Everyone seriously needs to go watch @Dangerhouse video on the definition of LitRPG. Not only is the video well made with thoughtful points, but I think he really does a very good job at defining the genre.
Loved the simplicity of the Alice in Wonderland example, and wish I had thought of it myself. Well made video, but changing #2 to play off #1 by replacing "Virtual World" with "Game World" would cover those "real" scenarios from the isekai /portal world / xianxia reincarnation stories where people end up in a game world with game elements and life and death stakes. #3 immediately breaks rule #2 in the above examples unless you go even farther and say that instead of a virtual / game world, there is a game system which dominates the story, and then you don't need #2 because you have #1. While #3 forces stories that are ultimately LitRPG but that might leave it up in the air as to which type (think appearing on another planet with game rules with no clue whether or not you can ever return home or if anything is actually real) or those stories where the twist ending is the fact that the reality the audience assumed was real turned out to be false. #1 also provides a little too much of a limitation on actual modern games like The King's Avatar which has some fuzzy game mechanics and in game manifestations of human character behaviors that aren't ever explained. Westworld purposefully keeps the exact schedule / replacement routine unknown, there aren't a lot of concrete details other than, "Get it back up and running" and there are ongoing events where characters either reappear or don't as that would have an affect on the emotional responses of other characters that knew they were "dead"... So audiences totally go along with a game world that is only ever partially designed and defined. Changing #1 from "The story contains a defined game system" to "The story contains a functioning game system" would exclude game worlds that are broken and totally unfair, and as that's an example that I used just now its conceivably a LitRPG plotline. Pretty much take any example you can think of and ask, "Can I break this rule?" Then you're dealing with the crazy potential of the LitRPG genre... because there aren't too many parts of the genre that can't be played with. Leaving only the most basic "how to make a LitRPG story steps", so other than the need for it being written in the first place, plus readable and coherent, and that somehow the game matters even if the stakes don't, after that here isn't much else to the "rules" of LitRPG. At least nothing unrelated to writing, readability, and game stakes that affect the story. Enjoyed the video! @Dangerhouse could become the LitRPG version of Yahtzee for book reviews and state of the genre (if that guys still around).
Ahh I see why now. It was posted on Reddit and so many people on reddit dislike/downvote everything on principle. Heh.
I spent more time than I should have making it, and wanted to get it out there. I'm positive that my definitions aren't perfect, and I haven't read all of the books currently out defining what litRPG is. So I don't know what it absolutely should be, I'm not sure anyone really does yet, exactly. I just wanted to give it a shot.
The video is excellent, it was great seeing all the work you put into it....it was quite the talk of the day in the forums......You had some good examples and thoughts...I also wonder at the word virtual vs another word like game world as being a potential for #2, not as an argument, but as a conversation.
Well its out there and its the highest quality LitRPG fan vid I've seen so far (but I don't go looking for them =x). Plus you got yourself some self promotion, so it literally can't have hurt. I was serious with the Yahtzee comparison, if you read a book and did a review in a similar style and with some of your own visuals you'd probably have a following in short order.
Hey... hey... hey.... THIS forum has a Facebook group. I know the guy who’s trying to get it to grow and be active and stuff. It’s a nice place. All of you should join. ::gives @Felicity Weiss a squinty eyed look:: All of YOU.
so I will share with you my response to the original thread the video was posted on as i want to get your thoughts I dont think it has to take place in a virtual world so much as it has to take place within that defined game system world with at some point a non game system world and they have to know at some point they are entering this "game world" this allows things like delvers to be LitRPG. I also think the defined game system is a probably unintentional stroke of genius rather then saying video game which has limitations and dosent fit with certain books but if you define game world as a world with certain rules unlike the wider outside world and those rules are defined (by some force within the world) it allows for a broader definition of a game without any added associations
I have to say I loved the Starcraft reference recently ive been playing and watching ton of it so the reference is nice. Also that idra vs huk game is always painfully great
