Genre Pet Peeves

What bugs you about LitRPG? I'm reading my 15th book (I think) since I started following the genre. Nothing bugs me so much that I'll stop reading a book, but there are things that bug me.

Forced log-outs: This one seems to pop up rather frequently. It goes along the lines of "You've been playing for X number of hours. Go take a potty break." I get why it's in there and it makes sense, but I still think there are better ways to spend your word count than to tell me someone has to take a crap.

Excessive Crunchiness: I really don't need to know how many points of damage every single blow deals.

Alien Overlords: This one depends entirely on the execution, but I've seen enough bad iterations that I'm starting to sour on this concept.

What about you? Is there anything about the genre that sets your teeth on edge?

 

Too many character viewpoints* is a turn off, plus mind-numbingly long combat scenes*.

I can't think of any LitRPG tropes specifically. I guess I like them all. =P

*Scout (Blades VR Book 1) by Terry Schott
*Codename: Freedom by Apollos Thorne (You know I still love ya!)

 

It really just depends on how it's done. Some people are able to pull it off in a way that doesn't bother me. Other times, I find myself skipping pages. I wish I could figure out the exact mechanics of why I don't mind some and can't stand others.

 

Really? How many is too many for you? Do you have issues with too many character viewpoints in other genres or just LitRPG?

 

Just added a new pet peeve: Book titles that are so insecure that they have to explicitly state LitRPG as part of the title. Yes, I understand it's a marketing and a search algorithm thing.

The only thing I ask is that none of you bring this comment up to me when I publish my first book: True Confessions of a LitRPG Reader, told in LitRPG Format, written by Lit RPG with a forward by the Grandmother of the Tunisian LitRPG Movement.

 

However many was in Scout Blade VR, sorry I don't recall the number. If other genres had this many viewpoints, this peeve would cross over to those as well.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you've never read George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (also known as Game of Thrones).

 

#1 pet peeve. Authors who may use too many game mechanic references in order to add filler to the book. Some authors put in so many character sheet views, updates to skill levels, and alerts for each game event that it gets tedious to read. Sometimes the story barely progresses but a whole book is created. And yes, I am mostly refering to one major offender. I like the game mechanics, and want to see them in summary. But I want the story line to progress further than it could in a one day D&D session.

 

I don't know who you're talking about, but you're right. That stuff does balloon page count. I saw an author talking about word counts for his books on Facebook and the one book that he was talking about would have been at least 100 pages shorter if it weren't for all of the tables and stats that he includes.

 

lol I feel that one author does it to excess. You may not have read his books yet. And it is my personal opinion which I probably didn't need to share. It is a big peeve of mine though.....

 

There are a lot of authors who do this enough to bug me. I'm not sure I want to read one who does it to 'excess'. I might end up throwing my Kindle against the wall.

 

lol since I am writing about a party of 4 I am going to have to be very careful of this myself. Enough to be engaging and give the reader an RPG rush but not go overboard

 

Hah, I actually have read the series. I see what you are saying. I may have skimmed or skipped whole chapters to get to the story lines I wanted to read right. that. instant.
Something I've noticed in reviews is people seem to be offended when a LitRPG resembles WoW too much. I'm not bothered by it : )

 

Crap. Now, I have to change the name of that one town to something other than Ironforge. I know! Maybe Molten Core? Oh crap. Never mind.

 

I think specifically on this one I have to disagree I think this is an excellent marketing trick it identifies itself as being part of a series and then gives a title that makes you think it can almost be used as a way to focus the whole book through a lense if you want not only that but so far his 2 titles are clear enough to not be confusing but they also give the title a hint of an intellectual feel.

As for the covers I think they give the books an air of professionally that the current titles dont have. The covers have a clean modern minimalist artstyle that gives it a hint of thought provokingness when put in context with the book and title all of this would really clash if the book was written any differently then it was. Atleast to me the book came off as a little bit like the later enders game books with a few ideas from the author and some philosophy affecting the story of a book which is aided by the art and title giving it an overall intellectual feel.

As a side not I actualy think the current cover art is bad marketing as it gives it a less professional feel while I wont go in depth on why I feel this suffice it to say characters looking at you(often with nothing covering there head) gives the cover a certain feel that I think dosent go nearly as well with the genre as a more minimalist object focused art style some covers i do like: feedback loop, continue online, awaken online, the land, and emerillia

 

I totaly agree with this one I also dont like really long viewpoints because it tempts me to skip and miss the story im curious to hear if you have read either the Super Powerds series or demons of astlan as they are the two books that not only fix this problem for me but enhance the book with switching

 

For me its two things 1) stupid overarching objectives somehow only the MC is destined to complete for example the chess set in way of the shamen this stems from my preference of books to not have destined or savior MCs that probably developed as a result of me reading wayy to much mediocre epic fantasy

2) something i noticed gets done that just makes the charicter into a mary/marty sue when a bunch of people in a book start saying well thats just him hes a wierd one but his ideas always work or something along those lines if a book does that too much its often a sign to quit for me.
3)
To much deus ex machina when the charicter seems to be saying ohh this is a rare drop every other sentence and not because hes high level or this is a legendary quest thats super rare and like one in a million people get but somehow i got 50.

 

ohh dangit your not calling it Online online True Confessions of a LitRPG Reader, told in LitRPG Format, written by Lit RPG with a forward by the Grandmother of the Tunisian LitRPG Movement