Genre Pet Peeves

I'm saving that title for the sequel.

 

I also don't like too much game mech in the story. I want to see some, but not for ever single blow in a fight. Of course, I've been accused of not having enough game mech in one of my books by Master Reviewer extraordinaire Ramon Mejia. Story is paramount to me. Don't mess with the flow of the story. I think A. Kong did a good job of it especially have the MC configured the game to only prompt AFTER an event. Still, there was a lot of game mech in that book. Some writers can pull off almost no game mech and it still reads like LitRPG. I'm so jealous of them.

I won't name books, but I have stopped reading when game mech took me out of the story. Sometimes it's just too much.

I don't mind multiple POV characters. Heck, I don't even mind Omnipotent POV if done well. My next book has the most game mech I've put in, plus has two (male and female) 1st person main POV characters, but one truly main POV character. There are five members of their little group, so each of the other three got at least one chapter as POV to help establish their personality/character. I didn't have a villain POV in that book, though I frequently liked doing that in past books.

Awakened Online: Pecipice - I like the way he did that series titles. I've done that in the past with series, and will do it again in the future. I love how it gives you the series, and then the title, so you know exactly what you are getting. I wouldn't mind if he added a subtitle (A LitRPG Series). The first two parts is what is important.

 

I've yet to read a LitRPG book that had multiple POVs. I think that's true. If I have read one, it obviously didn't bother me because it's not sticking out in my memory. I think the key to multiple POVs is that each POV has to be interesting. If one of them sucks, then, people will be bored. I mean even if they are all interesting, there's still going to be a certain POV that a reader enjoys more. That's why George R. R. Martin impresses me so much. He has taken characters that I borderline hated and made me enjoy them because of events, responses, or character growth. There aren't a whole lot of writers who can pull that off.

 

This is a huge pet peeve of mine also, where game mechanics ruin the flow of a story and often aren't even necessary. I consider Combat Log entries that don't convey the progress taking place within a battle totally unneccessary, as they are just game records of actions taken. However, like Felicity's dislike of fights that drag on too long, showing that a series of attacks one hit KOed a whole group of baddies with individual attacks, without fully describing the battle like a slow motion Tom Cruise scene from The Last Samurai, does significantly shorten the story telling process. Its just something that has to be preceded by Combat Log information which shows the maximum health (or average maximum health) of an enemy, and doesn't leave the reader feeling cheated. Otherwise the method can just as easily be reproduced by saying, "Protagonist Bob killed all the baddies in one sword strike each, it was sweet dude."

In my own story I'm going for fully immersive and as realistic as possible gameplay, but some "conveniences" carry over that aren't expressed as Game Interface options. High capacity magic bags and a player "mode" for crafting that leaves the players body controllable above the neck only, while their body carries out the crafting that they do not possess the manual dexterity to perform. But "muscle memory" does the work for them if they brute force their crafting skill with materials rather than talent. Very reminiscient of crafting in WoW and other early MMOs. There aren't however arbitrary units of damage, and most LitRPG stories don't have totally arbitrary formula based systems either, player movements and weapons are integrated into the formula I would guess based on what I've read, and there is nothing like an auto attack, but in my game world there is an auto attack: its just the player has zero control of their avatar for the duration. Except unlike crafting, auto attack doesn't "level up" except when a player continually displays a consistent amount of skill that game can parse as talent, and even then its far less competently executed than if the player were controlling the avatar themselves. So I have carry overs that have nothing to do with the old game mechanics of convenience, and everything to do with penalties to insure "fair" fights or to allow players with no artistic talent to create.

Fair fights meaning that in certain game titles, someone with no access to an in game instant messaging system can log out and send a message to their friends to meet them and head their enemies off somewhere, or set up an ambush. However this feature isn't possible unless certain game server conditions are met, and so my particular world has the punitive measures intact, but not possible advantage from "cheating" because the game "knows" (tracks communications as part of the EULA and asks outright "Did you violate any of the terms of the EULA related to player communications to gain an advantage?" So even conspiring with a room mate on the particular server that I focus on will get a way longer log out time, hours and not just the mandatory 20 mins + 5 mins out of control of the player character. So the minimum log out time that isn't in place after the server meets its "upgrade" criteria won't persist, and neither will the penalty for communication.

So my biggest personal pet peeve is INSTANT f**cking MESSAGING IN A FULLY IMMERSIVE REALISTIC VR GAME! That is so damn game breaking. Spies in every guild literally trivializing sieges from the inside, "Let me just stand here and give my buddies on the other side artillery / catapult targeting coordinates and adjustments to more effectively take out the defenses." Players in dungeons "chatting" through walls and breaking immersion from the horror filled ghost town while talking their bro back in town through a side quest to get a seasonal Santa hat. Yes that could be fun, but the reality of "Oh hey super easy talking that makes zero sense, or actual in game text messaging on invisible floating keyboards" that doesn't make NPCs stop and go, "Is that dude having a stroke?" Because hey, they can instant message the player too!" Its like Oprah showed up and gave everyone game mechanics.

