There is no doubt that writerÂ Reki KawaharaÂ ofÂ Sword Art OnlineÂ andÂ Accel WorldÂ is a writer of our times. His obsession with virtual reality elements in games is something that ties in very intimately with our modern gaming culture and the possibilities we have imagined for the gaming industry. Seeing as franchises likeÂ .hack pioneered some of these concepts in anime long ago, Kawahara did not exactly invent the wheel here. However, unlike franchises such as .hack, there is a much more intrinsic focus on the social and personal implications of entirely different worlds that we can access at our finger tips.

Mass media has typically characterized the social implications of games on players as something negative. Particularly as it pertains to shooters and MMORPGâ€™s (Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), there exists a media caricature of the typical obsessed gamer who, because of games, has become socially withdrawn and increasingly psychologically unsound. The idea is that if a gamer spends all his time wrapped up in some fantasy world where things might be too graphic or unrealistic, then their very psyche somehow becomes warped. Moreover, there seems to be some greater social worry that players of games are not really living life by being trapped in these fantasy worlds. Denigrating comments and observations such as these are pretty common. For example:

“We are now seeing some people devoting their whole lives to gaming,” says Dudley, who offers a 12-step abstinence programme to those suffering from a wide range of addictions, including alcohol, drugs and sex. “Some spend 18 hours a day playing on their computers. Immersive role-playingÂ gamesÂ such asÂ World of WarcraftÂ andÂ Call of DutyÂ hook people and let them live in a fantasy world. The online element to the game lets them falsely believe they have lots of friends. Some people were reported to have taken a week off work just to play Call of Duty when it was released recently.” – Leo Hickman, “Are videogames bad for your health?” The Guardian.

This is representative of the general mass media attitude towards gamers, but such a perception of gaming also lacks a nuanced perspective.Â Why can’t immersing oneself in a virtual world be a positive experience instead? Sword Art Online, at least, seems to have an alternative answer to the impact of gaming on its players and what future possibilities it could hold: it is a powerful outlet for peopleâ€™s imaginations and fantasies.

The virtual reality of Aincrad in Sword Art Online is in many ways a gamerâ€™s ultimate fantasy. Aincrad is the full realization of immersion in a fictional world, which is by far one of the largest appeals of gaming. By putting on the high tech NERV gear you can all of a sudden become a completely different person in an entirely different place, separated from the real world, that feels just about every bit as genuine as real life. This hyperrealism is further facilitated by the fact that the game gives full control oneâ€™s five senses, allowing players to experience the full pleasures of tasks such as eating and sleeping. This goes beyond things like books and movies since, unlike these mediums which provide the fantasy for you, you are in control of your own fantasy.

While a lot of viewers might have been caught in the horror of the death trap that is Aincrad, I think the more important factor here is that this virtual world has been established as a reality practically indistinguishable from the real world in terms of what it means to live. The fact that players cannot log out, and that death in the game results in death in real life, just serves to further illustrate this point. There is nothing fake about this gaming experience.