Ready Player One Review

You are listening to a GeekCast Radio Podcast.

Welcome to Off the Cuff. I am your host, as usual,

Michael Powers. This week I'm joined by a returning

favorite, but new to this version of Off the

Cuff, I have Joe Reed. Hello! I'm back home at

Off the Cuff, where I belong. We've missed you,

sir. Well, I can't say we, because I can't speak

for Danner and Shaunsey right now, but... Have

missed recording with you. Well, thank you. It's

good to be back. Not that I don't mind Recording

of TFJ one Mike. Those are fun podcasts. Absolutely,

but but this is home, you know share the voice

indeed This week might be a little bit different

than the last few episodes because Joe and I

Want to talk about something we've never really

talked about an off -the -cuff before It's a

book. Oh my gosh a real book. Well, I mean, it's

a real book and so much as I have it in my hand

But when I read it, I read it on my iPad Yeah,

when I have the real book too and I read it on

my my nook. Actually what's funny is I bought

it last summer when Allie and I were in Grand

Rapids because a lot of people on gaming podcasts

were talking about it and I know I haven't said

the title of the book yet and that's partially

intentional but then you know I didn't read it

didn't read it and within the last month or so

at work I've gotten really bored with all my

tv shows and I just I needed something to break

up the monotony so I looked on the iTunes bookstore

because we had just moved so all the books were

still packed up and It was on the iTunes bookstore

for like three bucks So I was like oh That was

not the cough button That was that was the hang

up button I apologize. So you found it on the

the Apple Store for three bucks. For three bucks.

And I was like, you know what, for three bucks,

I could totally afford to buy it again so I could

start reading it right now. The book we are I

am beating around the bush here is the Ernest

Cline bestselling novel or bestseller Ready Player

One. Yay. If. You have not read this book and

you're a fan of video games or a fan of computers

or geek culture or anything like that I highly

suggest stopping the podcast right now and Going

to check it out. Yep. It's It's it's certainly

a love letter to all of us. I feel I feel That

it's meant for somebody just a little bit older

than me Who maybe spent more time? Being aware

of Atari and that generation, but it's still

still an amazing book I I agree with you there,

but I feel like it's there's enough Not non video

game references plenty plenty It's basically

a love letter to the 80s And if the readers will

Bear with me actually, I don't know if Joe if

you have the book in front of you I do because

I think you have a better voice than I do Alright.

If you wanted to read the little synopsis. In

the back? Yeah, the one that... Mine it starts

with, in the year 2044. Reality is an ugly place.

The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels

alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia

known as the Oasis. Wade's devoted his life to

studying the puzzles hidden within this world's

digital confines. Puzzles that are based on the

creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades

past, and that promise, massive power, and fortune

to who... ever can unlock them but when Wade

stumbles upon his first clue he finds himself

beset by players willing to kill to take this

ultimate prize the race is on and if Wade is

going to survive he'll have to win and confront

the real world he's always been so desperate

to escape so what drew you or what did you hear

about this book I actually I had been aware of

it in passing and it didn't kind of click for

me, but very recently I watched the The Atari

documentary on Netflix that kind of focuses on

them digging up the Atari graveyard in the the

game over yeah, or Atari game over Very very

good documentary a little yes slanted but still

good and Ernest Cline was one of the people that

they had doing kind of those confessional interview

things And in the back I saw his book sitting

on the shelf conveniently nice plug for him and

like, okay I think I'll go find this thing because

he seems interesting and there's that book sitting

there and that's when I went immediately to Amazon

bought the physical copy Got the physical copy

sat down put three or four pages into it and

realized, you know I really like having a physical

book but I think I'd like to go read this on

my on my digital book and went and pirated the

EPUB file because I figured I already bought

the book and I Hope I don't feel too guilty.

