Sword Art Online - Episode 1 Discussion / Poll

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I'm not sure the "man up" theory is completely off. After all while they physically won't change from this, those that survive will change mentally. Theoretically gain a supreme appreciation for their real lives and wanting to live them to the fullest. Doubt someone that would set all this up cares about those who die. The ones that survive is probably all he cares about and if they "man up" from this experience then he'd have a success, assuming that's part of his motivation. Those that die were too weak and weren't needed in the world anyways.

You know I like this idea it makes sense and would be an interesting motivation.

[lansglenn]

Originally Posted by ZGMF-X10A

The story line is pretty interesting. I think I can relate to Kirito. There are a couple things I don't see realistic in the first episode.

1. Kirito (beta tester) helping out a noob
If he was like level 20 helping out a noob, I can believe but both starting out the same time and both stayed at level 1 until GM introduction. If a game is released I'm pretty sure people will start leveling as fast as they could, unless they are those who actually read everything. The storyline should be easy to follow so rushing to high level I don't see a problem.

2. Too many females. Sure there are females playing mmos but there are just way too many. lmfao

3. Early area is way too empty, and no one pk'ing.

4. 2000 died only in a month? that's it? and still on first floor.

Everything else I find it pretty interesting. Would keep watching until the end.

Spoiler:

1.) It depends on the beta tester. As a top-tier raider myself, I would probably be the guy pleveling the second the game opened its server. Some other beta testers might've realized that the journey is more enjoyable than the end-game, considering this is the first VRMMORPG in history.

2.) There still aren't too many females really (refer to pics above). Realistically, the female population has steadily been adopting MMORPGs -- especially mainstream MMORPGs (consult population studies in WoW), due to many reasons. I would expect in 10 years' time the male:female ratio is alot closer to equal than we would think. So in a sense, having few female players in SAO might actually be unrealistic, the irony.

3a.) Early area does seem way too empty. This VRMMORPG has only one world instance, so you would expect *some* level of overcrowding in the starter areas, but we didn't see any conflict. I feel the scale of the map vs the population size is a bit off. This is evidenced by the number of people in the center of the city when the mass summons occured -- there weren't anywhere close to 10k dots on the screen.

3b.) Boy oh boy is there going to be massive PKing =)

4.) I would imagine when people realized it's not a game anymore they stopped playing and started to behave in ways that would tend to their own safety -- like staying inside the city all day and night. The 2000 people w/ any courage probably tried to actually progress in the game, and failed due to noob learning curve.

[White Manju Bun]

Remember NO novel spoilers may be posted in epi threads, use the Novel thread please. Failure to do so may result in a ban.

[Miraluka]

Originally Posted by lansglenn

3b.) Boy oh boy is there going to be massive PKing =)

Where is Haseo the PKK when you really need him? (.Hack// reference) .

[Jarmel]

Not a fan of the music so far but everything else is top notch.

[Somnus]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Found this another forum and I thought it was too funny not to share.

Spoiler for The unfortunate truth of all MMO's:

Suddenly

That is hilarious, I never noticed when I watched! And yet, so true.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Kattaro

If VRMMORPG was on the market then I would specially go to Japan to buy this
This kind of technology really interest me. In my opinion it would be great if something like that were made.

I'm too chicken, esp after this episode. I'd wait past the 1 month after official release to make sure it's safe.

I agree, Haseo's awesome.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by orion

I'm too chicken, esp after this episode. I'd wait past the 1 month after official release to make sure it's safe.

I'd give it a lot more than one month. What would be more surprising than to find that the VRMMORPG that you've been logging into, and enjoying immensely for the past month or two has now become a death trap of sorts?

[Ddraig]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Found this another forum and I thought it was too funny not to share.

Spoiler for The unfortunate truth of all MMO's:

Suddenly

That part crack me up lol

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by ZGMF-X10A

The story line is pretty interesting. I think I can relate to Kirito. There are a couple things I don't see realistic in the first episode.

1. Kirito (beta tester) helping out a noob
If he was like level 20 helping out a noob, I can believe but both starting out the same time and both stayed at level 1 until GM introduction. If a game is released I'm pretty sure people will start leveling as fast as they could, unless they are those who actually read everything. The storyline should be easy to follow so rushing to high level I don't see a problem.

