Is it "GAMELIT" or "GAMERLIT" I'm seeing more "gamerlit" references, but when I search both I see more "gamelit" books show up on Amazon. I want to designate my books correctly. We need a governing authority. LitRPG vs Gamelit vs Gamerlit, versus all of the other manefestions of "LitRPG genre" It's all so confusing. It was so much easier when it was all LitRPG. Humans have a knack for complicating everything.
Didn't @Zachariah Dracoulis and crew come up with it then Blaise started the FB Group for it? Now I'm confused! HAha
I'm fairly sure it's GameLit - and he didn't coin the name but certainly repurposed it to a larger scale. It had originally come from some part of Richard Mulder's group - they had bounced it around a lot then did a quick campaign to use the term and it flopped. Blaise was like "WELL SCREW ALERON'S BID FOR WORLD DOMINATION" and backed away to the broader term. Anyway, that's all drama that amuses me but doesn't answer the question. GameLit. I mean it's all Dragon Lance novels.
No, he utterly renamed half his groups then started a few more for GameLit to get it reserved before Aleron could get in charge. It's like children screaming DIBS over chairs. I CALL DIBS.
Sorry, I follow BC and not the others on Twitter. I saw him say it there and on Reddit, so I took it as him creating it. My bad.
No worries. Blaise is successful by being visible. That's part of why his usage of the term gained a lot more traction than not "Richard but the other" guy's usage. Zach.
It's GameLit. You can review the simple site at GameLit.org. There is also GameLit Society on FB, and a handful of other groups dedicated to authors and the community. The idea behind GameLit was to become more inclusive and to spread out ownership. We didn't want one person to have full control. There were no children screaming dibs. Just a community of authors working together to build something important to us. From my point of view, the term has done quite well for how old it is. { Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Fantasy } > GameLit > LitRPG. Arrows denote specificity, not greater-than. LitRPG is GameLit with more specific rules. GameLit is a form of the above genres, with more specific rules. This is a win-win as the "Not LitRPG" books have a better place to go. We disbanded the Council to let GameLit grow organically. We didn't want Richard's magazine to be the sole pushing point for the genre. Matthew Sylvester pitched the idea to Blaise. Blaise created GameLit Society in part to Matthew and in part to Kong's attempt to trademark LitRPG. Dawn (LitRPG Society's moderator) created the GameLit Society's Writer Workshop. I own the website and will keep it neutral (as compared to Kong's website, which promotes him above all others). If you want to discuss the specifics of how the genre came about, let me know. I, and the authors I talk with daily, were there every step of the way. As soon as the genre went public and the Council disbanded, we accepted that others may affect the genre. That's part of the plan. You can call that "flopped" though if it weren't for those who dedicated a month and their free time discussing/debating the topic, it wouldn't exist at all. @James G Patton alerted me to this thread. Yell at him if you don't like anything I've said.
I liked everything you said, Dustin. I'm all for more inclusion, and against any exclusion. Long live Gamelit!
Heh, I came here to say more or less exactly what @Dustin Tigner said, and I'll also add that I didn't rename any groups. I made the original GameLit page and the original Council page. And it didn't flop, at least not in my eyes, it did what it was supposed to do which was cement that it was a genre for everyone. This meant that when someone big (who turned out to be Blaise) found the genre they couldn't claim 'ownership' of GameLit. Also, I resent it being inferred that I'm a 'child calling dibs', though if you choose to believe that, that's like, just your opinion maaaan. *And does Blaise count in this description?
Myself and the others who originally founded GameLit were working toward something great, but the truth is that following a chaotic 48 hours of disagreements, miscommunication, and a great deal of drama that I'll take my part of the blame for, we disbanded. This was seen as the best thing to do in order for GameLit to survive. Then, after everything had calmed down and we were all more or less on speaking terms again, Blaise and Matthew started talking and Blaise made the Society. I think this is a good time to mention that I had already invited Blaise to the original group, but he didn't believe it had enough professionals in it in terms of business acumen. Anyway, following the launch of Society things have blown up, which is most definitely thanks to Blaise. However, I maintain that my and others decisions to have groups ready before Blaise's launch was a good thing as it ensured that people still had something to point to and go 'That's where GameLit came from.'
