(cross-posting from facebook) Interesting debate. My answer to this is an enthusiastic HELL YES we absolutely still need it. One of the best things about litRPG is that it combines future science fiction with fantasy in a way that makes sense. I would hate to lose the science fiction part of the equation. Besides that, a story's setup is critical to establishing stakes and motivations. I need to know the reason that the protagonist is playing a game. VR based litRPG should have stakes that bleed into the real world, otherwise, what's the point in having the real world be part of the story in the first place? I think the actual problem is that the real world narratives tend to repeat one another. Virtual reality is similar in different books far too often. Do something new. If time-dilation is a part of VR, make a case for it, make it matter. If it's deep dive rather than headset based, describe how the experience is different and how it affects the player. I agree that the problem exists, but the solution isn't to remove the introduction to VR, it's to do something new with it that's never been done before.
You're totally right about character motivations. Average Joe who signs in to the game to have fun is a snooze fest. Give them something in their personal life that drives them to the game as a source for socializing and entertainment. Maybe work or home life sucks. Maybe they are poor and it's cheaper to spend time in a virtual world than go to bars, movies, whatever all the time. Maybe they look like they fell out of a the fugly tree, hit every branch on the way down, and have social anxiety because of it. I like seeing variations on how VR actually works. I've seen everything from pods to helmets etc. For a future series I've been tossing around the idea of implants that allow people to slip into a trance and experience the virtual world/computer interface etc. In my books, I indicate that it's a bit of a mind hack where it puts the consumer in a state of controlled lucid dreaming, only the software is controlling the environment and memories of the experience are retained.
It might not be relevant until the mc has a heart attack in chapter 3 'cause he's been playing some dumb game for 72hrs straight. There've been books in which the mc doesn't know they're in a game until the story has progressed somewhat... and then there's "NPC's." Everybody in the world has seen The Matrix. Surely.
hmm, I wouldn't mind that actually the worst part of any litrpg is the real-life part of it, get me in and go and never come back if it takes you 3 chapters to even get in the game, you're doing it wrong make the VR be a real world, either real world suddenly has game features System Apocalypse style or trapped in a game for whatever stupid reason or aliens force you to play for the future of the planet (you could easily write The Gam3 to not include any RL scenes)
