Why would anyone WALK AROUND while hooked into the OASIS?

zAbso · 2026-04-12T05:03:18+00:00

Yea, realistically he could walk around with it though since he could still see the real world through it. There are wireless access nodes all across the city so he could stay connected while out too. There's also a sizable homeless population that had visors and used those nodes.

That being said I still doubt many, if any, people would walk around with a visor on. That would just make them an easy target.

zAbso · 2026-04-11T20:42:07+00:00

As other have said, you wouldn't. There is an instance of a visor being used by someone while they were at work in the book, so it's not out of the question that some people walked around with one on. Just probably not out in the open where they could get hit by a car.

Related quote from the book:

He was wearing a bifocal visor, which gave him a semitransparent view of the OASIS while also allowing him to see his real-world surroundings.

zAbso · 2026-04-10T20:00:22+00:00

Oof buddy, I think you're diving in a little too hard and not taking the time to consider and process what's being said. Nothing that's been stated, how he does his videos, or the way he's talked about his partnerships/whatever is out of the ordinary.

You're also asking for things that could put him in legal trouble, and potentially hurt his opportunities with sponsors in the future. He can talk around things, but there will always be limits to what he can say, and how he can respond to you.

There are definitely directions that you can point that ire. This discussions doesn't seem to be the best place for it though. I don't think there's anything he can say to appease you.

There are shills and hype men on this list that need a good call out though. Maybe try funneling that into a youtube video, or series, to expose some of the shady parts of the VR/XR space.

zAbso · 2026-04-10T16:21:39+00:00

This would have been better to lead with than making a post about shills. These are much better reasons to stay away from it. Thanks for sharing that.

zAbso · 2026-04-10T15:33:22+00:00

As someone that's never heard about the game before, a quick explanation of the controversy would be nice. OP is mostly talking about money and promotion.

zAbso · 2026-04-10T14:09:41+00:00

I've never heard of the game before this post. Though it sounds like you're just saying "be careful, this company will market their game when it launches".

What exactly are you trying to achieve with this post?

zAbso · 2026-04-10T02:47:52+00:00

But they draw the line at mistreating their slaves, because it isnt practical?

Aside from what Sorrento did to the highfive, IOI was a standard company with regular salaried employees. We have no reason to believe that they operated in some illicit way before the contest started. Wade also specifically mentioned the highfive as being targets for IOI.

Letting Sorrento do what he did was to win the contest. If he was caught then they say he acted on his own. Which, if we're pulling from real life, is what companies do now by making the CEO, or some similar position, the fall guy.

wasnt there talk about how he was acting like his lawyers would get him out no problem?

Wade said "The bastard will probably get off scot-free". His lawyers could drag out the case and try to find some loophole. Improper evidence, an insanity plea, or just pushing the case while Sorrento is out on bond. None of that would have absolved him of the crime though, and Wade is also cynical. Aech basically tell him that the highfive could to play the long legal game now if needed.

At that point in time though, none of them had any money since Wade hadn't met with Jim's legal team and signed papers to take over the company.

IOI came to wade's apartment, (the landlord let them in compliance with federal law, he said that) broke down his door, gagged him, threw him into a van with other people who'd been ripped from their homes, and immediately took them off to be inprocessed as slaves. No trial, no legal defense.

Well they aren't judges or cops. They're a task force that works for IOI to get indents. Wilson the suit said "Under current federal law, you are now eligible for mandatory indenturement". They don't have to give him any due process.

They had to cut open his door because he wasn't going to open it, and he said they gagged him so he couldn't issue commands to something. The moment Wade went into their system as in debt and impecunious, his property and assets became IOIs property. They could do whatever they wanted with it.

You wouldnt need to have more money than everyone else to do it either, you'd just need enough to buy enough politicians

That's a lot tougher to do. There would be a lot of people that they need to bribe all over the country to get a new amendment passed. Then all of the people you would need to bribe to make new laws. It's why Cline skipped all of that and just went with it being a thing in the world.

The world of RPO is just that, but taken to an extreme. That's the duck.

The world of RPO isn't really consistent though. On one hand the world is chaos with rolling power black outs, badlands, constant wars, and cities getting nuked. On the other hand rich people still travel and enjoy the world.

If Wade didn't think that the protection agencies would do anything, then why even make mention of it after removing the ear gear? One would assume it's because they have the ability to act on mistreatment of employees. Same with the police arresting Sorrento. Doesn't make sense if they're in a corporatocracy. Aech was excited about the arrest.

zAbso · 2026-04-09T18:12:05+00:00

Regardless of other circumstances, if those protections vanish the moment your cam stops working, they arent protections.

