History Literature / ReadyPlayerOne

* AllegedlyFreeGame: The OASIS, while the source code, Dev Kits, and even the hardware is open to the public, the in game economy is a huge money maker, making it's founder a quarter-trillionaire.

* BlandNameProduct: Thankfully averted in most cases; the book quotes portions of movies like Wargames and Monty Python verbatim, references countless bits of 80's culture by name and impeccable detail. The only prominent example of this trope might be the OASIS (a futuristic World of Warcraft/Second Life expy).

* KickTheDog: Sorrento and IOI, in the beginning, come off as just a well-organized, professional egg-hunter company. [[spoiler: Then they try to kill Wade in the real world... and it only gets worse.]]

* TheEighties: A large focus of the plot is almost every single trivial detail about Eighties pop culture.
* TheMetaverse: The OASIS.
* TheThreeTrials: natch

* CheatersNeverProsper: Double subverted. IOI seeks to win the contest by any means possible to win the contest such as cheating, bribing participants, and [[spoiler:even going as far as to kill off participants in the real world. They take advantage of Wade's HeroicBSOD by kidnapping him and even get the third key ahead of the others and in the end, they still manage to lose when Wade outwits them and still wins the contest.]]

* CheatersNeverProsper: Double subverted: IOI seeks to win the contest by any means possible to win the contest such as cheating, bribing participants, and [[spoiler:even going as far as to kill off participants in the real world. They take advantage of spoiler: Wade's HeroicBSOD by kidnapping him and even get the third key ahead of the others and in the end, they still manage to lose when Wade outwits them and still wins the contest.]]

* CheatersNeverProsper

* EarnYourHappyEnding

** Not to mention Wade's in-world name of "Parzifal".

** Wade is certainly one himself, especially during hsi time in Columbus.

''Ready Player One'' is a 2011 novel by Ernest Cline about a teen named Wade Watts, who spends all his time on OASIS, a virtual reality MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame that has replaced the Internet itself as a primary means of recreation and communication. He plays to escape his boring, harrowing life in the trailer park he calls home. Wade's life is consumed by the quest to find the hidden fortune of the man who created OASIS, James Halliday. The only clues to how to get at it were hidden away in his personal writings, and the only way to decode them is -- eighties pop culture.

** The Beta Capsule appears as a InfinityPlusOneSword, turning it's user into {{Ultraman}} for three minutes.

* ConsoleCameo: Oh so many of them

* DigitalAvatar: They do 99% of the interaction

** And even when they were still alive, his mom just set him up with Oasis.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Wade finds the first key [[spoiler: Which is in a different area on the planet of the school he attends.]]

** One example is the vehicle Parzival uses to go to Ogden Morrow's party. It's a [[BacktotheFuture delorean]] with an onboard computer named [[KnightRider KITT]], complete with flashing light and it has [[GhostBusters Ghostbusters decals]] plastered on the side.

* TotalPartyKill: The Cataclyst wipes out every player in the ''entire sector of space'' when active.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Opens in 2044. A lot of the conditions in the world are said to be a result of the Great Recession.

* {{Expy}}: The author compares Halliday to a Bill Gates-esque figure.

* ChekhovsGun: The quarter [[spoiler: and the Catalyst]].

* TotalPartyKill: The Catalyst wipes out every player in the ''entire sector of space'' when active.

* DroppedABridgetOnHim: Aech uses a male avatar in the OASIS. [[spoiler: Near the end of the story, she's revealed as a SassyBlackWoman in the real world.]]

** [[spoiler: Because three is a magic number.]]

** [[Spoiler: Because three is a magic number.]]

* IPulledAWeirdAl: In universe, "pulling a Pendergast" means revealing a clue or piece of Halliday trivia in public.