Ready Gamergater One | Renegade Cut
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- #gamergate #readyplayerone
The backlash against Ready Player One -- both the novel and the movie -- is there for a reason. That reason is GamerGate. Support Renegade Cut Media through Patreon: / renegadecut
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING:
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Hi, subscribers new and old. I blacked out the faces for a reason. Trying to use their names in the comments won't work. My comments section is moderated, and all comments are held until approved. I'm not going to explain why I did it. Simply take your cue from the video. If it's not OK in the video, it won't be OK in the section directly under it. Thanks.
Hey so ... Damn. Thank you for this. So refreshing to hear this perspective from another gamer. Tbh I hardly feel safe revealing my gender anywhere on the internet. It can be really intimidating and also infuriating as a female gamer. I play a lot of hardcore PVP games where toxicity in general is rife, but woof ... it's different kind of toxicity, man. It's not just the standard "oh your so dogshit haw haw I could wipe the floor with you" smack talking ... everything suddenly because incredibly aggressive, sexually charged and graphic. Often normal conversations become about your gender ... people constantly try to add you just to proposition you ... yes, in every kind of sick and disturbing way they can.
I've had talks with so many girls that say they try to stick to female-dominated games or singleplayer, because multiplayer is a living nightmare. And if they do delve, it's generally under a more unisex to even masculine name. Many games I've just had to tell people I'm a guy and refuse voice comms so they'll treat me like a human.
I'm glad I read your comment, sir. I was about to mention one of the gentlemen's names in my post.
One thing I found interesting was that there were zero references to Americans of African decent or there impact on 80's popular culture. No Michael Jackson, no Prince, no Run DMC, no Michael Jordan, no Cosby Show. There was exactly one rap reference in the entire book, and that was to Falco, the German "rapper" from the 80's. As the book was clearly a tour-de-force on 80's popular culture, It got to a point where, it seemed like the author left them out on purpose.
I'm willing to entertain the idea that the authors experience growing up in the 80's somehow missed The Last Dragon and Purple Rain and so on, but it makes it hard to do that when in one of the earliest passages of the book, a reference is clearly made to Michael Jackson's clothing and his signature moonwalk and spin, without ever actually referencing Michael Jackson.
Again, it starts to seem like it was done on purpose, which begs the question; Why?
The points of pop culture I reference were wildly popular across all races and ethnicity in America during the 80's. There aren't enough black people in America to buy all the records Michael Jackson sold, so we know everyone was listening to him. Yet based on this work, one would think the entirety of the 80's popular culture landscape was populated solely by Americans of European decent(and one European rapper). I would love to ask the author some questions about this, as I'm genuinely curious. It's a fascinating omission.
(side note Falco was Austrian)
Good point! For that matter, any non-white cultural features are missing. No El Debarge, no Jets, etc.
To quote a later video:
"Is it racism? Or is it an honest mistake? Or racism? Or is it racism?"
Being fair, it's certainly possible there's another explanation, but writing something chock full of 1980's references with that many omissions certainly feels... let's say 'less than innocent.'
I don't know how you'd get through the 80's and not come across black ppl or culture especially in America. I literally would almost have to forget well 80% of the 80's to even come close a lol sus. To be fair though in the weird church I went to with my parents when I was little in the 80's demonized any and everything that would fall into black culture. Rap was bad black shows not puritanical enough. Not a single black person in the entire mega church.. burr even with the active avoidance mc hammer the Cosby show and the fresh prince still snuck in (also I didnt live with them fulltime so I saw everything else anyways I just mean that those 3 still got into the "church culture" at that place so idk 🤷🏼♀️
~🧡🦇
Well, you see...the author was a gamer (in spirit)
One thing that super annoyed me about Ready Player One is that references are not clever, they are just there, like that page of list. It just felt like a list!
I'm told that they just last pages on end.
@@fluffywolfo3663 I read the book and the references are mostly pointless. The author makes a good detective thriller but his characters are really poor. The women are all really terrible stereotypes, and the references are fun especially since he explains some of them ( I was 2 when the 80s ended). The world building is pretty decent as well. I'd give the book 6.5/10 just for it's very well done narrative and world building. Everything else is pretty shit though.
@@blasphimus It's one of the most inexcusably bad books I've ever subjected myself to
"So don't consider this a call out, this was just... an autopsy." Damn Leon! That was ice cold! I love it!
"Bill Gates Mossad Pizzagate 9/11"? Yeah, these guys are pathetic. Nothing "epic" about these pills.
You know what’s a great, inclusive movie about video games? Wreck-it Ralph.
"Masturbation has never been as dangerous."
*starting slow clap*
That's quite the euphemism
Shir Deutch and by clap, you mean the slapping sound of jacking off, right?
Not directly about gaming, but the Black Mirror episode USS Callister does a good job at harshly criticizing toxic geek fandoms without demonizes geek culture as a whole.
I would give you twenty likes if I could
that episode is spot on.
That episode was suuuper uncomfortable. But very necessary medicine
I love that 1
🧡🦇
It's also about how people can use mods and videogames to be a dick to others, even in a simulation without real people, which only desensitizes them to it.
I remember the geek guys in class that put trash on my desk and ordered me to put it away. What hurt the most was that I wanted to befriend them on some level - there was no-one else that shared my interests, going to a school in village with more cows than people. But they were among the nastiest bullies in my class. In 2018 that feels like the Gamer Gate mentality in a nutshell. Except that since 2010 nerds and geeks are far from the underdogs anymore. But some of them want to be SO bad.
I'm so sorry you had to endure that! I hope that wherever those men are now, they feel ashamed of how they treated you and are working to improve themselves and how they treat others. I graduated high school in 2017, and my experience as a girl who's into geeky things (among a variety of other interests) was very different. I had a bunch of guy friends who actually were good people, and they were more than happy to interact with my female friends, who were also great people. I was very lucky in that I got to grow up with the mentality that I could like horror movies and comic books, and also like princess movies, wear makeup, and admit that pink was my favorite color. For me, geekdom was an assertion that you can like whatever you want, bond with others over similar interests, and learn about cool new things you didn't know you would like, so it makes me really sad that it can also be so toxic and hateful to anyone who doesn't fit the very outdated geek stereotype.