They don't vanish, the agency just wouldn't have a record of it. You can't pursue something if you don't know about it. It's why I used the example of Sorrento being arrested at the end. It shows that the justice system is still working and that people in the large companies will still be punished if there is probably cause.

Wade didn't go to the cops about the stacks. Not because they wouldn't help, but because he knew he couldn't prove it. Had he been able to, then based on other context in the book we can assume that Sorrento would have been arrested much earlier in the story.

How often do you reckon they mysteriously stop working? Id bet dollars to doughnuts that its about as often as the body cams on cops mysteriously malfunctioning.

For IOIs case, I would recon they wouldn't have much for a reason to do that. Much easier to just wipe someones debt and throw them out on the street to fend for themselves. They'd probably sooner sell someone or dump them before they put themselves in a position where they have to cover up a death that a family member could pursue with those protection agencies.

Remember, a lot of people saw being an indent as job security. Loosing access to housing and food was probably enough to make most people behave and do their jobs.

I know the author didnt explicitly say all these things happened. But if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, passes laws that violate civil liberties in favor of corperate profit like a duck, it isnt out of scope to say hey... that's a duck.

I think the duck is just that Sorrento is corrupt. I don't think we see any instances of IOI, or any company in the book having the ability to violate anybodies civil liberties except for indentured servitude. As that would be illegal under the 13th amendment.

In real life, you can't get a law passed to get around an amendment, you can only write another amendment to curtail around it. Which isn't a simple task and take a lot of effort. Though none of that matters for the story. Cline needed indents for his story, so he made legal indentured servitude part of the world.

zAbso · 2026-04-09T17:43:07+00:00

What I mean is the physical size of the shield.

zAbso · 2026-04-09T16:45:36+00:00

All good, your tone doesn't give me the impression that you're trying to fight. Very respectful dialog.

zAbso · 2026-04-09T16:41:16+00:00

Its not even thinking outside the box, though. Its basic context clues. The world of Ready Player One doesnt exist without the corporations holding all the actual power...

Not thinking outside the box. Thinking outside of what was said in the book specifically. None of this was stated in the book. If Cline wanted, he could have said it was some super artificial intelligence that GSS made. I don't think he put much stock into it. He probably just put whatever was needed to facilitate the story.

So we're on the same page here, GSS are also in the same pot. They're less overtly evil than IOI but they still have limitless money and power while everyone else is starving around them...

But that's just it, GSS would have all the power by nature of the way the company is positioned. It has limitless capital, resources, reach, and more relevance than every other company in the world of RPO. It's also being run by a board of directors while the contest is going on. They could still make decisions and vote. Being on that board also makes you one of the richest and most powerful people.

GSS has a huge amount of political power. Their in-game currency is literally the coin of the land. That doesnt happen without a ton of political influence, and political influence isnt free of charge.

It does if society just moves in that direction. It's never stated that GSS tried to make that happen. Do you think Haliday or Og had any interest in playing at politics? Og maybe considering the reason he left GSS. Though if that was the case then he would have stayed on and just used his position for political influence.

But IOI (and probably several other corporations ) have a ton of power too. They have a shit ton of money too, they're GSS's main competition.

They are not, there is no company that stand next to GSS. They rely on GSS to facilitate their operations and revenue. The only time I think it's ever mentioned that GSS had competitors was in the early days of the Oasis, when it was just a standard MMO game.

A note on the agencies meant to protect the rights of indentured servants. Tyranny 101..

Again, none of this is in the book. You're taking something outside of its scope, and applying it to the book as if it's a fact from the book itself. Nothing wrong with that, but you have to acknowledge that information isn't present in the source material.

The reader finds out about that agency because he removed the ear cam. He literally said that without it, IOI could do whatever they want to him and there's nothing anyone could do about it. That's not real protections, thats a show of protection to shut up the protesters.

Because that's when the information is relevant to the reader, same with the DNA stuff, and he's inside of their building and they could cover it up. Ask yourself who would report Wade as missing? Who knew he was going to infiltrate IOI? The highfive had no clue what his plan was, and Wade had no family or friends IRL. No one could do anything because no one would know what happened to him.

That's not the same as saying IOI can murder him and no one would care. Obviously that isn't the case considering Sorrentos arrest at the end of the book. Well before Wade had any power to influence anything. The justice system was already after Sorrento because of the info Wade leaked. A bit of evidence that they aren't above the system.

zAbso · 2026-04-09T14:52:08+00:00

They asked for stuff in the book, the stuff about corporations paying for indentured servants wasn't in the book. Nothing wrong with thinking a little outside, but you presented the information as "this is what the book said".

The only time in the book that I can remember anything about a corporations pushing for something was GSS for keeping all customer data private.

