-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Ready Player Two has breached containment and is looking for the little man in the canoe
- Thread starter Adree
- Start date
To paraphrase someone on a discord I'm on, I'm not sure "I have had loads of sex so I understand the LGBT" is a good way to do what he's trying to do.
I recall mostly enjoying it at the time, though for the life of me I can't recall why. The writing is truly among some of the worst out there in popular novels. Maybe I just really had an urge to read a sci-fi VR themed book?
Meh, I enjoyed the first book (never saw the movie).
Ready Player One sure is pop culture masturbation, but it's also something that self-deemed pop/geek culture aficionados love to shit on people for enjoying lol.
Ready Player One sure is pop culture masturbation, but it's also something that self-deemed pop/geek culture aficionados love to shit on people for enjoying lol.
As I sat at my computer, a device using to access the internet, I entered the thread, a collection of posts on a forum, to post about how everything is explained, including both personal motivations and the motivations of the worldbuilding (as that was how I felt), I sat back in my chair in surprise. A chair without back or arm rests is a stool, or when raised up, a bar stool. A chair with arms is
At least this sort of writing makes me believe that I could write a novel too. Really, anyone could.
I'm just not sure what I think about Cline's upcoming collaboration with Dan Brown about a plucky young man obsessed with 80s televangelism who overthrows the cybernetic church state by solving riddles about Tammy Faye's mascara smeared cheeks and Jimmy Swaggart's "I have sinned" farce after working to expose her hubby.
But...I guess I'll give it a shot.
"To the right of the entrance of the church we find an old keypad affixed to the wall. I said "entrance" but I know it's actually called a nave, which is really funny because it reminds me how that one guy in Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail called everyone a knave, which I know is a different word but still it's funny to me. Anyway, I noticed it's asking for three characters and I know the church is built on top of Jim Bakker's real estate scam community so I carefully type in the letters P-T-L...suddenly, we hear sobbing. More like wailing, really. Oh my God, is that Tammy Faye Bakker?"
But...I guess I'll give it a shot.
"To the right of the entrance of the church we find an old keypad affixed to the wall. I said "entrance" but I know it's actually called a nave, which is really funny because it reminds me how that one guy in Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail called everyone a knave, which I know is a different word but still it's funny to me. Anyway, I noticed it's asking for three characters and I know the church is built on top of Jim Bakker's real estate scam community so I carefully type in the letters P-T-L...suddenly, we hear sobbing. More like wailing, really. Oh my God, is that Tammy Faye Bakker?"
Last edited:
That's not Cline. That's Weber.
How David Weber orders a pizza - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
The telephone rang. Jason Wilkins roused himself out of his dough-and-flour-addled stupor, and gazed at the ringing noise emanating from the receiver. He was tall, even for an American, this despite his father’s very a…
boards.straightdope.com
(remember to scroll down for the thrilling sequel)
the thing that rubs me the wrong way about these books is that they're written like 15 year old me thinking about pop culture without a hint of irony
for a while there I thought I was above other people for having seen or played things outside of the mainstream (or that was even slightly niche), and I'm sure I'd just as obnoxiously explain every reference
It could be a genuinely interesting premise that'd ring true to a lot of people if it was, y'know, extremely critical of it. From the sound of things though that ain't the case.
for a while there I thought I was above other people for having seen or played things outside of the mainstream (or that was even slightly niche), and I'm sure I'd just as obnoxiously explain every reference
It could be a genuinely interesting premise that'd ring true to a lot of people if it was, y'know, extremely critical of it. From the sound of things though that ain't the case.
Last edited:
Ehhh I think they're almost specifically meant for 46-year-olds
Or maybe he just nailed the ironic / unironic venn diagram overlap
Circlejerk nerd level: Tornado
Jesus, that is absolutely shit.
The book or this rant thread?
"I roleplayed as a woman for cybersex so I know what it's like to be trans."
Circlejerk nerd level: Tornado
Jesus, that is absolutely shit.
Uhh the tornado is lifting up airplanes... but not the little cars?
At what point does a book no longer qualify as a book and is really just an exhaustive list of pop-culture references?
Somewhere around I've got a story that I wrote in English class, aged about 11... It was highly derivative crap that used pop culture references in place of any particularly original thoughts of my own.
If nothing else, it's nice to know that the 11 year old me could have found a market, if he had tried to publish it.
(with that said, I was writing my awful 80s/90s references back in the 80s/90s, so lacked the benefit of 'retro-cool')
If nothing else, it's nice to know that the 11 year old me could have found a market, if he had tried to publish it.
(with that said, I was writing my awful 80s/90s references back in the 80s/90s, so lacked the benefit of 'retro-cool')
This book seems like an absolutely cursed experience and having read the original when I was 14 I feel like I need to engage with it.
