I think I agree with your sentiment but not where it takes you in this particular case. LitRPG is a subculture and as such its not invasive to police ourselves.You would probably find nothing wrong with a parent telling there kid that there behavior was wrong but if some stranger says the kids behavior is wrong thats more likely to be feel wrong. cultures police themselves and if we give Russian authors license to behave in a sexist manner because they come from another culture where thats the norm then we are saying that behavior is allowed as they are accepted as a part of the community the trick is to not disrespect there sexist behavior but also to say very clearly its not allowed in LitRPG and that as long as they do it they wont be respected nearly as much but also be very careful to not attack any alternate culture they may create in response after all the power to self police can easily be used to amplify terrible behavior and thus it should be used carefully as it is also the thing that makes any member of a culture responsible for the acts of the whole. PS. This came across a little more preachy then I meant it please try not to take it as me trying to preach to you I was just trying to present a different perspective.
It's a little thing in the grand scheme, but the biggest pet peeve I've developed since "discovering" this genre a few months ago is that reaction when someone levels up or gets skill/ability points to use. You know the one. "Nice!" Honestly, if there were a LitRPG drinking game and "Nice!" meant a shot, I'd have been passed out only a few chapters in to some books.
There are some books that if that a drinking game, I'd die from alcohol poisoning before I was 25% into the book.
1. Every time a character says 'nice!' at a level up, take a shot. 2. Every time a character says 'my level is too low to fight that monster...' and then wins, take a shot. Take two if they win because of a skill or weapon that shouldn't close the distance in HP and level. 3. Every time a character who is supposed to be a dedicated gamer puzzles over something that any dedicated gamer knows, take a shot. take two if it's something like 'wut are stats' 4. Every time a hot NPC is head-over-heels with the main character without him having done anything to deserve it, take a shot. 5. Take a shot every time an AI is called a god in a virtual world. 6. Take two shots if two AI are battling it out in a game, using the game and the players to fight. 7. Take a shot if 'something goes wrong with the program.
There are three general levels of drinking games: Level 1: you may get a mild buzz from this. Level 2: you will end up naked. Don't question it, just enjoy it. Level 3: so you want to wake up on dialysis. This would be level 4: so you never want to wake up again.
This is like the Thunderdome of drinking games. "Two men enter, one man leaves!" ...Of course, the man leaving might be on a stretcher to the ER, but still...
Yesterday: Make throwaway joke-y comment in a forum post. Today: Wake up to find the complete LitRPG drinking game. Good times.
There's a book being written right now about a throwaway joke post of mine. I'm coauthoring it, so I should know! Heh
There's a lot of jokes in this genre - I love how people utterly ignore that technology advances across the board. Full div induced feelings and taste/smell are hugely complicated Basically either digging into nerves and stimulating senses, or puffing your face with a concoction that tastes like oranges. I've had to work hard to move the rest of my outside VR world along. This is not a challenge that portal fantasy (The Land & Delvers as popular examples) ever have. They don't have to think about what heights the real world has reached - but Delvers does a good job trying to build a world round the premise - where as The Land felt like it ignored stuff from level 1 because it wasn't an issue until 8 books later - IE the world has evolved so much that the newbie concept is out f sync, doesn't line up, etc. That's rough. It's also a problem with "unending series" that have levels. I detest the level system, with a passion. I refused to use it and went with Ranks. I also hated systems that make people react or think faster than anyone else inside a virtual pod without explaining how that works. Time, time mechanics, all that tuff - which treated poorly it hurt my head. So, I had to think about that stuff, figure out a way to include it in and a sort of glazed explanation. Pet peeves are great to hear about for authors, at least for me, because I think about what sort of logic there is to it. The pop culture references as an example - Iron Druid, a popular fantasy series, was worse than The Land. It's a fun adventure, but the character knows more about pop singers than anyone 2 thousand years old should. It's disconcerting.
