Argumentative Paper About Virual Reality
In the article “A Pleasant Place for the World to Hide” by Justin Nordstrom describes the movie Ready Player One as a paradise for gamers. The article explains how the author tried to create and support the idea of gaming as a utopianism the state in which everything is perfect, and a dystopian is someone who imagines or foresees great suffering or injustice. For this article’s Nordstrom’s topic is about the characters in Ready Player One futuristic environment gaming while still being able to relate to the past. The main character In “Ready Player One” is Wade Watts or better known as gamertag Parcival battles with relationships in both the real world and the virtual. Ever since Wade was born he was raised by his aunt. Wade didn’t have a loving relationship with his aunt she would often ask him for money and takes his things. Since Wade didn’t really have a parent figure and his living environment was awful, he instead tried to fulfill his desires by playing the OASIS. The OASIS in the novel and in the movie is a virtual reality game that most players used to escape poverty. The OASIS is a new futuristic type of gaming that Nordstrom talks about in the article that expands on how videogames can be a beneficial activity in helping people cope with social difficulties or psychological illnesses.
To start off, Nordstrom begins explaining how virtual reality gaming could really benefit into making everything perfect for a brief amount of time. In the film Wade and Halliday had difficulty connecting with their family, resulting in finding different methods outside the real interactive community. In both the film and the novel Wade grew up without ever knowing anything besides the OASIS, “My generation has never known without the OASIS … We’d been born into an ugly word, and the OASIS was our one happy refuge” (Cline 11). In an interview with the author Ernest Cline he responded that ‘“I grew up consuming mass quantities of science fiction novels, Dungeons and Dragons … video games. And I never really outgrew any of it.”’(Nordstrom 243). Basically Cline used his own childhood to form Wade Watts. Using his own childhood experiences that influenced his story in the novel since Cline was writing about events that happened to him.
Nordstrom describes that the use of video games today and in the novel as a way for many individuals to hide from social interaction. Typically there’s kids or adults who sometimes don’t fit into society. Those who are usually the outliers of society find a small community of individuals who have the same interests; in this case that general community are called “gamers”. Yes, video games that have some sort of communication system tend to reduce interpersonal communications. Wade’s constant playing in the OASIS slowly resulted in his human decline of reality. Wade’s decline started when Art3mis questioned Wade what he would do with the fortune from Halladay. Wade responded that he would’ve spent his winnings on a spaceship far away from people in order to keep playing his virtual life to compensate for the real one. Wade’s thoughts of reality began to decline as he continued to play in the OASIS but eventually as Wade’s character progressed towards the end he eventually matured enough to realize that there wasn’t anything to gain from having a virtual life. Since the OASIS is the major plot of the novel, Cline emphasized; the OASIS as a way for players to fulfill potential creativity
that wasn’t theoretically possible due to the situation that the government was in. At the end when Wade eventually discovered the last key, the reward was a digital message from Halladay. Halladay is the one who created the OASIS and the Scavenger Hunt for the three keys showed Wade the option of deleting the entire game for whatever reason. Halladay thoroughly thought out that eventually players needed to come out of hiding, Halladay said, ‘“I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world … Don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t hide in here forever,”’(Cline 20). A game is not real, and anything that’s done virtually will stay virtual. Anyone has the option to have their life devoted to a video game, but that doesn’t entirely remove someone from society. Since Ready Player One was worked around the OASIS scavenger hunt created by James Halliday who’s concealed three keys, which open one door, which will eventually give someone all of Halliday’s fortune worth trillions. Halliday who was known to be antisocial and weird the years paving the way to the scavenger hunt, nobody had contact with Halliday. His investors thought he was thinking of another big game which he was. Halliday was continually attempting to make new games and new things like new VR suits and headgear. Cline's characters were fundamentally similar to somebody who passed a couple of years ago. A man who I believe changed society by influencing the use of technology; Steve Jobs the owner of Apple inc. founded in California in 1976 whose achievements were as great as Halliday’s creation of the OASIS. Dedication made what is currently likely one of the most utilized hardware brands. Apple inc additionally began little yet transformed into a worldwide essential. Halliday's own business Gregarious Simulation Systems, began in his friend's storm cellar and is currently a staple in the vast majority's lives just like Apple. By being to brainstorm new ideas and testing their faith in their creation, Halliday was able to pioneer another trail in the gaming scene; a trail that lead to the OASIS.
