Board 8 > I can't understand why there's so much toxicity surrounding Ready Player One

(+) Yeah! (+)

Nerds on the internet are really ready to hate on it, despite many not having read the book.

Is it because the book sold well, so people are extra hard on it for not being high literature? I thought it was a blast to read, even though I didn't get a lot of the references.

Did you like Ready Player One?
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I hate it because they passed up on this amazing theme song
https://twitter.com/electrolemon/status/971208968323280896
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I enjoyed it back when I read it many years ago but I was a dumb teen then, and the summaries/excerpts I've seen of it more recently are cringe-inducting now

my parents still unironically enjoy it and are looking forward to the movie, but they're in the right age range to be pandered to by all the references so that's prob a big influence lol

(it is true that people are too hard on fiction that isn't "high literature" in general though, as a separate issue)
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The book was fine, I guess

Haven't really paid any attention to the movie
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I tried reading my brother's copy once and I just couldn't stomach it. The book was a hollow shell of a story meant to facilitate forced pop cultural references.
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It's because it's the ultimate 80s nostalgia thing, and people are reacting against 80s nostalgia because it's been so overplayed.
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Well it looks very much like an exercise in pandering to nostalgia, but I don't see how that would create toxicity. Nerds usually love that stuff.

Of course this may be one of those things that isn't actually very widespread but someone says it in a topic so you just assume it's true.
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CeraSeptem posted...

Of course this may be one of those things that isn't actually very widespread but someone says it in a topic so you just assume it's true.

Tor had an article about it today: https://www.tor.com/2018/03/12/why-so-much-backlash-ready-player-one-is-basically-twilight-for-nerds/

That writer is critical of the book, but the majority of my Goodreads friends gave it 5 stars so I know not everyone hates it
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

Nerds on the internet

This is likely the answer. OR alternatively, "the internet".
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If you read some of the stuff from the book you'd understand. Honestly in a movie format I feel like it MIGHT work better because it can just be a big dumb popcorn movie with nonstop references and call outs. I'm still not keen on it being a movie but it has a bit more of a chance, especially with Spielberg behind it.
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It was fun to read. Looking forward to the movie. The book was a bit heavy on the 80s stuff but thats also part of the charm I guess.
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I loved the concept of the book.

I did not love the execution of the book. After the first hundred pages the pacing goes from decent to awful and it made it difficult to care when they would just hand wave important passages of time or solutions to major issues.
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Anagram posted...

It's because it's the ultimate 80s nostalgia thing, and people are reacting against 80s nostalgia because it's been so overplayed.

this, basically. i'm curious about the movie but the trailers mainly seemed to be "REMEMBER THE '80S? HERE'S '80S STUFF! YOU MUST LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT REFERS TO THE '80S!"

also, it doesn't work for me as i was only alive for a few years in the '80s. try pandering to me by making a '90s nostalgia movie, maybe i'll like that.
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Does the film actually contain The Tomb of Horrors and Zork?
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Author Ernest Cline:

"I got pulled over once for speeding," Cline said, "and I asked the cop to write on the ticket that I was clocked at 88 miles an hour, even though I wasn't going anywhere near that fast.

"I said I'd pay any fine - I just wanted that proof that I did 88 miles an hour in a Delorean with a flux capacitor," he said. "But the officer wouldn't do it."

Now imagine how a book written by this guy could be
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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Author Ernest Cline:

"I got pulled over once for speeding," Cline said, "and I asked the cop to write on the ticket that I was clocked at 88 miles an hour, even though I wasn't going anywhere near that fast.

"I said I'd pay any fine - I just wanted that proof that I did 88 miles an hour in a Delorean with a flux capacitor," he said. "But the officer wouldn't do it."

Now imagine how a book written by this guy could be

So the author is a nerd. I don't want anything to do with nerds.

Now excuse me while I get back to writing my top 100 games list.
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If you wrote a book with constant references to your top 100 games it probably wouldn't be a good book either.
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Mobilezoid posted...

If you wrote a book with constant references to your top 100 games it probably wouldn't be a good book either.

I'll have you know that upwards of 50 people might have read what I wrote about 124 games
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Bad marketing
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

Anagram posted...