2. Too many females. Sure there are females playing mmos but there are just way too many. lmfao

3. Early area is way too empty, and no one pk'ing.

4. 2000 died only in a month? that's it? and still on first floor.

Everything else I find it pretty interesting. Would keep watching until the end.

Answers:

#1: Depends on the beta tester. Some people rush, but there are usually lots of nice guys who are willing to help out a noob. I know I always did, even when I was creating a new character and was low level.

#2: You were not paying attention. Turns out most of those girls were actually guys.

#3: It's the first day of a brand new game. Lots of people are exploring the town, meeting up in groups, working on their blacksmith skills... And how many people start PKing right at the start, don't they usually try to level up first and get the right gear so that they don't get killed by their targets? Plus we aren't sure if the game was hardcore right from the start, or did it change that way after the tutorial announcement?

#4: That's 20% losses. That's about right for a hardcore game, especially assuming that everyone is doing their best not to die. Plus, the PKing might be far less prevalent, at least at first. After all, now PKing means you're actually killing another human... and there is no guarantee that you won't be held liable for it if you manage to get out.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by kyp275

Because no system can be hacked/taken over by the person who personally designed the core of the system

I feel that if the machine was designed to be able to produce microwaves or any harmful thing, it would be possible to detect it.
At least to my knowledge, if my DS was hacked, it could never produce microwaves to barbeque my brain.

Originally Posted by Wilfriback

Its the game designer the one who did this, so its a safe public game under legal standars .

I'm not sure how you jumped from "game designer who did this" = "safe public game under legal standards", because I'm wondering how it could have been considered safe to the public in the first place if it was able to cause such damage in the first place. Whoever decided that it was okay to sell this to the public is gonna get fried for being irresponsible.

[Reckoner]

Not as impressive opening as I would have hoped, but still good. I think a lot of the wind in my sails got taken out because the trailer pretty much spoilered the developments of the first episode and it was basically like waiting for it to get rolling. Almost like when you play a game and you've already seen the intro credits but you're forced to go through them again .

Anyhow, it does look nice and I think it has potential to be one of the home runs of the summer.

However, I do wonder if more real life details will sneak into the players lives because we basically know nothing about the main character right now, which sort of bothers me. I presume this will be added to later, but although everything is sort of grim, it never really compelled me to care too much about their fates as I hardly know them.

1 death is a tragedy a million is a statistic. Basically if I want to really feel the weight of what's happening I got to get more connected to the character, which the first episode did not establish too well yet.

Still it setup up everything rather well so it gets credit for that. I would actually say I enjoyed the first episode of Accel World more than this though.

[Kirito]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

I feel that if the machine was designed to be able to produce microwaves or any harmful thing, it would be possible to detect it.
At least to my knowledge, if my DS was hacked, it could never produce microwaves to barbeque my brain.


I'm not sure how you jumped from "game designer who did this" = "safe public game under legal standards", because I'm wondering how it could have been considered safe to the public in the first place if it was able to cause such damage in the first place.

I don't think so since the microwaves inside the system was possibly already built in to serve its purpose as it was explained in the first episode. It's possibly like some kind of bug or a program that the dude installed so that when tested it wouldn't show suspicions of potential threat to the consumer, and can activate it when he chooses too, like the log out button, and the "avatar" change. That's just my theory.

[SABER60069]

I say Kirito is very brave considering the situation

I have played a lot of MMO and I have died A LOT

I can't possibly imagine facing a monster immediately after that announcement under these conditions like Kirito did

In my experience playing MMO, any mistake can easily cause your death and having to keep yourself alive all the way to endgame will be an incredible feat that I cannot do.

And this mobs don't respawn thing is kinda harsh you are given two choices of 1.Wasting too much time thinking and end up unable to level up 2.Rushing too quick and risk dying.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by SABER60069

And this mobs don't respawn thing is kinda harsh you are given two choices of 1.Wasting too much time thinking and end up unable to level up 2.Rushing too quick and risk dying.