When I first read Ready, Player One, what I got from it was a starkly dystopic novel where people's rights and standards of living had eroded substantively due to the pernicious elements of late capitalism that the population was firmly putting their heads in the sand of VR-based nostalgia. None of which gets really changed by the "hero" gaining control over the Oasis, he just won a very lucrative lottery.
Basically, I never took the protagonists' savvy on 80's pop culture as something lionizing, it was demonstrative of a future world crippled to the point that doesn't want to look in the mirror.
I don't know what I feel about it now.
"I also watched every single film he referenced in the Almanac. If it was one of Halliday’s favorites, like WarGames, Ghostbusters, Real Genius, Better Off Dead, or Revenge of the Nerds, I rewatched it until I knew every scene by heart.
I devoured each of what Halliday referred to as “The Holy Trilogies”: Star Wars (original and prequel trilogies, in that order), Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Mad Max, Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones...
I also absorbed the complete filmographies of each of his favorite directors. Cameron, Gilliam, Jackson, Fincher, Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg, Del Toro, Tarantino. And, of course, Kevin Smith.
I spent three months studying every John Hughes teen movie and memorizing all the key lines of dialogue.
Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive.
You could say I covered all the bases.
“I studied Monty Python. And not just Holy Grail, either. Every single one of their films, albums, and books, and every episode of the original BBC series. (Including those two “lost” episodes they did for German television.)
I wasn’t going to cut any corners.
I watched every episode of The Greatest American Hero, Airwolf, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Misfits of Science, and The Muppet Show.
What about The Simpsons, you ask?
I knew more about Springfield than I knew about my own city.
Star Trek? Oh, I did my homework. TOS, TNG, DS9. Even Voyager and Enterprise. I watched them all in chronological order. The movies, too. Phasers locked on target.
I gave myself a crash course in ‘80s Saturday-morning cartoons.
I learned the name of every last goddamn Gobot and Transformer.
Land of the Lost, Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man, Schoolhouse Rock!, G.I. Joe-I knew them all. Because knowing is half the battle.
Who was my friend, when things got rough? H.R. Pufnstuf.
Japan? Did I cover Japan?
Yes. Yes indeed. Anime and live-action. Godzilla, Gamera, Star Blazers, The Space Giants, and G-Force. Go, Speed Racer, Go." - Wade Owens Watts
"And of course, Kevin Smith". Oh no, it's even worse than I thought
Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Star Trek were hippie culture. Back to the Future and Del Toro and Cameron are for girls.
Also how did he forget Don Bluth and Labyrinth and Rocky Horror
this is insufferable
Yeah i have only read excerpts like this but everyone I have read is just as bad.
Gaaaaarrr, just reading that made my brain itch. What an insufferable writing style. And content. RPO is not for me X).
You hit on one of the reasons why I loved the movie "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" so much. The movie and the books were a love letter to the "hipster" culture, along with video games, but at the same time it was also calling out the need to eventually grow up and work towards a life beyond that.
Instead of respecting the nostalgia of the 80s (and others) pop culture along with critiquing or growing beyond it, RP1 instead seems to me to be the equivalent of Gollum leaping upon the 80s and video games while screaming "My precious!"
*sigh* The one thing I learned from the last 4 years was how powerful and harmful weaponized nostalgia can be.
Hearing all this, I can't help but think about just how much this sounds like the total antithesis of the Scott Pilgrim comics. Which is why I think those are a pretty brilliant decon-recon of the concept of geek culture.
Scott Pilgrim as a protagonist is meant, initially, to read as a loveable loser who's too good of a guy for his cynical friends. He has some skeevy moments like dating an underage girl, but oooh we sympathize with him and we trust him and we know he's not going to do anything worse than that. He can play the bassline from Final Fantasy II, he makes comic book references and he scores a quirky girlfriend. He's a great geek protagonist.
But later on in the story he proves that he's kind of an asshole. Not because he likes nerdy stuff and makes references, but because he's mooching off his friends, takes forever to get a real job and, we eventually learn, makes himself the victim way more than he has any right to. The problem isn't that Scott's a geek, we as the audience are just supposed to be distracted by that.
It's only when Scott gets a real job, learns to accept his past actions and treat his loved ones better that he earns his happy ending. All of which he can still do while enjoying his video games and comic books.
The Edgar Wright film seemed to embellish a lot of Scott's flaws and play up his victim status. Frankly, it feels a lot more like what you're describing here. Which is a real shame.
I agree entirely, but I did think the film captured the idea that Scott was more of an asshole than he initially seemed. His treatment of Knives, in particular, is not something the film seems to want the viewer to emulate. And to a lesser degree, his fight with Ramona leading into the third act (although that definitely could have been done better). It definitely doesn't do as good a job as the comics (and how could it, really), but I do think it at least tries. The fact that many may see its attempt as a failure, which I'm sure many do, probably has more to do with the story being condensed into a single movie instead of several (which would not have worked out based on the box office sales). So maybe Edgar Wright would have tackled more of Scott's glaring flaws if this had been more movies, even just a trilogy, but that almost certainly would have meant not getting past the first one, which almost certainly would be unwatchable today, knowing that it would be an incomplete story.
Anyway, I still love the movie, but as far as character pieces go, the comics blow it out of the water and I really think more people should read it. Also, if you liked "Scott Pilgrim," please read "Seconds" and "Lost at Sea." Brian Lee O'Malley is a very talented guy.
Very true, reading the comics made slowly have the realization about who Scott really is...
And watching the movie mostly just made me feel like "this is cool".
Spoilers for the comic I guess:
There's also the fact that a certain someone went into Scott's mind to alter his memories, changing them so that he doesn't remember doing anything selfish, mean or stupid, but instead often thinks he did something heroic, or that he was wrongly treated by his friends or his ex-girlfriends.
Because of this he doesn't learn anything to grow as a person and alienates the people around him even more when they remind him of what he did and he honestly thinks they're making it up.
Seconds and Lost at Sea are both excellent and I hope anyone getting into this comment thread will take that recommendation.
@@kinnikufan Thank you for the comic recs!
It might also depend on where you are in life when you watch the film imo. When I watched it at 17, I had no complaints whatsoever. But I grew up (kinda). I have not rewatched the film as of recent, but I do have it pretty well-memorised. And just rethinking the protagonist has me questioning how I ever accepted him uncritically. Also, the ending where Knives and Ramona just immediately forgive him for lying to them both is way too easy.
