I didn't know that 2009 came before 2001.

My research indicates publication of the original SAO LN's began in 2009.

It's not better.

Asuna notwithstanding.

.Hack// was/is faaaaaar more than just online gaming, though.

I'd daresay there's more [very valuable] Philosophy embedded there than in GITS: SAC, and that series is so chock full that it can put some people to sleep :P

So..... Starmade + Minecraft + more thorough?

Seems interesting, however, I'm still holding out hope for Cube World and Stonehearth.

I challenge that assertion with some things, though - for instance, when people say that SAO is not a clone of .Hack//.......

"...be played offline by a single player....."

"...browser game...."

Oh? Riiiight.... so, people manipulating culture, shaming, policing thought and language..... because they know better than anyone else and believe it's their right to force people to adhere to their beliefs are totally not Fascist fuckheads.

The fundamental ethos of feminism is equal rights and dignity for all genders.

Still working the Alinsky playbook, eh?

Demonize me, don't humanize me, or you undermine yourself...

Indeed. It seems you can't be a mainstream gaming news site anymore without also being an un-ironic Marxist café.

As for 'Social Justice':

And of course, when you disagree with the Zeitgeist, you get cast into gray-commenter-land.

As an earlier commenter seemed to cheer, saying that my rational criticism was one they hoped they 'would be seeing less of' soon, with the new, even-more-curated commenting system update for Kinja.

Yes, I do too - especially when they will be emotionally abused and broken before they even know who they are, because in the minds of those who gave them life, they are monsters.

My good friend Demosthenes has a way with words - she puts it best in reply to someone challenging the defaming nature of Feminism to men:

It's never been questioned because of these:

My break with them [the more Conservative base] wasn't that I necessarily disagreed on moral grounds, i.e. with their moral compass, it was more that their way to spread those ideals was by force, rather than by example.

And really that makes them just as bad as the Feminazis who brag about brainwashing young girls in…

I just say "Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito."

I grew up pretty Neocon but I am very Libertarian now.

I have personal views on many things - and many are socially conservative - but I just don't believe in forcing others to behave they way I'd like them to......

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I…

I don't play both fields, but I agree they seem to like their little Echo Chamber.

Which is funny because they make fun of Fox News for the same thing....

They object to the very idea that I, a male with a normative testosterone count and no gender guilt, could even make a determination of what is 'sexy' - among other…

Being a heterosexual non-beta male makes you have this totally
EVIL desire to look at women that have certain sexually attractive traits -
and we can't have mate evaluation by men, no siree - that's "objectification" -
but judging me by the size of my bank account? In the words of a Jezebel
editor "Thatz totally okay".

Don't worry, your beloved Echo Chamber and Rostrum will remain intact - they aren't interested in dialogue, and neither are you, quite clearly.

No no no, you have it all wrong..