Sword Art Online

Well yes it does, because it's trying to follow the source material.

Reki Kawahara could have done more research and told them to change it to whatever he found.

I mean it was over 10/11 years old.

Of all the complaints you can level against SAO, it not being like an MMO is one of the least legitimate. It's very faithful to the aesthetic and style of the Pre-World Of Warcraft days of MM Os, and that was the kind of story he's going to tell. Just because some of the audience is unfamiliar with older conventions doesn't mean the story needs to be changed.

At the same time, one of the things that's highly praised in SAO Abridged is the fact that it's more like a modern MMO. Nobody really bats an eye at Kirito being a solo player, the guild always knew about Kirito's level, they fall into the trap largely because of those NPCs, and Sachi lags to death. Among many other things.

Well, then SAO's game just suffered from outdated mechanics coupled with a lack of self-awareness (which parodies tend to have in spades). And I don't think Kawahara would have bothered to update his world to current standards now, even if I were in his shoes. He may have had to rewrite everything or at least seriously rework and elaborate a lot of concepts.

How he may have felt may be "My old story became popular and now they wanna adapt it? Sure, why not? Go ahead!" and then it spiraled out of control.

Although, I can't speak for his current writing, just Aincrad. But if his arcs are improving then that's a relief. Anyone who's read Alicization can vouch for any good points? Is the characterisation better? The plot? The game mechanics?

I like Alicization. I'm not really a good judge of these things, so I can't say for sure whether it's any good, but it does seem better than the previous arcs. The plot seems to be moving quite a bit slower though.

If you can you should read all of SAO. The anime has its strong points but there isn't much exploration of world building and game mechanics in it. The first novel while not perfect is in my opinion a solid young adult sci-fi story with a good premise, nice world building and prose. However, I would particularly recomend reading Sword Art Online: Progressive, especially if one wants more Aincrad which alongside the Isolator is amoung Kawahara's strongest works.

Alicization isn't exactly a game, but a complete virtual world. There's much more solid world building, character development and makes more use of the series sci-fi elements. (Then again i really love kawahara's Sci-fi.)

And yeah, Kawahara has been writing SAO for over ten years and growing as an author with the series. That's actually one of the reasons I love SAO, and wouldn't want anyone else writing it. It isn't just the story of Kazuto, Asuna, and the others, It's the story of Reki Kawahara the growing author.

edited 1st Dec '15 8:31:40 AM by RussellStar5641

I think Accel World has the better story in my opinion. Then again Ive only seen the anime.

Yeah, Accel World is great too and I'll admit that that I think its better than SAO but I still love both of them, though in SAO's case I'll admit I've come to prefer the light novels to the anime adaptation.

edited 1st Dec '15 12:32:14 PM by RussellStar5641

The anime suffer for the LN syndrome, a lot of the personality of the MC is in his mind, he talk few.

This is mortal to a anime adaptation. The fact who Fairy Dance suffer for the LN syndrome even worse than Aincrad just made the things worse.

I´ve read Progressive. Was cool.

... are you on a phone??

Yes.

I'll concede on Reki Kawahara was accurate to the pre-World Of Warcraft MMO scene but that doesn't excuse the anime adaption from making most of the players, if not all of them look like complete dumb-asses simply because the anime never tried to adapt the pre-World Of Warcraft MMO culture to the post-WOW culture. Not to mention barely or never explaining any of it's mechanics.

I do believe that the LNs actually explain more of the mechanics, for what it's worth.

Helios is complaining because the anime didn't explain. The LN make a fine job but the anime...no.

Unrelated but, Zelenal you've read Progressive?. Is basically Kirito and Asuna Travel in Aincrad.

edited 21st Dec '15 7:31:14 AM by KazuyaProta

No, I haven't. It's another LN, right? I'd have to try and get it through my local library. I do want to, though.

I don't really watch this show, but given that it's SAO related, I might as well give y'all a heads up.

You ever wanted Asuna to wake you up in the morning? There's an app for that. Or rather, there was one just for Japan, but now it's available internationally.

...Just don't expect her to speak English while sounding like Cherami Leigh.

How so?

To be fair, In-Universe, the creator of this game built this game so that it would have a "hero", which turned out to be Kirito. Kawahara is under no obligation to make Kayaba think differently, or make his game more realistic to our standards. Kayaba is himself a deranged video game developer who decided to end his life in a video game.

He also made himself a knight in said game.

Why would Kayaba design the game to be "balanced" by realistic MMO standards?

that feels more like a post-hoc justification for the amateurish writing in SAO, which doesn't exactly convey the experience of playing an MMO all that well, which in my opinion kind of defeats the point.

It would help if it were in English, but it's great that these Japanese games are available in the USA more frequently.

Yeah, both the original novels and the Progressive series can go quite into SAO's mechanics and it is quite something, I especially like a bit in Progressive volume two where Kawahara gets quite philosophical with how intances work as well as Kizmel in general. Though what I personally prefer seeing is Kirito and Asuna interact especially in progressive where Kirito is quite often a wonderful little dork making really bad puns and jokes. It's wonderful! Seriously, oxhausted. You donnut know. Props to translator, Stephen Paul, as well.

Also, this is something I'm asking everyone here: Let's all keep this nice and civil as it has been because for the most part it seems to be really nice here and I really do not what this place to become as toxic as /r/anime and some other places can be. Sorry if this comes across the wrong way, I'm just very nervous.

edited 27th Dec '15 9:22:05 PM by RussellStar5641

I will state my disappointment in how the next game will not be taking place in GGO.

Well...

SAO SUCKS HARD, IS THE COMING OF THE APOCALYPSE, IS THE CANCER WHO IS KILLING ANIME!!!!.

Japan is doomed. DOOMED

Damn you Reki Kawahara!!!!. You asshole monster!.

I miss the days when we have GOOD anime as Cowboy Bebop, Utena and Gundam (UC only because the AU's sucks).

Dammit Otakus, why you prefer shit Wish-Fulfillment instead of deep anime like Welcome to the NHK who make you reflex about how you lifestyle sucks and only make friends can save you!.

Gary Stu!!!!!!

PD: I like Progressive, sadly only Vol. 1 is in spanish. I still waiting for Vol. 2.

edited 28th Dec '15 7:32:45 AM by KazuyaProta

• __* .... Asuna is cute as ****.

You don't really have to worry about that. for the most part the moderation is very strict about stuff like this, and almost everyone who strongly dislikes SAO (like me) doesn't really post here much unless we have something constructive to say, because it's pointless to prod the hornet's nest like that. i'd rather go post in threads for things i actually like :'p