I just can't get over the fact that it seems to read like a Fandom wiki article. How does his editor sleep at night knowing this is the quote-unquote prose he's peddling?
Does he even have an editor?
I just can't get over the fact that it seems to read like a Fandom wiki article. How does his editor sleep at night knowing this is the quote-unquote prose he's peddling?
Does he even have an editor?
people can really defend the worst quality creators by saying "he lives rent free in your head huehuehuehue"
His post says nothing in defense of Cline. He does point out you guys have circle jerked about the book for over 200 posts now though. Probably more posts then any fans would make happily discussing the new book.
sorry for dunking on shitty transphobic nerd fellation
jk, not sorry at all
They're less dense and have wings, so they'd be the first to leave the ground.
Which single person has over 200 posts on this thread or is it just a bunch of random people from a large forum chiming in? Is there a post limit now?
Y'all doing some low effort energy defense of Cline and his books.
The only reason the Spielberg movie was any good was that he ignored like 70% of the book.
And even then, it still wasn't very good.
And even then, it still wasn't very good.
Dude gets paid to write nerd drivel and it's somehow became a film directed by Spielberg and he needs a defense force lmao
The obvious SATAM and Archie comics references that have long since fallen out of favor (and have never been canon in the games) are confusing. I dunno if it's deliberate because looking it up, the Kira character would presumably be the right age to grow up with that era of Sonic and wow this obsessive nerdiness is infectious, RPO is a menace
"Guys" implies many people.
Where in my post did I defend him? I simply pointed out that you "guys" are using some "high effort" to rant and rave based on something most people have only seen snippets of posted on Twitter.
I'm going to say it everyone. I think it was cool how everybody (see the internet) realized it was pretty unfair (not to mention incredibly sexist) to shit on Stephanie Meyers and fans of twilight because there were books that sold well for male readers that were similarly stupid, poorly written and at times problematic and yet they weren't disparaged near as much. I don't think the purpose of that movement was to say we should go and start shitting on Cline/readers who enjoyed Ready Player One. Not to say don't call him out on the shitty problematic stuff in his books but I think there's a more productive version of this thread that doesn't just shit on the stupid way Cline over explains every reference in his book.
Flamingo posted the "no fun allowed" image, a meme that started at 4chan then became popular on various gaming forums such as ResetEra, the image had originally come from the book Sonic's Shoes Blues, a kids book about the Sega video game character Sonic the Hedgehog published by Golden Books in 1993.
I remember watching the Ready Player One movie trailer and thinking it was the cringiest, most embarrassing thing I've ever seen. It's ok to enjoy nerd stuff(I am posting on Resetera, after all), but you would have to be completely insane to think that any of that stuff is "cool".
The big problem with RPO and Armada is that there is almost no character growth. Wade changes externally (he goes from fat and poor to thin and rich), but he basically doesn't change at all. He learns very little from his experience and, instead, is simply rewarded for knowing random nerd knowledge. He isn't a loner who learns the power of friendship. He isn't a bigot who changes and becomes accepting. He is a nerd, he stays a nerd, he is rewarded for being a nerd. Those kinds of stories can work in the right situation, but on a "hero's quest" type of story, it really fails. The constant references come off as more empty because they aren't used in the service of a good character story. (EDIT: I'll note that my comments reflect only the novel, I haven't seen the movie and don't plan to do so, so if they did a better job establishing character arcs there, good for them.)
I'd get into Armada but who cares about it at this point (other than me lol)?
I'd get into Armada but who cares about it at this point (other than me lol)?
Amazing. If you're a white man, there could be a novel contract with your name on it!
I've only read excerpts of RPO, but it never seemed genuine to me. It seemed like it was written by someone who googled "What do nerds like?" or absorbed info through pop culture osmosis. There are never really any deep cuts, just surface level references. I've never read Hitchhiker's but I know 42.
He's never read Watchmen apparently. Maybe someone should write him a tedious explanation of what an 80s cultural touchstone it is.
Nobody associates Ghostbusters or Robocop or whatever with "80s culture", and nobody needs to google those things because they've almost all gotten sequels/reboots in the last 10 years.
And kids don't care about any of this stuff, it's all nostalgia-driven.
I think my favorite part is the "have you watched Sword Art Online recently", implying not only that there's good lessons to be learned from it, but that it merits a rewatch. :D
On the other hand, "In the Earl" (with "Earl" meaning In Real Life) is so fucking stupid I can't help but love it. "In the in real life". :D
Same. Ready Player One felt like it played its referential obnoxiousness with at least more measure, self-awareness and humor; this feels like it crawls so much further into its own ass.
On the other hand, "In the Earl" (with "Earl" meaning In Real Life) is so fucking stupid I can't help but love it. "In the in real life". :D
Same. Ready Player One felt like it played its referential obnoxiousness with at least more measure, self-awareness and humor; this feels like it crawls so much further into its own ass.