Sword Art Online - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll

[jpwong]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

About towns: if every floor has another town, then yeah they sure seem heavily populated. Then again, just how big was the town of beginnings? How many people could it accomodate?

They seem populated, but how many of those are PCs and how many are NPCs. The first floor town was obviously designed to hold more than 10k people if that area in the middle was enough to hold the entire playerbase for the announcement.

[blakstealth]

I'm glad those orange players got their just desserts; them attacking Kirito was pretty embarrassing.

Also Silica and her puppy are so cute~!

[Kiyoshi]

Originally Posted by SilverSyko

Though, the specifics for orange-level morality kind of confuses me, at first I thought it was someone who only stole things from others, but when Rosalia mentioned that Kirito would go orange-level if he harmed her confused me a bit. Don't you go red-level if you PK someone?

In some Kr mmorpg if u kill a player u turns orange like warning (if anyone kills u orange he turns orange 2) but if u kill more than 1 u goes red (if anyone kills u red he turns blue or hero status).
Nice ep.

[NoemiChan]

...still..

...where's our lead heroine?!!!!

[n120cky]

yeah It's about time for main heroine to appear, she only got two episode for now .

Well as programmer, One think keeps bugging me is why don't they gather all good hacker from all over the world to hack the SOA server and free everybody .

[Clarste]

Presumably out of fear that they'd all die if the hackers screw up.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

...still..

...where's our lead heroine?!!!!

Did you really expect this question to be answered in this thread?

As always, patience.

[n120cky]

Originally Posted by Clarste

Presumably out of fear that they'd all die if the hackers screw up.

Well it's stated at first episode the problem started at December 2, 2022,
and in this episode Kirito and Silica arrive at floria floor on February 24, 2024,
that's hell a long time for someone to do something in real world to help them out.

IMHO This series will be more interesting if they can leave the online part and use Sword art universe as real world (pretty much like druaga).

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

About towns: if every floor has another town, then yeah they sure seem heavily populated. Then again, just how big was the town of beginnings? How many people could it accomodate?

Spoiler for Geographic details that the anime hasn't had a chance to mention:

Starting City is one kilometer across. It's probably the largest city in Aincrad due to its purpose.

If the forest where Kirito found Silica was considered a good hunting ground for mid-level players, then it makes sense for the nearest city to fill up.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by n120cky

Well it's stated at first episode the problem started at December 2, 2022,
and in this episode Kirito and Silica arrive at floria floor on February 24, 2024,
that's hell a long time for someone to do something in real world to help them out.

IMHO This series will be more interesting if they can leave the online part and use Sword art universe as real world (pretty much like druaga).

If it was only an issue about server, things could be worked around. What's the biggest problem though is the Nervegear, which was solely developed by a single individual.
So it is very unlikely they can suddenly crack through it, especially if there are both electronic and physical locks that would discharge the microwaves.

If your suspension of disbelief can accept VRMMO like SAO, then you should actually accept the premise that government and all wouldn't dare options that might kill players in the process (that and I doubt any family would gladly accept a "test" that could spell doom of the said player).
Considering the purpose of the nervegear to begin with, I wouldn't be surprised if it is rendered unoperational if it discharge its death trigger or something.

As for your second point, it would dramatically change the mood and premise of SAO. VRMMO rigged with a death sentence adds a lot of points that you can't with a regular heroic fantasy setting: the "gamer" setup, the disparity between "reality" and "VR", interactions and plots from usual MMO etc.

[Adigard]

Originally Posted by n120cky

Well it's stated at first episode the problem started at December 2, 2022,
and in this episode Kirito and Silica arrive at floria floor on February 24, 2024,
that's hell a long time for someone to do something in real world to help them out.

Politicians being politicians... and wanting to get re-elected... seems to suggest that if you've got 10k people who have been stable for the past year and a half (although some of 'em seem to die from time to time) it's probably safer to just keep up the wait and see approach.

10k deaths due to a government snafu seems to be a wonderful way to kill your own political future.

[Deltaray]

And since almost everyone locked in are gamers, so best chance really is in this case to just wait it out, and this topic could be done in anime thread instead imo.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

If it was only an issue about server, things could be worked around. What's the biggest problem though is the Nervegear, which was solely developed by a single individual.
So it is very unlikely they can suddenly crack through it, especially if there are both electronic and physical locks that would discharge the microwaves.