"You get instant teleportation that trivializes travel and makes destroying player kingdoms easy and profitable! You get instant messaging that doesn't fit with any of the themes from this game and that ruins the immersion process! You get high capacity magic bags operated through a game menu! You get to use a game interface to launch complex martial attacks that don't require any skill to have been developed! You get to log out in the middle of a dungeon without your character remaining in the world, or teleport for free as often as you like back to the big city and meet up with your friends at a moments notice! You get to play in a fast and loose virtual world where zero sum stakes exist and everyone takes stuff super seriously but clearly at any given moment anything you try and do will be torn to shreds by psychotic internet trolls and all-purpose wankers who enjoy enraging people that try and build anything!"

Its just a game, or its not just a game...

Its a hobby where you invest countless hours, or a place that isn't so much of a joke that people could earn a living facilitating other players fun, and its suppose to be non-stop adventure otherwise those "good games" that have all those features will outlast the boring immersive servers. I see what other authors are trying to set up, and then they throw in Combat Log entries that are pointless, they describe the combat taking place and then show the log as well, which is redundant, and they insist that the convenience factors of todays games meant to keep a player engaged in a single world and not let their attention roam, gives zero thought to the fact that players will literally be existing in another world. They aren't an alt tab away from checking out the competition, unless you build in a browser to the already unnecessary UI.

Plus if its their job to play they wouldn't jump ship unless they were chasing after a virtual gold rush or managing multiple characters on multiple games to earn more, its unlikely if the game was made half way decently that a player is just going to pick up and leave without considering what they're losing from changing games.

Sunk cost considerations against the trade offs in games that you don't get to leave your mark in any significant way. So I'm okay with fun games and fun stories going full WoW, but the crazy serious stories where people are dying inbetween instant messages that are suppose to be as emotional as the end of the mother f**cking Titanic? Doesn't work for me.

This is a guys chat box after his friends see him (in the distance) take a killing blow from some random monster to cover their retreat in a hardcore game title...

"Duuuude. Dude you are so dead. D. E. A. D. DEAD! Man so crazy!"
"OMG BRO, LIGHTERS UP HIGH MANG!"
"I'm taking your boots bitch... if we recover your body. Dead mans boots +1, DEATHKNIGHT GAINS SON"
"Game Over... one hit ko... do not pass go... na na na naaa naaaa, hey hey hey, good bye."
"Goodnight sweet prince."
"I bet fckn Doug just went all GNSP am I right? Its important, bet with Stacy, will split cash just say yes and stick to it"
"hey lie about Doug saying GNSP and get split of cash frm bet w fckn Vince, will piss off Doug when no one cares about whether he actually said it or not too, win/win, +thx for taking the hit, we owe u... BUT EZ MONEY DO IT SRS"

Then Doug can be heard shouting in the distance, "ITS FROM HAMLET YOU DILDOS!" and your character dies.

That could happen without instant messaging, but it would happen less. Or it could happen way more often in a game with lots of fun and no hardcore death penalties, and actually be fun to read.

 

Interested to hear what you think of alter world given its emotionality mixed with instant messaging not to mention how they handled that?

 

Haven't read Alter World yet, but unless its handled like the long distance goodbye between the wife & husband characters from the chronologically first Anne McAffrey Pern Novel where the dudes founded the colonies, and where the wife character stows away to space on a space-ship that the shit head character trying to get rich steals, then its unlikely I'll be able to enjoy it.

From the story:

"No! You can't die lady character, I love you!"
"You... love me?"

This after a book full of the lady character trying to get some love from the emotionless male, and then the conversation ends, and thats that. The last thing she's ever recorded as saying shows her surprise that her husband actually loved her back. Then she dies alone in space with her blood filling up her space suit. Male character shows he's not a robot, or at least that he doesn't mourn like one, and life goes on.

Pull that off in an instant message and maybe I'll be into it with an emotional and serious story. Otherwise its likely to be immersion breaking and game balance wrecking if the people using it have any brains and little in the way of morals. Like the vast majority of players selected from the slime ball contingent that participate in high end gaming, a sliver of the total gaming population who are actually willing to play as spies and sell out e-friends for absolutely no glory or treasure in exchange, or specifically because they get something for it. Either way its scummy.

Games are zero sum if there is anything to fight over, and so I just have a hard time with instant messaging within the game. People log out, chat each other up, and log back in? Loop hole found! I close that loop hole in my own story, but at least that makes sense, you have to coordinate with your IM buddy, or cycle characters in and out to keep instant messages coming in like old school telegraphing of battle movements to coordinate and keep accurate war-maps between the fronts. A whole messaging corps like what they set up in Log Horizon, just so players can organize multiple fronts far apart within the rules of the game.