No, I don't feel too guilty about that. I wouldn't

either Because because books really nowadays

for you know, 14 bucks They should come with

a digital download code on the inside that you

scratch off and get the digital copy as well

in fact if a book is $15 I would pay 17 for that

book to get a digital file and the physical copy

I could be wrong and the listeners is some listeners

might be able to verify this I think Amazon actually

does that If you buy a physical copy of the book

they give you access to it on your Kindle that

way you can start reading it immediately That's

kind of cool, so Yeah, I was kind of similar

I had heard about it a few years ago on various

gaming podcasts here and there Hence the reason

I picked it up a year ago and just never got

around to touching it What got me to actually

sit down and read it was the announcement that

Steven Spielberg had been signed to Direct the

movie that's gonna be interesting and I know

there was a lot of There's a lot of licensing

and everything, a lot of named things in the

book, Ready Player One. And one of the interesting

tweets that came out from SlashFilm actually,

after they announced that Steven Spielberg was

the director, people's other concerns were getting

the rights to that material. And SlashFilm basically

pointed out that all Steven Spielberg really

has to do is ask. And he'll get the rights to

whatever he wants. I mean, he I mean, as far

as like Atari is concerned, right? He I mean,

he made ET, which depending on how you look at

it, is the downfall of Atari. So. But so, yeah,

that's why I, you know, I decided to dive in,

dive into it, because now I want to know what's

going on. Now it's a little fresher in your mind.

I'm going to assume I Mean to sound mean, but

I consume a lot. I think I consume a lot more

media than you do Now I I have read it to completion

So I don't know if you want to jump in here and

just start talking about various parts of the

book and I can tag along with you This is like

I said, this is kind of gonna be a little bit

of a spoiler episode So if you haven't read the

book and you want to stop right now And I'll

try to keep discussions. I'll keep the major

and big twist of the book. I'll keep those things

kind of secret, but the plot, I think, we'll

probably openly discuss. And perhaps some scenes

in there. You know, it's... Well, I don't want

to go into overall now, but general plot of the

book. He's a poor kid. And in this kind of post

-apocalyptic society, things are really falling

apart. He goes to school online in this Oasis.

The Oasis is, that's, I guess, where you have

to start with it. It's like a big MMO. I would

say it's like Warcraft on crack. Yeah, you jack

yourself into it almost like the Matrix more

of a virtual reality kind of experience, but

everything happens in the Oasis now that the

fictional creator of the Oasis in the book kind

of created it to be very open people can go there

and businesses can set up things and you can

buy Property online to build things where people

can come and shop with you. So it's commercial

but then there's also This this big kind of non

-profit just experiential part of it and Wade

the the main character Who I think goes I think

I'm pronouncing this right. It's Parcival. He's

Percival. Yeah, it's it's spelled with an a isn't

it? I think I think it's a spell the Z person.

I think it's Percival but with a Z because he

had to Make it I thought it was a Latin pronunciation

or something like that. Well, it's the same thing

as the Knights of the Round Table. Knights of

the Round Table, Percival, yeah. He goes to school

in it and the big thing is this kind of subculture

that's come up with the Oasis where the creator

put in this Easter egg. As video gamers, we know

what Easter eggs are there those fun things that

happen when you climb the Statue of Liberty and

go find its heart on the inside It's just throbbing

heart or it's this the the key in the adventure

Atari game that gives you the the Creators name

the first Easter egg the the creator of this

oasis put in an Easter egg that it basically

gives away the keys to the city his Entire fortune

the company and and so the subculture of people

have come up trying to solve these riddles and

figure out where the Where this is and our hero?

