Hello people of the internet, you have just clicked on my fanfiction, now aside from a question that I could ask you, which would be "Why?" , instead I'm about to tell you what modifications will be made to the cannon and explain my reasons behind such a change, mostly because while SAO is an okay anime if you don't think about it, the game Sword Art Online is much worse.
Class Based Combat System - In SAO there only seemed to be one role that a player could take and that was "Close Ranged DPS", however though anyone who has done their research or has played an MMO (I.e. not Reki Kawahara) would tell you that MMOs work on the "Holy Trinity" principle that there is a DPS class, Tank class and Support class, these are there because it is vital to attracting a large player base and it is key for the game's economy because of player crafted equipment, which is typically made by the support players who would be pissed that there is no option for them and would therefore leave, which would also deprave players of player made, or buffed, equipment which is kinda necessary for raids. This also means that yes, Diabel is actually a Knight and not everyone is assigned the generic ass Hero class.
Distrust of Beta Testers - While in a death game situation people would find a scapegoat to direct the blame they wouldn't use the Beta Testers as scapegoats since anyone who has played an MMO will tell you that things change between the Beta and the full release, this would be to avoid a player from rushing in with full knowledge. Which brings me onto my next point.
The Beta Test - Beta testing a video game or a mod is a long and difficult process of making sure that exploits are removed, balancing the game and that the experience is as enjoyable as possible, a closed Beta with 1000 people which only lasted a month is not smart, as in any real situation the game would be full of bugs as it would take longer than a month for some bugs to be found, especially if it was the case as explained in the show where the majority of Beta testers were completely green to the concept of an MMO as they wouldn't play it. Let me give you some context, the Beta for the fan-made overhaul mod "X-Com: Long War" took two whole years, 15 different versions of the Beta and several expansion packs from the official game to be completed. This would combine to mean that while players would be knowledgeable in some aspects of the game they would not be aware of all the good hunting spots and easy quests seeing as it is more than likely that stuff would have been changed between the Beta and the full release. In addition, the testers themselves would be no doubt streaming or recording as this would allow them to make large amounts of money on Youtube and they would be posting strategies on forums
Kirito will be slightly nerfed – Anyone who has watched the show will be able to tell you that not only does Kirito lack any personality (something which is necessary for a leading character), but he is also way too talented especially considering his age, he has the ability to hack into SAO's source code despite the fact that he was defiantly figuring that out on the fly, he is able to level up faster than most power gamers, oh and he has some sort of magnetic god-damn penis considering the amount of women who have fallen heads over heels in love with him (despite the obvious fact that he is both in love with that psycho Asuna and the fact that he has about as much personality as a comfy chair with a frown drawn on it) in the course of the Aincrad Arc alone.
The Dungeons – SAO worked on the principle that all the dungeons were in the same instance as the world, were as in most, if not all, MMOs dungeons would be in a different instance, this mostly works as a mechanism to stop everyone and their mother and their mother's cat to just gang up and cheese the fuck out of the bosses or normal enemies and achieve victory through pure numbers. In addition to this, the lack of instances would cause the game to lag out, (even though one could argue that the NERVE Gear has some sick processing power, the amount of shit it would have to generate especially during a boss fight is immense) this is game design 101 but this one can be chalked up to Reki Kawahara not doing his research.
The Amount of Players – In the real world, if any game nowadays sold 10,000 copies on release day than it would be considered a colossal flop at best, considering that most triple A titles nowadays need to sell upwards of about 5 million copies on their release day to be considered a success. To put it simply, no investor in their right mind would actually fund a game which is only predicted to make a sale of 10,000 copies on release day, which is when most video games are expected to break even. I would estimate that, considering the new technology, the amount of sales would be in the region of 6-7 million at least. Though for the purposes of the Fic, I will be placing the character on an international server which holds about 100,000 players.
Digital Copies – I shouldn't need to explain this one but apparently Kawahara is unaware of programs such as steam which would allow the user to download games, this translates out roughly to, people would be downloading the game as well, they wouldn't all be standing in line waiting for the game considering the fact that very few gamers now-a-days buys hard copies of video games, so it would probably be unlikely that people would buy hard copies of the games in 2022, or that the company would even make hard copies considering the extra costs involved with manufacturing and packaging. It's a video game, not the latest iPhone.
Unique Skills – Aside from the fact that it is a really shitty excuse for a writer to make a character look more badass, it would also break the balance of any game, considering that they would have skills that are outside the normal range and would thus have an unfair advantage in PVP and would also make them a liability during PVE as it would be harder to plan for their skills, in addition the players probably wouldn't use the skills considering the fact that they would want to make use of the skills that they are already familiar with. If unique skills were procedurally generated then that would mean that they would be boring like the majority of No-Man's Sky and often redundant.
