Sword Art Online episode 2 - The Birth of the Beater

In Sword Art Online episode 2 Kirito and a large group take on the first boss. By this point in time there is a lot of hatred against Beta Testers and people want to know who they are, so they can put a face to their prejudice.

Responsibility

A major part of this episode of Sword Art Online was about if it was really the responsibility of the Beta Testers to take care of all the new players. Beta Testers had a better idea of what was going on, but as was shown in the boss fight their information was not all still true now. Relying totally on what someone else could tell you and not using your own head could get you killed. The Beta Testers using their own experience would at least know if something did not look right. A person blindly following what they were told  might not notice until it was too late. Besides all the information that the Beta Testers collected was in the guide as it was needed. As for Beta Testers giving basic training, just because someone knows what is coming up in the game does not mean they are a good teacher. A lot of really good players are not good at understanding what low level people need to know. They can become impatient when people do not advance through skills as fast as they would.

Also while the Beta Testers would be babysitting the brand new players, people with less skill and less chance to progress through the game would be taking the supplies. If their were not enough supplies for everyone, then someone was going to take them. Isn’t it best if the people who know what they are doing explore first and then provide information for those coming later? It woulbe be better than babysitting while less experienced people fumble forward. For my final thought on the responsibility of Beta Testers, did they make any of those new players leave the starting town? Asuna even brings up staying in a hotel in the first town. They could have done it, but they decided not to. Beta Testers can not be held responsible for each person that has fallen due to a madman changing a game to a life or death experience.

Witch Hunt

At a time when people should be ignoring their differences so they can all survive they are on a witch hunt. For now they are content just to condemn those who confirm that they are Beta Testers. But how long before anyone with talent is considered a Beta Tester and outcast? I guess that it is easier to blame the Beta Testers rather than the skill of the dying, but there is no purpose to it. Even if they figure out who all the testers are it is not going to bring back the dying or help them finish the game. I hope that in the future they realize how silly separating players is when this is about survival.

Hope

There is not probably a lot of hope left for the players of Sword Art Online when they can not even find the boss for the first floor in a month. Considering in regular games people beat the whole game on all the different levels of difficulty in under a month that is pretty bad. If the group failed then many players would probably just give up. Luckily the group beat it on their first try which probably gave renewed hope to people who were wondering why they had not even reached the end of the first floor. Considering it took this long to defeat a relatively easy floor looks like they are going to be in this game a long time. I have to wonder if that had to do with Diabel’s wish to pass away.

Rights of the Dying

Poor Kirito gets stuck with the thankless task of trying to heal Diabel. Unfortunately, Diabel does not want to be healed and would rather die. Diabel was doing something that was pretty selfish during the boss fight that he felt ashamed of and he was also a Beta Tester. Does that mean he deserves to die though? He had been helping people before so is one selfish decision worth dying over? If Diabel had longer to think about it would he have decided to not take the potion? It feels like they should have to fill out paperwork saying that people are not allowed to give them a potion. Kirito probably feels guilty over Diabel dying when he tried, but Diabel refused the potion. The people around him accusing him of not helping Diabel most likely do not help. Also should people just be forced to take potions so they can contribute to society? Especially people with high skill or who were Beta Testers like Diabel that might know more than the average player. When each person who is good at the game that dies needlessly their chances of survival go down. So in a way Diabel is being selfish and it getting out before people notice his skill and ostracize him possibly. I wonder if later they will come up with some sort of system for this. Should they think about the wishes of the individual or only think about the group.

Sword Art Online episode 2 addressed many problems that would come up in an MMO like people accusing people of cheating when they did nothing wrong. Blaming others for their own deaths. Even in a situation that was not life or death these things happen so it is only natural that is would be worse in Sword Art Online.