Here is what the 'VRMMO Encyclopedia' has to say about 'Sword Art Online'. It says that Sword Art Online was the worlds first VRMMO, produced by Argus and had Kayaba Akihiko as the development director, with the company's data and servers later being acquired by RECT Progress inc, then acquired by Ymir afterwards. This game would quickly develop into the famous 'Death Game' orchestrated by Kayaba and kill 3,853 people over the course of its run. The Encyclopedia also remarks how half of the deaths occurred within the first month.
Sword Art Online is also mentioned in the Player's Guide to Virtual Worlds. It says that Argus lasting as long as it did during the incident, selling only ten thousand copies then trapping its customers in the game, was as remarkable as the technology it developed. The company filed for bankruptcy after many families sued the company into the ground, as its shareholders all pulled out within the first few days. It should be noted that forcing your customers to play your product for years upon end is not a good business strategy.
One particularly unusual scene was described by several players who fought against the floor 75 boss the 'Skull Reaper'. A player named 'Kirito' managed to still move around longer than he should have been able to with zero HP soon after the battle, in a duel against Kayaba (though here he was named Heathcliff). Though not the first time, this was the most notable. The reasoning behind this remains in debate, but one well accepted theory is that: upon a Player's Health Points reaching zero, there was a chance for them to last a little longer than they should under normal circumstances. However, this has never been replicated in other games in a test environment. Another theory, proposed by Doctor Victor Kirov (who also published a controversial paper on 'The connection between Shreddies and British daytime television') suggested that it was in fact a feature for those of a supposedly higher importance, with judgement given by the Cardinal System. Though this lacks sufficient evidence to be accepted, some have begun to agree more on this theory due to rumours similar events being documented in other games based on the same code.
Aincrad:
Aincrad is a one hundred floor floating castle which the VRMMORPG 'Sword Art Online' took place and would be gradually added to another VRMMORPG 'Alfheim Online'. However, this caused the required memory for the game to nearly double, forcing some to quit, others to delete other games to make room, or just complain about the change on the forums.
First game to use the Cardinal System.
A little-known fact about the Cardinal System is that it is actually built upon a modified version of Source 2. This unexpected partnership between Valve and Argus came about at a coffee-shop meeting between Gabe Newell and Kayaba Akihiko, which went a little something along the lines of:
"I'm researching brain-computer interfaces," said Gabe, taking a sip of his steaming hot coffee and burning his tongue.
"I'm building a video game for my brain-computer interface," replied Kayaba.
"Oh really?" asked Gabe. "You already have a finished interface?"
"Yes," said Kayaba. "Your personal assistant leaked some of your early design documents onto the Internet, which I promptly downloaded and proceeded to perfect in a manner of months."
"I should fire my assistant," said Gabe.
"You should," said Kayaba. "And you should also enter a partnership with me, to co-develop my video game with the Source engine."
"That sounds like a very profitable idea," said Gabe. "And I already know the rough outlines of this Sword Art Online game you're working on through your secretary, who I am sleeping with."
Kayaba would eventually upload his mind to the internet while Gabe would reveal Half Life: Alyx 2 three months after the beginning of the SAO incident.
Floor 1:
Unlike higher floors in Aincrad, the 1st floor lacks a particular climate or type of geography. This makes the floor one of the most unique floors of Aincrad in its design while also remaining the safest of all floors. The combination of these factors, alongside reoccurring daily deaths, helped to influence thousands to never leave the floor or anyone reaching the second floor within the first month.
Around a fifth of the 1st floor is the 'Town of Beginnings', which housed most of the player population throughout the SAO incident. The Town of Beginnings also has the distinction of being the largest town in all of Aincrad. Nearly everything a person needs or requires can be found somewhere within the town's walls, like: new weapons, inns, a Death-inspired Skeleton raid boss, quests from NPCs, and even a monument to mourn the dead. This Monument of Life would be removed when Aincrad was introduced into Alfheim Online and was replaced by the Monument of Swordsmen. Though visually similar, on closer inspection the differences become apparent, assuming several crying people around the monument during the SAO incident did not make this obvious already.
After the events of the fight against the 25th floor's boss, the Aincrad Liberation Force had a large presence in the Town of Beginnings to many people's disliking. Especially due to a introduction of a taxation system and monopolisation of districts essential in gaining certain materials. Some simply fled for Algade on the 50th floor. As explained in M. Shmirtz's semi-accurate bestseller: 'The Cent-Liberators: Aincrad's Underground', a sizeable chunk of people felt better in the largest towns than on the higher floors or even in real life. However, it should be clarified that there was not a revolt over taxes, as claimed in the novella. The revolt was actually over the shortages of resources to produce bread instead.
Floor 4:
The main town on the 4th Floor, named Rovia, is located on the north side of the floor, to the southeast from the stairs that lead to the 3rd Floor. Although the city had a rather plain and boring design in the Beta Test Version of Sword Art Online, it became a bright white town in the middle of a square lake by official release. As stone-paved roads were replaced with waterways, gondolas were needed to access different areas of the town.
The idea behind Rovia originated when Lead Game Developer Kayaba Akihiko went on a vacation trip to Venice. There, he encountered a strange man wearing a trench coat. The man soon revealed to Kayaba that he was, in fact, completely naked underneath, and planned to reveal himself to passers-by. Upon hearing this, Kayaba made the man an offer. He promised to include a virtual town in honour of Venice in his new Virtual Reality Video Game, if the man would stop streaking, and report himself to the police. The man, who was a Venice native, agreed to this.
Kayaba promptly designed Rovia, and put it into the retail version of Sword Art Online. The man he met in Venice is currently serving a two-year sentence for public indecency.
Laughing Coffin:
Stay away. Really, stay away. No honestly, just stay away, they're horrible.
If one was to find themselves within a corner shop in Tokyo at 10:00 pm with a member of Laughing Coffin, the Player's Guide to Virtual Worlds highly recommends one should drop their late night shopping and flee the scene as soon as possible. When encountering a lone member of Laughing Coffin by oneself, the probability of surviving numbers so infinitesimally small that one has more of a chance of finding a non-salty League of Legends player, who enjoys racing Toyota Land Cruisers and watching reruns of 'Last of the Summer Wine'.
It is a popular and well known fact that members of 'Laughing Coffin' were notorious 'orange' players, in Sword Art Online, for their murders and a surprisingly high determination in resorting to not terribly friendly conversations. Some are said to have infiltrated other guilds for information, yet generally they are quite noticeable by their distinctive features, which generally include: a dark hooded cloak, a tattoo of their guild, or their knife in someone else's chest.
The founder of Laughing Coffin, PoH, created the guild early on in Sword Art Online after growing the desire of killing other people within the game and attempting a career in pottery, both have been generally considered to have been a bad idea. But we will learn more about him later.
It remains unknown how many members were a part of the guild, and how many remain somewhat loyal to the cause. However, the very short-lived 'Death Gun' plot was conducted by Laughing Coffin members. Readers are advised not to copy these peoples' actions and adopt a more unique name.
