You know, it’s at times like this that I think it’s most important for all of us to remember not to jump to conclusions. I know you want to. I know I want to. And it’d certainly be easy! Over time, as these episodes have stretched on, I’ve given snide little asides and mini-sermons on what I think of the underlying philosophy of this show. How it plays into perverse, naive ideas of meritocracy popular among gamers or outsiders in general. How it doesn’t really seem to understand human beings on more than a superficial, “man-creatures do this” level. How it seems to like violence just maybe a little bit too much. And it’d be easy to extrapolate from this that, say, all gamers are psychopaths who dream only of murder. Or that videogames are popular because they provide the killing fields these bloodlust-crazed time bombs so desperately desire. Or that Sword Art Online represents an idealized view of the world written from the perspective of a person who knows he deserves to rule, scorns those who currently thwart him in the cruel outer world, and longs for the day when he will bring swift and long-awaited justice in the form of righteous, delicious, endless acts of brutal, merciless violence.
But let’s not jump to conclusions.
I could be frank, though!
Should I be frank?
Alright, let’s level for just a brief moment here.
(And before we begin, let me make it clear that I am not talking about “all gamers,” that my statements come from a position of extreme investment in the medium, that everyone I know and am friends with plays videogames, and that I will probably be playing some Soul Calibur tonight or hopefully New Super Mario Bros if I can convince my housemate to let me use his system)
If you read these posts, if you follow my twitter, if you’ve visited my ask.fm, you probably know I have a, to put it charitably, “dim view” of the gaming community at large. I don’t think this is because videogames turn people into monsters, although I’ll get to that in a moment. I think it’s because videogames are what they are.
They’re alternate worlds. Escapism in the form of controlled realities. They are inherently appealing to people who feel powerless, and people who feel powerless often feel the desire to exert power. They’re a specialist interest, leading to insular communities. They were traditionally the domain of boys shunned by social circumstances, leading to an ingrained undercurrent of resentment and an us-versus-them mentality. They make strict, logical sense, a comfort to people who wish the world or other people would do the same.
All of these things lead to gaming surrounding itself with a community predisposed towards some pretty negative stuff. And this is compounded by the fact that videogames are Murder Training Devices.
Alright, hopefully that got your attention, even if it’s a lie. Because it is a lie – if videogames are murder training devices, they are not particularly good ones. But it is true that our media influences us. Forms our cultural landscape. Tells us what is normal and unacceptable. Makes us feel more or feel less. And perhaps most importantly, our media helps us grow.
Which is really the biggest single problem I have with someone who dedicates their life to gaming, and one of the central problems exhibited by Sword Art Online. It’s most strongly illustrated by the villains here, but it’s evident in almost all the characters – they don’t feel like people. They seem like ideas of people, like stories received from a book or, more likely, a videogame. In order to create stories, you must engage with the world, and engagement with the world requires absorbing a variety of rich experiences and rich media. Games are, to be frank, not there yet. They are still largely toys, and cannot substitute for an engagement with the world through literature, film, and human experience. The problem with games isn’t that they are good for you or bad for you – it’s that they are nothing for you. Two hundred hours spent in Call of Duty does not teach you one single thing about why someone might be led to commit an “immoral” action. Fifty hours of mastering a specific speed run won’t give you a single insight into how people react to traumatic circumstance.
Sword Art Online is hamstrung by the fact that its author did too much research, and too little engaging with the world. He does not understand people, and so he cannot write them or empathize with them. His story is an extension of himself, and his shadow does not extend very far.
That may be the harshest thing I’ve ever said about a writer! But it’s honestly the impression I get from this work. The binary worldview, the simplistic characters, the gleeful violence – I think it all comes back to this guy just not spending enough time really trying to understand other people. And I kinda feel sorry for him, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on his creepy little adventure.
It’s time to finish this, old friend. Let’s Sword Art Online.