Which is not say that I still don't love the film. It is still one of the best superhero films!
"a chapter that just lists thing" holy crap, how can anyone read this book and not be bored out of their minds ._.
Have you seen the video by Jenny Nicholson called "Ready Player One for Girls"? It' such an amazing parody.
I've seen a bunch of her videos but not that one yet. Maybe I'll check it out.
I love Jenny Nicholson and that one is particularly great
I am ashamed to say that I used to support the entire gamergate nonsense. When I started seeing Mylo getting involved and articles from Breitbart, it slowly made me realise how utterly greasy and disingenuous the whole thing was and ultimately ended up dodging a bullet/avoided becoming a far-right nutcase.
Calling people SJWs, blaming "radical 3rd wave feminism" on the current state of gaming and accusing men of being "betas" for supporting people I didn't like. Bought into all of it. I still cringe any time I think about it.
Thanks for escaping. It may not seem like much, but you've made the gaming world a better place just by abandoning that trash.
I was one of the ones that actually were in it for the ethics in games journalism (as well as admittedly more than a little bitterness about the extremely aggressive "gamers are dead" stance that Alexander and the other writers came out of the gate with). But then... we won? Most of the gaming sites got their writers under control, rewrote their editorial guidelines, and required people to disclose personal or financial ties to the games that they were reviewing.
So okay, we achieved everything that we set out to do, everything's over and we all go home, right? But nope, things just got more visibly toxic, with Milo and the Nazis turning into superstars overnight, and the default stance about twitter harassment and threats changed from "We disavow anyone who'd send death threats, they do not represent GG in any form" to "Yeah I sent that threat, bitch, and I'll send it again any day of the week!".
I peaced out pretty quickly after I noticed what road GG was rapidly heading down. I had already barely escaped the radicalization rabbit-hole once before, and I highly doubted that I'd randomly run into another copy of the person who got me out the first go around.
I feel you. Almost had the same thing a few years ago. A lot of TH-camrs came out of nowhere in german and were jumping the ASJW bandwagon. I needed a while until I realized that they just tackled smaller TH-cam channels that not even wanted to do any harm and were not even experts on the field to make rants about LGBT+, racism, Gender, liberalism or whatever they tried to ridicule at the moment.
All of this ASJW are acting more biased on their own opinion than their actual targets.
There's a good point about the content of the book and film that nobody else has been mentioned, and that's the lack of female-aimed pop culture references. Granted, it's a story aimed at boys specifically, but having a character who is supposed to reward knowledge of popular culture and doesn't even recognize, say, Barbie, one of the biggest toy brands ever, is telling.
JackgarPrime, "that nobody else has been mentioned"
People, please watch Jenny Nicholson's video. "She did it first!!1" but also it just a good satire)
I agree, we need to stop telling stories where the guy gets a girl as a prize, women aren't prizes to be won. This leads guys who don't want to go out and socialize with real people, see people as not people. That and if I have to deal with another "nice guy" I'm going to just scream in his face until his eardrums bleed. You aren't a nice guy, nice people don't try to force themselves on others using guilt and kindness as weapons.
Well said.
i came for salt and anger in the coment section and now im leaving disapointed but with a little more hope in humanity.
Leon said he moderates his comment section, so you won't see anything outright vile
You this coment section is vetoed right?
I imagine the monitoring of the comments section that Leon so diligently does is the biggest contributor to your feelings.
The Reddit comments full of the salt and anger you're looking for
@Blue Bana Who's Leon?
Good video, you basically hit the nail on the head. Something to consider though is that one of the reasons that I think “gamers” get so toxic about criticism of the games they play is that for many of them, it became a sort of refuge from being bullied and ostracized in early life.
I was bullied from a very early age, to the point I wanted to commit suicide at age 8 and continue to suffer from ptsd that I am seeing a therapist about. The result was that the games I played became a sort of “safe space”. I was okay not interacting with others because why would I want to do that when they only bullied me? Even in games with chat, if things got bad, I could always just mute the interaction.
I think when people come and say “so and so is problematic in this game”, it feels to some people like you are telling them that the one thing that made them feel safe and welcome is bad or problematic. It doesn’t excuse the toxicity, but it does explain it. I’m not really sure if there is a fix for this.
VRChat made this whole idea of what a virtual reality MMO would be like absolutely ridiculous.
Curses on whoever made ugandan knuckles a thing
Enjoying pop culture is okay. But obsessing over it, excluding people from and using it to substitute for a personality is simply pathetic.
All the characters in the movie are literally losers, who live in a post-apocalyptic hellscape, because they'd rather indulge in escapism rather than facing reality.
And again, I understand the impulse to escape reality completely. I do that myself and I'd probably go insane if I didn't. But I don't fool myself into idealizing this escapism as a valid approach to life. Because it clearly isn't, when the real world outside is in turmoil and needs our attention, if we want to prevent it from becoming the world of RPO. Because I, for one, don't think it's one I'd want to live in.
Yeah. That's why I really liked the movie. The actual theme speaks directly to it's demographic in a meaningful way while still being a experience as entertainment
.
But isn't this movie not too far off with the idolisation of game companies or developers by gamers? How they see themselves as the heroes of their games? Only problem was that the author drank his own cool aid and tried to make Parsival the rags to riches protagonist instead of what he actually is, a Smash tournament player spending every minute of his life homing his game skills and thinks preying on his fans is love (or in this case the twitch gamer girl he's simping for)
gamers: gaming is my passion and my life, I know everything about games, I've been playing since I was a child.
also gamers: what? there's no messages or politics in any of the good games. it's just a game, don't hurt yourself thinking so hard about it.
LMAO
Most of my favourite games have some pretty subversive philosophical messages within them.
While a large majority of video games are mindless escapist entertainment, so is most other forms of media.
@@fecal_position6412 No creation can ever be apolitical. In order to be engaged, the audience must recognize an aspect of their lives reflected in the story. It might be dealing with someone who has power over you, or finding out what it means to be happy, or anything else, or many other things.
Since politics is about things that happen to us in life, and every work that is supposed to engage anyone must talk about those things in one way or the other, there can't be a work that is not political.
