This may seem wildly speculative and unlikely – but as my research in gaming shows, we are much nearer to such a reality than it may seem. In this vision of the future, everything that we currently do in the real world – going to school, going to work, socialising, leisure – is done in this vast virtual environment. Much of human life is spent in a virtual simulation called The Oasis. And what is humanity’s response to these crises? Escapism. Essentially, society as we know it has collapsed. The environment has collapsed, the economy has collapsed. The film is set in a world where humanity is in real crisis. It was also the sub-text of the philosophical and cultural impact of gaming and related technologies. What really caught my attention wasn’t just the awesome references to 1980s pop culture, or the mind-blowing set pieces. I was fortunate enough to catch a preview screening of Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s futuristic novel. The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.
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