Percival or Wade in the real world is the first

person in the entire world to get to the first

clue and then that kind of unlocks plots and

Friends kind of going at each other to figure

out what the rest of them are and to then win

the prize The conflict or the antagonist of this

book is kind of a rival corporation who wants

to really, really monetize the Oasis and clamp

down on it. And there's the culture of kind of

hackers and geeks and nerds that are learning

everything they can to win this prize. But contrary

to that are these employees of this corporation

who are Given accounts and given all these resources

to go find this prize and as soon as that first

Clue is unlocked by Wade. They kind of swoop

in and it gets really difficult because there

are these Really? Well, they're kind of even

cheating and in some ways Trying to steal the

prize from our heroes the the hackers Yep, I

and I need a better way to Better analogy, I

think for the corporation and the oasis is I

In terms of a modern -day setting. It's very

much The whole was the open internet Yeah, you

could you can kind of look at it as the corporate

the evil corporation in here and this is just

our I'm not saying this about any one company,

but The Evil Corporation could be viewed as,

say, Comcast. And The Oasis could be viewed as

Netflix. Just for simplicity's sake. And Netflix

wants all of their content available for everybody

at the cheapest possible medium. It's like you

pay one price and you get access to all this

content. And the corporation, in this case, has

decided that it's all been monetized wrong. They

could put tons of ads all over the place. They

could charge people by the minute if they wanted

to, because the Oasis has become this really

popular thing. And this corporation is basically

the internet provider for the world. Oasis needs

the internet provider but it's like it's like

a chicken egg cart horse kind of thing and they're

constantly fighting and the corporation knows

that if they can get control of the Oasis by

winning this contest and they can do essentially

destroy it you know and basically kind of do

what you know Comcast and other Internet providers

in this day and age want to do which is priority

traffic and you know charge you like nickel and

dime you to death for like faster speeds or you

know for Gigabits and stuff like that. So I I

found it interesting that that was in there.

I was like I was able to you know Put that into

something that I could like it was easily easy

for me to understand because that's something

that's very much going on now Don't know if he

intended for that type of an analogy But if he

did considering when this was written it was

kind of I mean we knew that that stuff was coming

I think industry people knew but I think it's

really become kind of more common knowledge that

yeah these I I kind of I kind of lost you we

were talking about like when the book was made

in industry insiders Knowing that this type of

stuff was coming And I was looking up the copyright

for the book, which is 2011. Yeah, I think the

neutrality debate was like really summer of 2014

and now that that's come Really to the forefront

of even just normal people knowledge. I think

It made the book. It's making the book even more

current to what's going on So yeah, I I really

like that the now in my opinion and sorry listeners

if we're Jumping all over here with this, but

it's a Exciting owner. It's a wonderful book.

Uh, I really for me. I really like the everything

leading up to like Him solving it everything

leading up and to him solving the first problem

the first the first riddle riddle because there

was so much like world building and so much just

like getting you into it and it was so weird

how just like It was like getting to the top

of that roller coaster and boy did it take a

long time to get there Yeah, I didn't hate it.

I enjoyed every minute of it. One of my only

criticisms for the book. It's Ernest Cline's

first book and it kind of feels that way. It's

OK. It's a great book. I recommend it to everybody

who's a nerd and would enjoy it, but it's it's

like candy, you know, you know, it's not good

You know, it's not good for you, but it sure

was entertaining and I think Given more experience

I wish I'd like to see the same plot the same

story told by him 20 years from now after he's

written five six seven eight nine ten books It

just seemed a little I don't there's not a lot

of characters and that comes from somebody who

reads Game of Thrones where there's hundreds

of them. See, I appreciated the small amount

of characters because I was able to follow who

was who and who was saying what about who. And

like, I mean, don't get me wrong, I've never

read a Game of Thrones novel, but if it's anything

like the TV show, I always follow. See, I have

trouble following along with the TV show most

of the time. And most of the time, I don't even

identify with like the character names in Game

of Thrones. I identify with the actor. Like I

have to remember who people are. By the actor

that portrays them not by their character name

And and I the watching the first season of Game

of Thrones made reading all of the books of subsequent

books Much better. I had finished the book series

after The first season was out and and that was

kind of that helped a lot Having watched the

TV show first, but yeah, I appreciated the the

smaller number of characters They also felt like

you got to know them a little more. Mm -hmm.

I think the Where my criticism comes from is

that it ends up being one of those oddly? Convenient

things somebody that he mentions in passing in

the beginning of the book ends up becoming a

close friend and just that little stuff it kind

of shrinks the world, but You know, that's a

minor minor gripe to what was otherwise just

this big love letter to But don't you think that

has more to do with like the understanding of

like the internet like for example I mean, you're

not as... Well, okay, you're on Facebook, but

you're not on Twitter, okay? On Twitter, you

pretty much have carte blanche to interact with

anybody that you want to, as long as you have

their handle and they're on Twitter. So, for

me, that part didn't really bother me because

there are game journalists that I respect and

like... kind of hold in like a higher regard

than like what we do, like off the cuff, right?