It's because it's the ultimate 80s nostalgia thing, and people are reacting against 80s nostalgia because it's been so overplayed.

this, basically. i'm curious about the movie but the trailers mainly seemed to be "REMEMBER THE '80S? HERE'S '80S STUFF! YOU MUST LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT REFERS TO THE '80S!"

also, it doesn't work for me as i was only alive for a few years in the '80s. try pandering to me by making a '90s nostalgia movie, maybe i'll like that.

I think Pixels permanently killed movies sold by 80s nostalgia
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Eddv posted...

I think Pixels permanently killed movies sold by 80s nostalgia

That may be a big part of it actually, for those who never read it
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

So the author is a nerd. I don't want anything to do with nerds.

Now excuse me while I get back to writing my top 100 games list.

are you intentionally being obtuse? the problem isn't that he's a nerd, the problem is that he's constantly throwing references to '80s shit at you. that's not good writing.
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Nerd Porn Auteur
by Ernest Cline
I've noticed that there don't seem to be any porno movies that are made for guys like me.

All the porn I've come across
was targeted at beer-swilling sports bar dwelling alpha-males
Men who like their women stupid and submissive
Men who can only get it up for monosyllabic cock-hungry nymphos
with gargantuan breasts and a three-word vocabulary

Adult films are populated with these collagen-injected liposuctioned women
Many of whom have resorted to surgery and self-mutilation
in an attempt to look the way they have been told to look.

These aren't real women. They're objects.
And these movies aren't erotic. They're pathetic.
These vacuum-headed fuck bunnies don't turn me on.
They disgust me.
And it's not that I'm against pornography.
I mean, I'm a guy.
And guys need porn.
Fact.
"Like a preacher needs pain, like a needle needs a vein."
Guys just need porn.

But I don't want to watch this misogynist he-man woman-hater porn.
I want porno movies made with guys like me in mind.
Guys who know that the sexiest thing in the world is a woman who is smarter than you are.

You can have the whole cheerleading squad.
I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:
Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.
First I want to copy her Trig homework,
and then I want to make mad, passionate love to her for hours and hours until she reluctantly asks if we can stop because she doesn't want to miss Battlestar Galactica.
Summa cum laude, baby!
That is what I call erotic.

But do you ever see that kind of a woman in a contemporary adult film?
No.
Which is why I'm going to start writing and directing Geek porno.
I shall be the quintessential Nerd Porn Auteur.
And the women in my movies will be the kind that drive nerds like me mad with desire.

My starlets will come in all shapes and sizes.
My starlets will be too busy working on their PhD to go to the gym.

In my kind of movies the girls wouldn't even have to get naked.
They'd just take the guys down to the rec room and beat them repeatedly at chess and then talk to them for hours about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle or the underlying social metaphors in the Aliens movies.

Buy stock in some hand cream companies
Because there is about to be a major shortage.

This idea is a fucking gold mine.
I am gonna make millions,
because this country is full of database programmers
and electronics engineers
and they aren't getting the loving they so desperately need.
And you can help...

If you're an intelligent woman who is interested in breaking into the adult film industry,
and if you can tell me the name of Luke Skywalker's home planet,
then you are hired.

It doesn't matter if you think you're overweight or unattractive.
It doesn't matter if you don't think you're beautiful.
You are beautiful...
And I will make you a star.
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The book is a nightmare and, even though the phrase is overused, the definition of cringeworthy. The excerpts you see aren't cherry picked, the whole thing is like that. It's the kind of thing that was built for being screencapped and getting thousand so notes of people laughing at how terrible it is on social media sites. It's also very clearly written FOR nostalgia and not FROM nostalgia, for various reasons.

That said I'm 99.99999% sure the movie will be better than the book.
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There's nothing inherently wrong with nostalgia pandering. Like anything else, there is simply good and bad execution of the concept.

The book was a notorious example of the later ("Twilight for nerds" is very apt). With Spielberg at the helm, there remains a chance that this will be one of the rare examples of a movie that is better than the book it is based on.
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yeah, i haven't read the book but the excerpts seemed like extremely bad fanfiction.
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MrSmartGuy posted...

Nerd Porn Auteur
by Ernest Cline

Ok so this guy is basically the front page of reddit personified, I get it
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Crazy how much opinions have swung since movie trailers came out. The book has always been divisive, but in the communities I go to there was always much more positive than negative. Now it's like 90% negative.
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The first movie trailer had me slightly interested, which is why I sought out the material im.the first place. I was met with a disaster. Then the full trailer revealing the plot came out, and everyone realised this was one of the most painfully generic plots imaginable to the point of being parody except it isn't, and that this was going to be a story that brought nothing to the table but fandom wank.

