Quote Originally Posted by Y
Here's my problem. The huge amounts of exposition don't even explain major plot elements like whether or not Kirito is lying about having advanced very far in the game during the beta, which is (as far as I can tell) not intended to be ambiguous. You could assume he was telling the truth about his advanced knowledge and then you have to justify his random, pointless lie about only having advanced to floor eight. If you assume he is lying about his advanced knowledge and skill then it raises a whole bunch of other questions. Either way it makes him out to be a weird, lying asshole.
Kirito advanced to the 8th Floor in the beta like he says. There's no reason to lie about that here. The fact that he only managed to break through the first floor in the real SAO with a party means that the beta was significantly different and perhaps harder. He's been on the forefront ever since. He's not necessarily ahead of absolutely everyone else in terms of clearing floors - but he clears the same floors as the lead group (taking care of zones?) by being solo.. so he does the same shit alone while others do it in groups. He's superior.

@Ryll: Kirito hasn't changed overall too much, but it was about him going through phases of experiencing situations where his involvement helps people vs situations where his involvement was detrimental to people. I'll agree that in the end it was pretty much zero-sum.. though perhaps Kirito got a bit more of a confidence boost since the positive case happened later in time.