AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post

SurfD · 2003-11-27, 04:45

Speaking as someone who is a big fan of MMOGS, i must say i LOVED .hack//sign, slow and somber pacing, plus semi confusing story and all.

As far as .hack//sign goes, 95 percent of the story takes place in "The World", with very brief glimpses of what is going on in the Real World.

For background, the storys past (I think somewhere around the year 2006 or something) a computer virus destroys the entire global network structure. After they rebuild, there is one main Operating System (it has an Installed user base of something like 99.5% of all Electronics on the planet), and one Insanely Popular Online Game: "The World".

The World is a very sophisticated online game, played with a set of special goggles and what appears to be a PS2 controller. It also works off of pure speach recognition for that absolute increase in immersion.

The whole thing about the series that I really liked is it's takes on stuff like preception and reality. To many people, games are just a form of recreation, to others they are an escape, a way to get away from the world and your life, if only for a brief bit. To some however, the escapism offered by something like The World can be far too tempting to resist completely disapearing into (as has been shown even in current times with people and their literal addiction to games like Everquest).

The series is very hevy on character building and expositon. It is most definately NOT an action series, and is much more like Lain, in that it is there to make you think. How do you see yourself? How do others see you? How do you choose to interact with other people when forced to? What do you do when you just want to escape?

As a plus, there are lots and lots of references to things you see every day in most current MMOGS. Indiscriminate PKs, guild infighting, noobs learning the ropes, hackers, heavy handed company moderation, and more.

Of course, as someone said, the ending does leave you a bit off, wondering what was going on, but that is mainly because .hack//sign is only part of the story. To get the full picture of what has been going on, you really have to:

1: watch .hack//sign AND the extra special ep or two that goes with that series
2: watch .hack//liminality AND play the 4 part PS2 game that goes with it
3: watch .hack//legend of twilights bracelet (it goes by a couple of other titles too)
4: maybe read the manga too, if you can find it

Then you will finally get pretty much the entire story.

2003-11-27, 04:45	Link #14
SurfD Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Age: 46	Speaking as someone who is a big fan of MMOGS, i must say i LOVED .hack//sign, slow and somber pacing, plus semi confusing story and all. As far as .hack//sign goes, 95 percent of the story takes place in "The World", with very brief glimpses of what is going on in the Real World. For background, the storys past (I think somewhere around the year 2006 or something) a computer virus destroys the entire global network structure. After they rebuild, there is one main Operating System (it has an Installed user base of something like 99.5% of all Electronics on the planet), and one Insanely Popular Online Game: "The World". The World is a very sophisticated online game, played with a set of special goggles and what appears to be a PS2 controller. It also works off of pure speach recognition for that absolute increase in immersion. The whole thing about the series that I really liked is it's takes on stuff like preception and reality. To many people, games are just a form of recreation, to others they are an escape, a way to get away from the world and your life, if only for a brief bit. To some however, the escapism offered by something like The World can be far too tempting to resist completely disapearing into (as has been shown even in current times with people and their literal addiction to games like Everquest). The series is very hevy on character building and expositon. It is most definately NOT an action series, and is much more like Lain, in that it is there to make you think. How do you see yourself? How do others see you? How do you choose to interact with other people when forced to? What do you do when you just want to escape? As a plus, there are lots and lots of references to things you see every day in most current MMOGS. Indiscriminate PKs, guild infighting, noobs learning the ropes, hackers, heavy handed company moderation, and more. Of course, as someone said, the ending does leave you a bit off, wondering what was going on, but that is mainly because .hack//sign is only part of the story. To get the full picture of what has been going on, you really have to: 1: watch .hack//sign AND the extra special ep or two that goes with that series 2: watch .hack//liminality AND play the 4 part PS2 game that goes with it 3: watch .hack//legend of twilights bracelet (it goes by a couple of other titles too) 4: maybe read the manga too, if you can find it Then you will finally get pretty much the entire story.