Duel Wielding – Although I personally despise the concept of duel wielding consider that it is less practical than a simple sword and shield. I will be including Duel Wielding as something that is class restricted.
The Boss Battles – Dark Souls is a game that managed to attract quite a fan-base from its boss battles and difficult combat, while SAO is trying to go for 100 unique bosses to fight, the last of which being the creator of the game itself. The Boss Battles themselves are rather uninspired looking battles, with large bosses who don't really look intimidating and furthermore the battle itself is taking place in an empty featureless room.
SAO ain't a twitch based game – This is another thing that can be chalked up to a lack of knowledge on Reki Kawahara's part. It's quite simple really, while reflexes are somewhat in video gaming, you don't become the best gamer ever with pure reflexes, knowledge of the game (the mechanics and the maps and all that) and being able to size up your opponent as well as a strategic mind make for a gamer (professional or casual) that is worth their salt. Kirito is not THA BEST GAMAR EVAR by simply being able to have fast reflexes.
Skill Grinding - MMOs are infamous for making most of its players spend long amounts of time grinding your skills, but SAO has a worse system, I couldn't be bothered to explain the system but it is basically the FF2 system of grinding skills. To put it in context for the series for Kirito to have leveled up his Battle Healing skill to the point where he could heal 600 points of damage in 10 seconds, he would have had to have spent hours with less than 50% health. This is bad game design.
Ranged Options – This doesn't require an explanation.
The insular nature of the game – This one is more sort of how I could explain how Kirito manages to power level faster than everyone else, it would seem that based on the speed of Kirito's levelling that EXP is divided up between party members and not just with players receiving the EXP the monster would give. EXP being divided between party members would make soloing the only viable option for power gamers and for hard-core gamers as that would be the only way that they could attain an advantage, leading to a very insular group of players as there would be no benefit to grouping up in a party. The last attack bonus is also removed because of this point as it basically encourages players to rush ahead and ignore the plan.
The GUI – This is elementary, the reason why MMOs have cluttered ass windows is because of the amount of battles that would take place, they would expect the player to use gear in order to elevate pressure or to keep other players in the fight for longer, if a player in WOW is low on health than they would have the inventory open and ready, if in SAO then you would have to scroll through the menu which is full of tabs to find the bloody item from your items list, of which you can only see five items at any given time. So by the time that you find the health potion you would be dead and the item pouch for quick access doesn't do much if you can't remember what you placed in there. In addition the fact that the health bar of your party is only viewable in the top left of the screen, i.e. your peripheral vision. And it can be blocked by your hair, just to repeat that, your health bar and the health bar of your party, can be blocked by your hair, this is just bad game design.
The Anti-Crystal Zones – From the perspective of a game dev, the zones are the most frustrating thing for a player considering that they remove, like a good half of the strategies that anyone could come up with, from the perspective of creating a death game, it is a massive dick move. Especially considering that from floor 74 upwards all the boss battles seem to be in Anti-Crystal zones, in the case of a game that would allow you to logout, this would cause most, if not all, of the players to rage quit.
The counter intuitive nature of the game – Having to unequip an item to equip something else is good for fan service, in the case of an MMO it is frustrating and dumb.
Worldwide Release – No MMO would be released only in one country, a Beta test? Most likely, but not the full release, that would severely limit the player base and thus limit the amount of money that the game could make, so for this I'm going to say that the game was released world-wide, with the story taking place on an international sever so that I don't have to come up with an explanation for why every single character who isn't a native to Japan can speak perfect Japanese. (it will also give me that ability to write sentences with poor grammar as I would be saying that the serve would have some google translate style translator)
Cooldown - In SAO the cooldown for using your sword skills is that it freezes your body for a small period, this is still a massive dick move and something that would have been harped on in the Beta test, most MMOs have a small cooldown period for skills or will use a mana or stamina bar, this is so the player doesn't spam their most OP skills and as such that is the change that I will be making, it also allows for a more strategic experience.
Sword Skills - This should be simple, a game that allows for all skills regardless of weapon type or damage to have 100% chance to hit needs to be fixed, this is to stop people with warhammers and battle axes from rushing a dungeon with warhammers.
Party System - One thing that should be mentioned is that players should be rewarded for co-operating with other players I.e. the game would spawn tougher enemies but would give more rewards and better loot. This is Game Design 101, you want to reward players for socializing. With soloists loosing out by not getting better loot and by leveling up slower but would have the advantage of being able to level up for as long as they want.
FWI, that's just the Aincrad Arc, if I ever (keyword being "If") get to the other arcs, I'm also going to describe the changes that I will make to it. Also Reki Kawahara has written two different series based on gamers and yet he can't be bothered to do his fucking research.
Though I will be keeping the fact that there is no magic and that there is still a death game.