But there's more: even if a bizzarre work of avant-garde was designed with the specific purpose of being completely unreadable, by refusing to mirror any aspect of human life whatsoever, it would still be political, because the refusal of a statement is in and of itself a statement.
You're so brilliant.
@@barcarolleenjoyerHaha.
The LEGO Movie was the good version of RGO. Even the message about elitism and different ways of appreciating the same thing was pretty much the exact opposite of this.
Damn straight! That reminds me, I should rewatch it :D :D
You may laugh now, but when a robber has a gun to my family's head and demands that I explain the difference between a zaku I and a zaku II. Then I'll be the one laughing!
Incredibly superficial pop-culture references...
In the novel American Psycho, the author specifically described the characters' warddrobes in period appropriate clothing... except that, if you actually looked up those clothes and dressed someone in them, they'd look ridiculous. It was part of the satire, a subtle one that wasn't translated into the film.
Ready Player One is like that... except replace "early 80's appropriate dressware for the elite businessmen etc. of the day" with "so many unrelated 80's and early 90's pop-culture references that would only excite a pre-pubescent boy from the 80s."
Also, Fuck Gamergate.
A white pre-pubescent boy from the 80s. Like, isn't there a short sequence where there's some posters of bands from the 80s, and there's no mention of any hip-hop groups. No mention of rap. No mention, even, of purely pop groups that weren't rock or heavy metal. Ready Player One wasn't about nostalgia for all things geek from the 80s. It was nostalgia for Ernest Cline's experience of geeky shit from the 80s.
Exactly.i also compare to GTA:vice City. they showed black culture in the 80's that is very oft over looked. Madonna is one of the highest selling artists of all time but she gets no focus. Titanic was literally a phenomenon but gets no mention (I know it was the 90's but he pulls from that decade too).
I didn’t know women were being mistreated or left out of the geek community until I attended a panel about it at dragoncon in 2014.
I went to a cyber cafe that had multiple female employees as well as customers. I played a couple of pen & paper rpgs always with one or two girls in our group. I was surrounded by a such a diverse and inclusive personal community I was shocked to hear the way women were treated online and targeted.
I was shocked and taken aback. I had several questions for the panel host after it concluded. She was happy to enlighten me.
Since being opened to the idea of its existence, I’ve seen it multiple times, including on some of the channels I use to enjoying watching their content.
I suppose I’ll stop here before I become to self masturbatory.
It’s funny how problems can persist right under your nose until someone else with a different view points it out.
Growth is important. I'm glad I didn't read Ready Player One in 2011. I was 29 then, but I still had a lot of growing up to do.
I know that feeling, dude.
I was loathe to watch this video, as I absolutely hate Ready Player One, and I thought I was one of the only ones. I'm so glad I did. What you're saying about the movie jives quite nicely with my opinion. I remember trying to tell one friend how there was some toxic messages in the movie and they replied "Ah yeah but when the USS Sulaco showed up I almost cried!"
References do not make a good movie. Popular culture is not a way to measure a persons worth. Pop culture won't stop in 2020.
I also felt like the filmmakers were actually taking the P*ss out of geeks too. I felt personally insulted by it. Either I'm getting better at spotting these things, or the misogyny was so overt that it smashed me in the face too...
As usual, your take is refreshing. I spent my entire life being the "cool girl", meaning only valuing that which is male-centric. Thank you.
God the second someone starts a rant with "sjw" i just cant even
I think the best way to show how unrealistic Ready Player One is, is that there's no furries or people with anime avatars.
Something about Gamergate, and which you did not touch on (for understandable reasons), has been the mainstreaming of tactics pioneered in Gamergate, like rape/death threats, doxxing, hostility to criticisms of culture, etc that has been mainstreamed in recent years. This, in my opinion, makes it still imperative to continue to examine Gamergate today.
One day we'll get the version of Ready Player One with "Sephiroth but also a Wolf"
It's not Ready Player One's fault that it excludes girls' media-- the problem is worse than that. 80s-90s media made for girls was often garbage, and that in itself is a problem since people who make girls' media come up with crap like "Bratz" and "Shopkins" because that's what they think girls want. As a girl I had barbies, but I never /loved/ barbie because there was nothing substantial in it. I /loved/ TMNT because it had a story. There were no exciting female hero stories for girls (Alien was rated R, remember). Even I'm not nostalgic for that crap.
Thats certainly true but the moment it included Gundam, the RX-78-2 at that, there was little excuse to ignore an equivalent juggernaut like say Sailor Moon. I can understand not being able to get the rights for the movie but no one in the US into 80s-90s geek culture would've been perplexed by a _"In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"_ .
Idk bro. I am 22 and Indian so I definitely did not grown up with 80s American culture but the Barbie films I watched as a child were pretty damn cool. They were not centred around being pretty and liking boys (tho yes.... those things did always feature without fail unfortunately) but had deeper messages too.
And anyway, I watched a video on the Royal Ocean's Society channel that said that the way films are marketed is under the assumption that women will watch whatever the men like. Which has also been true for me, most of the time. (It was really awesome being outright told that people of my gender are a secondary consideration for marketing. Truly amazing.)
...I mean... the 80s and 90s media for boys didn't always turn in gold, either... Just look at He-Man. There's a reason She-Ra, Princess of Power is getting a remake on Netflix BEFORE the Masters of the Universe show (if they ever do, at all)
ken131 It is true but I have to disagree with you on barbie. Barbie is blank because she can be whoever you want. That's why she had millions of jobs, from babysitter to astronaut.
But yes back then, most girl media sucked. They just want to sell garbage toys.
@@ThexDynastxQueen I agree with this. I think Sailor Moon was much more popular here in the US than Gundam was, as evident by how every series other than Wing was received pretty poorly. I just remember SEED on Toonami and the "disco guns" Ha! But I think an inclusion of Sailor Moon would have been more noteworthy for the hero's (all located in Columbus which is another funny thing if you think about how the Oasis is a world wide thing...) than Gundam. *also, to further my rant, they had the RX-78-2 doing the MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam's pose. They can't even get their nostalgia right. Whoops, now I'm that fan boy. :)*
I remember a time when I was considered a satanist for playing Dungeons & Dragons, so I say: "Open the gates, let us all be nerds together". Strong video. Loved it.