Worse, the movie includes modern nerd references galore, meaning it doesn't serve the purpose of specifically 80's masturbation material that the book tried to be. 38 year olds pining for Atari won't care about Tracer or Master Chief. I say the movie will be better than the book, but I still think it's gonna be real bad. Just not AS bad.
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The book is bad and you're dumb if you like it.
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redrocket_pub posted...

There's nothing inherently wrong with nostalgia pandering. Like anything else, there is simply good and bad execution of the concept.

The book was a notorious example of the later ("Twilight for nerds" is very apt). With Spielberg at the helm, there remains a chance that this will be one of the rare examples of a movie that is better than the book it is based on.

I do have to admit Spielberg had me reconsidering seeing it but the source material is just....ugh
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Eddv posted...

redrocket_pub posted...

There's nothing inherently wrong with nostalgia pandering. Like anything else, there is simply good and bad execution of the concept.

The book was a notorious example of the later ("Twilight for nerds" is very apt). With Spielberg at the helm, there remains a chance that this will be one of the rare examples of a movie that is better than the book it is based on.

I do have to admit Spielberg had me reconsidering seeing it but the source material is just....ugh

I mean, this isn't always the case. Even recently I've seen people who actively disliked the Annihilation novels singing the praises of the film.

I don't know how you could fix RPO, though....TV series instead?
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never heard of this, have no idea what it is.

if it has anything to do with whatever MrSmartGuy just posted it sounds pathetic and weird.
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I liked the audiobook

But that's mostly because it's easy to listen to at work since you don't really have to pay attention or think very hard about anything

LapisLazuli posted...

I don't know how you could fix RPO, though

make it about Artemis instead of Wade

she was the only decent character in the book
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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Author Ernest Cline:

"I got pulled over once for speeding," Cline said, "and I asked the cop to write on the ticket that I was clocked at 88 miles an hour, even though I wasn't going anywhere near that fast.

"I said I'd pay any fine - I just wanted that proof that I did 88 miles an hour in a Delorean with a flux capacitor," he said. "But the officer wouldn't do it."

Now imagine how a book written by this guy could be

This sounds about right haha. Still its just a breezy little story. Wgaf
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BlackMageJawa posted...

Does the film actually contain The Tomb of Horrors and Zork?

Nope
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some more choice quotes (and by choice I mean terrible)

https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/970019116554866689
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Zyxyz0 posted...

some more choice quotes (and by choice I mean terrible)

https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/970019116554866689

This whole thread is amazing. And it only scratches the surface.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

So the author is a nerd. I don't want anything to do with nerds.

now you're learning
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It's too bad the execution was so bad because the concept could be good. It's basically about solving puzzles and riddles, and that's fun and can make for a fun adventure story. Like an Indiana Jones or DaVinci Code, but based on pop culture instead of antiquity. But all this juvenile sexist bullshit is just too much.
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FWIW, all I have to go by are the trailers; never read the book.

I'm not enthused by it because, based on the trailers, it just feels like hollow escapism to me.

If I hear it's actually good, then I'll probably see it.
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My husband loved this book and its trying to get me to see the movie when it comes out.

Edit: We also loved pixels. Well, myself more than my husband, but we both enjoyed it much more than the reviews/general public.

I guess we both love 80's references.
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Alanna82 posted...

We also loved pixels

You're the first person I've heard say this.
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Anagram posted...

Alanna82 posted...

We also loved pixels

You're the first person I've heard say this.

yeah, I have pretty unpopular opinions.

I've been called the Queen of UO's.
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Because the several bits of it I've seen are extremely terrible. Like truly disgusting righteous nerd identity garbage.

Everything else in the book might be great, I dunno. But it still has those bits.

Why don't YOU tell us why it's actually not so bad?
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It's the movie version of https://www.reddit.com/r/niceguys
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^Its just a fun race for the prize story...a real page turner just dont think about it too hard. I didnt find that the references detracted from the story.
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i mean, page turners can be bad.

dan brown books are page turners but they're still godawful.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

^Its just a fun race for the prize story...a real page turner just dont think about it too hard. I didnt find that the references detracted from the story.

That's such a weak defense given the terrible writing

Are you saying all the hate is justified?
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