LogFAQs > #885345753

Well, I'd imagine that grinding solo in the original SAO would still be more efficient for Kirito, because skill mastery is gained by amount of usage rather than experience points. Meaning, he could just gain weapon and buff mastery safely and efficiently by plowing through mid-low level enemies. There's also the minimum EXP output (10, iirc), which makes it actually just as efficient for a skilled solo player to, say, kill weak enemies that give 10 EXP each as opposed to getting together a team to fight enemies their level that give 200-300 EXP each.

Though so far in the Progressive series (up to 5th Floor), Kirito is seen to be quite cooperative when not grinding in his free time, which is... so far the opposite of how the original LN portrayed him. Maybe the solo playing part was retconned to be just his negative in-game reputation.

But seriously, that new GGO game is just Freedom Wars done wrong. They even got the same human movement, grappling hook, and some other stuff. But the enemies are now SAO Lost Song cannon fodder as opposed to the Abductors, which were stronger and more durable than even the monsters from Monster Hunter.
It also looks to be a TPS-RPG hybrid, as opposed to the LN's GGO which was portrayed as a competitive FPS.
The casual-ish elements in the LN could have been added out of neccessity for a full-dive game since they were recreating the feel of real guns, and they're not exactly easy to play with for an average person at least from the stuff I've handled before. But in a game you play on a screen with a controller, they're just bad design.

There's also actually a GGO side story LN written by another author, and from what I've sampled, it's way better written than Kawahara's Phantom Bullet Arc.