The Matrix, or .hack//SIGN as influence?

[chris the cynic]

I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'd never even heard of .hack//SIGN until... I saw this exact post of yours over on GameFAQs yesterday

I feel ignored:

To put it another way.
I watched .hack//sign. I liked .hack//sign. I bought .hack//sign. It is the only anime I can say that about. Not one episode of .hack//sign passed without them reminding you that just about everything that you saw was being done by users on computers and thus (with a few rare exceptions) none of it was real. They never broke the fourth wall.

Well not really ignored considering you responded to that on the same day I posted it. More forgotten really.

In fact I looked it up, and its run started 4 months after work on TNM had begun (of course that still left plenty of time for the series to inspire TNM had I know about it, but unfortunately I did not). But it sounds quite compelling, I'll see if I can obtain a copy and check it out.

I certainly recomend it.

The first episode I saw was Cartoon Network's English dubbed version of episode 9 (Epitaph.)

[Mr_Cyberpunk]

LOL at Reboot could you get any more older Jonas.

[Jcelios]

Reboot's not that old.

[Jonas]

LOL at Reboot could you get any more older Jonas.

I'm the same age as you, dude. Just because you feel old, doesn't mean I have to

[Dark Reality]

Wait, you guys are talking about fans or admirers of a show from 1994 as being "old"?

Hold up now.

Not only was I the biggest fan of ThunderCATS (link goes to wiki), but I remember when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a cartoon and called Voltron (again, link to wiki). That's not how it happened exactly, but that's how it seemed when it happened, before Wikipedia spoiled assumptions for good by organizing facts and stuff.

But hell, I know I'm old...

[Andy.G]

FLCL is so much better of a show

I second that.

Anyhow, I guess both hack//:sign and The Nameless Mod are both tackling a simular theme in terms of online game......

[Jcelios]

Yes I liked FLCL also.

And.................
Reboot STARTED broadcasting in 1994, it ran until 2001!.

[Arnaud G. Vasquez]

To date, there are actually seven games in the .hack series, though only the first four (Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine) correlate with .hack//SIGN. The next three (Rebirth, Reminisce, and Redemption) correlate with .hack//ROOTS - a second anime - and they all take place years after the original .hack timeline, sporting a new version of The World to boot.

Anyhow, I never watched .hack//SIGN, but I played through the original quadrilogy - which I liked well enough - and the first G.U. game, which I found faster but much less intriguing. I definitely have noticed .hack influence so far in TNM, unintentional or otherwise, but then a game/simulation/forum and a simulated MMORPG aren't so separate anyhow. At least there aren't Eight Phases out to turn all of the avatars into dummy data or irascible game overlords that screw with everything the heroes try to do. Okay, well, maybe the second a little bit.

[Jonas]

At least there aren't Eight Phases out to turn all of the avatars into dummy data or irascible game overlords that screw with everything the heroes try to do.

Damnit, there goes my plans for the sequel!

[Arnaud G. Vasquez]

I...I am a wretch for having crushed another man's dreams. =(

Oh, don't worry Jonas. You can rip off Xenosaga instead and have some pseudo-Judeo-Christian-sci-fi-operatic babbling about the New Jerusalem, replete with cannibalism and intra-species copulation. Call it "The Shameless Mod." Best idea evar.

[Dark Reality]

To date, there are actually seven games in the .hack series, though only the first four (Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine) correlate with .hack//SIGN. The next three (Rebirth, Reminisce, and Redemption) correlate with .hack//ROOTS - a second anime - and they all take place years after the original .hack timeline, sporting a new version of The World to boot.

Anyhow, I never watched .hack//SIGN, but I played through the original quadrilogy - which I liked well enough - and the first G.U. game, which I found faster but much less intriguing. I definitely have noticed .hack influence so far in TNM, unintentional or otherwise, but then a game/simulation/forum and a simulated MMORPG aren't so separate anyhow. At least there aren't Eight Phases out to turn all of the avatars into dummy data or irascible game overlords that screw with everything the heroes try to do. Okay, well, maybe the second a little bit.

Oh, and hey there DXNathan / DarkRealityX. You don't know me by this handle, but hey there anyhow.

I have a habit of pretending that anything that doesn't involve Tsukasa or Aura isn't .hack. I know it's grown much more past those elements, but after they moved on is when I stopped caring. Though I got the .hack GU "Trilogy" shortly after getting my HDTV, and, while I didn't enjoy it for the same reasons I enjoyed .hack//SIGN, I watched it with my jaw on the floor - nothing's looked as good on my TV since.

So you have me at a disadvantage, friend - what handle do I know you by?

[Arnaud G. Vasquez]

I can understand. Though the quadrilogy was more of a hack 'n' slash than any other game I've played to date, I still enjoyed it quite a lot and invested plenty of playing time into the four titles. I played through the first G.U. game - and while battling was definitely flashier, the second incarnation of The World was rather distasteful to me, as was the joke of a new lead character. I did watch a few episodes of .hack//ROOTS, but it too grated on me.

Also, technically, Aura is in the G.U. world - just barely, though, and the way they portray her is rather...rude, I think, and a disservice to the Aura we knew in The World version 1.

But nay, this is a Nameless Mod discussion...and the encounter with The Narcissus Entity accessible by killing Scara at first meeting rang several old .hack bells about the players of The World wondering how the game's scripts would handle dramatic changes...or, namely, how it wasn't handling them well and was attempting to overcorrect. Again, I realize that the OTP developers were totally unaware of this, but I find the correlations intriguing regardless.

[chris the cynic]

Twilight is a lie. (I also don't care about the series beyond .hack//sign, Tsukasa-Aura was .hack to me.)

Also, the gloves my character in TNM wears are based on Tsukasa's.