Sword Art Online

In 'normal' gameplay circumstances, pking wouldn't even be illegal.

As I said before, trapping other people's characters, assuming they can't just kill themselves to get out, is actually worse than P King when death isn't real. It interferes with their enjoyment of the game much much more. If anything, the players would band together to PK the griefing conspiracy that set up such a thing. Because to the average player, the P Kers would have "justice" on their side.

Actually, because how real the game looks, PK-ing (under no-permadeath circumstances) might raise some ethical debate about killing.

The novels constantly mention how the game isn't really that realistic. You can see the polygons, facial expressions are unnatural and exaggerated, and the draw distance is clearly visible. It also has some major problems with rendering liquids.

VR is certainly a new thing, but it doesn't seem to be significantly more "realistic" than say Call Of Duty and has an awful lot less blood. I don't think people would care any more or less about virtual killing than they do now. Soccer moms will protest that it's brainwashing our youth, gamers will say it's fine, and studies are inconclusive.

edited 3rd Aug '12 3:39:36 AM by Clarste

Wonderful Cliffhanger this week. Although it is more like falling off the sill than hanging on...

Yep, this is two episodes.

That look on Asuna when she woke up, and that End Card...

Next episode is titled The Phantom Avenger...

edited 4th Aug '12 8:46:03 AM by Pryun

SAO 4: I actually liked this ep if only to see Kirito casually kick the ass of some annoying people. Silica's an okay character but that's that.

I love hearing about the game mechanics, I hope we got more of that kind of stuff.

Aw... they skipped the soy sauce.

They skipped the DDA being jerkasses too...

Wait, wasn't the 'soy sauce' after the chase?

The soy sauce comes up several times. The first though would be when they're at the restaurant before they hear the scream. Frankly it makes more sense for them to be joking about soy sauce rather than spending the entire time talking about intricate ways of killing people. Not exactly a pleasant lunch.

well, they DO need to introduce pking to watchers, as its not like they have access to kirito's monologue. The guy seems to be overly calculative though. Thinks about maths too much, that one...

I said spending the entire time. They don't need to cut out the explanation completely. Frankly, the "quest for soy sauce" strikes me as one of the most important bits of the series, so I'm sure they could have cut out a few other things to make time for it.

edited 4th Aug '12 9:47:15 PM by Clarste

Why is Hinagiku playing SAO?

Because you recolored her hair? Because they fall into the same archetype? Because she decided to try the game out on a whim despite not really being a gamer and got trapped by a mad scientist?

Upon consideration, she is basically Hinagiku, but that doesn't make your question any less stupid.

It's not even a matter of falling into the same archetype since she specifically seems like Hinagiku over any other tsundere...or i've just not seen enough tsunderes.

She falls into the "too competent" tsundere category. Haqua from The World God Only Knows would be another. They take themselves too seriously to believe that they're falling for an idiot like this blah blah blah. It's pretty standard.

edited 6th Aug '12 4:36:58 PM by Clarste

I read the light novels, then watched the recent anime episodes. I did NOT read Aria or the other side-stories and plowed straight through all nine volumes in a few days. Then I went back and read those as well. Oh. Argo got taken out. Ah well, didn't factor her into my first read-through anyway.

The anime changed and removed some facts, but I don't think it took away from the overall feel of the story. Main difference I felt was the portrayal of Diabel. If you didn't read Aria you wouldn't really notice the odd looks he made at Kirito. It was more of a positive leader feel than someone who was trying to get the last hit and keep Kirito off of it.

SAO reminds me of Mabinogi in a way... due to the lack of distinct character paths, having the option to choose manufacturing/life skills instead of combat, and the skill needed in comboing attacks. Might be because I haven't played many other MM Os though.

There's a fear that more violent crimes will happen due to these games, as the virtual world becomes increasingly realistic. Attacking someone for money feels more realistic than pressing some buttons - there's the muscle memory that is built up, such as when Kirito defends himself in the real world. That's probably what the ethical debate would go into.

edited 6th Aug '12 11:16:31 PM by Nachia

oh? If you're wondering about ethics and muscle memory then you'll be interested in rereading volume 9( where sinon was talking about a certain army person)/10.

@hinagiku: No hair clip, not hinagiku. besides, hinagiku would use a stick(probably picked up from the ground), not a sword. Hmm, maybe a shinai. Or at most a wooden katana.

Edit: Hey, someone noticed something interesting: Asuna twisting Kirito's wrist when he said that she was the one sleeping: totally shouldn't hurt, cos they are in the area, right?

edited 7th Aug '12 6:35:11 AM by Pryun

Well that explains why Asuna is so powerful... (remembers how hax Hinagiku was in that one episode of HnG)

Didn't notice the wrist part, but when Kirito grabs Cradil's arm there seems to be a threshold for the Crime Prevention Code. Basically, you can still feel pressure/slight pain, but when your HP is at risk or it reaches a certain level of strength you'll either take no damage or have the crime prevention code intervene.

FFFFUUUU- Why does this go up for pre order on the day I actually decided to torrent the single...

They announced that a while ago, so it's more that you paid no attention to it.

My feelings on the sixth episode are somewhat mixed.

On one hand, pretty much everything in that half of the story was done better than in the source. The only big thing really missing is Heathcliff's display of his encyclopedic game knowledge. On the other hand, (vague but very serious spoilers for future events!) including that would go a long, long way to foreshadow future events. I'm satisfied that they adapted this arc well, but I feel like they kind of dropped the ball on something that would have improved the story as a whole.

I rather enjoyed episode 6. Though I don't know why I didn't notice before, but Asuna's voice is...squeaky.

Yeah. I was looking forward to see Heathcliff. I did notice the wall had the 'invincible' notice when Kirito hit it. Nice bit off foreshadowing there.

edited 11th Aug '12 5:54:18 PM by MurkyMuse

I wonder if they'll just stop at the SAO arc or continue to the ALO arc...

edited 11th Aug '12 6:02:06 PM by raigakuren

I like this episode. Noticed the immortal object purple message, and Kirito's complete obliviousness is funny. Plastic = pragmatic?