The Influence Of Video Games In Ernest Cline's Ready Player One?

67% of U.S. households play video games. In 2012 north of $20 billion was spent on video games, with the amount vastly increasing each year. The worldwide video game industry exceeds $76 billion. It has well surpassed the movie box office industry and is becoming a serious contender with the entire television/film industry. What started off as a diversion for the few has quickly sparked into a mass medium, helping people live, learn, work and of course, play (Galarneau). Video games are now more than just mere games; they hold large influences over society and are almost ever-present in the modern day. In Ernest Cline’s fiction novel, Ready Player One, the future is heavily intertwined with a virtual video game simulation called the OASIS. In the story, the

Aech’s avatar is “a tall, broad shouldered Caucasian male with dark hair and brown eyes” (Cline 38). This description drastically differs from the person operating the avatar behind the keyboard. In real life Aech is a young overweight black lesbian girl by the name of Helen. Helen’s concealment of her true identity is based on a notion passed down from her mother. Helen’s mom used a white male avatar in order to conduct business in the OASIS; she felt that having a white male avatar demands more respect in business and society than a black female avatar would. Following in her mom’s footsteps, Helen too uses a white male avatar for school and leisure in the OASIS. Helen’s preference of using a white male avatar demonstrates that the OASIS and video games in general can be an escape from issues such as racism and sexism.
Moreover, video games also serve as a source of fun for all sorts of people. The purpose for the creation of video games was for it to be a source of entertainment for people. As time passes, the game industry grows. Video games are now so diverse in content that there is bound to be a game type that any given person will find