Sorry, Internet. The ‘Sword Art Online’ VR MMO Isn’t Real

I’ll wait til March and be let down. I don’t need you letting me down a month in advance!

im going to wait to be let down… this article had allot of mistakes! in the anime they were playing the full game… and btw the Alpha is before a Beta so…… thanks allot

The biggest clue to me that this is an “experience” rather than a real alpha is that the author of SAO is cited as in charge of the “scenario” (シナリオ)–this term is analogous to script/story of a multimedia production, and indicates that the demo involves a story written by someone rather than pure VR tech exploration. Of course, I half-hoped that referred to some brief scripted events or quests, but how often does an MMO alpha bother to cite a single writer? At the very least, I think the parties involved aren’t serious about a VRMMO at this point.

(Edit: Now that the event has happened, congratulations! Turns out you were right, even with the speculative evidence presented.)

Speculation: The article.
You might be right, but nothing really proves it, and you just have one comment from a random japanese guy, who is not actually involved with the project.

You also got the story-elements about SAO wrong. Players were NOT trapped in a beta. The first two episodes even made a big deal about how the beta was months ago. They were trapped in the first round of the live game.

im not really let down/ it was obvious that it would take a while for the game itself along with the technology to make the game

gg, nerd

Also the tampering with the nerve-gear wasn’t that didn’t allow them to move it because it blocked the brain waves. They were in a trance like state putting the nerve-gear on. It was simply liking their virtual selves with the it actual selves. If they died in the game they died for real because the nerve-gear would overload (or something to that effect) and fry their brains. If tried to be unplugged or have the nerve-gear removed they would also die in the same fashion.

Hold on everyone. Maybe it isn’t what we all wanted. Maybe it isn’t going to be a full game… yet. If what this post saids is true then its a TEST!!! We are in 2016 people. They are calling this the year of VR. So stop with the negativity please. The technology currently exists in a more or less prototype stage. And the race for a full immersion virtual reality system is underway. Its the end goal and every company that is participating wants to win that race because it will be huge. Trust me. I could see this being a real thing within the next 10 years or even less. We are constantly pushing the limits of our technology and we have yet to hit a wall we can’t break through. VR will not only make the gaming community happy but will change the world as we know it. New social media will be developed, Advanced graphical design, new mental medical treatments the list goes on. Of course this is one of humanities goals. Besides if this is the real deal (which o hope it is personally) then we won’t see it available until another 1 maybe 2 years. Its uncharted waters we’re stepping in and we have to be careful. So don’t give up yet it is coming. Wait till March. See what happens next.
My point being its a TEST!!!

As an ex-IBM engineer myself, I believe this article’s writer is too easily came to a conclusion with someone in the VR industry who are not from IBM (that makes him an “unofficial” indirect competitor of IBM). Yes, I do agree IBM love marketing gimmicks to promote their technology, they did that all the time. However, Cognitive Computing technology is a very real thing with complex AI capability, it is designed to mimic human thinking process and thus act like a natural human brain, this is what makes it different between IBM and the rest of the VR companies.

So, it is still too early to tell what IBM can do and capable to do with the SAO-alike VR gaming technology. Just like when Oculas first introduced VR headset, it is a mind blowing news that many did thought that it is just another gimmick, but a few years later and see what it has evolved today? Don’t underestimate the technologies and financial capabilities of IBM, internally it was said that the technology you see in the news now usually was first working on around 20 years ago.

One thing is certain, your support to this “marketing gimmick” will determine if IBM would continue this SAO’s VR gaming research or not. Just like any other newly developed technology, please be positive, have high hopes and supportive instead of simply bashing it aside without letting it have chance to thrive.

http://imgur.com/a/VgU0K just see this

actually i just wanna say that the article have sth got wrong about sao project.

Firstly, i think it is acceptable that an alpha test take place in a public area have time limitation. it is impossible for all 208 person to test in tokyo for all 3 days, due to source restriction. and it will make a bad testing environment for testers i think. hence everyone is limited for using 20 mins and let the others to try after 20 mins is fair to everyone isn’t?

and the more important thing is that the sao setting is not in beta@@ as everybody here mentioned. （https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_Art_Online）here already mentioned that sword art online is an ob type game and the beta days have passed several months ago

moreover is that the website(http://www.vrmmo-project.jp/) did mentioned Dr. Kayaba Akihiko several times in the introduction and prologue. however what it mean in the introduction is kayaba’s theory is suppose to be still staying in a dream , but with IBM’s technology and cooperation, there may be a chance to goal kayaba’s theory in the future and now starts __2016. and in the prologue part, it mentioned many times kayaba’s name and the whole thing shares about the experience that kayaba have, and his theory and point of view before he invented sao, and it NEVER MENTIONED A WORD ＩＢＭ so your statement that kayaba met with ibm researcher is wrong.

and also for your evidence about the (1→10) company, it is not a company which create marketing experience for pepsi, it also participate in alot of invention projects for example robot pepper in japan. and the event of the pepsi vr doesn’t mean that this time sao the beginning is ALSO ONLY a marketing event, both events doesn’t have direct relationship.

and for the part that you have spoken with shun kubota do you have any evidence to prove that you have been talking with him and also the dialogue is that real?

and also the last thing wanna say is that even though only 20 mins for each person to test, it doesn’t mean is only a booth , or it doens’t mean the whole project is a liar, and it doesn’t mean that the project will just stop here as they finished their advertising mission and not gonna continue the project, and also doesn’t mean that sao can’t come true in the future. personally, the facts are all gonna be shown on 18 march but not now, SO I PERSONALLY THINK THAT DONT MAKE YOUR OWN GUESS AND TRY TO MAKE IT INTO A FACT AND REALITY. thx

Maybe you have a point. But then again, it’s just an alpha release. That’s why only 208 people will get to see it so that no one would let their hopes down. That’s why it is only 20 min experience ‘couse it is not a full release. I don’t really get it why you think negatively about it.

