Quote 10
Anonymity was one of the major perks of the OASIS. (2.8)
Anonymity not only allows people to live how they want and as who they want, but it also allows people to be total jerks without repercussion. I-R0k falls into this category, wouldn't you say?
Quote 11
I was a painfully shy, awkward kid, with low self-esteem and almost no social skills. (2.19)
This could be Halliday talking, but it's actually Wade. Just as Halliday transformed himself into the all-powerful wizard Anorak with the magic of the OASIS, Wade becomes Parzival online, using a knight of the round table as the basis for his new, heroic identity. Wishful thinking?
Quote 12
I couldn't bear the idea that [Art3mis] might actually be some middle-aged dude named Chuck with back hair and male-pattern baldness. (2.43)
Here's another downside of that anonymity thing: people might not be who they say there are, which means you might wind up smitten with an old bald guy you thought was a hottie with a body. We wonder what Wade's reaction would have been if Art3mis ended up being exactly what he had feared. Would they have become friends, at least?