Mobs do respawn, it's just that 10,000 players is far too many for a single area, and it will make grinding very difficult for all of them.

[gunzblitz]

Spoiler for Kinda off-topic with the current topic:

I can't help but feel that the the delivery of the scene where they can't log out is somehow bad. The somehow darkish music that accompanies it and Kirito's anxiousness makes first-time viewers ask "what's the big deal of having a no log-out button?"

IMO it's better if they kept the calm scene without any music that tells the foreboding danger about it, and then later set the mood when Kayaba appears.

But then again, it's my opinion. Still voted it 9/10. Lived up to my expectations.

[lansglenn]

Originally Posted by SABER60069

I say Kirito is very brave considering the situation

I have played a lot of MMO and I have died A LOT

I can't possibly imagine facing a monster immediately after that announcement under these conditions like Kirito did

In my experience playing MMO, any mistake can easily cause your death and having to keep yourself alive all the way to endgame will be an incredible feat that I cannot do.

And this mobs don't respawn thing is kinda harsh you are given two choices of 1.Wasting too much time thinking and end up unable to level up 2.Rushing too quick and risk dying.

Mobs do respawn (I think?). Players don't respawn.

I agree that if this was a real life situation inside of a MMORPG, it would take some incredible feat to pull off beating the game w/o dying.

What I think works in the players' advantage is maybe that you can out-level the content therefore everything's easier, and that you can have no limit on the size of the raid party in an encounter.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

I feel that if the machine was designed to be able to produce microwaves or any harmful thing, it would be possible to detect it.
At least to my knowledge, if my DS was hacked, it could never produce microwaves to barbeque my brain.

You don't get it, it's not something they didn't know, it's the very basis of the neural-interface technology that Nerv Gear is based on. What they didn't realize is that the built-in safety could be by-passed and the headset being able to turn the users into hostages. Remember, this is a brand new technology in its first iteration.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

I'm not sure how you jumped from "game designer who did this" = "safe public game under legal standards", because I'm wondering how it could have been considered safe to the public in the first place if it was able to cause such damage in the first place. Whoever decided that it was okay to sell this to the public is gonna get fried for being irresponsible.

Someone obviously isn't very familiar with modern pharmaceutical companies if one is surprised by how something that's considered safe for the public could actually cause harm :P

[Kirito]

Originally Posted by gunzblitz

Spoiler for Kinda off-topic with the current topic:

I can't help but feel that the the delivery of the scene where they can't log out is somehow bad. The somehow darkish music that accompanies it makes first-time viewers ask "what's the big deal?"

IMO it's better if they kept the calm scene without any music that tells the foreboding danger about it.

But then again, it's my opinion. Still voted it 9/10. Lived up to my expectations.

I think they did a great job capturing the dark atmosphere of that moment because it's a foreboding to add more tension to the scene and the predicament that they're in. Think about it, they were playing a really great game and all of a sudden things started to get a little cryptic and horrifying for the people who logged in and have to risk their lives to win their freedom. The music really helped set the mood and tone for everything that built up to where it did.

[gunzblitz]

Originally Posted by Kirito

I think they did a great choice capturing the atmosphere and that moment because it's a foreboding to add more tension to the scene and the predicament that they're in. Think about it, they were playing a really great game and all of a sudden things started to get a little haywire and cryptic, and the music really set the mood and tone for everything that built up to where it did.

I guess so. I was expecting the tension to just suddenly pop out when Kayaba introduced the tutorial. But by going from ep1's direction it does a good job of building the tension.

Spoiler for Does this count as LN spoiler?:

Spoiler for Kirito's inner thought in the light novel:

Kirito contemplated that it was a big problem since hours have passed already and no action was being taken by the Game masters. He was wondering if the bug only occurred from specific players or if everyone was affected. If everyone was affected, people would have reported it to the Game masters and they would have announced or do something about it. But since hours have passed already and nothing was happening, that's when his senses went tingling.

I guess they tried to capture it thru Klein's action but it didn't seem enough for me. I guess that was what I wanted to see.

Edit: Nevermind~ Klein broke the tension after that anyway by asking about Kirito's sister. lol.

Either way, ep1 still did a good job!