitization strategy. I can't recall if you were able to buy powerful tools or weapons, but the cosmetic stuff you could buy was the main draw. Also also, many games have implemented single-life systems. All the Diablo games, for instance, have an optional Hardcore mode, where if you die, you lose everything permanently, just like in The Oasis. Admittedly, I can't think of any popular game where the single-life mechanic was *required*, but you can do a lot in the Oasis without ever entering a combat zone, so it's not like it's a huge deal for probably the majority of players.
Yesterday I looked on the wikipedia page for Channel Awesome. Congratulations! You briefly had a paragraph about you and your show. It was poorly formatted and was slipped in between the Cinema Snob's section, but I saw it. It's gone now.
Clams Mahoney All the big players (Lindsay Ellis, Todd in the Shadows, Linkara) say for Doug Walker and Cinema Snob left recently. That's a short, not explicit reason as to why people say it's a shitshow.
I like how the synopsis you gave at the beginning of the review sounds like it would a much better movie than we got. I enjoyed Ready Player One, the movie, but it was definitely bogged down by the plethora of references within the movie.
I read this quite a while ago and loved it. I got all the 80s references and just thought the romance/stalking parts were really just 'this is my first relationship, I don't know how to act'. I have to say joust ws one of my most favorite games and it really made me smile that it was featured. Thanks for making your videos, I really enjoy them.
This book is the reason I found out a lot of things from 80s culture and many of them I enjoy, though when I first read the book I admit I was just smiling to myself and and thinking "welp, don't get that or have never heard of it before, let's see where this goes". It did help with not finding the plot twists earlier.
I know I'm really late, but the best way I could describe the backlash over the iron giant is that: the community is mad at BEC (big evil corp.) because they aren't respecting the idea of the creator... later on they use the likeness and abilities of a character in a war, when the idea behind that character was solidly anti-violence/war.
Hey I love your vids. Just recently discovered your channel and will be looking forward to new ones when u put them up. Personal I loved the book and the film, to me I can never finish a book and this was the first to be able to hold my attention in litteraly years. Thank you again!
The Dom, in the humble opinion of this beautiful watcher, you really are kind of a class act. I've noticed this in other videos of yours too, that you always try hard to be aware of the implications of things you say, and try to see the world from other peoples perspectives. Props to you for being able to admit that you were a less than perfect human being when you were younger, and for consciously trying to be better.
As someone who play Second Life i can see how the micro transactions could work if its sorta the same system as Second Life, where people can create their own items and then sell them for in game currency but still with the option to buy in game currency for real money as well. This could allow someone to make money without spending a single real life dollar if they can make items that are good enough that people would buy them.
We should make you review the second season of ASOUE, because even though you are the Dom and we are your subs, the Dom is still the true sub in the relationship.
I feel like there were too many references that kept your head spinning but I still like the book as a whole. If there's a boring afternoon with nothing to do it's the book I'll read
The single life is what makes it great. It is like real life, as it was intended to be, not a game. Plus there are only risks of death in places where it is allowed, but you could simply stay in places where it is combat free.
I've resisted reading this book and I think I'm glad. One of my more favourite books is 1/2 Prince by Yu Wo (the author gave permission for it to be translated and freely readable online, so look it up!) and it seems to fix a lot of the issues people have with this book. Similar-ish premise, but open minded and no creepy stalker romances (I think even the characters with the most romance drama go out of their way to avoid it). Also if you die in game, you lose a level and it hurts like hell. That's it.
I lived through the 80s, played Joust at the arcade even (sadly not with a litch). The thing about the 'nostalgia' in RPO is it's so obviously performative. He's nostalgic about the wrong things, and overly so. It ends up overpowering and alienating, making Wade's personality toxic instead of just really annoying. I'm finding a lot of the people on my feeds who genuinely hated the book are over 35, I'm pretty sure that's a big part of why. Still, thank you for the '...How your boundary issues-riddled tormentor becomes a multi-millionaire,' all the same. Liked & Subbed
This is my absolute favourite book of all time so I don’t understand the hate for it but I guess I’m just blind because I love the story and characters I will defend this book forever 😂💜💜🤩😊
I really enjoyed this book, being born in 81 some of my earliest memories contain things mentioned in the book so some of it was fun to find during the read.
