An Analysis Of 80's Nostalgia In Ready Player One

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked by Henry Jenkins is stating that the public’s perceptions of video games are not close to the reality of what the research is actually showing. There are many misconceptions about video games that range from video games being a boys only club to blaming youth violence on the types of games children are allowed to play. Jenkins tries to show that eight of these myths are actually that, myths.

Tom Bissell, in his essay, “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” has described video games and how they are unique and different from movies, books, or even interactive films. Bissell says “I came to accept that games were incompetent with almost every aspect of what I would call traditional narrative.” This is showing the readers that even though there is a plot and story line, as characters can control and alter the story line or outcome by what you do or see throughout the game.

Uprooting Cady from Africa, her parents instigate the transformation she will experience in her journey of integration within American society. In spite of the fact that Cady’s adventure has already begun, the film opens with a scene presenting her in a particularly ordinary situation; preparing Cady for her first ever day at school, her parents represent the last connection to her known world. Vogler observes how essential it is for the audience to meet the protagonist in their customary environment; presenting Cady in normalcy allows the audience to identify with her, whereby the monotonous hardships of daily life contrast against the marvels of the ensuing Special World (Vogler, 1992). The events in the ‘Ordinary World’ therefore act as catalysts to the hero’s impending adventure, whereby the pollutions of daily existence enacts one to feel despairingly set for change.

In every story, there are many things to analyze. In “Game” by Donald Barthelme, he shows us the way our minds start to work in stressful situations like how the narrator and Shotwell started to respond while controlling the console for the war. In “Game” the narrator’s name is never told, Shotwell and the narrator do not trust each other, but are left alone together and trusted to kill the other if they start to “behave strangely,” although it is never clarified what counts as strange and what counts as normal. Various literary devices are used throughout the story to show us Barthelme’s intended theme, some used are: repetition, symbolism, irony, and figurative language.

I had always wanted to program, not just anything. I wanted to program video games. Not just any video game. I wanted to to program the greatest game ever made.

Montag and Clarisse live in a world where books are banned. It takes place in the future that is taken over by technology.

I think that the author creates a perfect blend between past and present personal conflicts. He incorporates the setting by describing it vividly to the reader but also describes the character's reaction to the setting change so that the reader can relate to the characters feelings.

" '...long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them... Bet I know something else you don 't. There 's dew on the grass in the morning. '" (p.9) Clarisse 's words convey that the novel takes place in our future, where things have changed and people are less knowledgeable since Montag 's grasp of his past and a simple concept was inadequate.

     The first argument that arose out of the video game world was the debate of video game violence. Still unresolved, this debate has actually allowed for the video game industry to come fully into the main stream. As the din over violence quieted the fans of the game society began to focus on issues more akin to their own style. So then began the debate of game play vs. the video game narrative. The question arose; can a game also be a story? While the semantics would suggest that, no, a game cannot be a story, we do realize that a game can contain a story. However,

In a world that is centered around technology and the media, it is no wonder that Harris and Kelbold fell into the violent virtual world of video games. Doom, the boys’ favorite video game, displays you as a space marine whose mission is the kill people on the planet. High levels of violent graphics and the Satanic imagery embedded violent thoughts in the boys’ minds (“Nineteen Minutes”). The video, Natural Born Killers, also put aggressive thoughts into the boys’ minds (Rosenburg).. These media images as well as hateful music, planted the seeds of the future massacre in both Harris and Kepold’s minds. In a world of criticism, Peter also turned to the virtual world to escape. His interest turns to HTML code as well as violent music. Grand Theft Auto, his favorite game, ranks points by killing innocent people. He ends up creating his own video game, Hide and Shriek, in which his avatar runs through the school slaughtering jocks, bullies, and other popular kids. (Helium)

Montag’s first reaction is to laugh off Clarisse’s questions; he seems uneasy with the thought of reading. His emotions and laughing reaction reveal his nervousness around a young girl, who can so easily challenge the values that he has followed all his life. Clarisse is also important because she awakens Montag to the natural world. She asks him if he knew there was a man on the moon, or if he knew what it means when a dandelion rubs off on a chin. Clarisse is the one who introduces Bradbury’s theme that “[n]ature is good and technology is bad” (Huntington 113). Clarisse lets Montag experience freedom from his society because “[t]he novel expresses this vision of freedom with images of sentimentalized nature” (Huntington 112). She leaves him feeling that something in Montag’s world has changed, that “[h]e was not happy…[h]e wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask” (Bradbury 12). Montag can no longer accept the world the way it is, and thus, either he, or it, must change. He then comes home to his wife, Mildred, to find her near death from a suicide attempt. Montag watches as two employees use a sinister machine to purge his wife of the poison. Montag sees the machine as “black cobra”, and he wonders if “it suck[s] out all the poisons accumulated with the years” (Bradbury 14).

Bradbury uses a trepidating tone to warn readers about a not so distant conformity filled future by using similes and repetition. Bradbury establishes this claim of conformity being cultural, fought against, and total ruin by first using figurative language. He highlights the first female we meet features with light and purity with the use of a simile. This is to symbolise her difference from Montag, the main

When these and other questions weigh upon his mind he begins to realize that something is fundamentally wrong with the world he is living in. In Brave New World the main character, Bernard, is set apart from society by physical differences, which, in a society of ‘engineered’ people is extremely inhibiting. It is these ‘defects’ which cause him to look for a deeper meaning than the drug induced happiness forced upon him. These characters, although alienated in the novels, are believable and rational. The acts of their questioning in their search for the truth and real emotion persuade the reader to do the same thing. It is in this manner that the utility of these novels becomes apparent; through the demands they make of the reader personally - a superior social commentary, one that demands interaction, is born.

In the Scott Pilgrim universe time is a central concept. Bryan Lee O’Malley expertly layers the familiar styles of classic videogames, music, and pop culture throughout the series to create nostalgia. The author uses this nostalgia in order to emphasize the importance of the past and show Scott’s inability to grow. As Ryan Lizardi puts it in his essay Scott Pilgrim vs. hegemony: nostalgia, remediation, and heteronormativity, “Scott must deal with his past… his inability to grow up compared with other characters, and…conquer Ramona’s romantic history before they can move on in their relationship,” (Lizardi, ). The intertwining themes of past and immaturity reappear throughout the series through the previously state medium of nostalgia.

Thesis: If a common-sense philosophy is employed, video games can be beneficial to a child’s development.