If your suspension of disbelief can accept VRMMO like SAO, then you should actually accept the premise that government and all wouldn't dare options that might kill players in the process (that and I doubt any family would gladly accept a "test" that could spell doom of the said player).

Honestly, given the time frame that n120cky just alluded to, I'm inclined to think he has a very good point.

Over a year of this SAO Crisis (from the Real World's perspective) going on is quite substantial. That's a helluva lot of resources that the government must simply be dumping into feeding tubes and bedpans for thousands of presumably hospitalized SAO players (I say "presumably", because I just consider this a logical guess on my part, I haven't read the source material).

Honestly, I'd have to think that patience is running severely thin in the real world right now, and many families are at (or even beyond) the brink of wanting to risk dangerous rescue efforts to try to save their loved ones. I mean, if I was the father or brother of one of the people trapped in this game, I'd probably be on the verge of a mental breakdown after a solid year of them being trapped in this game, and basically kept on life support in the real world. I feel no shame in admitting that, as I think it's pretty normal.

Anger would be boiling over, patience would be running out, demands to get to the bottom of this and stop this madness would be growing in intensity on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. Government inaction would eventually seem utterly unacceptable.


All of the above being said, I've kind of come to accept that SAO just doesn't care about the real world side of its premise. That's unfortunate, but so be it. I'll be fine as long as they start caring about the overarching plot within SAO, starting next episode, at least.

[n120cky]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

All of the above being said, I've kind of come to accept that SAO just doesn't care about the real world side of its premise. That's really unfortunate, but so be it. I'll be fine as long as they start caring about the overarching plot within SAO, starting next episode, at least.

Well that's the point, because it's Sword Art Online that it's has Offline part of it which is only very little of it mentioned in the series.
SOA did have interesting way on heroic & fantasy stories, for now as this series still new I think we'll just need to wait and see how the plot will connect the online and the offline part.

[LKK]

I finally got around to watching this week's episode. (CR's stream schedule for SAO doesn't easily fit into my RL schedule. Grr) I didn't think episode 4 was as emotionally compelling as episode 3. On the other hand, I thought ep 4 was a better organized, better explained episode than 3 was. I felt that I learned much more about Kirito and about the SAO world as a whole. So in the end, I thought ep 4 was on par with ep 3 but for different reasons and rated the 2 as the same.

I suppose I should confess something. I have never played a MMO or any computer game more complicated than Mahjong Titans or Minesweeper. As a result, there are times when this forum feels like its using some weird foreign language to describe what's going on. So I really appreciated the explanations that were given in this episode.

[Rakshasa]

If the players that die don't die IRL, then that would give the government huge incentives to leave things as is. Cause if they were to try to forcibly remove people they'd be risking deaths.

On the other hand RL deaths upon character death is also not entirely implausible, cause if the electronics get fried when disconnected or dying then there would be no way to reverse-engineer or circumvent the gear. And court cases between relatives, government and 3rd parties would no doubt drag out a long time making it impossible to put anyone's life at risk.

Besides, the deaths would have stabilised after almost two years so better leave it. Imagine if there's a global anti-circumvention mechanism in place, or even just the threat of one?

Try to drill into or otherwise access the gear of one person, and they all die. Even just the threat of that left behind by the creator would put all attempts on permanent hold.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Rakshasa

If the players that die don't die IRL, then that would give the government huge incentives to leave things as is. Cause if they were to try to forcibly remove people they'd be risking deaths.

That's a good point. If the system works that way, then I can totally understand and accept government inaction. It becomes a pure matter of patience then.

[Xaturas]

I'm Amazed.

This episode was damn perfect. I cannot remember when was the last time that I repeated scenes so many times while watching. That bridge scene where Kirito showed the bitch who's the boss I repeated like 5-10 times, and everything was perfect even the sudden music change.

Frankly if next episodes will be as perfect as this one, I have one of my all time favorites.

Loved everything about this ep from start to finish.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Honestly, given the time frame that n120cky just alluded to, I'm inclined to think he has a very good point.

Over a year of this SAO Crisis (from the Real World's perspective) going on is quite substantial. That's a helluva lot of resources that the government must simply be dumping into feeding tubes and bedpans for thousands of presumably hospitalized SAO players (I say "presumably", because I just consider this a logical guess on my part, I haven't read the source material).

