Witch Chat - .hack//Gay Undertones

and it's honestly a great fake out that Vol 1 ends with it looking like Atoli is gonna be in a coma

14:46

and the only thing you get out of Vol 2's opening is "oh, she should be so lucky"

yeah def. out of the frying pan and into the fire

archaeo

"Doll Syndrome"

real ZTD vibes from this name

Yeah huh

man how much have you guys talked since two days ago I'm still on the 7th

Shaiapouf

Okay, it's a bit late but I at least want to get through the opening bits of the game

asdf start here

19:29

god so much word

19:29

ok I can read all of yesterday's shit later I'm caught up on the old old stuff

19:29

dying

Honestly I took too many screenshots of yesterday imo

asking for a friend, when is it too many screenshots

Good question

I liked the number of screen shots

So I'd like to play a bit more tonight but maria asked me a question that got me thinking, and like

22:21

I've been joking that Moon Tree is a Cult but they are going to be important going forward in Vol. 2 so I should probably explain what I mean, and more generally what the game is doing with them

22:24

If you look at The World--the game within the .hack game--and just ignore all the like, bullshit magic sci-fi plot stuff that is going on within it, then what you find is a game with a fandom that is broken up into two camps

22:24

You can think of these camps like the SMT alignments of Law and Chaos

22:25

the debate is basically over PKing and if it should be allowed and in what form, but more generally speaking (edited)

22:25

the Chaos side basically believes that The World is a game and you can do whatever you want in it as long as you are having fun, and that includes PKing

22:26

while the Law side believes that We Live In A Society and that the world is basically a place that should have rules and order

22:26

The Law side makes a lot more sense when you realize that, as a game, The World kinda sucks. There are few quests, and it's grindy as hell...no one would want to play it, except for the part where it is an incredibly detailed and responsive Virtual Reality (edited)

22:27

so The World is basically like, what we think of as The Metaverse to a lot of people

22:28

the Chaos side is largely represented by Kestral--that's the Guild that Gabi is leading (Big red guy, man of few word, very anime)

22:29

a lot of PKers in Kestral but as a whole it's not really evil, just very permissive

love MMORPG politics

While Moon Tree is the opposite. It's all hierarchy

I love this for them

They host seminars on stuff and basically treat The World like it is thier suburb and they are the neighborhood watch and PTA all rolled into one

22:30

Now on the one hand they do help people. They are supportive to new players, they do a lot of community service, etc

22:31

But they are also a bunch of basically Self Appointed Mods in a Video Game

22:31

so you can imagine the kinds of people you find in there

22:31

Atoli, bless her heart, only really sees the good she does and sees done

22:31

and is very blind to the fact that she's in an organization of people who wish they were cops

22:32

That's Moon Tree and why I am so hostile to them

you're right

Shaiapouf

I really cannot stress enough how rancid the vibes in this "good girl" are

As for Sakaki specifically, well, as I said the Vibe in this "Good Girl" are rancid

acab

22:32

this includes mods

22:33

as a former mod I can say this with confidence

I recommend watching Belle which is a movie about Identity and depression on the internet that also is extremely anti-mod

22:33

But I hope this all illuminated that plot point a little

22:33

Because, Hey, Moon Tree is Important and I kind of elided some stuff

mod cult

22:34

makes sense honestly

22:35

I've read threads on Something Awful

22:35

lol speaking of rancid vibes

LMAO

so, having now talked in great detail about why Moon Tree sucks

22:51

Lets ask moon tree for help

22:53

this is a total digression but your party menu differentiates people who will not join you because they are busy and who will not join you because they are not logged in. So you can see how Silabus and Piros avoided getting sucked into the game by AIDA

22:53

if you try to ask gaspard to join your party you get this lmao

22:53

poor guy

22:54

(atoli doesn't say anything unique, surprisingly)

22:54

anyways, Only Pi can come with us to see Moon Tree. I suspect Kuhn doesn't like them very much

22:55

Moon Tree HQ, as you may recall, is it's own in game area that is apparently modeled after a chinese palace

22:58

Pi tells me, specifically, to be nice to the Mods.

22:58

The leader of Moon Tree, as you may recall, is the boy with blue hair, Zelkova. Honestly, he seems nice enough

Shaiapouf

this is a total digression but your party menu differentiates people who will not join you because they are busy and who will not join you because they are not logged in. So you can see how Silabus and Piros avoided getting sucked into the game by AIDA

piros is probably having a very shitty time at work

speaking as a UI dev

22:59

you would be amazed the kinds of emails I look at and go "Not my problem"

22:59

I would like to believe it is much the same with him

lmao no I absolutely get that

22:59

and same

tbh I feel bad for the ACTUAL mods in this game

23:00

the CC corp employeed GMs

23:00

they need fucking hazard pay

23:00

We were here once before, but this time the gang is all here

23:01

I guess they were all logged in when shit went bad

23:01

I like how they designed the whole thing like a chinese palace because this whole thing does have the vibe of like

23:01

eastern court intrigue

23:02

for all that, Zelkova does a big childish wave.