I mean, they get first access to all these games

and stuff like that. So to me, they're kind of

like geek little celebrities, right? But with

Twitter, I'm able to like follow their follow

conversations they might be having in public

and jump in and give voice my opinion and maybe

actually engage them in a conversation. Like

the Internet. The internet is a much with depending

on what social network you're on. The internet

is not that big of a place socially So I didn't

really find that to be too much of a stretch

that he Mentions this person and then comes across

him because they're both doing the exact same

thing You know, it's it it would it yeah, I guess

it seemed overly convenient out of the hundreds

of Bloggers were probably doing the same thing.

It was the one That one, I'll give you, I'll

give you convenient, but at the same time, just

knowing that like I can jump online right now

and interact with people that I would think are

celebrities the way that he, you know, I mean,

he was just too scared to probably interact with

her, but he stalked her more or less. Makes it

even funnier. I mean, he, I mean, he didn't like

the internet stalked her the way you would follow

somebody on Twitter, but never say anything.

Yeah. So it's it's not like that crazy. I so

to me that didn't really ruffle any feathers

for me But yeah, and it was a minor ruffle that

The pace of the book will would immediately flushed

out. I blasted through this book I even took

it to work and read it while I while I was I

think we had a couple slow days and there was

lots of movie watching in my Classroom and I

had the book on my nook reading it there but

uh that was fun and actually a couple of my students

had been reading it too and that was kind of

interesting to say hey you yeah me too all right

cool and i'm looking at them going you don't

understand half of these references do you because

you're 11 and like one of the kids said well

me and my dad were reading it together and he's

explaining it to me and showing me the movies

as they go through i'm like okay that's a neat

way to do it see i that brings up an interesting

thing the movies the way movies play into this

the the way he found an interesting way to turn

them into mini games was like rock band only

the movie yep yep uh like and they did uh war

games yep and monty python yep so i it's funny

i watched this actually this book actually prompted

me to watch a few things because war games was

on hbo go and i hadn't seen that movie since

i was a kid So I thought why not check it out.

I wasn't looking for like Well, I wasn't like

fact -checking the book or anything like that

But it was it was interesting to watch that again.

It kind of kind of got me to watch and and like

you I Had stumbled across the Atari documentary

on Netflix after I read the book and It was interesting

to see like this adventure game that they keep

talking about I had never heard of this game

before Like, ever. And then I saw it on a YouTube

video. Like, I did a short YouTube video about

the game, Adventure, and it's Easter Egg. And

then, of course, it was mentioned in the Atari

thing. And I'm pretty sure I saw it referenced,

like, somewhere else. But it was really weird

to see this thing referenced, like, three times

within, like, a week of finishing this book.

And I had never heard of this game before. I

owned it, never even put it in the Atari. I hope.

