The Ready Player One Effect

 

Films like Ready Player One, the Robert Rodriguez film Alita: Battle Angel, and the soon-to-be-released Zack Snyder-directed space opera film Rebel Moon on Netflix entertain and draw in fans because of the large task they have. That task being transport viewers to worlds that are beyond the scope of time and space. In my opinion, Ready Player One started this because what that film and the book it is based on do well is taking the world of video games but also technology and adding real-world consequences to it. I call this the "Ready Player One Effect". What I mean by that is that we look at movies and television shows within the realm of a space opera(Star Wars for example) and transport ourselves there and find ways to walk around in that world like it is our own. 

What makes movies and television shows so popular within the aforementioned space opera genre is the fact that viewers like variety and at the same time, they love being shown things that are beyond anyone's imagination. That is why video games are so popular. Everyone is able to act out their fantasy as crazy as it may be. The "Ready Player One Effect" also refers to the concept of imaginative dream walking. Dream walking is very popular in pop culture just look at the Christopher Nolan film Inception for reference. Imaginative dream walking is the idea that we can take our dreams and really let our imagination run free within that dream world. Imagine that you dream that you are in a virtual reality world similar to the Oasis in Ready Player One. Now broaden your imagination to create the world around you so that maybe characters in your real life crossover into this dream world and maybe your favorite movie or television characters cross over as well. Ready Player One does exactly that. In the Oasis, you have actual worlds designed based off of the concepts of worlds that are canon in projects like the films of John Hughes or even fantasy worlds like Dungeons and Dragons. 

The world of imaginative dream walking is vast because everyone has a different imagination meaning that many of these dream worlds can intersect and oftentimes, the characters within the dream can mix thus creating a world within a world. The way I would define that is multiversal world-building within the walls of imaginative dream walking. Not to confuse anyone, let us simplify that further. A multiverse refers to worlds within worlds existing at the same point in time. Multiversal world-building means creating worlds that exist at multiple points in time while existing at the same time. That is a lot but that is the point. Time and reality are both very complex. Multiversal world-building is complicated because like you see in movies and television shows specifically ones produced by Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios is that messing with the fabric of time and space is dangerous. You create more than one version of the same world or different worlds and then change the chemistry of one world, then the singularity of time and space for that world changes. You are then opening a Pandora's Box of different worlds and realities co-existing on the same universal line and intersecting, therefore, creating what is referred to in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an "incursion" or universes that are colliding threatening the very existence of one or even both of those universes.

The reason I coined the term "The Ready Player One effect" is to highlight the fact that video games specifically ones like Fortnite or even the fictional Oasis from Ready Player One allow us the gamer and the consumer/viewer to move from one jump point to another adding worlds upon worlds with their own geography, history and ideologies therefore creating a vast galaxy of new ideas and concepts flowing within a large singularity of time. Video games allow the consumer to expand their imagination and what draws fans to Ready Player One or the Tom Holland-starring Uncharted film is the idea that we can take an established video game landscape and add something more to it that doesn't threaten the very world that makes the game so great. Ready Player One and Star Wars are really good examples of space opera projects gone right because there is an established canon to it but then directors like Steven Spielberg(Ready Player One) and Jon Favreau(The Mandalorian and other Star Wars series) can add more worlds and therefore more characters and ideas to these worlds that draw viewers in and makes them want more. That is the "Ready Player One effect", projects that are pushing the envelope when it comes to creating worlds that can establish society further and expand on one's knowledge of the world they see and the world/worlds that are unseen.