I'm only about 50 pages (4 chapters) in to Ready Player One, but I already have lots of thoughts about it.
I'm mostly enjoying it so far. The introduction and first chapter completely hooked me. I'm excited to see where this goes and how it plays out. The premise is lots of fun. The world is richly detailed. It's an apocalyptic future I can really see happening.
But the writing is clunky. Once the second chapter hits the plot basically stops so Cline can give the reader an extended info dump about this world he's created. Rather than revealing details subtly through action and dialogue, he just lays it all out. More than once I wanted to reach through the pages to remind him that the joke isn't funny if you have to explain it.
I liked the detail that Wade Watts' dad named him that because alliterative names reminded him of superhero alter egos. It was a great way to round out a character we never meet, breathe some life into him. And I thought Wade's avatar handle, Parzival, was clever. But then Cline spent a page explaining Percival's part in the Grail Quest and I felt my eyes glazing over. A well-read reader will get the reference. An intelligent reader with a spark of curiosity will look it up. Someone who doesn't care simply won't care. The author doesn't need to spoon-feed his readers like this.
Maybe it's just because I'm used to authors who expect a bit more from their readers. I just finished Dune which is a rich and subtle book. I'm nearly finished with my third or fourth read-through of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and I'm still catching new references. I like authors who drop these things in their books as easter eggs for their readers. It makes reading more fun.
But Cline has to point out and explain all of his references. Even though one of the characters actually says "I mean, did you ever hear of Wikipedia? It's free", he doesn't trust the reader to get the hint. And I can't be the only person who now reads books with my phone close at hand so I can Google words I don't understand or references that sound half familiar.
Of course, all of this sort of makes sense with the narrator he's created. Wade is very much an 18 year old boy, with the vocabulary and ego to match. So maybe this can be written off as character building rather than world-building. But even then, he shouldn't have to break down acronyms like XPs and MMOs. Every character in the book should know what these are, given the setting. And any reader who doesn't know probably has no business reading a book about a video game that has more or less taken over the world.
I also don't need to be told how to pronounce Art3mis; that requires only the most passing knowledge of leetspeak. You don't even need to know what it's called to work out that the 3 is standing in for the letter e. And the pronunciation of Aech ought to have been clear from Wade's penchant for calling the guy names like Harry, Henry, and Humperdinck.
This is getting ranty. I do like the book. I'm just frustrated by its lack of subtlety. But then certain passages make up for it. The argument Wade and Aech get in to about Star Wars and whether or not Ladyhawke is a worthwhile movie was a lot of fun to read. Even though I hadn't heard of Ladyhawke, I was able to figure out what I needed to know from context. I just wish Cline trusted the reader a little more to figure these things out for themself.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Counting Cards
We played a bunch of Pinochle while my dad and brother were in town last week. I've been playing this game with my family since I was about seven years old. At least, that's when I started sitting on my dad's or uncle's or grandmother's lap and "helping" them play. They taught me the rules and strategy and it wasn't long before I was playing on my own, and even winning occasionally against the adults.
At one point last week, my dad muttered to himself "I think that's all the trump" which got me thinking about playing cards. Part of the strategy I was taught with Pinochle was the importance of counting cards. You need to know how much trump is still out there and who probably has it. It's also good to know who has aces left, if there are any, along with which suits people are short in. If I play a 10 of clubs, I should know either that it will go all the way around or that my partner will trump it.
When I started playing more games with Kevin, our friends from college, and his high school friends, there was always this same assumption that people were counting cards. In Settlers of Catan it's more beneficial to steal cards from people who have what you want. And you know what people have by paying attention to what they draw. In Dominion, your strategy has to rely, in part, on what other people are drawing. If someone is grabbing all the offensive cards, you need to pick up some defensive cards and maybe grab a few of the offensive ones to prevent them from getting all of them. You should have a decent sense of not just the proportions of your own deck but those of your opponents as well.
I guess the point I'm making is that counting cards is always sort of assumed. Generally I lose a card game because I haven't been paying close enough attention to this or because I've miscounted. If I'm focused, I stand a much better chance of winning, because I know how certain plays are likely to go. Occasionally I get lucky and someone else hasn't been paying close enough attention, allowing me to sweep in with a surprise.
So it was confusing to me when I started playing games with some of my coworkers. This was part of project in which we were trying to develop a training type game (and perhaps I shouldn't expect too much from grunts). When I mentioned keeping track of these probabilities, they mostly wrote it off as impossible. Something only a genius would do. Who can keep all those numbers in their head?
It surprised me to learn that not everyone grows up counting cards. The probabilities associated with a deck of cards are so deeply ingrained in my head that it barely even feels like math any more.
I guess I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I realize I'm probably working with a biased sample, but did you grow up counting cards? Do you consider it strategy or cheating (obviously casinos have opinions about this)? Do you think it's a mark of higher intelligence to keep track of probabilities? Or is it something anyone can learn to do?
At one point last week, my dad muttered to himself "I think that's all the trump" which got me thinking about playing cards. Part of the strategy I was taught with Pinochle was the importance of counting cards. You need to know how much trump is still out there and who probably has it. It's also good to know who has aces left, if there are any, along with which suits people are short in. If I play a 10 of clubs, I should know either that it will go all the way around or that my partner will trump it.