You know, it's oh gosh. I hope I didn't sell

it cuz the video game collections gone I think

I I think I kept it and if not, it's pretty easy

to find and I did keep an Atari But I'd like

to play through it as difficult as that is to

kind of do nowadays Is there any particular part

of the book that was like Like what was the your

favorite part of the book? I think I think up

to him Okay, two favorite parts him solving the

first puzzle that whole Figuring it out and and

actually doing it physically accomplishing it

was just entertaining and then I think the the

climactic battle at the end where it's like bunches

of nerds piloting everything out of pop culture

to fight each other with it. That was kind of

neat too. Do you have to get licensing for a

book? It seems weird that they can mention Voltron

by name in a book. That's an interesting gray

area there. I know that you do when you do a

movie though. Yeah, absolutely. There's no credits

in the book, so maybe you don't have to? Don't

know how that stuff works Like usually it would

be like in a bibliography wouldn't it like yeah

well earned an acknowledgement I suppose if it's

literary I know you're not Larry scholarly you

have to put that work cited in bibliography in

the back, but No, nothing that I can find in

here. It's cuz it's a work of fiction well, so

are movies but You're you're using somebody's

image, which will undoubtedly draw somebody to

somebody will go see this movie because it's

Voltron If they are able to secure that my gosh,

you know The first time we're gonna see Voltron

on film will be this movie and not the actual

Voltron film that I want to see Funny what about

Ultraman that was kind of neat too. Yeah showing

up. Um Yeah, I have to agree the fight the the

climactic fight at the end and The tech to me

was always really interesting because they do

he does a really good job of explaining like

there's like the There's the free low -cost everyone

gets access to the Oasis bundle and then there's

like the top of the line where you're in like

a 360 degree bubble that acts as a treadmill

for you to be fully interactive like it goes

from he did a pretty good job of explaining it

from the you know the the very basic setup to

the most complex setup and I also like the whole

he took time to explain certain things like it

was almost like a history of video games or like

pulp and pulp culture stuff Completely to this

degree and this might not be a very good comparison

but kind of like American Psycho I don't think

I'm pretty sure I've read that I've read it.

I don't I haven't seen it and I didn't know it

was a book Well, it's it I as a book. It was

actually pretty good But there's like the the

author in the book Brett Easton Ellis devotes

entire chapters like there's two entire chapters

that are written as music reviews for Huey Lewis

in the news and Whitney Houston, but they're

written from the perspective of the player or

of the main character And I that type of that

attention to detail or whatever I feel like that

kind of thing was kind of paid to things in Not

not quite as like finally done as the American

Psycho stuff, but still it was The picture was

painted enough for you to actually understand

what was going on. Yeah, you appreciate it Yeah,

exactly. I think that was deliberate to help

people through who maybe weren't completely familiar

with it So What do you think? Now this I don't

this is all speculation here, and I'm trying

not to devolve this into poo pooing on something

before anyone ever sees anything Do you think

this works as a movie like a single movie a trilogy

of movies or like would it be better served as

like a mini series on like hbo like I think this

could absolutely be done in a movie, you know,

and especially since there are so few characters,

but I also Feel that this could be the first

in a series now. Yeah admittedly Great things

happen in the end of the book. But uh, you know,

who knows there could be some kind of conflict

that comes arises after that. Well, I mean, each

of the keys have, there's some type of mini -conflict

with each. Drama? Yeah. I mean, there's so much

of the book occurs before he even solves the

first puzzle that I feel like that could possibly

be, you know, a movie in and of itself if you

take artistic license with the property. I I

think it I think it could be done with a movie

if it's if it it doesn't get done in one movie

I'd rather it be a very small six episode miniseries

But I think if it got stretched out to three

movies it gets stretched a little thin probably

Yeah, I I'm kind of on the fence like I'm like

if it's if it's one movie I don't want it to

be any less than like two and a half hours. Mm

-hmm cuz I just I don't It's not that I don't

see how they can't I said that I don't see how

they can't make it into a movie because let's

be honest most books are padded with description

with descriptive text Which when you have a movie

is just done visually Yep, and we just I wouldn't

want to see this book get turned into Ender's

Game in the movie as badly as that transition

went It just it compressed the timeline too much.

I think that was more bad I don't know if I can

blame that on directing or writing or screenplay,

I guess, for for that movie. But I think with

a good writer and certainly with Steven Spielberg

behind it, I think it'll be fine. And I'm I'm

very excited to see how they handle the the in

game stuff. There's there's out of the matrix

running around in the trailer park and the big

city. But then there's jacked into. I know I

keep calling keep wanting to call it the matrix

jacked into the oasis with With with character

names displayed over people's heads and bringing

up these inventories Wait, didn't aren't they

remaking reboot? Well, they are but do you think

you think we're gonna get a reboot like or ask?

Honestly, I hope not. I think what I think what

I would like to see would be Beautified versions

of the real -life characters made up in such

a way that they almost look plastic or fake but

then shoot it like maybe almost Tron like oh

wait, what about um AI Yeah, yeah, think of the

androids and AI. Yeah, like Jude Law and AI.

And then light it all psychotic weird and put

the CG character names and the inventory screens

that they're manipulating with their hands in

front of them. But that might also lead to some

very interesting acting moments because in the

game your character, more expensive rigs will

read your facial expressions and make your in

-game avatar. have the same expressions but you

can turn that off and then you're expressionless

or you can look like you're sleeping or look

like you're awake to kind of away from keyboard

that sort of thing it'll be interesting to see

those things happen visually uh as well in that

now i will say the one of the kind of just uh

i was i was very surprised and very happy with

the one of the major character twists towards

yes yes i was like yeah With H. H, yep. I was

very happy with that, but I was kind of let down

by Artemis. Yep. It's just the convenience of

that relationship, I think was... Yeah, but I

was like, the way that they build it up and then

when it's like, it's revealed, like there's the

little reveal, I was like, that's it? Uh -huh.