I mean in the book, the first challenge is to recite all the protagonist's lines from War Games in order to pass through the first Gate. The first challenge is literal Gatekeeping, because if you can't memorize this one movie you're not a True Fan. If this HAD been a critique it would have been hilarious, but I don't think Klein is that smart.
Also, RP1 is the most loveless alleged love letter of all time. At no point does the book really go into WHY we're expected to like these things. It just lists things and expects us to assume that oh yes, I like this thing. It expects you, the reader, to do the work of imbuing any and all emotion or context to the story. It just lists THINGS and expects praise for it.
In addition when shooting movies actors don't memorize the entire role at once - they memorize only those lines they need, because they have scene schedule. The guy who played Tony Stark in "Iron Man" didn't memorize any lines - he had an earphone and someone read his lines to him.
I used to play a lot of video games, can’t count on my hands the number of times I joined a game and the topic went from “okay how do we win?” to “OMG it’s a grill???!”
It’s not as overtly sexist as some of the shit that happened in gamergate but it does hurt when you just wanna win a game of COD but you can’t because everyone is too busy making you feel like you don’t belong.
I’ll stick to single player games, thank you very much!
This was the common read for my undergrad freshman class back in 2012. We all hated it.
tsk tsk I do not envy you. Atleast you got assigned a contemporary work, that's a small positive.
Thank you for including the "straight white male always wins" trope, if only for a second. ;-) This is a major problem in movies as well as games. And while at least Ready Player One included a black lesbian as a major character, Ernie Cline still managed to wipe her (and everyone else who wasn't the straight white male protagonist) from the board before the final showdown.
And what about *other* kinds of underrepresented characters saving the day? When will we read/see a mainstream story in which a character like Aech is the only one left standing- and why shouldn't we someone like her save the day? Her story is a lot more interesting than Parzival's anyway, what with her being reviled by her family and then traveling around the country on the run, only allowed to be her true inner self in a fantasy world where she can disguise herself as a what? A straight white male. O_o The ogre Aech is a definite improvement, but I still wish she'd been the winner.
I never saw the Gamergate connection. Maybe I’m just ignorant, or I was never on the wrong side of it, but I genuinely never saw it. The whole reason I liked the movie was that it showed the geeks being big scale heroes, and admittedly all of the pop culture references, but that’s mostly because of how I grew up. I was raised on video games, horror movies, anime, Star Wars, and Godzilla. Things have changed from then, but I was practically alone with all of that until high school. It was just more of a reason for me to have a constant target on my back. Anyway, for me, this was a popcorn flick. No deep meaning, nothing to make me grow as a person, just pure entertainment.
💜 That is a fair reading. He is just giving context to why everyone was so ready to dislike what the film representated.
the worst thing abhout ready player one is that popcultre in the book is almost void of any real enjoyment for the sorce material. For the characters knowing about eighties is more of a religion than anything else, new devolpments in popculture have allmost stopted or are trapped in remakes. The inhabitants of the Oasis dont enjoy the eighties popcultre because it resonates with them, they have to because just like religion there dream of salvation depends on it, that is my personal dystopia
Captain America: "I understood that reference"
That part in the film’s finale where the villain sees all those people in the streets fighting with their headsets on was like looking into a nightmare
Some years back when people started using the term "gamer" I essentially went back to reading books. (When not at the bar or beach or bar on the beach.)
Makes me think of the worst of isekai anime. Well that and most otaku things, guys, closing yourself off to know non sequiturs about fiction does not make you cool, it leaves you a stunted mess.
The true twist: the author *was* rewarded for knowing all that crap and listing it out.
This novel and film feels like the penultimate of our worst blockbusters today, with all the remakes and "soft reboots" and prequels going on.
Additionally, the observation you cited of Ready Player One's similarity with Patrick Bateman's obsession with Huey Lewis, Genesis, et al is fitting and slightly creepy. Bateman is a shallow, greedy, pretentious egomaniac who responds to interruptions to his personal sense of reality with rage and violence. Sounds familiar...
I've definitely noticed fans of the book and film, self-conscious geeks and core gamers all, are about as willing to examine or discuss its underlying implications as Trump followers are about whether the Great Orange Leader maybe is always 100% truthful to factual reality. "You think too much, it's just entertainment!" they'll say, with that barely veiled irritability of persons afraid that critical thinking will deprive them of all fun forever.
To me Ready Player One reminds me too much of Family Guy, having too many pop culture references that just say, "Hey remember this obscure reference from 1983." Also, if I wanted to watch something that mentioned or would show pop culture references without them being shoved down my throat, I'd rather watch The Simpsons, Stranger Things or even Free Guy.
"We are hobbyists, not heroes" 👏👏👏
'Eceryone wants to be the hero of their own narrative. Only problem is, will they be able to recognize the Villainly of their heroism."
Simply put its the commofication of fandom. In which to be a "true fan" you must buy and consume as much of it as possible unquestionably without criticism.
Gosh, even wreck-it Ralph2 did better character development
And lets not forget the complete absence of any culture produced by PoC who made huge inroads into producing pop culture in the 80s., from Beverly Hills Cop, to Prince and Michael Jackson, and Rap music, which also went mainstream in the 80s. Pretty much the only Pop culture referenced in the movie is that of White, straight, men, and what white straight men were only interested in.
Somebody already disliked the video. Ok, here is a like from me, if we are playing this game.
It's nice to have a military history channel that I can trust not to be closet nazis.
The list of things he likes reminds me of similar chapters in Dorian Gray and American psycho, but in those books you aren't meant to like or relate to them.
I read the book closer to when it came out (it was a birthday gift from my parents who were told that I would like it based on my interests.) I found it enjoyable, at times, but also disappointing. It was kind of a filter back to the era when I was in middle school and fandom interaction was done over bulletin board services one dialed into from a modem on a school computer in a lab. It captured the spirit of those times pretty well. But being written as a retrospective, I expected a little more engagement with its subjects from a more modern perspective. For example, Parzival spends the first half of the book approaching his relationship with Artemis like it was out of an eighties adventure movie, which... makes sense that someone who spent most of his youth marinating in the culture of the time would use that as a go-to script to follow. It predictably blows up on him a third of the way through, and he spends the second act trying to pick himself back up and put his life back together again, which again is good. But I expected the twist to come during the third act reconciliation, hoping that his time apart growing would impart Parzival the lesson that, yeah, he was kind of a jerk before and he was following some social scripts that lead to some toxic outcomes. But that didn't pan out, the book didn't look back at itself critically, and the ending was straight out of an eighties film without self-reflection.
