betun

Our sensory organs send electrical signals to the central nervous system which are then interpreted. So a sword's touch and visual is correctly interpreted by the brain. If a system can send those signals directly to the nervous system without using the sensory organs, we would still perceive a non-existent object as real. The signals from pain points could make us feel that we are actually stabbed even though we are not, by overriding the signals from the actual senses. In reality, it would work only for stuff we have experienced before and so the memory of the sword or the imagination of how it feels would be triggered. today, we do know which parts of the brain are active for which functions but we lack the knowledge of accessing a specific memory directly. Isolating the neurons needed for that would be extremely difficult but is theoretically not impossible in the future.
Certain chemicals have been known to stimulate better or worse dreams and we are moving to a time when we could increasingly create particular types of dreams. The extent of software control over the details is lacking but in time, we could expect to write code in a programming language and be able to convert that into the signals sequences used by the human body. A lens, and other stuff with the gaming package could have the chemicals needed and this could be recharged.
The movie Matrix has characters living in a virtual world through control of the brain.
People could also hide in plain sight using mirrors (like Seju) though this is expensive and needs land area.
I would have used the narrative of how Se Joo developed a self learning AI program and gave it a specialized function but the AI was too powerful and misguidedly took too much control of the player's brains. Instead of simulating to the extent of how real a dream feels, it went beyond. Maybe the chemicals that complemented the lenses needed to be taken in lower quantities but we didn't know earlier. It would still be Se joo's fault as he did make something that can simulate reality to the extent that it can cause actual death by tricking the subconscious. (Schizophrenic people are affected by virtual people to the same extent as by real people)
I would render real life explanations of how JinWoo could walk into the restricted access dungeon without issue. I would also Hee Joo an actual game role and have more quests and game stories built into the narrative. the actual game felt boring to me lacking context and being just mindless slaying of assassins.

Ya, the error stemmed from her character because of the special regulatory function but honestly any modules that the Emma character drew upon might have been the fatal one. Saying that problem is removed with Emma's character is quite premature from a programming perspective but it is possible.

For rebuilding the game, the server would have to be booted nonetheless. Public access to the game had never been available till the official release. Even beta testing needs server access and so the game ought to have been active throughout the year.

LOL. You pretty much summed it up there. I can't believe you could go through the entire drama once again. This show conceptually and with this star cast and budget could have been the best drama of not just the year but multiple years. I thought Nine by the same writer was a 10 because of a beautifully written and acted story with a brain-busting but smart ending.

Tsuyoi, I think you have understood the story very comprehensively and I appreciate your detailed explanation. My irritation with the drama stems from the fact that the drama just gave me no dopamine rushes of something good happening or a hero triumphing. Neither did it challenge my intellect beyond a point as our theorizing in the comments and the discussions way outstripped the writer's concept which was fantasy based. Mine and others like mine were actually scientific. The lack of strong emotional motivations and larger good/ hard to resolve conflicts meant that the emotional investment was truncated as well, especially when I consider how poorly Hee Ju was treated by the script and also how weakly Jin Woo's feelings for her were portrayed. Tragedy is powerful when it seems a necessary evil or it is just pure irony. As far as seeing the drama for visuals, humour and pretty faces, these points disappeared later on even as the draggy portions (like the slow movement of the NPCs) became more irritating. Thus, I was left with no lingering positives as the good part was already many weeks in the past.
Having knowledge of neuroscience, computer science and gaming probably hurt me here. Btw, I also wrote a review giving the show an 8 ( till ep. 12 it was at a tentative 10)

Well, if someone goes to save him that someone would be stuck there based on what happened this time. So no happy ending is possible. In fact why can't a person return from the dungeon himself if he is master? If that is sue to coding, can't we change the coding itself? I can see your point but as far as I am concerned there was too much unexplained which I believe is not planned but due to lack of depth on the topics. The story was just illogical when viewed as a whole with no explanation of why things were happening. We are asked to believe certain things happening: humans moving to other dimensions, NPCs killing humans, server access being unrelated to lenses bu it is hard to do so because these things are related to actual science and technology and what is fantasy has to be told. Even fantasy cannot be arbitrary. Here, it was; we do not know when things are real and when they go to the fantasy mode. The plot twists were essentially the drama because how or why they happened we don't know. we don't even know why Jin woo had to allow himself to be stabbed at the end. He could have just as well stopped playing and then started with a clean version of the original game as I'm certain Se Joo has source codes and previous versions of the software. We as viewers were treated to the least innovative and least heroic ending. Pointless sacrifice to software without attempts at alternative solutions. And it is baffling that Se Joo who developed the software had zero insights. I am honestly baffled by the lack of intellect displayed in the drama. People just did not think; compare that to how smart the characters in Nine were.

