Player One

So, about that DeLorean.

A couple weeks back, Ernest Cline came to visit ArenaNet. He brought his DeLorean. The DeLorean he's giving away. And yeah, that was me posing in front of it.

Authors

OK, I'm going to back up a moment. Ernest Cline is the author of Ready Player One, a NYTimes bestseller about a dystopian future with free WiFi, where the creator of that ultimate virtual reality network chooses to leave his wealth to whoever solves the puzzle hidden in his creation. And it is the story of the young man who solves the puzzle. And it is a massive love-letter to the geek culture of the late 70s and early 80s, the rich loam from which a huge amount of references to old computer games, movies, and, of course D&D.

Apparently the 70s have become the good old days. I blame Topher Grace.

In any event, Ernest is running a contest along the same lines as the puzzle within his book, where he hiding clues in the book and elsewhere and challenging the readers to find it. 

Photo Op (with product placement)

Which gets us back to the DeLorean. To promote the paperback edition of the book, the author is giving away the DeLorean (he has one of his own - the car shown if for the giveaway). And he DRIVING it across country to his various readings and appearances (and the question I had to ask was "How does it handle?" and part of the answer is "No power steering"). 


And Ernest is both a fan of Guild Wars 2 (he's been in the Beta) and of the old D&D stuff that I had been a part of, so we had a great time talking about writing and movies and old gaming conventions. And the DeLorean. And a lot of the team posed with the car (including me), and then he was off on his book tour, the lonely quest of the writer huxtering his work. With his DeLorean.

I have to admit it was really cool. No doubt about it. But next book tour, I want an airship.

More later,