Anyone else bored of there being no real consequences?

Portal fantasy is its own subgenre and I think it can be traced back to CS Lewis, but the ones I remember best are Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, and CS Lewis. Oh, the Elric of Melnibone novels, too. It's all about people being transported to different worlds, generally through some type of portal.

 

I would agree that portal fantasy is its own thing the problem is the definition of it makes all LitRPG arguably portal fantasy so I think the definition needs to be ignored and only used as an additive rather then a different catagory altogether as that can lead to "There not in a fake world this is not litRPG" which I personally find hypocritical given most LitRPG wind up being set in a real world anyway The land, Emmerilia, Alterworld these are a few of the more common ones.

 

While I might like that there are two things that must be considered 1) It makes absolutely no sense FVR(full immersion VR) games are so realistic that even if you know your playing a game killing someone would psychologically feel very similar to doing so in real life there is military training killing fake people to get over this if I remember correctly so imagine if they felt real. 2) They typically only go down one path because the MC has to be the good tolerant guy and can never have any character flaws so of course he accepts them as normal people if your going to make NPCs at least have them be an important part of the story rather then a convenient device to make the villain seem evil when in actuality this just makes him a normal person or make the MC look smart and wise and tell others how good he is because he accepts NPCs as humans. (As you might be able to tell im a little bitter over MCs in books being disproportionately good without much reason other then hes a better person then anyone else in the book because hes the MC. which is not how you should write a book)

 

I don't see a problem with litRPG being considered a subgenre of portal fantasy. Just like any other genre that falls into a broader category.

As far as military training, you're Linda far off the mark. Meet Ivan, the "realistic target" used on military ranges:


Silhouettes are about as realistic as it gets, unless you're using MILES gear, which basically turns real guns into the equivalent of laser tag.

 

Ivan looks realistic enough at 100 yards.

As for MILES gear, shouldn't you have said it turns real guns into laser tag if it works? I had to use that in college and the only time people "died" reliably was when one of the OPFOR stole a God Gun, climbed a tree, and started spamming Tank Kill. =p

 

Ivan ... really doesn't ever look realistic at all. You've a fair point about MILES gear though. For vehicles like my tank, it worked great. For infantry though, well, if even one of every twenty that you drew from supply was even a complete set, you could consider yourself lucky. Out of every ten or so, you'd probably be able to cobble together maybe three complete sets - again, if you were lucky. And that one complete set you drew from supply? Yeah, odds are it was only complete because it didn't work to begin with. And even the god gun may shoot the beams, but if the receivers are busted it doesn't make much difference.

Vehicle MILES gear though, doesn't tend to take nearly the beating that infantry gear does.

Depends on the story, I've seen a few that fit Cyberpunk. But in general, got it in one. And there are folks sneaking litRPG into *nonfiction*? Sweet flying spaghetti Cthulhu how the hell does THAT happen?

 

eh read something about it and thought id mention it just incase it was real although i could have sworn i heard about some sort of desensitization to killing in some militaries training

 

I dont either but I do see a problem with people saying something cant be litRPG because its more like portal fantasy then a real fake world

 

Yep

 

Yeah, it's not real. What IS real, and what every military has done since the dawn of time, is dehumanizing the opponent. That's not through training, but rather through derogatory words/actions - in WWII it was "kraut" "nip" and "frog", and today it's a bunch of other terms. None of which are acceptable and if forced to take official notice your brass will REALLY frown on it, but it happens.

It helps in combat if you can think of the people shooting at you as anything other than the same shite scared kids that were handed a gun and pointed at some nebulous, faceless "enemy" because then you don't start to identify them because *you* are just a shite scared kid handed a gun and pointed at some nebulous, faceless enemy.

In training though, at least in today's US Armed Forces, they're very strict about how you are supposed to refer to enemies. It's part of the hearts and minds thing that we started experimenting with during Vietnam.

 

Dehumanizing also goes into things like interrogation and medical training. Covering up hands and head to make anatomy class easier, never referring to someone in a way that humanizes them for interrogation.

Mash those up with an Augmented Reality setup and soldiers from the future might be shooting enemies that have cartoon paper bags over their faces. The Tick might actually be a veteran with PTSD and AR vision.

or that ptsd story line can just be saved for The Maxx

 

In gross anatomy we never had anything covered but the torso. We respected our cadavers but weren't taught to dehumanize them at all - just the opposite, in fact. I've heard quite a few universities are switching from cadavers to syndavers (synthetic anatomically accurate dummies) because it's cheaper. When a cadaver costs $3000 and a syndaver costs $10,000 but is reusable, it will only take 4 semesters before the syndaver has paid for itself.

Medical professionals and especially emergency medical services personnel don't dehumanize people. We just get jaded is all. Referring to patients by their problems rather than their names is done for the sake of expediency, because when you have a little old lady come in after having a stroke or in full arrest, it's more important to know that information than it is to know her name or what she looks like.

I don't think training that dehumanizes people or encourages soldiers to see people as targets will ever be a thing. That's not how you make a soldier, it's how you make a psychopath. Which might make a decent story, actually. Near future soldier is trained to see humans as targets, but when they get out of the service they're told to use a FIVR game as rehabilitation so they can renter normal society.

That sounds like a pretty reasonable consequence to have in the book. Give ex soldiers a year to come down to where they can reintegrate into society, and if at the end of that year they can't, their consciousness is uploaded into the game as an NPC or monster and their real bodies are ... disposed of. But it would have to be treated with respect as a story, it's hard to tread the line between monster and man.

 

yes when I said possibly other militaries that was spesificaly with the Nazis in mind
PS thx for the info this is morbidly interesting

 

Hopefully my own novel will help change that perception.