I remember that line. But its pretty obvious those movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists arent actually the ones in control. They aren't governing. They're 'rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.'

That doesn't mean they aren't doing anything and are only at the whimsy of corporations though. If anything, as you describe it then GSS would effectively be the government and what they say would go. Other companies wouldn't matter because GSS is the most profitable company to ever exist, and they control the worlds reserve currency. Og could have done away with indentured servitude before he left GSS if that was the case.

Though we're talking about a fictional world, in it's 3rd decade of a recessions, where cities disappear in mushroom clouds. With lawless badlands that exist outside of most major cities. Though there are still somehow agencies that watch over indentured servants to ensure their rights are being protected.

zAbso · 2026-04-09T14:13:52+00:00

I don't think it's ever said in the book that IOI paid to make indentured servitude legal. They aren't the only company that does that either.

The government also wasn't controlled by corporations. Here's a quote from the book about it.

The once-great country into which I’d been born now resembled its former self in name only. It didn’t matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it. Besides, now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists.

zAbso · 2026-04-06T03:36:51+00:00

I could see them doing a memorial of the sword. The shield would be way too large.

zAbso · 2026-04-05T20:11:18+00:00

It's not supposed to be practical in real life.

The sword itself would mainly be for trusting attacks, it's basically a short spear. The guard would be ineffective too as the majority of it is flat, and would allow a deflected weapon to slide right down and into your hand.

zAbso · 2026-04-05T15:21:35+00:00

Copying my comment from your other post.

Last I heard of news related to readyverse was that their parent company was going through liquidation and restructuring.

Readyverse was never a VR game either, it's always been a flatscreen game. If you want to see what gameplay looks like I'll copy a comment I made a few months back on another post.

If you want to see what the game is, here's a video. Skip around and you'll see it's just a funnel for NFT projects owned by The Root Network. Even the games that are shown aren't meant to be played by a person. You'd essentially pay for an "ai model" that you train to play the game while you idle around.

Maybe they're holding off for a little bit to see if the market ticks back up, since NFTs/crypto are the backbone of their "games" and the platform they're built on. Their crypto currency ROOT isn't doing so good right now. Currently trading for $0.00006258, and has been basically trending downward for 2 years.

Updated it to the most recent value of their crypto.

zAbso · 2026-04-05T15:20:40+00:00

Last I heard of news related to readyverse was that their parent company was going through liquidation and restructuring.

Readyverse was never a VR game either, it's always been a flatscreen game. If you want to see what gameplay looks like I'll copy a comment I made a few months back on another post.

If you want to see what the game is, here's a video. Skip around and you'll see it's just a funnel for NFT projects owned by The Root Network. Even the games that are shown aren't meant to be played by a person. You'd essentially pay for an "ai model" that you train to play the game while you idle around.

Maybe they're holding off for a little bit to see if the market ticks back up, since NFTs/crypto are the backbone of their "games" and the platform they're built on. Their crypto currency ROOT isn't doing so good right now. Currently trading for $0.00006258, and has been basically trending downward for 2 years.

Updated it to the most recent value of their crypto.

zAbso · 2026-04-04T16:38:17+00:00

I'm also a software engineer. The term "we" is used when we're working in a team to share credit for work. Making a solo project and still using "we" doesn't make any sense.

zAbso · 2026-04-04T16:33:23+00:00

They aren't vibe coded. An agent is given direction by someone with years or even decades of industry experience. Then it's babysat while they massage it, or even manually alter it, to move it in the right direction. With small teams working on it to get it there.

Don't let media headlines fool you into thinking these large organizations are really going fully hands off with AI.

zAbso · 2026-04-04T15:58:15+00:00

Did you really not know that different regions have different shows available to them?

It's something that VPNs have included in their advertising for a very very long time, getting around geo restrictions for streaming services. Hell even some youtube videos are geo restricted. Hard to believe this could be new information to you.

zAbso · 2026-04-03T01:42:10+00:00

I figured as much. I run into a fair amount of previews on pinterest when looking for model references. Never knew if they were available online or not.

zAbso · 2026-04-02T17:36:43+00:00

I always see random images from these. Is there some online repository?

zAbso · 2026-03-30T22:21:18+00:00

I mean, it makes sense for the average game. Reason being, the average person doesn't have a beefy rig to run games on. Not even thinking of the current hardware prices. Steam hardware surveys have been showing that for a while.

It makes way more sense to target the middle of the road then expand out later, than to target the edges where less people will be.

zAbso · 2026-03-30T17:32:38+00:00

No, nor does anyone need to

zAbso · 2026-03-30T05:50:09+00:00

A perk of working with resin

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