"Ready Player One" The Players in this Game(Unmarked Spoilers)

[[deleted user]]

So what do you think of these characters?

Wade, unreliable narrator? Uber geek? Gary/Larry/Harry/Bobarry Stu?

And the other players in the game? Realistic? Flat? Cliched?

Chime in :)

[Jarrod]

I think the characters are one dimensional, and the main character is the male equivellant of a Mary Sue, yes.

Cliched in so many levels. I'm surprised there wasn't a giant sign reading "Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak" for the GG founders.

There were some other non-believable elements of this story, but the characters were a bit on the weak side.

[Tad]

I didn't have any problem with these characters. Sure, you need some suspension of disbelief, but so what?

You know who these characters did remind me of? Any number of characters from movies in the 1980's! A little bit too clever, too good, and too lucky, but you end up cheering them on regardless.

If I were going to criticize anything, it's that the villain of the piece (really a stand-in for the evil corporation) was a little thin, but that's a minor criticism that took nothing away from my enjoyment of the book.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

Wade doesn't really match up with my ideas of what an unreliable narrator is.

[Weirdology]

Some people in another thread mentioned that Wade is too perfect, but I disagree. I haven't finished it yet, only about 1/3rd done. So he might change by the end of the book.

But so far he's getting bad grades in school and he has no motivation to change that, even when he could get financial aid for college from it (he complains about not being able to go to college, so I assume he wants to go).

Then he mentions twice that he doesn't want to get a job. Once because he would have to sign a 5 year contract with a company or something like that. Then again because he would have to go on a two year waiting list for a fast food job. If you want to get out of the stacks, or even just out of your abusive aunts place, then go on the freakin waiting list! But no, he would rather be a "full time gunter". There's even jobs in the OASIS if he wants to spend all his time in there.

Also, he has acne and is overweight and he was bullied at his real life school. And he's a major nerd and a geek. So no, he isn't what I consider a Gary Stu to be.

I didn't mean to complain about him/go on a rant. Just mentioning some things I noticed. And although I don't like his approach to school and employment, I still like the character.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

The thing that bugged me most about Wade was his almost Edward-like chasing after Art3mis.

Oh, and his thinking that her port wine birthmark made her even more beautiful was, well, a kind thing to say, but seems atypical for the Teenage Boy character class. ;)

[[deleted user]]

Maybe, after being hooked into the system for so long and being able to see perfect renditions of women doing whatever the fact that she had a port wine stain just made her real and thus beautiful in his eyes.

Or he was just lying to get some.

Either/or.

[Joel]

Holly wrote: "Also, he has acne and is overweight and he was bullied at his real life school. And he's a major nerd and a geek. So no, he isn't what I consider a Gary Stu to be."

yeah, until later, when a magic workout machine makes him super buff and a healthy diet makes his skin clear up, not that he actually has to work at either of those things. wish fulfillment is part of the gary stu thing.

[Peggy]

I didn't see Wade as a Gary Stu, and that's usually something that bugs me. He wasn't the smartest of the bunch - I think both Aech and Art3mis were smarter and better equipped, and she was ahead of him in the standings for the a good part of the game.

Speaking of Aech, I loved that reveal. There was so much speculation about who Art3mis really was, I never gave Aech a second thought.

[Riona]

I saw the Aech reveal coming by a few pages (well, that she was a girl, not that she was black), but I still loved it. And I really appreciated that once Wade got over his shock and Aech got over her guilt/embarrassment, their relationship went right back to normal.

I don't see Wade as a typical unreliable narrator but I do agree that the amount of research he supposedly did is completely impossible. His Art3mis-stalking was pretty lame too.

Sorrento was pretty weak as a villain - a little too pure-evil cardboard cut-out. I prefer my bad guys to have more of a human element that makes them relatable on some level, so you can figure out why they do what they do.

[Andrea]

Wade seemed a reasonable character to me until the whole infiltration episode. Then he fell right over the unlikely cliff.

[Craig]

Joel wrote: "Holly wrote: "Also, he has acne and is overweight and he was bullied at his real life school. And he's a major nerd and a geek. So no, he isn't what I consider a Gary Stu to be."

yeah, until later..."

I'm not sure an hour of calisthenics/resistance training every day is a magic workout machine. Sure his OASIS machine could function as a treadmill/weight set but he still had to put in the time/effort to get in shape. They just did it in the literary equivalent of a montage so it happened really quick.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

The main character in Chimera deliberately gets himself into an indentured servitude camp in a similar way ... so I was primed to believe in that. The passwords sort of felt like they came out of left field, though.

[[deleted user]]

Yeah, the passwords thing was just too convenient.

"Oh, hey, look, some passwords! I can hack the system! But I have to be inside? Ok. I'll just buy them for later. Just in case."

[Riona]

Agreed. Especially since I think it said he bought the passwords months before he even formulated his plan. COME ON.