I wonder why people keep focusing on the Full-dive VR technology only, they are disappointed when it is not about that. In SAO story, one of the most important technology is the AI can create new mission in real time based on the gamer’s behavior and personality, thus it will need “Yui”, the supportive AI that monitor every gamer’s though and analyze their emotion. This is exactly what IBM Watson is capable of (Cognitive Computing) and they are showing it off through this event.

I beg to differ. Damnit anything is just about possible with science.

http://www.theallstate.org/2016/03/02/sword-art-online-video-game-announced/

The article that I have linked claims to have direct links from IBM, stating that they wish to bring the virtual reality of Sword Art Online to our livingrooms. This would direcly conflict with the articles claiming Sword Art Online: The Beginning to be fake. The intriguing point to make in regards to this article is that it was only posted 3 days ago, which was after all of the articles claiming Sword Art Online The Beginning to be a fluke (given all the articles spawned from “The Road to VR” article which has a lot of errors regarding the game and series itself). Take a look and tell me what you think.

I get what you’re saying, but I did research and I’d like to confirm something. While it’s true that VR is just starting, I believe that a tech similar to the NerveGear is possible using a sort of Dream Technology. See, they’ve just started being able to gather and read dream data. Next phase would be to induce and manipulate your dream state. Doing that, you would be able to create an indream virtual MMO world. A machine would induce a dream and then shift the focus of your dream to the MMO. It’d be like tuning a radio. Obviously, it’s tech that’s quite a ways a way, but it will be possible. There would be notices in game reminding you that’s it’s not real so you wouldn’t die of a heart attack or anything.

“players get trapped inside due to someone tampering with their NerveGear headsets, which inhibit their brainwaves while they are inside the game, making them unable to move in the ‘real’ (fictional) world.”
No, that’s how the NerveGear always was, it takes the signals sent from your brain and uses them to move your ingame avatar – otherwise their real body would be flailing around while they were playing the game. It wasn’t tampered with. They couldn’t leave the game because of the removal of a log out function in the game that was there previously.

I had hope it was a game so could play how old do you have to be

These guys are bullshit and have no legitimate proof it’s fake is this also not real remove your fucking article!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FF1rUWTCQs

it doesn’t really matter if it’s just a marketing a stunt or the real thing what’s important is the fact that our hardware is getting almost half closer to the real thing that in itself is a major gain to both the fans and the industry and one day maybe 2-5 years from now where most of the people can have access to the hardware needed to run this game we would have less doubt that the company that’s funding this would make a this real a thing.

that is all.

you know, you may be right with that but that doesn’t mean that there will never be a time when something like the nerve gear comes out. As we have seen with many other experiences, i bet before there were electronics or the internet or even electricity no one even thought about it. Also in the past others probably thought that it was impossible to advance as far as we have with computers, TVs, phones, etc. So i think that there is a big chance that with some study this world can come up with something like the nerve gear. its all part of scientific advancement

Ok, first of all, I just wanted to point out that this article is a real soul sucker for the people out there who are really counting on SAO being released in the 2020s, me included, and there is nothing to support these so called facts. So what, you got ONE person’s account on the thing, who as I have read in the comments wasn’t even INVOLVED in the project itself, and the information about the anime in this article is wrong in so many ways as many people have already said in the comments. Now, I don’t know about any of you, but I say that before you write an article out to crush thousands of peoples dreams, you should actually have some REAL FACTS from people that are ACTUALLY INVOLVED and more than ONE PERSON’s view on the thing. Now I may only be in high school, but i’ll tell you what, if I can tell what this article REALLY IS, lots of other people can also. DONT STOP BELIEVING PEOPLE! right now they are still developing the game, and of course its going to take some time, Its not like they can pull a perfect game out of their behinds I mean REALLY, BE REALISTIC HERE. If you were making the game and you didn’t have everything figured out yet, wouldn’t you at least let the players play for 20 minutes at a time? cause if there WAS some more bugs, you would want to test them and not risk the testers themselves because you wanted to show off the game. Most of you people who commented on this have very good insight on this subject and how it is not telling real facts, and I totally agree with that. I LOVE SAO, and I absolutely hate to see someone spreading a rumor that is biased that says it isn’t going to happen. I mean, that’s what this whole thing is, is BIASED. you didn’t cite any evidence of where you got the information, you only got quotes from ONE PERSON. ONE! one is NEVER enough. you AT LEAST need two or three other perspectives. that’s like if two little kids have a fight over who did what and you only listen to one side of the story and totally ignore the other side. Whoever wrote this article was very ignorant of that, and in honest opinion, before this should have been posted, it should have been revised and checked to make sure that the facts were actual facts and not just assumptions. So let this badly written article teach others a very good and basic lesson: before you write an article like this: GET THE REAL FACTS! A fact is not an assumption of what you THINK or HEARD is real. A fact is hard evidence that you could back up. So please people, don’t make the same mistake as this person did, and remember, DONT STOP BELIEVING! don’t let this article let you down, because sooner or later, most likely sooner, SAO The Beginning WILL be available to the world, it just may take some time. if you have any questions, please email me at Crystallinedragon@outlook.com