I was like... way to make sure that you can still

have a decent looking girl play that role and

not, you know, make the audience barf. Oh, you

know what I'm saying? Like, like it's not that

that was like if if I had one gripe with the

book, it was that that punch was pulled a little

bit for the sake of, you know, getting a decent

female lead in the movie. Don't think I don't

think it was written with having the idea of

a female lead in the movie, but I think that

was just a male fantasy convenient He's done

other I mean he's done other like movie related

stuff. Uh -huh So it would not surprise me if

this book was written with the idea Plus the

movie rights were sold before the book even came

out. Oh Okay, so it wouldn't surprise me if like

there was some stuff like if If it was written

in some way and this is not a knock towards the

quality of the book or anything i'm just this

one particular character beat I feel is written

With a casting idea in mind And that's just my

personal opinion then and I That was another

thing that the character artemis is is uh in

the game a A blogus who writes and does these

things and I would have liked to see him Show

us instead of telling us about her It kind of

I can't remember the name of the book that really

made me bring brought that a Concept to my face

where an author shouldn't tell you they should

show you And I would have liked to like read

her blogs and kind of develop a crush on her

like Like Wade did in the book through her. It

just kind of showed it Don't well, don't you

think that has more to do with like Books that

start from the beginning versus books that are

stories. I'll say stories I won't even say I

don't want to limit to books because TV shows

movies and everything do this, too Do you think

that has more to do with like where this adventure

starts? Versus like a an adventure that starts

from the beginning because I feel like this one

start this doesn't it this basically is Told

from the perspective of him narrating the entire

adventure I think it has more to do with an inexperienced

writer. That's what that kind of felt like to

me. And the Avatar movie that doesn't actually

exist, the last Airbender movie, they told you

things, they narrated things instead of show

it. Well, that's an extreme example. But that's,

I think, what happened with this relationship.

But couldn't you say that about anything that

you watched that's like... Lived in I mean a

lot of some stuff in Star Wars happens that they

don't show you they just tell you about it no,

but but Han and Leia don't just show up with

a narrator over their shoulder like in the big

opening text Han and Leia started dating together

Know that you get to watch them through Empire

have these awkward moments and the hatred of

and a new hope and you get to see it finally

at the end Where they like okay? No, I know I

love you, too, and that was shown as opposed

to like it happening in the text saying they

were falling in love with each other happily.

