I think it makes sense in at least one way: The Sword Art Online that so many people have come to love, through the light novels and anime, is a single-player experience: There are a small handful of main characters, relationships, and stories, into which the reader/viewer can project themselves, and that has proven to deliver a lot of fun. That’s what it’s like to read a book or watch a show, and it works here.
Sure, the setting happens to be an MMO world, but it serves mainly as a backdrop, with a few game mechanics chosen not to produce a balanced MMO but instead to support the story. Some of those mechanics are IMHO the real inside joke, since they’re often the same ones that people hate in real multiplayer games because they reward antisocial behavior. Their presence in SAO feels to me like a sympathetic nod to fellow gamers who have suffered through them in actual gameplay.
I don’t think SAO’s strengths would lend well to becoming an MMO. If someone were to try it, I would expect it to be a flop. That is, unless the designers and rights holders were willing to let go of the established rules and characters, and somehow manage to create something inspired, thematic, and fun enough to stand on its own as a multiplayer experience.
I would rather have no SAO MMO than a bad SAO MMO.
I think it makes sense in at least one way: The Sword Art Online that so many people have come to love, through the light novels and anime, is a single-player experience: There are a small handful of main characters, relationships, and stories, into which the reader/viewer can project themselves, and that has proven to deliver a lot of fun. That’s what it’s like to read a book or watch a show, and it works here.
Sure, the setting happens to be an MMO world, but it serves mainly as a backdrop, with a few game mechanics chosen not to produce a balanced MMO but instead to support the story. Some of those mechanics are IMHO the real inside joke, since they’re often the same ones that people hate in real multiplayer games because they reward antisocial behavior. Their presence in SAO feels to me like a sympathetic nod to fellow gamers who have suffered through them in actual gameplay.
I don’t think SAO’s strengths would lend well to becoming an MMO. If someone were to try it, I would expect it to be a flop. That is, unless the designers and rights holders were willing to let go of the established rules and characters, and somehow manage to create something inspired, thematic, and fun enough to stand on its own as a multiplayer experience.
I would rather have no SAO MMO than a bad SAO MMO.
Not everyone can be Kirito in an mmo.