I'm ridiculously impressed by the list of references in the book you placed at the end. Probably shouldn't be too bored to read all of them, but was kind of fascinated to see what was all in there as I've never read the book. I laughed a bit that there were a few repeats on the list, but surprised it was only a few. With a list that extensive I would second-guess myself constantly that I forgot to put something in and/or the book referenced it so much it warranted another entry. Seems really all over the board to me, but I can definitely see the 80s roots of a lot of those references. Curious to see how you think the film compares. Also interested to hear a synopsis of the book that didn't immediately decry it for some of its questionable character traits people like to go for immediately. Thanks as always for producing great content on your channel. Always excited to see videos from you. Congrats on making it past 100k!
Random thoughts: "I didn't hate it. I get why people _would_ hate it, but I don't. I guess that might just be because I read this right after _50 Shades Darker._ Anyways, I'm not going to try and convince you it's good, I just didn't hate it." What stunning praise. _I've_ played Joust, and I was born seven years after you! Granted, it was an online Flash version...
I just finished the book. I actually waited to watch this video until after I finished so that there wouldn't be spoilers. I also haven't watched the movie yet, for the same reason. :) I liked the book. However, I think some of the problems stem from the fact that its the author's first book. Most authors don't write a big hit right out of the gate and have time to evolve their writing style to something better. This book has a lot of 'first time author' problems- the infodumps, the stilted writing style, the pacing issues, and a general failure to not really clarify the theme. Regarding the main character- I read the book over the course of a week and didn't find him horribly obnoxious. In the beginning of the book the main character describes how socially awkward he is, how ashamed he is of his real life appearance, and how he is aware that he never developed any real social skills because so much of his life was lived online. In the middle of the book there is a part where he looks in a mirror, and looks away- not liking what he sees. His response to the breakup is written as a few paragraphs/pages of him reflecting back on what happened and, to me, it came off as someone who was ashamed and embarrassed by their actions. And at the end of the book a big contribution to his winning is the support and encouragement he receives from his friends. Also the bit at the very end where 'for the first time, he doesn't want to get back into the Oasis right away', tells me that he is starting to look outward from himself and his fantasy world, and starting to engage in the real world. I don't think he is a good person, even by the end of the book, but I do think he is a realistic character who is growing and changing for the better.
I bought the book completely blind and the popculture references annoyed the sh*t out of me. The main character came off as a plausible teenager, not those vise beyond his/her years type of protagonists most coming of age books have. The plot was total snooze with predictable, atleast for me, twists and that is the main reason I dislike the book.
I'm a bit older and grew up in the 70s and 80s, becoming a teen in the 80s, so I knew every reference in the book. I did listen to the audible version with Wil Weaten and it was great. I was bit surprised you didn't go into the part in the book where he has to go off grid and then infiltrate the sixers in real life. I thought that part was pretty crazy. You will see that the movie is in name only though. I liked the movie but they changed pretty much everything. If you've seen the movie but not read this book I recommend reading it. It's a much deeper plot.
Wonderful review! I always look forward to seeing your content. Congrats on 100,000! Gloat fo days my broseph. So anyway, back in 2014 I picked this book up at a rest stop to read for an insanely long road trip. I thought the premise sounded fun and interesting....however.....I agree with all the issues you had with it, but I would add one of my own. As someone who has not, and does not, played video games in their life I actually DNFed this book at about 2/3 because how long can one person drone on and on and on and on AND ON (you get the idea) about equipment? The answer, damned well long enough to completely pull me out of the universe and plot. Did no editor tell the author, hey Mr. Cline 4 pages of description about literally every bit of video game equipment miiiight be a bit much? Maybe distract the reader? I ended up just asking a friend how the book ended because LORD ALMIGHTY I couldn't wade through any more electronics descriptions. Was anybody else bothered by this? Or just me.
I just finished the book about an hour ago, never saw the movie. I agree the first ⅔ of the book the pacing is glacial to put it mildly. I feel like about halfway through writing it Cline remembered he was actually supposed to finish it at some point. After that it picked up a lot better. I understood about 95% of the references, even if I'd never seen/ played them personally, I know enough to pick up on them. Including two references to Brazil (a movie I love) and a direct reference to Neuromancer, which I can appreciate since I just read that a few months ago. Overall I liked it, but not enough to read the 2nd one. I'll get around to the movie eventually. I went into the book knowing it would be drastically different based on trailers I'd seen of the movie. Also I don't recall masturbation being brought up THAT much, but maybe I'm just desensitized to that sort of thing, and I don't recall any transphobic remarks on Wade's part, I kind of figured his best friend Aech was an allegory for trans people and they got along great (I know the reasons in the book for her avatar's appearance though).