This writer hasn't had season 2s. No justice anywhere.

I am angry at the ending because we saw a downward spiral over 16 episodes for the hero with no letup. Who finally won? Software. A machine. Against humans who either did nothing or helplessly followed the rules if the machine. That game could kill en masse through innumerable assassins once triggered because the code that created the glitch has not been removed or even identified. Jin Woo's sacrifice helped bring such a game to market. How can we be satisfied with an ending with the bad side winning over the good and the good not even realizing it? It was harakiri.

Marco bugged me too (pun intended). Maybe Se Joo getting out eliminated him. It is not consistent with what happened previously though. So it is just sloppy writing.

And why and how do people end up inside a game indefinitely has not been considered important enough to explain.

The rating has dropped from 8.8 to 8.3 due to the last 3 episodes. That says everything.

If Se Joo can return through a quest, Jin Woo could return through one too XD I guess I am thinking too much because of a software background. A software solution could gave solved everything. Instead a game won over humans. Everything was as per the game, not even the developer

Yep, from a computer science background and as a gamer, i can say I am utterly disappointed. It is clear that writer has no depth on these topics. I could explain the entire story and even technology by also using neuroscience but it is obvious that the writers did not really think all that much. So they just want to explain everything as fantasy. Suspension of disbelief works when something is just crazy and we are supposed to roll with it and enjoy the rest of what is to happen such as with time travel romances/thrillers. Here, the the technology and game were primary plot points. so they messed the main thing they set out to do because honestly there is no real mystery that was solved in this drama; neither was the romance treated with any respect. The romance equivalent of this suspension of disbelief would be a story about a man who falls in love with, let's say a cell phone charger, and then the drama ends without an explanation of whether the man was mentally ill or the charger was really something more. Then I could make fun of the viewers by saying, I made this romance open-ended and left it to the viewers to decide why he fell in love.

So well written by you. My sentiments exactly. The poor girl didn't get anything either and she really cared. Jin Woo was destroyed by a game and the game won by resetting itself and being sold to unsuspecting users. It was sort of heading to that conclusion and we knew it. It didn't need to because no countries were saved and there was no overarching greater good; the sacrifice was intrinsically purposeless. It is just a game for entertainment. There were alternative solutions I can think of for resolving the glitch as a programmer, copying part code and testing it now that Se Joo was there, while deleting the original source code that led to the glitch etc. which were better than surrendering to a game: a piece of software. I mean Jin Woo won and then lost to software, and not even sentient AI wanting to take over the world. The instance dungeon should have been explicitly explained as magic at that point. If we compare with other movies wherein a person just becomes a character in a video game (happens a lot in manga) then ok, we get it. Still a 2 minute sequence with Se Joo saying how it happened and how software became sentient would have helped immensely.

I gave Nine by the same writers a 10. Open ended though it was and with constant pain to the leads, the ending still could be closed adequately on the basis of prior clues and rules of the game. Here the entire drama story isn't more than two or three A4 size pages and the cast and production values were so awesome, the concept so innovative. Sigh.

Yes, that is probably it but he had already been playing for another year which makes it two, there is really no reason for Jin Woo to make an appearance after an year when he could make one immediately. It doesn't matter; the writers wanted to keep the entire story open, unlike in Nine where the open ending could be pondered over and resolved on the basis of clues. Here, there aren't clues and feelings of leads don't seem to matter at all.

Appreciate your response.
They did not have sufficient knowledge about the glitch to declare it safe because the software that did it is still within the game. We know one type of stimulus could trigger it (that fight) but there could be others
The police did not blame JW for Prof. Cha's death even though he was absconding because of no forensic evidence of murder. No murder weapon, lack of motives and lack of forensic evidence regarding unnatural deaths would make for a weak case that was winnable. Go Yu Ra could have been proven to be an unreliable witness as she had lied about her US visits; JW could prove that. Expecting that as resourceful a man as JW, a hero, would just fold up dead against software or magic (that has really dubious moral foundations and workings) is illogical.

That was a nice summary that I agree with. A possible masterpiece became an average drama due to inferior writing.

The deaths are still in vain because the 'bug' could reappear in a similar circumstance as between Marco and Se Joo. As why that happened is unexplained, the code could not have been removed to really solve it. Go Yu Ra was sued and there was no real evidence against Jin Woo. Also, neither Se Joo nor Jin Woo's physical body can disappear and sustain itself in another dimension. This is an unfinished script.

I don't think the selection was poor as he did play a good and solid role. Terrible ending but interesting enough drama to be part of an actor's history.