Aech is another lost example. (Spoiler warning) She is a queer woman of color who poses as a young straight white man online because frankly that is just easier for her to be accepted without hassle. The book came SO close there to having a moment of self-reflection. But it never really was interested in exploring WHY she had a hard time UNLESS she hides her identity behind several layers of misdirection. It just accepts that she ought to as the price of being "one of the guys". I would have loved to read the book exploring this in a little more depth after her reveal.
this really gets to my problem with the rpo movie: it both takes itself too seriously and not seriously enough
I'd like it more if it lightens up more and just try to be a geeky wish-fulfillment, bc i too would love to be rewarded for all my useless pop-culture knowledge
I'd love it if it takes the premise more seriously and take it in a more - for lack of a better word - political direction
but what we ended up with is a budget dystopia where we are expected to believe that the police is going to save the day and there's a functional criminal justice system in a world where corporations can run debtor's prison, and the happily ever after is a handful of geeks being in charge
Hi. I'm a fan and wanted to comment because this video caused an interesting discussion in my house. My boyfriend said that the female love interest is similar to me, that I have had interest in girl-centric media but that I avoid talking about it and overcompensate by knowing a lot more about the typical nerdy media. He said he never felt that she didn't play with carebears or something but rather hid her interest in order to establish "nerd cred."
I explained that I do my best to be a good feminist while also enjoying my interests (I don't play games without female protagonists for example) but he says part of the problem with gamergate was the silence from the majority of female gamers when it happened. We've been taught by forums and such to avoid the confrontation whenever possible so it doesn't become an abusive conversation. I personally just want to enjoy my media and such and not have a pissing contest with some guy online. That's time wasted in my opinion.
Anyway, good video. I never thought about rp1 in this light, gatekeepers indeed.b
Great vid! I were never a part of GamerGate, but during my age of 21- 25 I was definitely part of that dumb gatekeeping culture. I wish I could go back in time and be more inclusive during that time, but I can't. All I can do is to be better in the now.
There's something cosmically disappointing about this book to me, like such a perfect premise for understanding late stage capitalism and how our capitalist realist mindset leads us to endlessly pacifying ourselves by consuming nostalgic media and pretending it's still "the gold old days" instead of solving any real issues, but instead the book opts to say nerds are cool and good because they are nerds and everyone else who isn't a real nerd isn't as cool and good, and that I should get women for being a cool nerd, and also this company is evil and ruining my video game so we should stop them
Edit: I also was very interested in the book because like the protagonist I had gained only a second hand nostalgia for the 80's, exposed to a lot of 80's media at a young age, but missed the 80's by about 20 years and again I think there's some interesting themes relating to post modern thought that could be explored here but are just neglected entirely
To be clear, I appreciate the arguments you've made about gate-keeping and what have you. You're not wrong. But I had a much bigger issue with the movie than that (I've not read the book). At one point, fairly early in the film, Wade and his friend are discussing Artemis. Wade's friend insists that "she" could be anyone, including a fat guy in his mom's basement.
That was the point that I stopped watching. You mentioned that Artemis was a trophy for Wade, which is true, but as a female gamer, the attitude Wade and his friend had are so common and frustrating for me that I immediately stopped watching. The concept that a female gamer just, idk, wants to play a game and not be thought of as anything other than a fellow player is apparently unheard of to a fair number of male gamers. I've encountered this enough times in the years I've spent gaming that I often just nope out of voice chat altogether.
Female gamers, in general, are thought of as potential trophies/sex partners. Are they attractive? Is the female gamer actually a male? Etc. The movie completely and totally supported the idea that, not only was Artemis a trophy for Wade, but that _all_ female gamers are potential trophies. Or, if not, objects of ridicule for not living up to the trophy ideal. Maybe because it's something I've experienced regularly, but this was a bigger issue for me than gate-keeping.
overquoted one game I never had an issue was EvE online. Most those guys were mature. They would hear me on discord and be in awe for a moment, but, once I made it clear I wasn’t I to gamers as a boyfriend they treated me pretty normally. To be fair it was the guild leader who asked casually... ok in hindsight it was weird but, nothing I considered toxic at the time.
Still a better love story than sword art online.
I don't know what this is, but I somehow laughed anyway.
That is a disrepect to Sachi.
Renegade Cut it’s a very very stupid anime that’s even more fan ficy than ready player one.
@@renegadecut9875 It's an anime about a socially awkward guy trapped in an mmo where every woman wants to have sex with him despite his complete lack of a personality.
Sorry to bombard you with explanations, I did a dumb and didn't read the other replies before commenting. I'll leave the comment in case someone can derive value out of it.
I read it in like...2012 and I was really confused because I honestly believed for a decent chunk of it that the book had come out in the 90s.
To be fair, the novel does reference a lot of John Hughes movies (presumably marketed to young women as well as men), and doesn't usually reference something without explaining it.
I think a big problem with uncritical 80s nostalgia is that it often ignores the Reaganite subtext a lot of these movies and games have. Sure, the book does have the "corporation as the bad guy" and has an extensive depiction of "corporate slavery" (probably the best part), but Parzifal is never self-aware enough to realize that the capitalist ideology espoused in so many of his favorite pop culture artifacts lead to the dystopian world he inhabits.
@renegadecut I seriously recommend reading Pendragon book 3. It's like what Ready Player One could have been: "what happens when virtual reality is more addictive than reality and society genuinely falls apart?"
I'd Love for you to compare it to Ready player one
Right at the end there's some early Q-anon stuff in amongst the GG tweets, how interesting and totally not predictable at all that the two toxic streams would spring from the same poisonous wellhead.
The one quibble I have is the claim "Gamergate didn't start in earnest until 2014". It didn't start at *all* until August 2014 with the Zoepost being linked on /vg/ and the underlying issues of existing antifeminist attitudes leading to /vg/ letting themselves be Gjoni's personal army against Quinn. Then when Quinn fought back and got slanderous videos taken down Adam Baldwin chimed in about it coining the hashtag.