23:02

23:03

Sakaki is the fucking worst I stg

23:03

23:04

GU is supposed to be a secret CC corp project. So much for that.

23:04

I love it when Haseo literally goes "LOL"

23:04

It never gets old to me

23:04

23:05

this old guy decides to step in and make peace

23:05

and Zelkova says they will work with us

23:06

so Sakaki was basically just being a dick for no reason

23:06

well, more of a power play than anything

23:06

Pi explains the situation

Sakaki and being a dick for no reason

23:06

sounds pretty redundant to me

I forget Cyouni, have you played GU before?

not in the slightest

okay good

xDD

If there is one thing I have been working to emphasize

I'm just shitposting, sometimes very accurately

it's that Sakaki is the worst

23:07

LK knows I am right

nod

oh yeah

nods expectantly

someday you'll get to part 3 and I will have zero context but that has not happened yet

oh did you never get to Redemption?

I got a little way into it but didn't finish it

Fair enough

I think I still have the disk somewhere

It's not bad by any means, though I do think it's weaker than Vol 2

23:09

But I'm glad you'll be able to see how it ends

23:09

Oh GOD I forgot about this incredibly aughts gay anime character

yeaaaah

23:10

Like wow that hit like a slap to the face

23:10

Less said about that the better

I like how they're all standing on these circles

23:10

thou must not leave the circle of talking

It does remind me of like

23:10

Soul Society, from bleach?

trying to figure in what way?

23:11

Just how there are all these division captains and they are very regimented and Anime Captain characters

nods

Pi is freaked out, she has no idea how Sakaki knew that stuff. I don't remember if Atoli told him or not

~~and how they're all gonna die~~

heh

23:13

We go to an area infested with AIDA to investigate and run into these randos

so what actually is aida anyways

23:14

I'm assuming not like AIDA

Good Question

23:14

no it is AIDA

23:14

I should be more careful

23:15

Basically--idea is a weird and dangerous phenomenon generally manifesting as black dots

(I was actually pretty sure there was an acronym with that exact spelling and I was right)

these black dots can infect player characters, like Endrance

23:15

and lead to mental instability

23:15

and can apparently do other things, like create this mirror server

oh so not the opera/broadway show

why, or how AIDA does this is unclear

important distinctions

as is what AIDA's relationship is with Tri-Edge

23:16

does that make sense?

why is it even called AIDA

also good question

23:16

I don't think Yata ever told us where the name came from

Autonomous Idea Dots Activity

oh I'm wrong

Actually I Don't Allow

it's a CC corp designation

23:17

Artificially Intelligent Data Anomaly,

23:17

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dothack/images/9/90/Aida1_161.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/595?cb=20060828220402

23:17

"There is an AI in The World--again, and we have no idea how or why"

oh so things behaving in a way they shouldn't that is also AI

23:17

again

precisely

23:18

This happens so often in the world that "AI Psychologist" is a job title at CC corp (edited)

23:18

not making that up

I think you actually mentioned that one before

23:18

god would I not want that job

Yeah, Jun Bunsyoya is one, he narrates the terminal disk arg thing

"oh an AI is screwing things up again, must be Tuesday"

23:19

"off to my virtual office to try and figure out why and fail"

Again, The World, at its most fundemental level, is a machine that observes human behavior and uses it to generate AI (edited)

23:19

that's what harold was doing

does that mean it was someone's job to give Aura therapy

apparently yes?

yeah

23:19

or at least like

23:19

understand her

good luck i guess!

Probably because an Insane AI caused terrible things to happen

I guess it's psychologist and not therapist

and they wanted to avoid that happening again

aka "try to understand why" not "fix it"

1

23:20

or I guess since they seem to be very bad at this "try to understand why, fail, and repeat history"

CC Corp is just trying to make a profit from this very fucked up science experiment a weird Incel genius programmer made.

sounds about right

.hack is fun to talk about

seems pretty normal

anyways, these guys

23:21

They are stuck in a video game and are PKing players basically to alleviate stress

"look stabbing others is part of my therapy"

23:22

"it's important okay"

It is very unclear WHAT happens if you die in the game right now

if you die in the game you die in real life

anyways, these losers are our first fight of Vol 2, as it happens

or go into doll syndrome but same difference

23:22

I'm just making assumptions here but I'm probably right

They are all from Kestral, BTW, the Chaos side of that dichotomy I mentioned earlier.

very hands-off boss

Gabi is a good guy but yeah

23:23

not one to step in

23:23

I actually don't think he's even logged in rn

Gabi enjoying his life away from the vibes

Gabi is touching grass rn

guildmaster's seat just has a cardboard cutout with the words "gone fishing"

A ways into the dungeon we get our first sign of AIDA

23:27