Big Business versus the Little Man

International Online Industries is a huge conglomeration that controls almost everything dealing with the internet. They are the largest internet service provider in the world and they control almost everything connected to the internet and modern communications in the world in which this novel takes place. Everything, that is, except OASIS. If IOI were to get control of OASIS, they would turn it into a pay service and would change everything inside of the program so that only people with money could play. This would take OASIS out of the hands of the poor, of the hands of young teenagers like Wade Watts who rely on OASIS for everything from socializing to attending school.

Wade Watts is only one of millions of young OASIS users who rely on the fact that OASIS use is free. If IOI were to get ahold of OASIS...