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Zirconium_Corporation
From what I've experienced, most of the japanese MMORPG community tends to, for better or for worse, take their gaming life way too seriously. Unlike most players from other contries, that usually are more carefree and just play to pass the time and, or to have fun with their friends.
For example, on their community It's pratically a taboo to ask someone you don't personally know for anything related to that person's real life, and the people that do that usually are treated as disrespectful or worse. Even If you personally know someone, there is a unspoken rule that you shouldn't talk about things related to real life in public. While on the rest of the world It's fairly common to see that happening and no one seems to gives too much importance to it, and on the case of someone being asked something about their real life by someone they don't personally know, the worst thing that can happen is the person being asked refusing to answer.
PK also tends to be a taboo for most of them, since It's mostly done by ambushing other people, It's considered to be unfair. That's not the case with PVP because It has both parties aggreing to the fight. :x
It's not all that bad though, unlike on other countries, the japanese community tends to be more respectful and organized, which makes gaming with them more productive and fun.

And of course, every rule has It's exception, I'm not implying that every japanese MMORPG player thinks or acts like that, It's just that a majority of them do.
AND LASTLY~ let's not forget the manga is about the characters playing a
VRMMORPG, they are not looking at a screen, they're actually experiencing on first hand everything that is happening.