This was posted on the Ready Player One subreddit and every comment was a defensive posturing extravaganza.
extremely good
Thank you.
In flipping through your videos, I have found myself smiling at the music choices you make. I went on a 40+ minute break after the intro started playing Ante Up down the rabbit hole of early 2000's rap, hip-hop and r&b.
So, has anyone else seen Summer Wars?
Heard some pretty bad stuff about it or was it School days can't remember.
As a full-on gamer (I play all types of games and not just video games) I got say that movie is crap. It basically sucks and the ending is completely unrealistic; like the cops would actually believe poor people and arrest a rich white dude. As if.
When I was watching the movie it felt to me at times like a deliberate parody with respect to the absolute obsession everyone has with every random little utterance by this one guy. It felt like conspiracy theory logic.
It's like the Matrix but the people aren't fitting it but are enthusiastically giving in to it.
Great video and a really great example of "the male gaze". I'm a woman who grew up as a serious gamer and still play regularly today, so I know the very odd space female gamers occupy. I actually enjoyed Ready Player One as a book when it came out, but found the movie to be in fairly poor taste. I really appreciate your points highlighting the gatekeeping in RPO. I rememeber in another video, someone pointed out that the villain of the movie reads Nancy Drew, and how the main player looks down on that particular piece of 80s nostalgia because - you guessed - it's targeted towards girls. Gross!
I haven’t read the novel & after this review, I’ve no desire to. Imo trivia & its tendency for competition is OK as long as it’s not abusive. Trivia knowledge is popular from science fiction to Trivial Pursuit to the Jeopardy TV game show. It’s the toxic pockets of internet bullying & harassment that should be condemned (which can be in any kind of web interaction including social media). As for this film by itself, I found it to be light, popular cliched escapist entertainment.
@@GaoDaHoi I mean the video is all about how overall the film and novel were NOT fun for this guy. So...
I recognize those people you blocked the eyes out of lol.
I wish I did not, but same.
@@tenaciousrodent6251 it's called "the algorithm", and we have Google to thank. and yes, it's why everything is fucking terrible now.
that's what peak rationalism looks like, man
I also love "Krull"! I find so sad that most people hate it.
Two things I don´t understand about "Ready Player One": First, why are the adolescents in the future so obsessed of the 80´s? How many people today are fans of the popculture of the 1940´s?
Second; why does only the protagonist uses this treadmill when he goes into the Oasis whereas the other use move around in the real world when moving in the virtual reality? Don´t they have to permanently hit to ostacles or be overruned by cars?
"Masturbation has never been as dangerous."
*narrows eyes*
We'll just see about that.
First half of this vid reminds me of Erfworld, where a nerd gets sucked into a table top strategy game. It too has tons and tons of geek references, but they put it as the nerd seeing the world for what it is. A guy says to trust him and he looks like Nixon so he doesn't. Another character is a 1950s greaser so you know he's tough but has a heart of gold. But to everyone else they are just a dude or a vampire respectively.
He doesn't realize this till pretty late and it doesn't influence the story that much. Its mostly there for need little sight gags and funny jokes.
I watched it "for the cool", but wasn't super impressed, despite my geek cred being over 9000 for great justice. The nostalgia was fired with a cannon rather than sprinkled.
Interesting take in your video. I might have to watch it again with different eyes.
Comments section surprisingly low on flame and salt. Better pick up the pace:
Blah blah blah SJW blah blah racial slur yadda yadda yadda dislike-but-doesnt-unsubscribe yadda yadda your mom.
Am I doing this right?
You forgot a reference to Postal or Hatred as 'true games that don't pretend to be art', but that's more bonus point territory.
You forgot the downvote made before even starting to watch a second of the video.
Edward Clayton Andrews Hatred was pretty blatantly an artistic statement tho
@@blakchristianbale I'm willing to grant you that; it doesn't change how members of gamergate took it.
It seems like the movie and it's source novel are the perfect embodiment of the cultural stagnancy they're trying to depict. In the future of Ready Player One, no one is trying to create anything new, not even so much as remix of standard archetypes. It's all just name drops and references to mostly 80s pop and geek culture. Though the actual story does use familiar archetypes and tropes, the heavy use of references is a step towards the future Ready Player One is possibly (it seems to celebrate it's dystopia a little too much) warning us about. Like this is the endgame of endless remakes and sequels. Maybe we'll avoid that future, Villeneuve's Dune was pretty good.
Gamergate is still going strong, only they've diversified and spread out. Just because they don't call themselves that any more doesn't mean they aren't still online trying to do their damage.
'Comicsgaters' were a things for a while, with people bemoaning and attacking the diversity in current comic books. Toxic warsies, toxic cartoon fans, toxic anime fans, and a lot more. There are dozens of whole youtube channels infested with them whining non-stop about 'SJWs' (nowadays a catch-all term for anyone who opposed their views) and diversity and feminists and so on.
I think they're just called "the alt-right" or "libertarians" now.
I still keep hearing that shit about comics everywhere. It is so annoying, makes me want to rip my hair out. They react to diversity like it snuck into their home and shot their families.
Those of Gamergate/Comicsgate/etc. I call Fandumentalists because they treat all the geeky stuff they love as holy and sacred and will build a church around it and will shame and throw stones at the so-called "sinners" who don't fit their self-righteousness.
That's a good one. I'm going to use that when I talk about the dangers of fan culture online
I agree for many people it looks like all pop culture should be conan or flash gordon
I'm glad that gamergate is on the downturn... the problem is that it seems to have served as a "dry run" for the creation of the alt-right, with the people who left that movement behind moving on to more ambitious plans.
Some (many) were "in" gamergate for that idealized "ethics in journalism" aspect, but jumped ship.
It is interesting listing to a perspective I never noticed in this movie. I didn't see a fight between "true" gamers and "fake" corporate gamers. For me it was a battle between the consumers that wanted to enjoy the game and the AAA industry that wanted to drain as much money from the player base as possible.
I've always seen gaming as something for everyone. And do agree that more games should be made that target audiences that have been historicly ignored.
