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In Sword Art Online, why did Akihiko Kayaba make the game so as to make death
permanent? Don't get me wrong, I know that in episode 1 he claims that he
would like to "control this world's fate". However, in episode 17, when he
says that he "wanted to make a world free of laws and restrictions", then why
make it so that people must die in real life as well? Wouldn't that make a
real death contrary to his goals? And if he "forgot" somewhere in the middle
of the game (as he claims in episode 14), what is the point in continuing
further? Has he no regard for human life?


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sword-art-online
Why did Akihiko Kayaba make death permanent in Sword Art Online?


As Kayaba says (I doesn't remember when), "There's no difference between IRL
and SAO." If you die, it happens on both ends. I think it was to induce
psychological effect.

In Volume 1 - Chapter 24 of the light novel, during the scene where Kirito and
Kayaba had a talk before they returned to reality:

> “…What about those who died? Both of us are already dead, yet we continue to
> exist here. Doesn’t that mean you can return the other four thousand dead to
> the original world as well?”  
>  
>  Kayaba’s expression didn’t change. He closed the window, put his hands into
> his pockets, and then said:  
>  
>  “Life can’t be recovered so easily. Their consciousness will never return.
> The dead will disappear — this fact remains true in every world. I created
> this place only because I wanted to talk with you two — one last time.”

The difference is "a world free of laws and restrictions". You can change or
remove some restrictions. For example, in real life, you cannot fight
continuously for 20 hours, nor can you jump more than 20 meters. You can
change some laws or some restrictions, but there are some basic things that
you cannot change. Or, at least, you need some time to gradually get used to
it.

Another example are Asuna's words. She told Kirito about male and female
genitals. They weren't present in early version, but because of psychological
effect, they were added in later version during Beta testing phase, but
without any hair (because lack of effect, I think).

You can read this in Volume 1 - Chapter 16.5 (this special is in the web
version only):

> There is a somewhat interesting story concerning all of this (I apologize
> for digressing, but)... When SAO was under development, the Argas company
> had an internal closed alpha test phase during which time they reasoned that
> since players would have no use for genitals, it would not be necessary to
> objectify it.  
>  
>  However, in reality they found that most of the male testers would
> experience a certain amount of severe anxiety. Even so, while there was no
> problem when playing for several hours. When they conducted consecutive
> tests over a 48 hour period, they found that most of the male testers who
> attended this trial period were unable to stand not having their genitals
> and gave up. So it was from the Beta testing phase that the genital parts
> were implemented out of a sense of necessity. It seems that this was also
> part of the reason why SAO players were not allowed to change their
> characters' genders.  
>  
>  However, even if you had your genital parts, the question that I had prior
> to the official start of the game (meaning, before the incident) was whether
> or not there would be anxiety over the lack of proper function. I myself had
> agonized repeatedly on multiple occasions over the inability to release my
> pent up energy, but now I saw that if the ethics code or whatever was
> disabled, then functionality, probably even ejaculation was possible.


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answer


Okay, this question raises way to many personal opinions and speculations.
It's never explained why perma-death was enabled in Sword Art Online. We'll
also never find out since Kayaba Akihiko died.

First, I'd like to note that the perma-death was neither a law nor
restriction, it was a rule, and thus Kayaba Akihiko did not go against any
rules he set for SAO. Obviously, a game will have rules, so you'll have things
like: death, no flying, max health, etc. What Kayaba Akihiko was referring to
was a world without the laws and restrictions placed by the society in real
life. That's my speculation, but that's all it could truly point to.
Naturally, there are no laws or restrictions regarding death in SAO or IRL,
but rather it's a fundamental rule.

From [Kayaba Akihito](http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/Kayaba_Akihiko)'s
entry on Sword Art Online Wikia:

> Kayaba Akihiko had little to no empathy, with no regard for human life
> (including his own)
>
> Akihiko seemed to be very sincere and thoughtful, as shown when he told
> Kirito of his dream about creating a floating castle as the basis for
> creating Sword Art Online.
>
> In spite of this, Akihiko had a level of honor and fairness. [...]

If you look at those three lines, we can also take something else from this.
At the end of Sword Art Online Asuna dies, right? Wrong. Kayaba Akihiko made
the promise to Kirito to prevent Asuna from committing suicide before the
match was over (episode 13). He made this promise because he is both sincere
and fair. Therefore, while Asuna did indeed die in the game, she didn't die in
real life because of the promise Kayaba Akihiko made with Kirito. This is also
why, as promised at the beginning of the series, all 6147 players were
returned to the real world after Kirito completed SAO. Quoted from the anime:
(Kayaba Akihiko) "Moments ago, all 6147 remaining players were successfully
logged out."

Getting back to the point, everything Kayaba Akihiko did was not contrary to
the goals he set and had in mind through out Sword Art Online. Everything fell
into place and he didn't violate any of his rules. He fulfilled his dream and
simply brought others into it, the idea was that Kayaba Akihiko wanted to
replace the real world with virtual reality for himself. This is shown in the
anime episode 14 at 18:41, when Kayaba Akihiko said, "I wanted to leave the
Earth behind and go to that castle. For a long, long time that was my only
desire." Naturally, since he made the game available to everyone, the rules he
believed in and set for himself would have to be followed everyone else as
well.


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