I am Nolan Sorrento. I'd say call me IOI-655321, but that would be inappropriate at present, for a number of reasons.
You may know me as the chief operating officer of Innovative Online Industries. More likely you know of me from the hunt for Halliday's egg in the OASIS. If so, then you will definitely know of me from what happened as a result of the search for the damn thing.
But you really don't know much at all, let me say that, okay. Allow me to fill some gaps, then.
You saw the news feeds, I have. It was not pleasant viewing. Embarrassing. I haven't plugged in to the OASIS since I was wrenched from the haptic chair by two of the local police department's finest, at the exact moment of our defeat. I've had not the desire nor opportunity to go back, owing to my circumstances at present. Fate is indeed a mercurial and strange mistress.
I am not a fool. It cannot be denied that the egg hunt did not progress to the advantage of my employer, or myself. My own status is, currently, shall we say, unresolved. It is true I am no longer in possession of the senior ranking I once was. My employer has suspended me - on full pay - pending the outcome of a criminal investigation in to allegations that I masterminded a large explosion which tragically resulted in a number of deaths, also that I ordered the murder of an individual who plummeted to his death while on a balcony and also that I planned to kill at least two others. It will be a miracle if I am convicted of these preposterous allegations. I look forward to resuming my work at IOI soon, pending the outcome of a police investigation.
Now, I know what is the common view of me among the bovine masses who today plug in to that online utopia, the OASIS, to hide from reality and escape the sheer inanity that is your lives. I know about the hatred and disdain. I do not cower before it, nor from you insects. Such things hold no power over me because they mean nothing. Never did and never will. You likely think I am a devil at the controls of a demonic company which wanted to kick over the virtual sand castles in which millions live inside the OASIS, by - heaven forbid - making some money from the damn place; money with which people in the real world could be paid, jobs created and prosperity increased - all in the real world. If you have a problem with that, then you're the dangerous one, not me.
Yet incredibly, it is a fact that today the mob is happy with the state of things. The OASIS is in the hands of a group of young worthies who are convinced they know best and a loyal army of clueless followers confirm the delusion. This plutocracy wields a mighty kind of soft power and enjoys the infatuation of millions of followers. They piously bestow alms upon 'issues' they deign deserving. Sanctimoniousness so glaring as this really turns my stomach. But It is a PR victory on a massive scale and the IOI communications team could learn much from it, for future reference.
Perhaps when it becomes evident that these elite-level busybodies are not going to save the world by throwing cash around, maybe then their crowns will slip and the scales shall fall from the eyes of the chanting acolytes. Wishful thinking, I bet. People do not see the various evils blighting humanity are caused by forces stronger even than money. Money misspent - as I read is happening today at a prodigious rate - will make problems worse, not better; the unintended consequences principle.
Don't believe your special super heroes farts stink? Just you watch what happens when a detachment of this save-the-world crew parachute in to some blighted, backward hellhole toilet of a place proclaiming: "we care!" Let's say, Washington DC, that's a excellent example. So these crack troops set up camp in DC and very soon are living amidst the downtrodden masses. They go about their work of making grand gestures to justify their presence, but they also spend. A lot. Why? Because they are wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice thanks to the Egg Hunt and money has no value to them personally. After a period of time, (all through which these creeps high-five each other in an orgy of self-congratulation for being so darn good), this spending begins to have an effect by causing inflation, ie: prices in DC go up, including for all non-superheroes. So local people have less money in their pockets which means... they are more poor than before. Oops. Now, another thing to result from this is that Washington DC now sucks as a holiday destination even harder than it did previously because it's suddenly very expensive. So there is less investment from outside. Welcome to a false economy, boys and girls! it's what happens when meddling do-gooders get their claws in to a place. They will never leave, these charlatans. This crew who you call heroes are making worse the issues they so piously vowed to fix, while reducing everyone to the status of their clients. Everyone outside their magic circle is only quarry for these uber privileged kids to feel good about themselves. And you all are expected to be happy!
Well you are welcome to it, I hope you like it. You can't say you didn't ask for it.
IOI has bad PR, but I don't believe we deceive anyone; we are an ambitious company willing to do what it takes. Millions of contracted employees work for ICI in various capacities. Are they evil, would you say? Not so. They are paid staff, not clients who dependent upon Parzavil or Artemis turning up and waving wads of cash in their hands.
What is really needed for humankind is leadership and strategy! A plan, tactics and action. At present, power in the OASIS is concentrated all in one place. Ironically, the dead centre of this power is a vacuum; no vision, no leadership: only a limp wish for everything to be like it was before. But the mob is happy. Funny, don't you think, that we exist in 3, 4, or possibly 11 dimensions, and yet the minds of so very many, are so very one dimensional.
The nobody who wormed his way to the prize is today a God inside the OASIS, as you know. If a person such as that can be a god, then you have a perfect reason for never setting foot inside there.
Open your eyes, humankind has not benefited one iota from the result of the egg hunt. This is self evident to anyone who lifts an OASIS visor from around their eyes for just a few seconds and looks around. The Player Parzival has not liberated the virtual world from the clutches of some dastardly 'Sixers'. What he has done - along with his cohorts - is condemn millions of people in the real world to continued dependence upon the OASIS - that fantasy world. So, A pyrrhic victory it was. Not for the insect of course; Parzival and his team are today some of the richest people in the world - members of the 0.1% club. But What of all those who supported him; who showed up at the crystal castle for the final battle? Are they wealthier now? No. they are where they always were; and the continuing infatuation with the OASIS means its counterfeit reality has thickened like concrete around their soft minds. All the while, real life continues to go downhill. And they all crawl uncomprehendingly toward the grave plugged into a part time paradise. In what kind of world is this outcome a common victory? What slack jawed dullards!
Oh well, that is not my problem! I have other things to attend to, such as preparing a defence. I'm happy to report this task is already underway and I am in constant consultation with IOI's formidable legal team. Issues of confidentiality and data protection prevent me from sharing more at this time. But should proceedings begin, Im looking forward to my day in court. Be sure to tune in, although I'm sure you wouldn't miss it. Proles must have their circuses, after all.
Where was I? Ah yes; the hunt. Had IOI been victorious in the egg hunt instead of that insect - and everyone knows I tried my best - then the OASIS would have become a type of upmarket resort - a place to go to recharge, refresh and then to return from to the real world with renewed energy and vigour for the challenges at hand. There are enough of those. Jobs in the OASIS would have been created for all types of player to cater for the needs of this 'resort'. These online earnings would have been transferable in to real world money; increasing wealth and prosperity, let me remind you again.
So it was a startling lack of vision and afore thought on the part of influential people to oppose IOI in the hunt. Like who? I will name names. Ogdon Morrow. He should have known better than to aid and abet the lunatics in seizing control of the asylum. He should have seen clearly that success for IOI was entirely complementary to his own publicly stated position on the OASIS. He was a critic of what it had become. My victory - my employer's victory - would have unleashed change upon that place like fire upon dry ground. But the soppy old cretin opted for the easy route - to be popular. It's crystal clear that to Morrow being liked mattered more than being right. Absolutely nothing matters more to the geriatric duffer than that people go see him still spinning tracks at a virtual disco, as he rolls back the (several) decades. Desperate stuff. In the final reckoning, this tragic pensioner showed himself to be nothing but what he always was; an approval-seeking PR man.
But now I must stop. The lawyers are waiting and another meeting beckons. I'm in my element.