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Understanding Sword Art Online

Entertainment is the only product in our kids' lives where parents will go "So what if it's crappy? It's just for my children." You don't say that about anything else in their lives. "What? It's just a car seat! So what if the belt barely works?" "What? It's just food." And do you know why that is? Is it because you want your kids or yourself to be enriched? No. It's because kids are stupid, and you don't care what they watch, and you just want them to shut up!

That's what I'm getting from you. "So what if it's 'crappy'? It's just entertainment!" No it's not. Not to me. Not to countless people. You're allowed to enjoy your media the way you want, just as I and a lot of other members of this community are allowed to enjoy our media the way we want. To insinuate that our method is somehow wrong is plain sh*tty. I may not think SAO is the bee's knees, but there is a lot of effort and passion that I can never fault these people for having. Why can't you give that same respect for us?

Akane the Catgirl wrote:

That's what I'm getting from you. "So what if it's 'crappy'? It's just entertainment!" No it's not. Not to me. Not to countless people. You're allowed to enjoy your media the way you want, just as I and a lot of other members of this community are allowed to enjoy our media the way we want. To insinuate that our method is somehow wrong is plain sh*tty. I may not think SAO is the bee's knees, but there is a lot of effort and passion that I can never fault these people for having. Why can't you give that same respect for us?

I think it's because of how nasty and pretentious, rather than inclusive and informative, that many people who criticize series get.

There's always people like yourself, who are just trying to properly express their opinion and write something fascinating and informative, but when you're faced with self-proclaimed professional critics like Digibro and his YouTube cohorts - as well as a slew of relatively nasty people in the comments sections of articles on series like this - who would rather just insult a fanbase, it colours the perception of all of those who write criticism.

Yeah, I hate those sorts of guys too. I don't really watch Digibro, though. My opinion of the first season is actually a lot like Tristan Arkada's in that I was more disappointed than miffed. Though I do have some cautious optimism for the second season, which features fan favorites Sinon and Yuuki...

What a sad time to live in to see people using random Youtubers to say if something is good or not.

SAO isn't my favorite show, but I enjoyed it. Log Horizon and .hack as well. My main criticism would be how it keeps changing games. I think I'd be more into it if it kept the same game the enttire way.

SAO isn't my favorite show, but I enjoyed it. Log Horizon and .hack as well. My main criticism would be how it keeps changing games. I think I'd be more into it if it kept the same game the enttire way.

Chester McCool wrote:

SAO isn't my favorite show, but I enjoyed it. Log Horizon and .hack as well. My main criticism would be how it keeps changing games. I think I'd be more into it if it kept the same game the enttire way.

The changing Games/genres bit is actually a meta part of the overall storytelling in SAO (Series). Its the social interactions and motivations of the playerbases, in addition to the environments, of each game (SAO/Aincrad, ALO, GGO) that Kawahara was also trying to define. The SAO game was more focused on typical fantasy MMO Guild/Crafters/soloists. ALO (Fairy Dance) highlighted a mix of political and larger-scale conflicts. And GGO focused on the competitive nature heightened in FPS gaming.

Also the switching of environments also allows just how versatile the VR OS actually is.

Game-switching doesn't bother me at all.....but the "Sword Art" part does. I don't get why Kawahara doesn't just do the Bakemonogatari thing (like with "-tari") and just switch up the names to "Alfheim Online", "Gun Gale Online" etc.

Did he think that would be too confusing?

EDIT: And can we please start talking about SAO again? I think we're veering off topic.

You're allowed to enjoy your media the way you want, just as I and a lot of other members of this community are allowed to enjoy our media the way we want. To insinuate that our method is somehow wrong is plain sh*tty. I may not think SAO is the bee's knees, but there is a lot of effort and passion that I can never fault these people for having. Why can't you give that same respect for us?

That's what I'm getting from you. "So what if it's 'crappy'? It's just entertainment!" No it's not. Not to me. Not to countless people.

Look, Actar, I'm going to be very brief. When you say things like "there's no such thing as objectivity in art", I can only take it as an insult. It's an insult to the critic in me that aims to seek meaning in the media I love. It's an insult to the writer in me that tries her best to keep improving. I'm not sure you meant to insult me, but you did.

Chiibi wrote:

Game-switching doesn't bother me at all.....but the "Sword Art" part does. I don't get why Kawahara doesn't just do the Bakemonogatari thing (like with "-tari") and just switch up the names to "Alfheim Online", "Gun Gale Online" etc. Did he think that would be too confusing?

*-monogatari, you mean. :3