Topic: .Hack, Log Horizon, or Sword Art Online, which is your favorite anime in the dangerous mmo anime sub-genre?

Mine is a tie between .hack and SAO because I loved the .hack games on the PS2 that tied into the anime series, but SAO actually has the better anime adaptation and is just awesome!

As great as .Hack//Sign is, it mostly uses the MMO as a backdrop for its themes of obsession and escapism, among others. Its characters are bit more complex than the others, but they have to be - the "plot" is mostly vague and in the backround, so it's a very character-driven narrative, while they try to figure out a mystery. The world is beautiful, but we don't get to see much of it. The music is its strongest suite, but the entirely english vocals can be distracting since a few of the tracks honestly just tell you exactly what's going on in the story. It feels like the composer is writing the story. There's next to no action despite being in a game. In fact, they hardly ever go out and just play the game. It barely fits the theme here.

So Log Horizon gets my vote. It takes the idea and runs with it, full throttle. They explain the game in great detail, while still taking great care to make sure they don't lose the audience. They focus on a large cast, showing how different people react, while still making sure we remember who the main characters are, and they're always doing something productive, even if it isn't always at the front lines. They show how the world has changed because of the events in the show, while slowly drip-feeding us info to help piece together what's really going on. The action is also well-animated and frequent enough without taking focus away from the narrative, and again, they make sure to explain whats going on without interrupting too much. I also love the soundtrack, it compliments the scenes without overtaking them, so to speak.

If I had one qualm, it would be that we hardly ever get to know much about who these characters were in the real world. You'd think that would come up more often, but we only got short glimpses of their past a couple times throughout the first season (not sure about the second season since I haven't see that one yet). And I mean "glimpses", since I'm counting stuff like "Crusty had a lazy sister" or "Akatsuki was a senior in High school". There's a lot that could be done in regards to who they were and how they may or may not have changed, but it seems they didn't want to focus on that.

Log Horizon actually follows MMO rules and you can tell the people who made it know what a MMO is. Sword art is straight up garbage past the first story arc.

I've only seen SAO, so that, but it gets bad after episode 14, and I didn't see Season 2 yet.

I haven't seen SAO or Log Horizon, but I love .hack. I recently bought the all ps2 games all over again to experience the story along side the anime.