In an anime context, TheWorld is the most popular computer game ever in the DotHack universe. It is a (fictional) MMORPG. You buy the game, plus a VR helmet rig, and control your character from a first person perspective.
However, not all is right in TheWorld (cue husky American movie trailers voice ^_^). Several people have found that they have been unable to log out, leaving their real world bodies in a coma. Unsurprisingly, the company that manufactures TheWorld is trying to cover it up. So far, there have been five different stories set in TheWorld:
the original computer games (one story in four parts: .hack//INFECTION, .hack//MUTATION, .hack//OUTBREAK and .hack//QUARANTINE)
and the second TV series based on the the manga (.hack//Legend of Twilight's Bracelet, also known as .hack//DUSK or .hack//tasogare no udewa densetsu).
Other things set in TheWorld but not a separate story to themselves:
And just to spark this off again - Is Legend of Twilight's Bracelet before the series? I know (now) that Kite (whose skin the bracelet character has won) is the main character in the PS2 games (and hence is contempory with the Liminality OAV)
So this would put Bracelet after the OAV. Presumably. Or is this all 'alternate world what-if' stuff. It seems a bit early in the series development to be making CanonCrushing? spinoffs, but anything is possible.
Has anyone seen / played the PS2 games? Are they any good? Are they available in English? Are they actually different from each other in any significant way (beyond storyline, which I certainly hope changes)?
It looks, at first glance, like they are trying to sell a Final Fantasy game one disk at a time! (and we certainly don't want SquareEnix? to catch on to that idea *shudder*) --Kazuhiko
Not played, but yes, the first three are available in the US in english. I don't have any idea about UK release. And um, no. Same game, same horrible interface problems, continuing plot. You're right about what they are doing, but they are shipping with full length movies at least. Um. If they weren't animated movies, that might be an excuse, but there's barely any reason why they aren't in game renders. Anyway - AIUI they're still SinglePlayer?CRPGs made to look like multiplayer ones, with added fake email and bulletin boards etc. --Vitenka
That last point is, for me, a good thing. I might try the first one then, I'll see what else I feel like playing. If I ever (suffer from a bout of insanity and) decide to play a MMORPG then it'll be FF11... They all look the same to me so I may as well pick a universe I like. --K
Yes, AlexChurchill likes simulated other-player interactions and simulated Internet in games too, like in UplinkHackerElite. Although I've got about eleventeen games to play already and no CopiousFreeTime to play them in, so it'll be a while before I get to the DotHack games methinks.
Well, from what I've heard, it suffers from the many problems of other games that simulate an internet. It's not as usable as the real thing. You have to drop out of TheWorld in order to check your email, for example - thus making it imposisble to reference quest notes whilst 'online'. Which is, um... annoying. My main point of pain about the game, which is stopping me playing it, is that it's a PS2 game. --Vitenka
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