Hey, i need updates. I demand you give me updates. pls

I do quite like this story so far, although it helps that i like Argo's character... speaking of which as others have said better characterization will be important if you do end up continuing this. Making the game more in depth makes a lot of sense as an action Kayaba would do as well.

You gonna update?

Well, hot damn, I will definitely give you points for originality here, because this is shaping up to be a very interesting story, even just with this one chapter of email conversations between Kirito and Argo... Looking forward to see where you start things off in the next chapter!

Man normally I do not review on Fanfics but seeing Agent 94's review kind of set me in the mood, if that's even a thing.
Perhaps it is simply a case of me reading far too much lackluster fanfics throughout my fandoms, but I personally believe your originality with the first chapter should be more emphasized. In all of the fics that I have written, few have matched this level of originality in so large a fandom. I applaud you for this. All successful fics should have a hook that grabs the reader's attention, and you certainly have done that.
Now, moving onto the characters. Yes, I do believe that the emails were a bit lackluster and the characters very flat. When I first started writing, and sent my best work to a friend who is a better writer than me in every way, the first thing she drilled into me was that all of my characters sounded the same as me, that is, a tenth grade honors english student. All of them had my reactions to events, and my sense of humor.
Looking back, it is quite humorous how I could have possibly written such a fic. Anyway, I digress. This first chapter is quite a bit bland in the characterization department, but I personally believe that's OK, not great, but OK.
Why? Because this is simply a chain of emails, set over a long period of time. Now I don't know what Japanese teenagers' emails are like, but the ones featured in the first chapter seem pretty close to the ones I send to my friends, when I have no other way of contacting them.
I do agree with Agent 94's point about the unlikeliness of Kirito not being able to simply find the information that Argo found for him. After all, you even had Argo state that Kirito could probably find the information himself, just that it would be a pain in the butt. But consider this.
This first chapter takes place over the course of two years.
Considering how addicted Kirito is to gaming, he will surely actively seek to stay updated on SAO throughout the time it is in redevelopment, not just relying on Argo for all his info. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the canon Kirito almost religiously following the news of SAO prior to its launch. With the slow outbreaks of news about the revamped game every couple of months, there surely should be little to no difficulty in Kirito finding the new information.
And yes, Kirito should know more about computers than Argo, by a larger margin considering his op hacking skills.
True, the few times I've heard of IGNs on internet forums I was very confused until I searched up the term.
Also, I personally find it a bit odd that the explanation behind the story's deviation from canon is posted in the story summary, and there are no further Kayaba POVs in the beginning chapter of the story. But then again, I guess readers wouldn't be interested in hearing of coding stuff. Still, I think that summary serves as a pretty good hook for those browsing for a new SAO fic to read.
Overall? I think this story has a very interesting future ahead, and I am very intrigued by where you will go next. This first chapter has got me hooked on this fic, immediately setting it apart from the vast majority of other fics I've read in this fandom. I do think that there are some inconsistencies with canon, but they are quite remediable.
Please keep in mind I do not believe myself to be a very good writer. In fact, there's a very good chance that you, Agent 94, and anybody else reading this are far better at critical analysis than me. I am just giving my opinion, after reading such a lengthy and in depth review.

I think you got Kirito pretty spot on. I could totally see him getting back into kendo if SAO got delayed what with how it would remind him of it and the issue with having to go back to regular games. I also like the including of Argo in the story. The way you kept them connected out of the SAO beta makes sense too.

First of all, I want to say THANK GOD for NOT rewriting episode 1 as the prologue. It's actually a breath of fresh air. The email format is so unobtrusive enough that I can glaze my eyes over the dates and names no problem.

Yes, you get points. Good job.

Everything else however is extremely problematic.

Let's talk about the two characters. This is neither Kirito nor Argo. This Joe and Bob. Why is that? Because NEITHER two act like Kirito and Argo.

The dialogue is dry. It's not as dry as vomiting exposition yeah but it's still dry. We don't have much of canon info of both players' relationship but we DO know their personality as Argo and Kirito's relationship are expanded upon in Progressive.

Argo does not flirt, does not joke, Kirito doesn't act exasperated, get angry, it's just two strangers- well okay not strangers - but ACQUAINTANCES speaking formerly. It's boring and it's a bad start. Not a terrible start, but a bad one still.

For example, Argo does all tech heavy exposition. Argo knows the system in-game sure, but I think the role of the guy who knows the TECHNOLOGY should be Kirito. Yes he is super l33t hacker jesus-kun in the anime and he's hacking is utter bullshit. That being said, it should still be Kirito.

Why is this a thing that Kirito cannot find out on his own? All he has to do is follow every dev blog, gaming news outlet, for this sort of news. Sure he doesn't know as much as a journalist would but HE should be the one doing this research.

So anyway, to get to the Big Problem of the issue is that neither Kirito nor Argo talk like themselves. There's no joking, no talking like ACTUAL players in a video game, none of that. It feels like the inspector guy that tells Kirito to go into GGO, Kikuoka, talking to a superior. It's dry.

"... because I consider you a friend. Not because I'm committed to paying my debt."

If you told me these two were friends I'd call you a liar because this is some really bad dialogue right here.

Which leads to the content of the emails themselves: EXPOSITION DUMP.

Argo explains to Kirito as if he NEVER played the game. Like the health system, I like the changes, but it doesn't change the fact this is tell, not show. It's boring.

I don't know when you're updating, but I can guarantee you, a lot of your readers will forget a lot of this changes when you do update.

Lastly, and this is a big issue:

NO ONE

I MEAN NO ONE

EVER

USES THE TERM

IN-GAME-NAME IN MMOS

FUCKING

NO ONE

The ONLY place you find that shit is in SAO fics. WHY?! Is USERNAME or PLAYER NAME or AVATAR NAME not a thing?!

The only thing that IGN should refer to is the website followed by a 10/10 and nothing else.

/

In short, it's original yes. But it's dry and boring. The characters don't act like themselves, the exposition can be jarring, and of course IGN is a not thing. Stop that.

You can do better. You got the ideas, and likely the skill. Some edits with both characters being familiar to each other along with stories of what they did IN GAME can really spice this up.

Oh and I guess I'll see this Elyria game too. Could never get into the super fantasy stuff anyway.

- Agent 94

I'm definitely still in the game, right?

Not much to say here, except that I look forward to where you'll be taking this story.

I'm really looking forward to what you might have planned. I always thought that if sao was an actual game it wouldn't do really well due to the mechanics, but the ones your proposing sound like they could make the game a lot more interesting. I'm also hoping that by making the game more difficult, Kirito won't come off as super OP and might make the storyline more compelling and the stakes actually mean something.
On another note, do you plan to make any major changes to the characters? I was always disappointed by how Asuna looses her agency once she gets closer to Kirito. She goes from a capable fighter to a damsel in distress, and that's not even accounting for the Fairy Dance arc.
Anyways, I really like how you formated this chapter. It works as a great info-dump without feeling like an info-dump, plus it actually makes sense for the context of what you're trying to do. I'm really looking forward to the next update.

The dates were pretty distracting at first, but eventually they actually started to matter as you started skipping months at a time. I appreciate that you stuck to the structure of date - message - sender all throughout the chapter. It made it really easy to skip over the date and sender and just get to the message for the related emails. And because the change in topic is so abrupt from one set of emails to the next, it's easy to know when the date has changed and you need to check it.

Okay Interesting Idea and a good introduction for anything more in depth i'll have to see on what your plans are for when everyone hits Aincrad.

So everything in these emails make up the game's actual mechanics? Neat.

I suppose points for originality are in order.