*MINOR SPOILERS BELOW*

So, despite my personal insistence that I don't really care for Anime that much, I find myself watching yet another Japanese cartoon. This one is titled Sword Art Online and I found it on Netflix. The premise is the launch of a fully immersive fantasy-style MMORPG. Players don a neurally-connected headset that takes all mental input and translates them to in-game commands.

At time of launch it is revealed that the designer of the game had an ulterior motive in that he wanted to be a god of his own little universe. He secretly installed a kill-switch into the headsets and disabled the "Log Out" function in the menus. This trapped all the day-one players in the game with the stipulation that if someone could "beat" the game then they would be released.

To up the stakes, the kill-switch engages should the player fall below 0 HP. In other words, it's a MMORPG that effectively takes the place of your real life, and kills you if you are defeated by the world.

Yep. I'm with you. I just can't stomach most anime. There are so many shows that are just the same copied plot of "timid boy at high school somehow gets powers and is surrounded by flirty girls." Is makes picking through to the good ones (I'd recommend Cowboy Bebop, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Fate / Zero, Spice & Wolf, Ghost in the Shell, and Macross Frontier to name a few) like finding a needle in a particularly annoyingly repetitious haystack. Perhaps worse are the ones that have good art and voice acting and world building but just sorta forget to actually explain the plot... (I'm looking at you Last Exile! Heh. And Macross Frontier!)

Sword Art Online worked for me because while it's initial plot (AKA: If you die in the Matrix, you die in real life!) wasn't novel, it was pretty well done. The show's producers knew MMORPGs very well and integrated a mostly consistent rule set that made sense to me as a gamer. It was neat to see a good take on a "no magic" type fantasy world and then see pretty good representations of a "high magic" world, and an open world FPS. Likewise, the characters weren't the most dynamic, but they had their moments. Kitiro's survivor's guild (spoiler, he survives and is finally able to log out!) and the guilt he has from being forced to kill real people (via killing them in game) to protect innocents worked because it came back to haunt him and wasn't forgotten about. Asuna's eventual resolution between herself and her overbearing mother was sweet and touching.

And then the final side story that ends the series, the one called "Mother's Rosario", was legitimately moving. Without spoiling it too much, it was about a group of real life friends who wouldn't be able to stay in contact so they became determined to unlock a new floor of the dungeon tower the (new, safe!) version Sword Art Online was built around so they would all get their name on a special in-game monument. I teared up a bit at the conclusion of that one.

I don't put SAO in my top anime of all time list (see above) but I'd rate it a nice low level B and am happy to recommend it as long as the person I'm talking to has seen some of the anime I like more.

Now, my questions for you are:

• ...If you had the option to enter a game world like this one, would you?

With or without the perma-perma-death? Without actually risking my life then heck yes. With risking my life? Maybe... as long as there were some pretty good safeguards against player killing. I'd probably stick to the second wave and let the risk takers do the initial dangerous exploring and dying. I'd help secure trade trade routes or roads or whatever after they'd been established.

[*]...Would you prefer a Fantasy themed one? Or Space Opera?

Yes. :p

[/list]

Well darn. I broke the list tag...

• ...If you had the option to enter a game world like this one, would you?
  
• ...Would you prefer a Fantasy themed one? Or Space Opera?
  
• ...What would you do if you found yourself accidentally trapped in a game like this?

1. God no.
2. Fantasy.
3. I'd be a miner. I would mine stuff, then sell it in the local town, then go mine stuff again.

BUT

I just started watching this thing and it's amazing.

You'll love it even more then when he "exports" his character to completely different games and immediately becomes Jesus there, too.

I suppose you missed the major plot point that the various VR games were based on the same core and were often compatible in terms of porting a character. And Jesus? Really, you have to go that far? Lame.

Interesting! Pete cited familial responsibility for being a key factor for not getting sucked into a video game world. Is that less of a hindrance for you?

No kids, no wife. No girlfriend recently either.

I identified a lot with Kirito, lol.

So, you're Jesus with superpowers and every girl you meet falls for you instantly but you're too wrapped up in saving their virtual lives and the virtual world to notice?

Wow, man. You're *awesome*. :-)

And you're being pretty unfair. Is SAO perfect? No. It's it a bit harem-y? Yes, a bit. But dang, you sure are going after it. I mean, I'd heard that some people hated it with a passion but I didn't think I'd ever see someone doing it. Not around here at least!

That last few months I've seen, heard, and been approached to watch this anime. Kind of like how you can notice something then all of a sudden its EVERYWHERE.

Don't bother. SAO is standard harem power fantasy crap with hints of siscon.

Um, isn't it brocon?

Ok, technically yes.

Technically no.

YMMV.

Well that part of you post was correct at least.

Interesting! Pete cited familial responsibility for being a key factor for not getting sucked into a video game world. Is that less of a hindrance for you?

No kids, no wife. No girlfriend recently either.

I identified a lot with Kirito, lol.

So, you're Jesus with superpowers and every girl you meet falls for you instantly but you're too wrapped up in saving their virtual lives and the virtual world to notice?

Wow, man. You're *awesome*. :-)

Now, my questions for you are:

...If you had the option to enter a game world like this one, would you?

