"Challenger One" - not addicted to games, but hesitant about reality

Games seem to offer people a whole new world. The author believes that few people today will play group games such as jumping rope, one-two-three traffic lights and so on. With the advent of smartphones, the way people play has shifted from the real world to the online world. Speaking of film and television works related to games, the first thing I will think of is a movie with a lot of easter eggs - "Challenger One". I wonder if you have counted how many easter eggs this movie has?

"Challenger One" is an American science fiction film released in 2018, based on Klein's novel of the same name. Once the film was released, it was well received for its excellent visual effects and plot rhythm. The story of "Challenger One" tells that in order to escape reality, many people are playing a virtual reality game with a high degree of freedom - OASIS. The creator of OASIS, James Halliday, divided the game eggs into three keys, which were hidden in different places in the game. The first player to find the Easter egg will inherit OASIS and his legacy. As a result, the film's hero Wade Watts and heroine Samantha Cook, and their partners embarked on a journey to find the key.

• Why is the game so real?

James Hallardy: "Why can't we back off, just once? Back off, fast, as fast as we can. Hit the gas and go back."

Many games are now labeling themselves "realistic". Not to mention whether those games do it, the game world itself is indeed full of various realistic concepts. The game world adds to the realism of the game by adding "real" items to the game, giving the player the illusion that the game is real. For example, in "Challenger One", when the player is beaten, it will feel pain. The higher the similarity between the real world and the game world, the more difficult it is for players to distinguish the difference between the two, and even some people will seriously distort reality, mistakenly thinking that the game world is the real life of people. Games also involve our collective perception of time, space and place. In Challenger One, OASIS brings together different systems in the real world, such as economic systems, environmental systems, weather systems, and body systems, to name a few. At the same time, OASIS also draws on real physical phenomena to make it more realistic. For example, the walls in the game are "made" by the program, not a solid wall, it is just the shell of the wall. However, when players see the walls in the game, they will subconsciously think that there is no way out. This is all because players have the concept of a "wall" in their minds, so they don't think they can get over it. Therefore, the game uses the different concepts of people in life to improve the content of the game. In "Challenger No. 1", the first key challenge project is to use people's inertial thinking. When we only see the road ahead, we don't think about going back at all, but in fact, stepping back is also a way to move forward, just The direction is completely different. Not only OASIS, but many games today use these everyday habits of the real world to successfully construct a fictional world. But because the two worlds intersect so much, one can no longer tell the difference between the real and the unreal. In Challenger One, Wade Watts and his partner negotiate with Nolan Sorrento, and Wade Watts' partner uses technology to create an office that resembles Nolan Sorrento's in the real world , and Nolan Sorrento thought he was in the real world.

People extend their sensory systems into OASIS, so sometimes people are "real". The famous Canadian philosopher and educator McLuhan once said that human beings extend their consciousness into games. People are becoming more and more indistinguishable between the real world and OASIS as they extend their senses into the game, so when they are disconnected from the real world, people still don't notice, like at the beginning of the movie, One player doesn't notice sparks in her kitchen because she's in the game. According to McLuhan, "It's a narcissism-like form of narcissism. This form has been removed, expanded, and hypnotized under the new science." In effect, their role in the game is themselves. They are hypnotized by the game and imagine that they are doing "real" things, like they are skiing and surfing in OASIS, but in reality they are just standing there, wiggling their hands and feet. Man is no longer his own being, but becomes a mechanical organism that combines the game with himself. People are flesh and blood, but their minds turn to computer games. But in fact, there are many differences between OASIS and the real world, but we are not aware of it. Maybe it's because we don't think games can affect our real life. But is it really so?

• The line between virtual and real

Samantha Cook: "You only live here, in this illusion."

In recent years, a game form called "ARG" has become popular around the world, also known as alternative reality games. This game method integrates reality and virtuality, and uses the Internet to find different clues to promote the development of real plots. In Europe and the United States, many Internet celebrities have also designed ARG games to attract the public, such as AshVlogs. The game world is not real, but it has real effects on humans. In "Challenger One", in-game currency can be used to purchase goods and send them directly to the home, and some players will even purchase tactile equipment to enhance the game experience. With the development of science and technology, not only money can cross the boundary between games and reality, but human emotions are also constantly wandering between the two worlds. The feelings people experience while playing become real feelings and emotions in the real world. In Challenger One, people are terrified of being killed by the player, and excited to get the key. In the movie, Wade Watts says, "At first I came here just to escape the bad reality, but I stayed, like many people, because I found something bigger than myself. I found A sense of purpose, I found friendship, and, I know it's a bit old-fashioned, but I found love." Although the game is fictional, people's emotions are real. Players bring their own feelings into this brave new world, and at the same time, they are happy to share their life experiences with others. Play is not only an extension of our own lived experience, but it also enables us to extend into the lived experience of others. Thus players can build their social relationships in OASIS.

• What exactly is a game?

James Hallardy: "I don't want to make any more rules, I'm a dreamer, I make the world."

At the beginning of the film, Wade Watts said, "In this day and age, real life is a mess and everyone wants to escape. That's why Halliday is our hero." OASIS expands the imagination , James Hallardy moved the untouchables of reality into the game world. For example, players can fight monsters, ski on pyramids, or climb Mount Everest with Batman. James Halliday put his imagination into the game. Through OASIS, players gain the power and freedom they lack in the real world, and this power makes their lives more complete. Why do people love to play games? The author believes that this is due to the fact that people can not be satisfied in real life, and players can get more comfort in the game world. Players don't want to admit their failures in real life. By playing OASIS, players can draw their own territory and identity, and even find their own meaning of existence. In addition, humans may also find their ideal world in the game world. Because they don't have the ability to change the world, they choose to create a virtual world to fulfill the expectations of the world.

  Games originally existed for entertainment and entertainment, but people gradually developed a sense of victory and defeat. They not only did not want to achieve nothing in reality, but also did not want to be the last in the virtual world. Faced with this situation, "Challenger One" puts forward a point: the game is not to win, but to play. Games mediate our hard lives. Although we feel hopeless in real life, all the bitterness will disappear when we put into the game. This is because our meaning is divorced from reality. Nowadays, many people are addicted to games, and sidewalk games are not good. The author believes that what people are addicted to is not the game itself, but the process of playing. Because games allow people to regain motivation and hope in life. In the movie, James Hallardy says, "I created OASIS because I couldn't live comfortably in the real world. I didn't know how to communicate with people in the real world. I was afraid of reality my whole life. Until The day I realized I was going to die, that was the first time I realized that, as scary and painful as reality can be, it's the only place where you can eat a lot. Because reality is reality Yes.” In my eyes, games are one of many ways to realize or express human imagination. When technology and games develop better, people's imagination will become larger, and people will have different dreams. The launch of each game is essentially to create another dream, allowing different players to do things in this virtual space that people cannot do in reality. However, the game is like a dream, no matter how beautiful it is, there will always be a day to wake up, and the reality is a fact that we can't escape. Players and game creators are dreaming together. As a result, players are no longer gamers, and game creators are not creators. Everyone has become dreamers, weaving a game dream together.