Player 1

Chapter 8 Level 1(6)
But I haven't had a ride with Edge since the previous year.After all, he is already over 30 levels now, and he goes to worlds that I can't set foot at all.Of course, he is still willing to pick me up and leave me in some low-level world halfway.But if I don't pump money fast enough, I get stuck there and can't go back to school.Fighting monsters is not a good reason to be late. I already have a bunch of unexcused absence records. If I come a few more times, I will probably be expelled from school.If this happens, the government will take back my Oasis console and mask.To make matters worse, I had to go back to the real school for my final year.Just imagining that picture is mind-blowing.

Therefore, I haven't been out of Luders these days.I'm stuck here, stuck at the number three.It is disgraceful to only have level three. Other hunters have at least level ten. It is natural for low-end players to be looked down upon.So even though I've been a hunter from day one, most people still think I'm a fool.I hate this.

In order to earn the transfer fee, I want to find a part-time job after class.I applied for a bunch of tech and programming jobs, but with little hope.There are millions of unemployed college students competing with me for a place.The Great Recession has entered its third decade, the unemployment rate has hit record highs, and even the fast food restaurants in the neighborhood are piled up with applications that can take two years to process.

I'm stuck in school.

Standing in the world's greatest arcade, and I don't have a dime.

0005
After lunch, I headed to my favorite classroom: Oasis Adventure Classroom.It was a senior year elective, and I was able to learn the history of Oasis and its founders and get an A with my eyes closed.

For the past five years, I've spent all my free time researching Halliday and his easter eggs.I learned about his life, accomplishments, and idiosyncrasies in great detail.After Halliday's death, his biographies were published in piles and piles, almost innumerable, and I actually read every one of them.All related documentaries needless to say.I also studied every word Halliday wrote and every video I made.The transcribed materials also piled up like a mountain, and they were refined and compressed in a diary.I call it "Holy Grail Diary" (well, that one was inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark).

The more I know, the more I admire him.He is literally the god of geeks.Halliday left home after high school with nothing but a bright mind, but soon made a name and a fortune for himself with a genius brain and all kinds of whimsy.The new world he created is still the paradise for most people.On top of that, he single-handedly started the biggest game in the world.

Thads, the Oasis adventure teacher, probably didn't like me very much, because I would often raise my hand to point out mistakes in the textbook, and add a few Halliday anecdotes that I thought were very interesting, which must have pissed him off.Because a few weeks into school, Saders stopped accepting my show of hands.

Today's lesson is an excerpt from "Lord of the Easter Eggs", the best-selling biography of Halliday, which I have read four times.During class, I resisted the urge to interrupt Sades and point out all the fallacies in the book, and just murmured in my head "Missing my son".Then Sades started talking about Halliday's childhood, and my mind was taken back.

James Donovan Halliday was born on June 1972, 6 in Middletown, Ohio.only son.His father was a mechanic and was an alcoholic; his mother was a waiter with a history of manic-depressive mental illness.

Almost all biographies have written that James was a bright boy, but he knew nothing about social life, and it was particularly difficult to talk to people around him.Despite his high IQ, his academic performance was abysmal, as he was preoccupied with computers, manga, fantasy novels, movies and games, especially games.

One day in junior high school, Halliday was reading the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook alone in the school cafeteria.He is fascinated by the rules of this game, but he has never played it - because he has no like-minded friends.At this point, his classmate, Ogden Morrow, noticed the books Halliday was reading.He invited Halliday to join his family's weekly running party[40].In the basement of Morrow's house, Halliday met a group of "nerds" like him.They became friends, Halliday's first circle of friends in his life.

Ogden Morrow ended up as Halliday's business partner, collaborator, and best friend.Later generations often compare Halliday and Morrow to Jobs and Wozniak or Lennon and McCartney.It was these partnerships that changed human history.

At the age of 15, Halliday designed his first game, "Anola's Quest".The code for the game was written by Halliday in BASIC on a TRS-80 color screen computer, which was his Christmas present the first year (although he asked his parents for the more expensive Komodo 64) . "Anora's Quest" is an adventure game. The story takes place in Chasan Noah, a world created by Halliday when he was running a group. "Anora" is the nickname given to him by a British transfer girl in middle school. .He likes this title very much, not only used it as the character name of his running team, but also made Anola appear in every one of his games as a mage.

