User blog comment:Videogamep/The Next Big Three/@comment-1940096-20140606174800/@comment-2226235-20140606205925

The first .hack game actually came out in 2002 while the first Accel World novel came out in 2009 (thank you Wikipedia) so .hack is older. I do agree that something doesn't have to be 100% original to be good. Tropes and clichés exist for a reason.