×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
INTEREST: On This Day in Sword Art Online History, Kirito Clears the Game




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Thespacemaster



Joined: 03 Mar 2012
Posts: 1170
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 7:17 am Reply with quote
This probably one of the reasons why so few titles would have set future dates in a a futuristic sci fi show, especially one that is still said in this century as than the fandom would go crazy the date has been reached.

Wow i still can't believe it. this book came out over a decade and now we are here and time sure flies. I still remember the day it first aired and people were all over early social medai talking about SAO and the like. ... Ahh im getting old and sentimental. Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 13902
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 10:06 am Reply with quote
Wow, how time flies. Congrats again, Kirito!

I kind of wish they would've released info on the upcoming new movie though.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4807
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 10:46 am Reply with quote
I think the fact that SAO took place in such a near-future normal-world setting is a big part of why it lost me straight from the drop, even before any of its later nonsense. The fact that spoiler[one guy was able to not only slip killswitch code into a game engine without anyone noticing, but also hide a microwave transmitter powerful enough to fry brains in a piece of mass-market consumer hardware], killed my suspension of disbelief. If you're going to pull such things without any good explanation, at least go a few more decades out so you can handwave it somehow.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4021
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 11:33 am Reply with quote
‘Grats, Kirito!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18458
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 12:00 pm Reply with quote
Top Gun wrote:
I think the fact that SAO took place in such a near-future normal-world setting is a big part of why it lost me straight from the drop, even before any of its later nonsense. The fact that spoiler[one guy was able to not only slip killswitch code into a game engine without anyone noticing, but also hide a microwave transmitter powerful enough to fry brains in a piece of mass-market consumer hardware], killed my suspension of disbelief. If you're going to pull such things without any good explanation, at least go a few more decades out so you can handwave it somehow.

You can still make this complaint after the incident with Hezbollah's exploding pagers and walkie-talkies a couple of months ago?

(And BTW, that's a foundational element of the series' premise that's revealed in episode 1, so speaking as a Mod, it doesn't necessitate spoiler tags.)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4807
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 12:14 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I can, because said incident was the result of arguably the world's most effective intelligence agency making a coordinated effort to target specific hardware going to specific people. Not, like...one guy, who magically happened to be an expert game developer, engine coder, AND hardware designer. People give Kirito crap for being a Gary Stu, but in retrospect maybe we all should have been directing that at Kayaba. But to get back to my main point, how does such an obviously-dangerous piece of mass-market consumer hardware get past Japan's equivalent of FCC transmission standards or UL certification? Hell, let's go even simpler than that: what's one of the first things that shows up on YouTube whenever a new piece of gaming hardware is released? That's right, a full teardown video to look at its internals. So absolutely no one cracked this thing open and noticed the brain melter in there? Or no one on the production line at the factory? Literally no one saw this coming?

Like I said, I wouldn't harp on this so much if the franchise was set 40 or 50 years down the road and handwaved a lot of the basic technical advancements required, in the vein of Ghost in the Shell or something. But Kawahara chose to set it in our own world in the near future, and as a result the basic premise quickly falls apart if you start thinking about it for any real length of time.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1052
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 3:20 pm Reply with quote
I don't see a problem with the NervGear having a microwave transmitter in it. It's a device that interfaces directly with the human brain without need for an implant, so clearly it's transmitting data into the head somehow. If the author says it's using microwaves, I can buy that. At that point the only suspension of disbelief is over the device's power, and I have no problem accepting that Argus could obfuscate that information when government inspectors looked at the device, or simply bribed them to look the other way. But even those scenarios might not be necessary, because it's not unheard of for companies to install overpowered components and then nerf them because it's cheaper than having the parts made to spec.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
lucio542



Joined: 11 Apr 2015
Posts: 292
Location: Brazil
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 3:36 pm Reply with quote
Its been 12 years huh, in that time VR was starting to become more famous, prototypes of what we have today were being tested, but obvioulsy nothing that can compare to SAO, and i don't think i'll see us reach that level on my lifetime, but i would be happy to know if that's gonna be possible one day.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4807
PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 5:49 pm Reply with quote
Utsuro no Hako wrote:
I don't see a problem with the NervGear having a microwave transmitter in it. It's a device that interfaces directly with the human brain without need for an implant, so clearly it's transmitting data into the head somehow. If the author says it's using microwaves, I can buy that. At that point the only suspension of disbelief is over the device's power, and I have no problem accepting that Argus could obfuscate that information when government inspectors looked at the device, or simply bribed them to look the other way. But even those scenarios might not be necessary, because it's not unheard of for companies to install overpowered components and then nerf them because it's cheaper than having the parts made to spec.

Yeah, I know some of this may sound like minor quibbling, but these are legitimately the thoughts I was left with after watching the first episode when it aired on [as] years ago. And then I went on to "Well I can think of two or three feasible ways they could deal with those headsets without frying the person inside," and just like that the show lost me. Like I said, this is the danger you run into when you set your story in the very near future, because you risk turning away some of your audience if they don't buy into the feasibility of your premise. Maybe Kawahara did put some thought into these possibilities, but at the bare minimum it didn't come through in what I watched.

(And note that all of this was before I got to all of the gross rapey shit in the series, so you can guess where my opinion of it went then...)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Xavon



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 381
Location: Minnesota
PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 12:20 am Reply with quote
It is too bad that so many people died. But thankfully, even more were saved and are now free.

Now we just have to wait for all the aliens to move in so SPD can happen next year.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 2674
PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 11:20 am Reply with quote
The thing that stuck with me regarding the whole affair is how quickly people were willing to jump into a VR game again after having seen/heard about how horrible it can all end up. Yeah, they promised that such a tragedy would never happen with the new AmuSphere but you are still taking a risk.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 3:19 pm Reply with quote
Top Gun wrote:
...How does such an obviously-dangerous piece of mass-market consumer hardware get past Japan's equivalent of FCC transmission standards or UL certification.


Deregulation.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group