When I started playing more games with Kevin, our friends from college, and his high school friends, there was always this same assumption that people were counting cards. In Settlers of Catan it's more beneficial to steal cards from people who have what you want. And you know what people have by paying attention to what they draw. In Dominion, your strategy has to rely, in part, on what other people are drawing. If someone is grabbing all the offensive cards, you need to pick up some defensive cards and maybe grab a few of the offensive ones to prevent them from getting all of them. You should have a decent sense of not just the proportions of your own deck but those of your opponents as well.
I guess the point I'm making is that counting cards is always sort of assumed. Generally I lose a card game because I haven't been paying close enough attention to this or because I've miscounted. If I'm focused, I stand a much better chance of winning, because I know how certain plays are likely to go. Occasionally I get lucky and someone else hasn't been paying close enough attention, allowing me to sweep in with a surprise.
So it was confusing to me when I started playing games with some of my coworkers. This was part of project in which we were trying to develop a training type game (and perhaps I shouldn't expect too much from grunts). When I mentioned keeping track of these probabilities, they mostly wrote it off as impossible. Something only a genius would do. Who can keep all those numbers in their head?
It surprised me to learn that not everyone grows up counting cards. The probabilities associated with a deck of cards are so deeply ingrained in my head that it barely even feels like math any more.
I guess I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I realize I'm probably working with a biased sample, but did you grow up counting cards? Do you consider it strategy or cheating (obviously casinos have opinions about this)? Do you think it's a mark of higher intelligence to keep track of probabilities? Or is it something anyone can learn to do?
Monday, July 2, 2012
Power Outage
On Friday night a massive thunderstorm came through DC. The weather report had indicated a possibility of thunderstorms, but what we got went beyond that. Winds in excess of 70 miles per hour. Near continuous lightning (most of it heat lightning, but it was still a pretty cool show). And then the power flickered and went out.
When I woke up the next morning we still didn't have power. This meant, among other things, that I couldn't make myself tea and I couldn't take a hot shower. The morning took a lot longer than usual. Kevin destroyed me in two games of Settlers of Catan before he decided to head out to Charlestown and get out of the heat.
I psyched myself for a cold shower then went to the gym, which at least had air conditioning. I was also able to charge my phone and get a hot shower. Feeling much better about life, I decided to go see Magic Mike. A couple of hours in a dark, cold movie theater would be the perfect way to escape the mid-afternoon heat.
There was a 2:25 showing. Since it was about 12:30 at this point, I figured I'd have time to get something to eat before the movie started. It took me a bit longer than normal to get to the movie theater, but it wasn't too bad. Most of the traffic I encountered was due to stop lights having been turned into four-way stops thanks to power outages that seemed to have struck at random.
I made it to the mall around 1:00 and quickly discovered that I was not the only person who had this idea. I picked a garage and began looking for a parking space. An hour later I still hadn't found one. It seemed that every time someone got in their car and left, it was the car right in front of me who managed to get the spot. By 2:00, the garage was more crowded than when I began and I decided to give up.
It took me until 2:30 to get out of the garage.
I think Hell, if it exists, may involve spending eternity searching for a parking space that doesn't exist. Without any music, which I at least still had. There was a lot of car dancing while I tried to stay calm in the endless gridlock.
When I got home our power was back on. We were really lucky; there are still a ton of people in the area without power (including Kevin's mom, who stayed with us last night).
I think I learned my lesson, though. Next time there's a power outage, just stay home. Or at the very least, don't go anywhere with a parking garage.
When I woke up the next morning we still didn't have power. This meant, among other things, that I couldn't make myself tea and I couldn't take a hot shower. The morning took a lot longer than usual. Kevin destroyed me in two games of Settlers of Catan before he decided to head out to Charlestown and get out of the heat.
I psyched myself for a cold shower then went to the gym, which at least had air conditioning. I was also able to charge my phone and get a hot shower. Feeling much better about life, I decided to go see Magic Mike. A couple of hours in a dark, cold movie theater would be the perfect way to escape the mid-afternoon heat.
There was a 2:25 showing. Since it was about 12:30 at this point, I figured I'd have time to get something to eat before the movie started. It took me a bit longer than normal to get to the movie theater, but it wasn't too bad. Most of the traffic I encountered was due to stop lights having been turned into four-way stops thanks to power outages that seemed to have struck at random.
I made it to the mall around 1:00 and quickly discovered that I was not the only person who had this idea. I picked a garage and began looking for a parking space. An hour later I still hadn't found one. It seemed that every time someone got in their car and left, it was the car right in front of me who managed to get the spot. By 2:00, the garage was more crowded than when I began and I decided to give up.
It took me until 2:30 to get out of the garage.
I think Hell, if it exists, may involve spending eternity searching for a parking space that doesn't exist. Without any music, which I at least still had. There was a lot of car dancing while I tried to stay calm in the endless gridlock.
When I got home our power was back on. We were really lucky; there are still a ton of people in the area without power (including Kevin's mom, who stayed with us last night).
I think I learned my lesson, though. Next time there's a power outage, just stay home. Or at the very least, don't go anywhere with a parking garage.
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