Infynis

When people first got to play it, it was burning out graphics cards

It's baffling because usually companies have to be forced to give up monopolies by the government

They've been making Windows look more and more like a console OS for years, so I've been expecting something like this

So the guy in charge of Amazon's video games doesn't understand video games. Sounds about right. I was already skeptical of what they could pull off after the New World fiasco. I don't think we'll be seeing anything other than the video game version of Amazon's stolen and enshitified products

In order to be banned from a dollar store, the one employee working there would have to Home Alone the place to keep you out

Before my time, I'm afraid. I hear it was great though

Both before my time, unfortunately, but I've only ever heard good things about them!

It's actually pretty unpopular in most games with hard end game content. Raiders want the best gear to come from the hardest content to make their efforts valuable and to feel rewarded.

I must spend too much time around crafters lol

Personally, I prefer it because it brings more types of play into endgame, and encourages socialization. That's the kind of opinions I've seen as well. So long as raids give other rewards people want, it isn't a problem. I think being able to raid for materials is also very cool

ESO has classes, but yeah, they can fill multiple roles, and you also take skills from other trees to complete your builds

SAO was classless, with players leveling up individual skills instead of their character as a whole (though of course there was also a player level). ESO is pretty similar in that regard, but RuneScape might be closer, especially since we know SAO has serious crafters. The biggest showpiece for SAO seemed to be the complex and expansive skill system. Not only did Kirito have his sword skills, and dual wielding, he also had alchemy and fishing skills, and some kind of thrown hunting needle.

It also has open-world housing, which is super rare. The only game I know of with something similar is Archeage, but AA is PvP focused (and I haven't played it in like 8 years). Probably works a lot better in a game where you know the exact number of players, and it can't increase lol

Crafted gear was better than drops, which is a in-game economic choice by the developer. It's hard to have serious crafters without that, so it made sense for the story. I don't have much personal experience with games where that is the case, but it's usually pretty popular.

Probably the thing that really set SAO apart though, and something I don't think we'll ever see in real games, was the fact that floors were only cleared once, so the game was less an MMO grind, and more an organized campaign by the hardcore players. The mega-dungeons that had to be mapped by players worked well in this system, but would probably be annoying in an actual game. At its heart, it was a single player RPG created for Kirito, because it had to be for the plot. A lot of it's "systems" can't really translate to real life

My neighbors had a big TV antenna right next to their house, that you could climb like a ladder. I was up there all the time lol

Presumably, he also has secret service protection, so they knew he was coming. Hilarious they decided not to just tell him she wasn't there