Halliday’s reason for making this game is very simple, to share with his fellow runners.They were all hooked on the game, spending countless hours trying to solve its intricate puzzles.Ogden Morrow told Halliday that Anola's Quest was better than most games out there, and encouraged him to sell it.He helped Halliday get a simple seal, and together he copied "Anola's Mission" to a dozen CDs, added the copied instructions, and packed them in a ziplock bag.Not long after the disc hit the shelves of a local computer store, the duo got a call from the store: The game was out of stock.

Halliday and Morrow decided to start their own company: a social gaming company, which started out in Morrow's basement.Halliday ported Anola's Quest to the Atari 800XL, Apple II, and Komodo 2, while Morrow placed ads in various computer magazines.Six months later, "Anola's Mission" has sold well all over the country.

Because the entire senior year was basically working on "Anola's Mission", this pair of geniuses almost failed to graduate from high school.After finally graduating, they decisively gave up the idea of ​​going to university for further study and chose to continue to run their own company. In 1990, the social gaming company officially moved out of Morrow's basement and into a real office, located on a small strip mall in Columbus, Ohio.

Over the next decade, the small workshop released a string of best-selling action and adventure games that changed the gaming industry.The social game company set a new benchmark for the video games at that time: With the support of the No.1 graphics engine written by Halliday himself, each of its new games is perfect in terms of playability and graphics. surpassed other games of the time.

Fat Ogden Morrow is naturally charming, and he handles all the company's business and public relations affairs.At every press conference, Moreau wears gold-rimmed glasses, and his stubble-shaking laugh is exaggerated and contagious.Halliday was the exact opposite of Molocher.He's tall, thin, shy, and always trying to stay out of the limelight.

People who have worked at social gaming companies report that Halliday often locked himself in his office.He kept designing games in it, often without eating, sleeping, or talking to people for several days.This kind of retreat can sometimes last for several weeks.

In several of Halliday's interviews, he behaved strangely -- even by game designer standards.He was dull, aloof, and so inept at conversation that his interviewers often thought he was mentally ill.Halliday spoke so fast that it was difficult to hear.He also often laughed out loud inexplicably, and only he knew the point of the laugh.Even more frustrating for reporters, when Halliday lost interest in the interview (or the conversation), he would suddenly walk away without saying a word.

Halliday has many well-known hobbies, most notably a penchant for classic games and fantasy novels, as well as a wide range of movies of all genres.He also has a strong penchant for the 80s.It seemed Halliday wanted everyone around him to share his interests, and he often lashed out at those who didn't appreciate those things.He's been known to fire veteran employees for quoting obscure movie lines that he didn't catch, and he'll fire employees if he finds out they're not familiar with a particular cartoon, comic, or game he likes. (Ogden Morrow always hired them back, Halliday forgot about it anyway.)
From winter to spring, Halliday's social skills seem to be getting worse. (After Halliday's death, many psychologists began to study his behavior before his death. His constant enthusiasm for several fields led many psychologists to conclude that he had Asperger's syndrome[41 ], or other more severe forms of autism.)
Despite his eccentricity, his genius is undeniable.The games Halliday creates are addictive.By the end of the twentieth century, Halliday was widely regarded as the greatest game designer of his generation—some even say the greatest of all time.

Ogden Morrow is also an excellent coder, but his business operation ability is stronger.As Halliday's collaborator, he designed all of the company's early marketing strategies and play plans, and the results were amazing.When social gaming companies finally go public, their stock prices skyrocket.

By their 30th birthdays, Halliday and Morrow were both rich.They bought a house on the same street.Moreau bought a Lamborghini, took several long vacations, and traveled around the world.Halliday bought the DeLorean prototype car that appeared in the movie "Back to the Future"[42], and then continued to bury his face in the keyboard.Of course, at the same time, he was also collecting all kinds of otaku collectibles: classic games, Star Wars dolls, Gundam figures, limited edition notebooks and various comics, and accumulated more and more, and finally achieved the world's largest private entertainment Product collection.