So I don't mind that it happens, and that it changes stuff, its the fact that people don't view it as this game breaking feature in feudal settings. Sci-Fi at least has an excuse, you've got coms and radios and long-band space blasts (whatever that means) that zip all over the galaxy on encrypted signals meant just for players. Guild Generals basically get a telegraph system with no character limit, and capturing a spy doesn't matter because he already passed on his information directly, or he can as soon as he's offline, or when he respawns if there is a short rez timer and no "spirit lounge" instant message feature.

If its a fun game story, and I'm not suppose to care about game balance or uber nerds waging war like uber nerds, then yeah whatever, but I'd be surprised if it is pulled off in a way I'd enjoy in a serious LitRPG story.

Because it would be a heckuva tight rope walk to make a fun game, with game breaking features, be something that readers take seriously.

 

More than 3 is too many. I mean mc, mc love interest, and bad guy is enough. Any more than that is confusing and could be done better with spin off books

 

1. Using stats and damage dealt as padding. knowing the MC's level and stat changes now and then is fine but if you need to fill up two or three pages per chapter with them then that's just padding

2. The Special, every game world has a set of rules that all the characters follow and yet the the MC is the only one that this doesn't apply to... because reasons.

3. The Backstory and the character don't match, I've noticed this more and more in this genre, the character is given this detailed backstory and a very specific personality... and then when his role actually starts he has nothing to do with it! example, in Gam3, the genius gamer and super coder with people willing to invest millions of dollars in him, he begins the game and... knows nothing and I do mean nothing about gaming, even the word inventory. Not a new game but one that's the most popular one in his world for the past 10 years, he never researches it and it's like he's barely heard of the word "game" in his life!

4. Repeating yourself, This one is just bad storytelling honestly, some mundane event takes place and the MC reacts a certain way and you can all but see the word FORESHADOWING written all over the event. The very next chapter he is faced with the exact same event but with an important character/npc in the game and he just repeats the event with a tada! the. very. next. chapter... I'd like to think your readers have a longer attention span than a goldfish!

5. The Ray from force awakens, the plot needs the a character to speak this language, he does, we need someone that knows how to build houses, well he's a 14 year old city boy but he does! dragon riding, oh it must be fate... mary sue is what he is and those are never interesting.

 

Brilliant comment.

 

I think you just pointed out my favorite part about emmerilia.

 

Why? In that one the MC lives a double life, who he was before the game has nothing to do with his in-game character and was given a believable learning curve to achieve it all... then again I've only read book one of that series, it kindda over stayed it's welcome by the end of that book so didn't follow it up.

 

It ramps up quickly to ridiculous levels. But yeah, I can see it not being for everyone.

 

I agree, it started off well but then... well it seems popular, the idea is a cool one to be honest just didn't like the direction in the end. i think book 8 just came out

 

I'd like to see game mechanics more buried in the world - rather than the usual head up display screen, maybe magical tattoos that shift and change color, omens, an annoying talking fairy companion, something along those lines.I don't even like subtitles on movies, I can't imagine how distracting that would be in "real" (or game) life.

Another pet peeve is that 85% of the stories I've read have the same generic MC backstory where he has a lousy life and loves games, then he gets to live in a game, yay, and naturally he's awesome at it. I have nothing against wish fullfilment but it general doesn't have any depth for one. In the second half of The Neverending Story (the novel) the character is tasked with rebuilding the fantasy world using his wishes, which are all pretty selfish, but he doesn't realize with each wish he loses a part of his memories until he almost loses himself entirely. Also, plot is conflict, and putting a character in a situation he isn't quite prepared to cope with makes for a more fun and interesting plot. Say, the MC has a perfectly happy life, good job, loving family, hasn't played games since he was a teenager, and then as a middle aged average dude he somehow gets trapped in a game world. Especially if he's used to old-school games . . . will his hours of chugging Mountain Dew and playing Doom help him survive? Or take a hardcore gamer who likes grim & gritty stuff and dunk him in something based on My Little Pony. He'd probably be clawing his own eyes out trying to escape before figuring out how to adapt and triumph.

 

Ahahahah that would be an awesome book to read. A hardcore pro FPS player getting stuck in Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

 

Ive only read book one but my main thing is that he keeps calling back to the fact that hes a programmer his personality dosent randomly change he was on top top of the world with access to the best education and teachers I will admit he gets strong quick but most of that isnt because of his skill its because of his patron so its consistant

 

Pony island? thats already a game

 

YEEES my favorite part of SAM was how everything was buried yes you can access stats but its not an immersion ruining HUD (especialy because its not a game)

EDIT although I will say the thing i hate the most is how universal the hud is like you can know an enemys health because why??? there are plenty of games that dont tell you health in fact most multiplayer games dont and in a VRMMO seeing everyones health is op same goes for things like name and other stats a smaller pet peeve is when the game tells you about every item even if its never been discoverd before I would expect most games if there going for realism wouldent just have a universal item library how do you know if this sword you discoverd gives you 100k dmg or 20

 

totaly agree with this one althogh im also tired of the MC being trapped or a gamer can anyone write a book where the MCs a casual and knows how to play just hasent been OBSESED with a game the super obsesed gamer trop is wearing me a little thin