Really, MMO Players in general can be this at times. A recurring theme is that all MMO players aren't so different from one another, in that they all desire to be stronger, use VR to escape the stresses or real life and are ultimately decent people deep down. While there are multiple instances that enforce this, such as the existence of a Clearing Force in SAO risking their lives to save everyone or multiple players attending Yuuki’s in-game passing, there are just as many or maybe more instances that can paint them as selfish G.I.F.Ts only out for themselves, with there being at least one example in each arc even if you ignore all the Player Killers who act as Antagonists.
In the Aincrad and Progressive Arcs, major clearing guilds can be seen as being more concerned with their personal power and petty rivalries as opposed to actually clearing the Death Game and freeing everyone, with guilds like the Divine Dragon Alliance being obsessed with getting rare loot, often insisting that they get the Last Attack Bonus in all the boss fights even if it’s just not possible and some even stooping to attacking other players for a shot at hoarding rare items and equipment.
It's noted multiple times that the foreign VRMMO gamers, who are unknowingly drafted into the War of the Underworld have no idea that they're killing Artificial Fluctlights, who are established to be essentially real people, and are being manipulated byGabriel and PoH. While both of these points are true, the majority of them take being the jerkassery to so much of an extreme that it's really hard to say they're completely guiltless, attacking the obvious heroes along with seemingly Obviously Evil group, attacking people while they're down, several of them making very messed up comments about the fact that this "game" has realistic gore and outright taking prisoners of war for seemingly no more than petty sadism. Only one player (two in the anime, with a Chinese going by the name of Mei Xiang), a Korean going by Moonphase, is suspicious of the whole thing and even after watching PoH beat up Kirito, who at the time can be easily mistaken for a cripple due to needing a wheelchair and barely moving, only about half of them actually start getting suspicious about the whole thing as well, while the rest just keep going along with PoH's cruelty simply because they're prejudiced against Japan (the anime changes it into all of them trying to stop fighting, but later on PoH mind controlled most of them). In the end, it's hard to pity the fact they, or at least the still unconvinced half, are being manipulated and hard not to cheer when Kirito wakes up and puts them on ice. Not to mention, with Alice's reveal to the world displaying the potential Fantastic Racism Artificial Fluctlights will face, there is some doubt about whether or not they'd actually feel guilty if they learned what they did.
While the Salamander Commandernote the general audience in the animemakes good points on why Liz's request for the assembled players to help protect the Underworld can come off as unreasonable and that they should just refuse, the fact that one of his arguments involves him having Fantastic Racism against SAO Survivors, who by the way were essentially kidnapping victims with a gun to their head 24/7, due to them having more VR experience than most other players makes him come off as more childish and petty than intended, even if Liz does concede that he's got a point about how she and other survivors tend to hang around each other more than regular MMO players.
And finally, in Unital Ring, after Kirito and the group feed a group of fellow playersnote In the mysterious “Unital Ring”, there is unique system called Starve Points and Thirst Points that, if decreased too low, will weaken the player and eventually kill them, said group are quick to turn on their saviors after they learn that they’re elite players and that they could take advantage of the fact that they currently have lower quality gear than theirsnote Unital Ring, after a set period of time or if the player unequips anything, increases the weight requirements for any equipment a player already owns and forces them to create new gear and work towards re-equipping their old stuff, which is what happens to Kirito, Asuna, Alice and Leafa while the Ungrateful Bastards were able to forge new gear before they encountered them to kill them for a better shot at winning whatever Unital Ring is. Then in the next volume, they're revealed to have responded to their defeat by ratting out the location of Kirito and Asuna's cabin to some PKer friends of theirs to attack them in their stead, seemingly ignorant of the fact that they wouldn't have gotten killed and and got booted from Unital Ring if they didn't betray Kirito's group in the first place..
