Quote 1
[Halliday] was the videogame designer responsible for creating the OASIS, a massively multiplayer online game that had gradually evolved into the globally networked virtual reality most of humanity now used on a daily basis. (0.2)
The OASIS is pretty much Facebook meets Second Life, two things that are very addictive on their own. Together, they prove to be irresistible, blurring the lines between reality and virtual reality.
Quote 2
I'd heard that if you accessed the simulation with a new state-of-the-art immersion rig, it was almost impossible to tell the OASIS from reality. (2.2)
State-of-the-art immersion rigs cost money. That means that even the rich people in this world want to escape it. It must be one big bummer of a place.
Quote 3
[OASIS] was much more than a game or an entertainment platform. (2.37)
It's a new way of life. People stay connected to it for the majority of a day sometimes. Does such a massive time investment make something "real"? If people are spending most of their time there, doesn't that make it almost more real than the real world?