If I knew I could only leave by winning, no. Otherwise, also no, until it was thoroughly proven to be safe, because I'd be worried about shenanigans like this.

...Would you prefer a Fantasy themed one? Or Space Opera?

I don't know what kind I'd prefer, honestly... probably something like Destiny or one of the Star Wars MMOs, actually, that sits at the junction of fantasy and sci-fi, because then you have everything potentially open to you through one means or another.

...What would you do if you found yourself accidentally trapped in a game like this?

My feelings, in order, would be: incredulous, nervous and wary, sad, angry, sad some more, wary, paranoid, and finally very wary and anxious, but also defiant, determined to stay alive. I would hide, probably, and then level up by myself as much I can safely, and then try to find a trustworthy person or two to build a party to try to beat the game.

• ...If you had the option to enter a game world like this one, would you?
  
• ...Would you prefer a Fantasy themed one? Or Space Opera?
  
• ...What would you do if you found yourself accidentally trapped in a game like this?

1. God no.
2. Fantasy.
3. I'd be a miner. I would mine stuff, then sell it in the local town, then go mine stuff again.

BUT

I just started watching this thing and it's amazing.

You'll love it even more then when he "exports" his character to completely different games and immediately becomes Jesus there, too.

That last few months I've seen, heard, and been approached to watch this anime. Kind of like how you can notice something then all of a sudden its EVERYWHERE.

Don't bother. SAO is standard harem power fantasy crap with hints of siscon.

Um, isn't it brocon?

Ok, technically yes. While I acknowledge the oddness of the Japanese cultural preoccupation with casual incest, I dropped the show for all the other bad things about it first. The thing about his sister being attracted to him was just the icing on the dropcake.

1. God no.

Valid.

2. Fantasy.

I love a good Fantasy, but Space Opera is where it's at. Especially if it's got cyber-punk overtones!

3. I'd be a miner. I would mine stuff, then sell it in the local town, then go mine stuff again.

Interesting! I've been a miner/harvester in MMOs before. I enjoyed it, but I think long-term it might start to wear on me.

I just started watching this thing and it's amazing.

It's certainly been more entertaining than I'd thought it was going to be.

That last few months I've seen, heard, and been approached to watch this anime. Kind of like how you can notice something then all of a sudden its EVERYWHERE.

Don't bother. SAO is standard harem power fantasy crap with hints of siscon.

YMMV.

*Googles that word, knowing that it probably means exactly what he thinks it means*

Dammit, Japan.

• ...If you had the option to enter a game world like this one, would you?
  
• ...Would you prefer a Fantasy themed one? Or Space Opera?
  
• ...What would you do if you found yourself accidentally trapped in a game like this?

-No.
Look, even if I didn't have stuff I plan to do in the real world one of these days, imagine how boring it would get playing Halo multiplayer forever. Even if it's an MMO bigger than WoW, there's only so much content to play.

Are we limited to the game mechanics? I'd hope not, because I can't think of a single MMO that would let me goof off by, say, disassembling old keyboards or browsing used bookstores. Should we imagine that this MMO has the size and fidelity of the Matrix?

What does death mean if we are trapped? Teleportation to homebase and free healing? Loss of memories or cognitive ability as an XP penalty? Perma-delete?

-In order of genres, from most desired to no thanks:

• Dieselpunk retro-future
  
• Mass Effect 1-style Space Opera
  
• High Fantasy in the style of Spelljammer or Planescape
  
• Firefly: The MMO
  
• Mad Max or Dark Sun post-apocalypic sci-fi/fantasy
  
• WarCraft/Warhammer-style fantasy
  
• Yet another Tolkien MMO.
  
• Halo MMO, as imagined by Ensemble Studios

-If I was trapped in a game this way? Simple: I'd gather people who know how to hack the system (Making them wizards, really) and set about cracking the system to create new accounts. Meanwhile, we offer a service to keep a library of memories. If you are ever glitched, hacked, or deleted, we simply restore you from backup.

Once we have a library of the best fighters, best pilots, best engineers, and best strategists in the game, we launch Phase Two of our master plan. The operational plan is right here in this folder titled "The Clone Wars."

• ...If you had the option to enter a game world like this one, would you?
  
• ...Would you prefer a Fantasy themed one? Or Space Opera?
  
• ...What would you do if you found yourself accidentally trapped in a game like this?

1. God no.
2. Fantasy.
3. I'd be a miner. I would mine stuff, then sell it in the local town, then go mine stuff again.

BUT

I just started watching this thing and it's amazing.

Interesting! Pete cited familial responsibility for being a key factor for not getting sucked into a video game world. Is that less of a hindrance for you?

No kids, no wife. No girlfriend recently either.

I identified a lot with Kirito, lol.

That last few months I've seen, heard, and been approached to watch this anime. Kind of like how you can notice something then all of a sudden its EVERYWHERE.

Don't bother. SAO is standard harem power fantasy crap with hints of siscon.

Um, isn't it brocon?

That last few months I've seen, heard, and been approached to watch this anime. Kind of like how you can notice something then all of a sudden its EVERYWHERE.

Don't bother. SAO is standard harem power fantasy crap with hints of siscon.

YMMV.

It is for me as I'm unmarried and have no children.