Ready Player One discussion

Ready Player one by Ernest Cline, follows the adventures of Wade Watts, given this name by his late father b/c it sounds like a super hero’s secret identity. When the story takes place in a dystopian 2040’s era. Where everyone is addicted to the online simulation called the O.A.S.I.S. (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) where you can do anything, where tech and magic exist, when James Halliday creator of the oasis dies he puts it in his will that the person who solves the riddles and passes the tests will get his fortune as well as total authority over the oasis itself. Everyone on earth is set to participate but with IOI’s virtually limitless recourses and funds they are on top after 5 years no one has made any progress then one day, the Avatar: Parzival appears atop the leaderboard of the egg hunt. After facing a demi lich in a classic arcade game and finding the first key (made of copper), he must clear the first gate with said key to move on to finding the second key (made of Jade) then onto the final key (made of blue crystal) each key has a gate that the players must pass. All the while IOI closing in using ANY means necessary.
This book is amazingly written and very descriptive in both the real and virtual worlds. The main quest for Halliday’s egg takes place over many months. This book is written in a way that we have a reason to want the protagonist to win, with Wade rising from the very bottom making his way to the very top with the other characters helping along the way, they form strong bonds of friendship then form a clan which they dub the high5 due to the five members being the first five on the leaderboard and they are hell bent on stopping IOI. With spaces to show the lengths that some people will go to too win the contest and the massive fortune that is being physically guarded in Fort Knox and legally guarded by a team of lawyers whose job it is to stop others from getting at it from a legal attack under the constant bombardment of IOI lawyers whose job it is to get Halliday’s will redacted.
While Halliday is dead some believe that this Avatar Anorak is still alive and hidden in the O.A.S.I.S. while others have given up completely.
This book gives us a good hard kick in the ass to look around at our world and see that this Dystopian future can and will happen if we don’t do something.