Thorough studies have proven to show benefits from video games as a way for someone to clear their mind. An individual who plays any form of game takes on a new character. It's like the pixels on the screen completely wipe previous thoughts and are engaged in a two-dimensional onslaught universe.
In spite of the fact that the OASIS is the primary source of a virtual dream to which individuals or “gamers” retreat so as to keep away from the real world, different sorts of fantasies show up in the novel as well. A few people, for example, Wade's neighbor Mrs. Gilmore, go to religion as ways to get out from their everyday life. Wade is hateful of religion since he accepts that it is a hallucination. Unexpectedly Wade's dream is the OASIS and for the greater part of the novel he doesn't accept that there is any incentive in drawing in with the real world.
The truth or reality is fundamentally not as appreciated as a hallucination, especially if reality has become an inexorably nightmarish spot. Since Wade is poor and both of his parents have passed, he is compelled to live in a confined trailer park. Wade tries his best to abstain from existing in reality as much as possible instead he chooses to immerse himself in the OASIS. Despite the fact that Wade is still moderately poor the game is undeniably more pleasant than reality. The OASIS somehow manages to provide Wade more opportunities even though the OASIS is only a game.
Since Wade invested so much time and energy inside the OASIS is he able to consider a game to be more genuine than the real world? At this point when a game like the
OASIS is so practical and firmly attached to someone's life can Wade truly chose to try and consider the OASIS a new home? Yes, in the article “A Pleasant Place for the World to Hide” Cline explains that maybe Wade wasn’t fully satisfied with reality, as Cline quoted from the article “Playing the Game of Literature: Ready Player One, the Ludic Novel, and the Geeky ‘Canon’ of White Masculinity” by Megan Amber Condis, ‘“Reality isn’t engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn’t designed from the bottom up to make us happy,’” McGonigal noted that, “that gaming produces a sense of wonder and awe that is generally missing from everyday experiences,” (Cline 251). This is why Wade enjoyed the OASIS more than reality, he was missing a crucial part of life which could’ve been his parents who are typically the ones who encourage their kids.
I firmly believe Cline tried to make this novel for people to view video games differently. For the most part, in today’s society, usually in the US people would rather spend countless hours staring at a pixelated screen than actually having person to person interactions. The novel gave us examples that benefited from virtual reality and as well as some drawbacks of consistent playing. They say countless hours of playing is unhealthy but if having a virtual life emotionally impacted someone in a positive way, why try to tell them that it would damage them psychologically?
Currently in America, children spend nearly their whole day attached to their PCs playing computer games or social media on their phones. Parents who weren’t born during the era of current technology believe that a pixelated screen is a waste of time and can ruin someone’s vision. Instead parents want their kids to be improving things like their studying skills or going
outside and getting fresh air. The current views of gamers today is different and frowned upon than the one’s in Wade's age of gamers. People who hate videos games consider games to ruin an individual's mentality. But research has provided that videos actually enhances learning. In the novel Wade explained that teaching online using a game made kids to actually listen and have better experiences not only that but the teachers had access to virtual field trips, 'Teachers could take their students on a virtual field trip every day, without ever leaving the school grounds,' (Cline 221).
In fact, video games have more benefits than what this article and novel described. Video games have been proven to help kids with their anxiety and can be a method for relaxation. No, I’m not saying that kids should play video games 24/7 in order to make them a better person. Cline talks about too much happiness is bad, “Too much flow can lead to happiness burnout.”(Cline 253) I relate this quote to something I’ve heard all my life, “too much of a good thing is bad,” I'm commenting on the topic that video games aren’t as bad as everyone depicts them to be, and instead they should do some research before barbardering video games as a leading cause of mental illnesses.
Overall the novel “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline and the article “A Pleasant Place for the World to Hide” by Justin Nordstrom had many good arguments and relations with the novel about how video games could be used for better health. But there will always be skeptics that will never side that video games could be the solution towards psychological issues or anxiety in the real world.