In the second arc of Girls' Ops, Gwen is revealed to be an Evil Former Friend of Lux's, and claims that Lux betrayed her; Back in SAO, Gwen was The Leader of one of Laughing Coffin's subsidiary guilds and she struck up a friendship with Lux, learning about her guilt over joining Laughing Coffin and trying to comfort her a bit and going grinding with her. After one of these excursions, they happen to come back to the Clearing Forces' attack on Laughing Coffin, to which Lux suggests that they turn themselves so she can finally be free of Laughing Coffin. Gwen, who enjoys SAO because it gives her freedom, tries to talk Lux out of it before they're both discovered by KoB members, who attack Gwen due to her red cursor and think Lux is a hostage due to her green onenote Lux had to stay green while in Laughing Coffin since her job is to enter town to buy supplies and spy on other guilds without arousing suspicion. When Lux hesitates to confirm that she's also with Laughing Coffin when questioned, Gwen decides to take this as sign of betrayal and flee, sending a message to Lux calling off their friendship. While the fact she led a guild associated with Player Killers is bad enoughnote her guild apparently never killed anyone, acting more as brigands who would merely attack other players and take their items, the childish way she acts in regards to the whole thing doesn't help in winning her sympathy, claiming that the entire thing was Lux's fault despite the fact she knew full well how guilty she felt about being in Laughing Coffin and denying any fault she had for letting her desire for freedom get in the way of their friendship. The fact that Lux agrees with her accusations and has to be the one to reconcile with her, as well as the fact that Gwen never apologies for both that and trying to ruin Lux's new friendships fails to get reader to empathize with her too much.
Alice's feelings for Kirito are supposed to come off in a similar way it did with the other girls in his Unwanted Harem, in that fans either view it as cute and gain a degree of support for them or sympathize with the girls' Unrequited Love and find them commendable due to trying move on from them to let him be with Asuna, with examples such as Liz backing out of confessing to Kirito after she figures out that Asuna likes him and Leafa trying to move on from him after realizing that he truly loves Asuna. However, Alice's feelings for him tend to garner more animosity than support and sympathy due to how possessive and aggressive she comes off as because of them, namely trying to prevent Asuna from meeting with him even after all the effort she made to see him again, referring to Kazuto's dad as "father"note In Japan, marrying into a family means that the wives are allowed to call the groom's parents "mother" and "father", making this come off as very forward of her, and in the "Brides of your Dreams" Event in Memory Defrag, being quick to accuse Asuna of being Kirito's Ex-Wife by clinging onto her past tense when she said they were married, a move that surprises even herself. Not helping matters is one scene that was shot in the anime to make it look like she comes close to kissing him while he was in the middle of hisAngst Coma and therefore can't do anything to stop hernote In the light novel, she leans in close to his face because she was checking his eyes for signs of consciousness and has nothing to do with wanting a kiss, which came off as rather creepy to some viewers. Those who do seem to support the pairing often dislike Asuna, either portraying her as theClingy Jealous Girl or just having Kirito act as if he doesn't love her anymore.
In the end of the Alicization arc, at least in the original light novel, both the Star King and (post-memory-wipe) Kirito wish for a "unification between Underworld and Real World" without knowing the consequences of how a more advantaged Ridiculously Human Robot with free will and without leash will interact in real world with the flesh-and-blood humans. The anime somewhat mitigates it by making it the idea of the Star King only, setting up a Sequel Hook.
Kirito (and later in Alicization arc, Yui) has a sort of (begrudging) respect for Akihiko Kayaba as a game creator and because of his passion for the VRMMORPG genre, even though he trapped 10,000 people in the game, causing thousands to die, lying to everyone as Heathcliff, and planning to betray the top player. Both Kirito and the story itself treat Sugou (AKA Oberon, The Fairy King) much worse, despite having not killed thousands of people, because he's just a Corrupt Corporate Executive, who gets right into Kirito's space by flaunting his engagement with Asuna in reality and his position as her jailer in ALO, without the excuse of Kayaba's Blue-and-Orange Morality. Yes, both of them are villains, and Kirito says he'll never be able to forgive Kayaba for what he's done, but he sympathizes with Kayaba's goal while hating Sugou for threatening to take Asuna away after they spent two years trying to survive Kayaba's death game and almost dying several times in the process.
