[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by Hypernova

How is reaching a higher level in the beta considered cheating?

It's not. But using that knowledge to your advantage in the real game -- getting to the good quests ahead of everyone and taking the best monster hunting zones while not using your knowledge to help n00bs -- is, especially when lives are on the line. Cactus Head does have a point -- the way Kirito (and apparently the other beta testers) ran off on the first day really killed the chance of organizing a single army to clear the game.

I mean, Klein's an experienced RPGer, but he needed Kirito to show him how to activate Sword Skills, so you have to figure a lot of the first month deaths were caused by players not knowing how to fight in SAO. If the beta testers had stayed behind some of the 2000 deaths might not've occurred.

Spoiler for Casualty data from the novels:

On the other hand, the book does say beta testers had twice the casualty rate of regular players, so it wouldn't've averted all the deaths. Still, I think what we've seen of Kirito and Diabel does show that there are some legitimate issues with the way beta testers are behaving.

Originally Posted by Hypernova

She didn't even know that when guilding with others her name get revealed to them. That's about the noobest thing there is.

Partying. We haven't seen a guild yet.