And that's kind of what I think a little bit

happened with some of the relationships in the

book, especially Artemis and Wade, in that it

was just kind of shown instead of... Because

in letting me fall in love with... Artemis as

well that was kind of that that experience was

deprived by just saying oh And he had a crush

on her like no make make me have a crush on her

prove to me that that's possible Anything that

has anything something to do anything to do with

like the perspective of which the stories told

though I don't I don't know it took There are

no he's not I guess I this thing gets a pass

for me because it's not he's not telling it like

in the present tense He's already telling it

as it happened. When I tell you a story about

something that's happened to me, I don't get

into all the nitty -gritty details of it. No,

but I think the... The I mean I get what you're

saying. I'm not saying I'm I'm not saying you're

wrong or anything like that And I'm just I understand

what you're saying about, you know, because I

hear about that all the time It's it's the whole

it can also be applied to video games. It's like

why am I seeing this in a cutscene? Why am I

not playing this? Yeah, exactly And I think in

the book here it has the clues are given in these

little subtexts. There are lots of little bullet

points where they give you a footnote and there's

text boxes that show what The computer screen

looks like or what the the chat window looked

like I think I never saw any of those you open

a chapter with with one of her blogs you Have

him explain or talk about his reaction to that

blog and what that made him feel Instead of just

saying I read her blog and I tingled but yeah,

I mean their chapter 17 has the chat window It's

funny cuz I opened up to write to chapter 17

Yeah, there's like four pages of chat window

and and and you know the bullet points that the

mainly those bullet points are in the beginning

of the book kind of explaining the company's

history, but But when you give yourself that

way out. Yeah, you just man utilize that especially

because it's a book about this internet world

I think we would have completely accepted more

of that kind of stuff and I don't it's it sounds

terrible when I talk about my gripes on that,

but I really do. This is a fun, fun book. Yeah,

I think honestly the relationship has so little

to do with the overall story. It's more just

there for like padding. Like Artemis easily could

have just been, you know, the arrival and it

would have been, it could have been the same

thing. Like I, to me, I wasn't, I wasn't hinging

a whole lot on that, especially after the the

character beat that we were talking about a little

bit ago yeah it would it would have made it would

have made i think everybody a more complete stronger

character uh more complete i guess is maybe that's

a better way to to say it rather than just text

to accomplish i think he was probably the most

complete character very entertaining so h is

his best friend uh that he meets online and has

known for a very long time they have this little

basement house virtual yeah clubhouse that they

hang out in and and they watch movies together

in the oasis and um but uh it's it's uh wade's

best friend so yeah uh totally recommend this

book recommend enough to anyone that loves video

games or just generally geek stuff especially

if i mean even if you're a fan of the 80s it's

great have you ever played an mmo to like really

relate to that No, I mean I get the appeal of

them I trying to think I Mean I dabbled in like

the the sims online beta And I treat there's

a lot of games that I treat that way and like

as an MMO like I'm gonna get together and hang

out with friends anyways like When I sit down

to play Call of Duty with Danner, I don't actually

sit down to play Call of Duty I sit down to have

a conversation with him while I'm Shooting guys.

It's like to me. That's the digital equivalent

of going and playing paintball with your buddies.

Mm -hmm so it's most most any game I play that

has an online component I treat it as just like

a virtual chat room that you get to do something

in and so just Sitting in a room Well doing what

we're doing right now, right? We're just we're

just talking to each other. How boring is this?

I mean, I could totally be playing Wolfenstein

right now Right, exactly. To me, that's also

one of the reasons why when I get online, even

if there isn't multiplayer, I like to hang out

and party chat. And it's not so much to distract

somebody from a game or anything. It's just the

feeling of knowing that somebody else is there.

I don't know. I've gotten used to the whole gaming

with other people that gaming by myself is weird.

All right, well is there anything you want to

add or anything you want to plug? Personally

hey, there's a geek sale coming up if you're

in the West Michigan area or don't mind driving

to it June 13th Saturday June 13th at big kids

games on the north end of Grand Rapids We're

having an outdoor geek sale. It's I don't know

fifth or sixth one. I've lost count now. We just

do it But come to our little gypsy camp and buy

action figures and movie memorabilia We also

have a Facebook page if you want to find information

there up the date stuff and the event at Facebook

comm slash geek stuff garage sale All right,

and I'm waiting for my closeout script to pop

up here. This is not good This podcast is going

to go on forever If you want to get in touch

with us, you can comment on our parent site at

geekcastradio .com or send emails to us at feedback

at geekcastradio .com. Just put off the cuff

in the subject line and it'll get filtered to

me. You can find myself, Michael Powers, on Twitter,

Xbox Live, and the PlayStation Network at boothninja81.

Joe? Think I can be best found on Facebook through

the geek stuff garage sale site Any other social

media thing I have no idea how to use so there's

that He's still learning folks I Learned like

everybody's grandma. I don't know where the buttons

are Hope everyone's enjoying the new direction

for off the cuff. Let us know in the comments

or in an iTunes review I'm always looking for

opinions. Yeah suggest a show too. That'd be

a topic rather we Probably like to hear that.

Yeah, I think eventually it'll become come down

to like, you know We need people to suggest topics

that we can just like throw out at the last minute

So and summer's coming around for me too. So

I'll have a lot more time I want to I want to

give me something to research listeners Give

me something to go. Look, what do you want to

know about and you're too lazy to type it into

Google? I'll go type it into Google for you and

we can make a presentation out of it Fantastic.

Alright, we'll fill your ear holes next week.