Unpopular opinion: I couldn't really get into The Land (I know it's rather popular but it wasn't for me) but the little sample I did read sounded like portal fantasy, so being that sort of genre, it makes a good cheat to get around the issue. Technically as long as the technology can stimulate the right chemical responses you can hear and taste in VR (provided the interface has correctly mapped and processed the whole of the brain it's connected to) but it's highly likely that 'newly developed' or experimental tech would also mis-map and have data interpretation errors for stuff; so a loaf of bread would taste like apple juice (as a bengnin example) I've read the first two Iron Druid books and honestly don't remember much pop-culture references? If a person is adaptable or not, I think is the big decider in how they would survive modern culture as it evolved and changed with the times.
The Land is, objectively, pretty terrible. Chock full of pop culture references that make no sense in context, in-jokes, the MC is a garbage human being, plot threads just get left hanging, story inconsistencies from book to book (and even in the same book!), massive plot holes, storylines and characters that get put on buses with no explanation, tons of self-congratulatory BS, deus ex machinas, overuse and violation of Rule of Cool... the list goes on. But yeah, objectively terrible pretty much covers it. I think it's purely the marketing and branding that makes it so popular - that, and being first to market (or early to market, at least). He also writes to market, rather than writing to tell a compelling story.
Sounds like you feel pretty vehemently about it. I can only hope when I'm finished I don't generate this level of frustration in readers and peers.
Nah, even with all of that, it's still not the worst book I've read. Terrible? Yeah. The worst? Not by far.
CheshirePhoenix is pretty spot-on about the Land series. Back when I first discovered LitRPG, The Land series was one of the first I read. It had gotten great reviews, everyone seemed to be talking about it, and all that jazz, so I bought the marketing and grabbed Books 1-5 (or 6? I'd have to check my phone) in a little bundle and set to work. Wow, I was disappointed. I will give the Devil his due and say that the worldbuilding ideas aren't bad. The execution is atrocious in most places, but the actual ideas are good. I like the ideas of the sprites, the special trees, the way the dungeons work, etc. etc. Those are all good ideas; maybe not the most original, but the concept of the Land is actually pleasing to me. Sadly, the rest is just...garbage. I physically winced when in just the first chapter when the MC killed an animal and screamed "What does the fox say?!". I was just not very impressed, but I'd paid money so on I pushed. I read all 6 of his books (the 7th wasn't out by then) out of sheer stubbornness. Unfortunately, I disliked the MC and the world more and more as time went on. The memes are horrible. The MC is an absolutely burning trash-fire of a person that's a sexist, homophobic douche that treats people poorly and cares only about himself and his advancement. I was actually really, really annoyed when they were like "Oh, it's CHAOTIC NEUTRAL, that's like good and bad mixed together!". No it isn't! That's exactly what it is NOT. Chaotic Neutral is basically thinking that no laws matter and is out for themself and cares for their own needs and gains, damn anyone else (unless they're in the 'right' mood). Now that suits the MC just fine, but the way they're portraying it as some noble thing above 'mere' good and evil just makes me want to kick a wall. I honestly wouldn't mind if they just said that's what he was, but them acting like it's some rare, amazing thing to be a selfish dick that thinks they know better than anyone else is just annoying as crap. And let's not talk about how he treats all his lovers and how one dimensional they are, existing only to lust after the MC's hot, hot self... Ugh. There's so many plot holes, ignored stories, and flimsy characters that exist only to gush over the MC that it's mind-blowing. I want to know how any editor can let some of this stuff slide, assuming he even has one. I don't think his following of "yes man" beta readers count even slightly as editing because I'm pretty sure they just gasp and go on about how great it is. That's the only scenario I can imagine given the author's behavior toward anyone even slightly negative toward him or his series. The whole series is just an absolute damn mess. Granted, I will also agree it's not the worst thing I've ever read in my whole life. It's just certainly not near as fantastic as the reviews claim and needs to be lovingly rescued by some kind editor that the author might actually listen to. So the plot holes and poor characters and ridiculous pop culture references can be cut, fixed, or thrown into the fire. It reads like a really, really poor first draft to me; word vomit that needs to be cut down, smoothed out, and tightened up. It has potential, but sadly it is not realized at all. And that makes me sad because I wanted really badly to like it.
