Real World Culture

Video Culture

Since early 2012, Video-Culture is generally on the rise. It's a slow process, and instead of a site like Youtube, there's a product named Nero that offers the ability for people to upload Video, and then post it on a BBS. Thanks to this, Idols that use this medium are referred to as 'Nero idols' or 'BBS idols'.

Bulletin Board Systems

Right now, the main ways of mass communication go through email, but communities are formed around BBSes. Imagine Reddit, but on an even larger scale, and based not on links - but on topics.

Elder Tale Online

At the time of the Apocalypse, Elder Tale Online is still the only MMORPG that is playable since Pluto's Kiss. And due to the technical superiority it has, it is also generally truly deserving of the term 'massive online', because it's played all around the world. It has some quality of life issues that have some of the BBS topics complaining about the design director, Kayaba Akihiko. Things like not having auto-loot, the three-man parties, tend to be such topics.

The general 'MMORPG Players' are not the only kinds of players that have found their way to Elder Tale Online. Businesses have taken to using it for communication within the server/country reaches to visit other businesses and have board meetings without the cost of travel as a cost-saving measure. And with the promise of global server access, many businesses are interested in the opportunity afforded to them by the next expansion.

Old Machines & Console Gaming

There are still old machines around that run the old Operating Systems. Generally, however, they are unable to 'freely' connect to the internet. Some exceptions exist, largely within government entities. And some measure of communication, like very basic email, remained intact. But with the fear of another virus looming on the horizon, there was much hesitation to use them for anything except for single player games, and more technical purposes like 3D design tools and heavy calculations. Technology itself did not go backward, but things like online games were simply no longer possible for a long time.

As such, computers reached the status of largely being for 'businesses', and by large and far, for games, it became all about Console Gaming.

Flash of Death's effects

Many governments were hit heavily by the Flash of Death virus and its results. Even countries with exceptional medical care suddenly had to deal with a large influx of handicapped people. And with the Sword of Damocles virus' damage to the economy, some countries were in even worse positions to handle this.

Some countries wrote off these people - creating a rise to their homeless population and making the divide between the Rich and the Poor even greater. Other countries, like Japan, were forced to re-evaluate their position on care for these people. And while most of these people are receiving correct amenities, the stigma of those who have handicaps in Japan has not lowered - causing a rise in NEETs; most of which continue to be supported by their family, but may feel even more like outcasts.

The Burning of Alexandria's Great Library

For a long time, a lot of information was freely available through a Wikipedia-like site called 'Alexandria'. However, Pluto's Kiss caused the erasure of it, and all of its backups. This resulted in physical libraries' rise in importance. However, it also meant that a lot of information has since been lost, unless people happened to have local copies of pieces of it. As such, a lot of the world's information has been considered 'lost'.

Memes and References

Most memes come in written format, and some animated formats. So yes, there are older things like 'All your base are belong to us'. But most more modern memes are not a thing.

As an OOC note - in order to ensure the ability for admin to be able to integrate things, assume that anything fantasy-feeling (anime wise, or JRPG wise) is probably not good idea to reference, as it may see some hints of integration. This is largely just Isekai, but there are non-Isekai that get integrated to flesh the world of Elder Tale Online. If in doubt, just as admin.