It is perhaps timely to have watched "Ready Player One" after my first major race this year. Easters eggs to pop culture references to 1980s and 1990s galore notwithstanding, the film is actually more than mere nostalgia for a bygone era. It throws up the question of what constitutes the experience of "gaming".
In a near future dystopian world, where people's lives are largely desolate, they have taken to the ultimate virtual reality gaming world of "The Oasis", as a source of solace and community. James Halliday, the deceased creator of "The Oasis" has set up the "Anorak's Quest" of finding three Easter eggs, promising whoever completes this quest gains full ownership of "The Oasis". Protagonist of the film Wade Watts devotes himself to this cause, not just out of hero worship of Halliday, but also because he sees it as the solution to his financial and social woes. As the film progresses, Wade moves past the initial self-centered motivation, and takes to defending "The Oasis" against sole control by video game conglomerate IOI, which wants to use it as a means of profit making, by saddling all players with debt.
Allow me now to divert into race running, as I will link both topics together later. I have taken up race running four years ago, slowly progressing in performance as well as route distance length. Coincidentally, race running has also grown exponentially in Singapore, with an average of running races held almost weekly. More people have taken up race running, and the themes of race running has diversified.
However, this growth is not without its flip sides. Profiteering has seeped into the race running scene is Singapore, threatening its former simplistic enjoyment. There have been instances of race cheating, myself having been firsthand eyewitness to one instance, during the Standard Chartered Marathon in 2016. Transaction sales of medals and finisher tees is prevalent. While I understand that some runners may feel that there is no need to accumulate medals of the same race for cumulative years, thus selling them online, I seriously question the intentions of the buyers instead, as those items have been relegated to mere vanity tokens if the actual experience of running is absent. Slots for popular races have even been scalped, with the sellers using it as a tool for a convenient quick buck.
As we can see from the film, virtual gaming is an extension and distant cousin of the broad category of sports, a realm where members come together out of a common love ad reverence for the activity, rendering everyone equal despite their performance. However when ego and sheer uninhibited capitalism infiltrate and usurp the realm, it is up to all participants to uphold the sanctity of sportsmanship.
The film concludes on a joyful note. Wade and his friends manage to maintain "The Oasis" as a shared realm for every gamer, keeping it safely out of IOI's corporate hands. As guardian of "The Oasis", Wade and his team even take the risky move of imposing restrictions to its usage, to educate all gamers about how the gaming realm is a extension of real life social relationships and community, and not to neglect those areas instead.
While I take pride at having done a personal best performance in the race, I take heart that race running is not just numbers on a finishing line timing board, a medal, or a finisher tee upon completion. It is the essence of sportsmanship that elevates this activity, the shared joy amongst runners during the experience of running. May we runners never forsake that.