For anyone interested in a somehow related experience but you know... better. There's an anime, hack//SIGN. Is about a boy trapped in a MMORPG and he trying to get out of it. Contrary to Ready Player One (that, as Leon says just exists for the sake of references EVERYWHERE) this anime contains real social commentary on issues like axiety, social apathy, scapism from reality and some other themes. Is interesting because although the setting is a fantasy MMORPG there's no fight and most of the plot moves in character developtment throught solving the mistery of who the characters are in real life and why he can't log out and stuff. Check it out.
...meanwhile I simply balk at the idea that people identify as 'a gamer' at all, let alone gatekeeping the nonproductive hobby they use their preciously limited spare time on: It's like someone calling themselves a 'TV-er' because they watch TV, then getting all snobby because someone watches some 'casual TV' and can't be a 'REAL TV-er!'
...which I am certain already happens.
And yes, I play games too guys, relax, I just don't think my identity is tied up in the fact I've played an embarrassing amount of Dark Souls, ya know?
I haven't read the book or watched the movie yet. I might do the 2nd because it requires less effort. But, yeah, I don't fancy these kinds of stories. It's pretty much like Mark Millar's 1986. It's manipulative.
About gatekeeping, yes, it's ridiculous, like any other brand of tribalism or nationalism. I've never felt that the sense of belonging was that much of a need for me. Maybe there's something wrong with me or it's just that I can't put up with the shit of other people that are supposed to be in my group.
But yes, it's especially ridiculous because it has nothing to do with any kind of values or, well, the way it's been set up, it isn't even about being special. Ok, so gatekeeping consists of asking people trivia about, let's see: Star Wars, Star Trek, Final Fantasy 7... oh, Baldur's Gate? Oh, no, I don't play PC games, so that's not important. But everyone must have played FF7 to be considered a gamer. Batman, X-men, Dragon Ball... oh, European comics? Indies? Those aren't real comics. Nor are indie games real games.
So... this brand of geeks, that, to use a similar term to what gamergaters would use, the haegemonic geeks are just people that identify themselves as consumers. And then we make products, like these, that cater themselves to these consumers, while presenting themselves in this cyberpunkish coat of paint. How ironic.
I am a geek. I do ask people, even women, questions that might sound like geek cred checking. I'm not doing that, though. What I'm doing is genuinelly wanting to know how it resonated with you. I enjoy listening to people talk about what they like, why they like it, how important is it for them. I like it when people's faces light up talking about these things. It doesn't matter if I share this taste or not. I do kinda like popular things like SW or LOTR, as it's good to have something to share with others. And if I had to rely on the fandoms that really tick with me... well, that'd be saying goodbye to sharing any geek interests with anyone.
Just... don't shout like man/womanchildren when you watch a trailer or unlock some shit in a videogame. That doesn't show passion for anything, just shows you people are good Pavlov's dogs. If you really believe being into videogames, comics, cartoons, manganime... is ok when you're an adult, just spread the word about why you think it is so. Why it's adult, avant gard, why people need those mediums.
Awesome comment! 🌸🌸
RPO was fun for me until Wade, your average nerdy jerk, performs a heist. That made him a Mary Sue in my eyes. And of course, you shouldn't have a girl as a prize. Furthermore, l disliked the explanations. He explains BTTF, which most people already know, but does nothing to explain Joust, a reference l didn't understand at all. It should have been reversed, imo.
~ TDG
TheDanishGuyReviews u didn’t understnd JOST??????????????
hehehehehehe
guess ur not a REAL GAMER hehehehehe
Amazing and informative video as always 👍👍
The thing is, there is a nugget of a positive message in this story if there was empowerment of minorities who are the real underdogs and not the majority which are straight white gamers who have been elitist and gatekeeping. There is a lot of bigotry in gaming and not criticising that seems like a very unaware piece of entertainment that is just confirmation bias fodder for the majority who can enjoy their power fantasies and don't have to worry about representation or people who aren't like them.
I wish I could become rich by simply referencing popular things that people are nostalgic for.
I’ve read the book and after watching the movie I didn’t feel the movie was inclusive but another example of gate keeping. Who was one of The Godfather’s of 80’s gate keeping? None other than Steven Spielberg! Another white male savior film where POC and women are side kicks and objects to propel the protagonist to glory. Growing up I never saw myself as the hero. I, along with other groups are always excluded from these stories. It was a huge let down.
This might be the video that gets you on the map Leon. Hope this gets big numbers my man
"Dont consider this a callout, this was an autopsy" Deep unmitigated burn.
Thank you for pointing out that the movies closing message of: “hey nerd, unplug and go outside and get some sunshine” was puzzling and contradictory to the theme of the movie.
Personally, I don’t need a movie to wag its finger at me as a gamer, especially when it’s clearly being made by people who aren’t gamers. The biggest indication that this movie needed actual gamers consulting on it was the fact that in years of trying to beat the race to get the first key, not a single entrant tried going backwards!? I checked the fuck out when that turned out to be a pivotal plot point.
man, those fake geek guys suck!
I think part of the reason why ready player one bugs me so much is that it's so full of shallow references to other media and there's no sign of any other culture. As we've seen in real life, new technology tends to bring an explosion of new stories and art, but the book feels like the whole of humanity was just focused on parroting the parts of 80s-2000 geek culture. you can't tell me that after gaining access to the unlimited possibilities that come with VR, no one ever created anything that wasn't just an exercise in reverence to the tastes of this one guy? even with the current stage of VR, we've already created far more diverse and interesting programs than anything shown in the book. personally, as an archivist/historian i'm most interesting in VR as it relates to archives, libraries, museums and recreating historical sites; a two hour tour of the Oasis' best facilities would be far more interesting to me than the movie could ever be, and I'm sure others have their own niche that they'd love to explore. any perspective outside that of 'proper geekdom' is either ignored or outright derided. the expectation that everyone who interacts with this technology in the same way is just shoddy world building. it shows a limited understanding of human culture at best and complete narcissism at its most probable
Oooof Katie did you really have to go so hard? Nice comment!
The only thing I really cared about in Ready Player One was seeing the Gundam on the big screen in battle with another mecha, but there's going to be a live action Gundam movie in the future, so that will already make Ready Player One lose its relevance to me.
Thank you for making this video. Gatekeeping is still a major problem and I feel like it is hardly spoken about.