After achieving such a huge success, the social game company suddenly fell into silence.They didn't release new games for several years.Morrow made several obscure statements that they were on to something big, something big that would lead them into a new world.Rumors then swirled that the social gaming company was developing a new gaming hardware that was quickly draining the company's money.There is plenty of evidence that Halliday and Morrow invested their personal fortunes in the company's new initiatives.Some even suspect that social gaming companies are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Then, in December 2012, the social game company changed its name to Social Simulation System Company, and at the same time released its work, which is its only work: "Oasis", a virtual game centered on a real somatosensory simulation system. world.

Oasis ended up changing the way people all over the world work and communicate.It has also changed the entertainment industry, social networking and even global politics.Although it started out as a new type of massively multiplayer online game, it quickly became a new way of life.

Before the birth of "Oasis", massively multiplayer online games allowed thousands of players to connect to each other through the Internet and coexist in the same virtual world.Generally speaking, these games are small, usually just a world, or a few small planets.Players can only come into contact with this small online world through a two-dimensional perspective-that is, the computer screen-the only tools that can achieve interaction are the keyboard and mouse.

Social Simulation Systems took the concept of multiplayer online gaming to a whole new level: Instead of limiting users to one or a few maps, Oasis offered hundreds (now thousands) of highly simulated The real three-dimensional world is for people to explore, and the images of each world are extremely beautiful-from small insects and weeds to large winds and clouds.Users circled the planet several times without repeating the scene.Even in the original version, the effects players saw were unbelievable.

Halliday and Morrow called Oasis "an open reality": an online world accessible to everyone through the Internet.You can use it to escape the dull life.You can design and create your own brand new look.In "Oasis", fat people can become thin, ugly people can become beautiful, shy people can become lively, and even become gangsters who can do whatever they want.You can also rewrite your name, age, gender, race, height, weight, voice, hair color, and even bone structure.You can even give up your human identity and become an elf, an ogre, an alien, or other creatures that only exist in movies, novels, and mythology.

Here, you can be who you really are, because no matter who you are in reality, that information won't be brought into Oasis.

Users can even change the things in "Oasis" by themselves, or create new works. In "Oasis", you can open up territories by yourself, settle down on it, and decorate the house as you like.Gone are the days of being limited to a few forums or social networking sites, you can invite thousands of friends at the same time to have a big party in Oasis.These people could come from any time zone, or any corner of the globe.

Also key to Oasis' success are two pieces of interactive hardware invented by Social Simulation Systems that are necessary for accessing the virtual world: the Oasis mask and the haptic glove.

The mask is only a little bigger than ordinary sunglasses, and bridges with the host in a wireless way.What builds the image on the user's retina is the harmless low-energy laser array on the lens.The mask was several generations ahead of similar products at the time, and it was a leap forward in visual realism — as was the tactile glove.Users can control the subtle movements of their character's hands to interact with the virtual environment and bring everything to life.When you pick up objects, open doors, or drive a car, haptic gloves allow you to actually feel things that don't exist.As advertised, "reach out and touch the oasis".The combination of these two things makes the somatosensory experience of "Oasis" far surpass any other simulation system. Once people get in touch with it, they won't let it go.

Good hardware needs software to match. Halliday's Oasis physics engine is another major technological breakthrough.Early multiplayer online games limited not only the size of the simulated environment, but also the number of users.If too many people log into the game at the same time, the server will slow down and freeze.However, Oasis uses a new type of cloud engine.Every computer connected to Oasis becomes part of the server.When it was first released, "Oasis" can accommodate 500 million online users at the same time, without delay or freeze.

Splendid advertisements also contributed to the popularity of "Oasis".All the TVs, bulletin boards, and the Internet ran the same ad: a thriving oasis surrounded by desert, with towering palm trees and a crystal blue lake.

Halliday's new creation has been a huge success from day one. Oasis is like the promised land, the long-awaited "virtual reality" finally here, and better than they ever imagined. "Oasis" has become a utopia on the Internet, the home of many people's hearts.As for its biggest selling point?free.

Most online games make money by selling monthly cards.GSS only charges a registration fee of 25 cents, and then the player gets a permanent Oasis account.Yes, Oasis has one and only one ad: OASIS - THE BEST GAME EVER, FOR 25 CENTS.

(End of this chapter)