Ready Player One Sequel Coming At a Time When Hundreds of Millions Already Live in OASIS-Like Virtual Worlds

Pictured: Aech's hangout from Ready Player One recreated in Second Life with Ernest Cline's blessing

Well this seems inevitable and comes at the strangest possible time:

Ready Player One author Ernest Cline is stepping back into the Oasis, with his long-gestating sequel Ready Player Two launching Nov. 24 in North America. Ready Player One, released in 2011, was a big hit in the publishing world, reaching No. 1 and spending more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list... It takes place in 2045, a time in which climate change, overpopulation and poverty have swept the Earth. Much of humanity seeks solace in an online virtual reality called The Oasis, created by 1980s-obsessed genius James Halliday. The plot sees teenager Wade Watts dedicate himself to solving Anorak’s Game, an Oasis-spanning treasure hunt announced after Halliday's death and which sees the winner get his $500 billion fortune, as well as control of The Oasis.

But so much has changed since the first book was published in 2011 -- only a year after Minecraft was published, but many years before Minecraft became a virtual world phenomenon with 200 million owners as of last May. And Roblox (as of 2019), attracted 100 million citizens of its own. And Fortnite (also as of last May), announced 350 million players, as the battle royale game quickly evolved into an open platform virtual world.

So while VR headsets may still be a niche, the second book about the OASIS will appear at a time when the OASIS more or less already exists.

Sad to say, climate change and poverty are doing their part to drive people further and deeper into virtual worlds -- not to mention a global pandemic that's caused virtual world usage to spike.

All of which is to say that Ready Player Two is coming to us at a time when its setting seems like less science fiction, and more like our day to day life. No doubt Cline himself is keenly aware of this, so I'm fascinated to see how he's writing a follow-up to a story that's become reality while he works to complete it.

Comments

[Rob]

The SL teleport link to that SL location doesn’t work anymore because it seems that parcel is now abandoned land.
It doesn’t exists anymore or moved maybe ... but i doubt that last

Well, we are now some years further and maybe the builder has moved along because of the land tier etc ... understandable.