Honestly, I'd have to think that patience is running severely thin in the real world right now, and many families are at (or even beyond) the brink of wanting to risk dangerous rescue efforts to try to save their loved ones. I mean, if I was the father or brother of one of the people trapped in this game, I'd probably be on the verge of a mental breakdown after a solid year of them being trapped in this game, and basically kept on life support in the real world. I feel no shame in admitting that, as I think it's pretty normal.

Anger would be boiling over, patience would be running out, demands to get to the bottom of this and stop this madness would be growing in intensity on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. Government inaction would eventually seem utterly unacceptable.


All of the above being said, I've kind of come to accept that SAO just doesn't care about the real world side of its premise. That's unfortunate, but so be it. I'll be fine as long as they start caring about the overarching plot within SAO, starting next episode, at least.

I don't really agree with this. The financial costs would certainly not be a pleasant thing, but neither is the likely extreme resources being committed to hunting down the man responsible and getting him to free the players without risking killing them. I don't think the budget would push the government to risk thousands of lives. Forget not getting re-elected they might be the ones up for criminal charges if this turns into a massacre. Besides if you just want to look at the financial side this situation is creating jobs. The jobs vacated by those in the game, the need for medical personal, and maybe even more police to help hunt down the guy behind this. Add in how much money is wasted by governments anyways no point about them complaining about keeping these people alive.

At this point I think the anger will have passed. Now in the first months that's when the anger should be at the most intense. Parents, relatives, etc, all wanting their loved ones out right now. But the initial deaths would be a strong deterrent towards doing anything. After all what if the guy set things up so if you try to hack or disable the equipment more than just the one person dies? What if 100 people die? Who is seriously going to be risking that many innocent lives?

Besides the attention span of the public is pretty poor. After a year some disaster must have happened in the world that would draw attention and allow the situation to sit in limbo. After a certain amount of time the public can be content with "we're searching for the man responsible, we're looking into options that won't risk the hostages, etc." Maybe even throw in a "we believe in our citizens and that they can overcome this situation and escape." For the families I think most would prefer to just believe their loved ones can return rather than want to risk their lives. Even if there are some that want action they probably aren't numerous enough to warrant the government taking any extra actions besides sending out those messages. There would be enough disagreement between both camps to warrant just leaving things as they are.

I think you can look at the real world aspect of this multiple ways. I think it's more likely the early deaths would help to deter any extreme actions and the passage of time would simmer the boiling anger allowing the public to wait it out. Think there is enough plausible reasons why nothing has seemingly been done from the outside.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Honestly, given the time frame that n120cky just alluded to, I'm inclined to think he has a very good point.

Over a year of this SAO Crisis (from the Real World's perspective) going on is quite substantial. That's a helluva lot of resources that the government must simply be dumping into feeding tubes and bedpans for thousands of presumably hospitalized SAO players (I say "presumably", because I just consider this a logical guess on my part, I haven't read the source material).

Honestly, I'd have to think that patience is running severely thin in the real world right now, and many families are at (or even beyond) the brink of wanting to risk dangerous rescue efforts to try to save their loved ones. I mean, if I was the father or brother of one of the people trapped in this game, I'd probably be on the verge of a mental breakdown after a solid year of them being trapped in this game, and basically kept on life support in the real world. I feel no shame in admitting that, as I think it's pretty normal.

Anger would be boiling over, patience would be running out, demands to get to the bottom of this and stop this madness would be growing in intensity on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. Government inaction would eventually seem utterly unacceptable.

If it makes you feel better, just assume that attempts have been made, and that they killed the test subjects. What's so hard to believe about that?

Originally Posted by Rakshasa

If the players that die don't die IRL, then that would give the government huge incentives to leave things as is. Cause if they were to try to forcibly remove people they'd be risking deaths.

On the other hand RL deaths upon character death is also not entirely implausible, cause if the electronics get fried when disconnected or dying then there would be no way to reverse-engineer or circumvent the gear. And court cases between relatives, government and 3rd parties would no doubt drag out a long time making it impossible to put anyone's life at risk.

Reverse engineering isn't a problem. They have plenty of working samples. They probably even have the blueprints on file.

The problem is that they were made well enough it's not possible to disable them without killing the wearer.