1.More of the game could be shown: You know every single episode after episode 15..Those suck,Mostly everyone agrees,Those suck.But everyone agrees that the game is freaking awesome.And you do actually get invested in it overtime.You want to see more boss fights.More characters.Just anything involving the game,And i may be going crazy by saying this,But.I don't think i would ever get tired of the world of SAO.No matter how long they drag it out.I could go through 100's of episodes and never get tired of it.

2.Asuna could have been a better character: You know...? My favorite anime reviewer,Grarkada had this to say about Asuna

"Asuna starts off well enough,Unfortunately.After episode 2 she is now a token fan service loley.And it frankly just pisses me off,In an industry where strong female characters are few in numbers"

Exactly...That is exactly how i feel,If this series was long running however,Okay i am not going to say she would have been a better character.But this could have gone 2 ways.

She would be a much better character.And would be Kirito's sidekick.Not exactly "Batman and robin style" Sidekick,You know where she looks up to him.And looks to him for guidance. More like "Batman and Catwoman style" Sidekick,Where she is capable of doing something on her own.Without any help,But when push comes to shove.She is going to need backup.

3.It could have replaced one of the big 3,And make ALOT of money: For those who don't know,The current big 3 are. Naruto.Bleach.And one piece.And this reasons just pisses me off the most.Bleach is ending.And sword art online could have just slid its way right on into bleaches place.And bam.There is shonen jumps brand new money maker.And i honestly believe that sword art online would be more popular than attack on titan, if it was a long running shonen.Why? Because..Well let me tell you the reason the big 3 are so popular.

The big 3 before,Naruto. Bleach.And one piece.Were actually

Death note.Code Geass.And fairy tale. (Although i don't know if fairy tale has ended) You wan't to know why those shows are not talked much about anymore? Because they have ended.Sure there still talked about (Death note especially) But they are not as popular as they were before.

When something ends.Its over.Everything you loved is completely finished.However,Bleach is FINALLY ending.Naruto always has this thing were it looks like its finally ending.But it can pull something right out of a hat,That will make a MAJOR Plot twist,And pave the way for another long running arc.And one piece...Well,One piece has never even hinted at ending..Like at all.And sword art online would make alot of money,If it was still going.Of course,The animation would go down considerably.But i still say it would do pretty well.

And that is 3 reasons why SAO Should have been a long running shonen,Apologies for grammar as i am an idiot.Anyway,Tell me what you think down below.

THIS...MORE OF THIS!!!

I can see where your point is coming from however, fairy tail is still ongoing and it long ago probably replaced bleach on the big three list and naruto is soon going to end (at least the manga) and well though it is on the big three it is also hated by many because of its fillers every other season. Bleach well it had a solid ending (thought I think the manga is still ongoing) and one piece well I don't know about that one haven't even bothered starting the anime. The other animes that you mentioned Death note and code geass they are short because they are designed that way, they focus on the main plot of the story anything after that would end up as a filler or they would have to figure out some kind of new conflict for the whole story. 

Now back to the original topic, if by SAO you mean the series itself then it already is being continued the light novel has probably moved on the anime just shows the first 4 (or 5 I don't know I'm still reading the fourth one) volumes after that there are still 10 more volumes AND SAO progressive (some of the scenes that weren't shown in the light novel but in the anime were from this one light novel). But if you mean the SAO world,Aincrad, there is a lot of potential for material there but the plot has already ended it would be nothing else but fillers the world was destroyed when Kirito beat Heathcliff. I think most fans prefer the main plot (of the light novels) to progress, today I saw the first episode of SAO II and gungale is looking pretty sweet I mean Kirito will have to switch out of his comfort zone and go to a new world once again. And I restrain from saying anything else but the obvious because I don't want to spoil the story for a fellow SAO fan. I used to be like you and wished for the Aincrad days to stay forever but I prefer the author to concentrate on the main plot and leave Aincrad to rest in peace. 

Ah... just reminds me of Accel World... even it could have runned longer[it's related to sword art online in some ways(though the plot hasn't been directly influenced) which get really apparent in light novels, though I have no way to actually read them) but well at least sword art online is still on-going as Sword Art Online II and that makes me real happy

Collapz3 : I recommend that you start watching one piece(despite the sheer amount of episodes)- I must say that it's a one-of-a-kind story with a big variety of settings, it has comedy, drama and mystery going on together- I can't believe I still laugh hard sometimes at comedy aspects while I am rewatching one piece and this time I really wanted to kill the villain of the arc for what atrocities he were committing, and for the mysteries slowly unravel themselves as the story goes along.

I still say that it should not be a long-running shonen, but I hate most (read as: all) long-running shonen. Sword Art Online was all right, but if you were to extend the show, it would become bland and predictable as most other long-running shonen. I feel that they did a good job [ending] it, but of course there is a second season coming, and likely more after that?... So, it is already slated to be long enough. I would be extremely disappointed if they simply started adding filler to it, as per the usual, and lengthen all the fights artificially. Not that anyone agrees with me, long-running shonen seem to be extraordinarily popular. 

I agree with you here. I think the show was just rushed, and the 2nd part of the show was not really needed, other than the fact of the struggle of getting the girl, finally. But the way they ended the show ( well, season. I have only seen Season, thanks to Netflix ), I did not like it. I did not see Asuna. I mean, I can see why she would not want to come to the ruinion. But, who the heck was the girl with the blue hair at the very end? I feel the series was fine, but when they did the Fairy Game, it ruined it. They could have freed Asuna some other way, but when they introduced the Fairy World game, I feel that it really ruined the series. 

Honestly, I would have liked to have more episodes, as it only did the highlights, and everyone wanted of know everything, but I will say that I'm disappointed in how Asuna turned out. Not the character herself, but ALO, which I didn't like in general, I remember wishing, and still do, that they had ended it with SAO, but I was thinking along the lines of "Hell yeah!" When Asuna tried to escape.. But I will also say that they were smart. You might SAY that you would have never gotten bored of it, but SAO would have gotten really repetitive.

Boss fight, person dies, Kirito gets POed, boss dies. This would have happened continuously and they would have had to introduce more tertiary characters to kill off. Another problem with the hundreds of episodes thing is that players died constantly. If there were hundreds of episodes, most likely everyone but Heathcliff and Kirito would be killed. Asuna probably would have lived, but it's iffy. They might have needed her to die for floor 78 or so's tragedy.

That's my opinion anyway, I only watched it because I was bored, and it turned out to be really good.