.hack Quantum

So I noticed there's yet another new .hack show on Netflix. Remembering this series all the way back from high school, I decided to check out the first episode, out of idle curiosity. It's a pretty cool premise: A neural-interface MMORPG that's massively popular turns out to have a dark secret in its programming, and upon being attacked by a mysterious enemy in the game, players go into comas in real life.

The only problem? At least three other .hack games / shows that I know of HAD THE EXACT SAME PREMISE.

And this is all in the same continuity, they pride themselves on that point! You'd think that maybe after the tenth or so person went into a coma, they'd go, "Huh, maybe we shouldn't be playing this game!" Or that maybe the game developers would go, "Huh, maybe it's not a good idea to systematically murder our own customer base!"