Observations of the LitRPG scene (and why we need better classifications and a neutral voice)

Wouldn't that be "much more gooder enough"?

 

Who has time for grammar when you want to be angry and seem important?
RABBLE! RABBLE RABBLE!

 

It’s not a dog, Bront.

 

On a more serious note, nothing is ever perfect. And perversely, things that trend too close to absolute perfection weird us out. It’s the uncanny valley effect, but in writing.

I once read a book that was actually 100% perfectly grammatically correct. It ... wasn’t very good. It was 160,000 words of not very good.

The story was interesting enough, but the writing just seemed artificial and stilted and was incredibly hard to get through, turning an enjoyable pastime into an absolute nightmare slog.

Thing is, we all tend to have internal audio when it comes to things we read. And when that doesn’t match up with the way we speak, it feels weird. Right now Incipere is perfectly imperfect, if that makes any sense at all?

 

I want to say no so I can continue to argue, but yes. I know. I’m just a bother when I’m having a day sometimes. Makes me feel better.

 

Eat a snickers. You’re not you when you’re hangry.

 

Nah. Personal stuff. No worries. I think I hijacked this thread... that should be a trophy lol.

 

That should be a LitRPG category! "Not written by guys who've clearly barely interacted with a real woman and whose long-term relationship is probably an anime pillow"

If that is your book I highly look forward to reading it!

 

I won’t lie; there’s cursing. However it’s usually within a completely relatable context of oh shit or being chased by something thrice your size and thinking to yourself something similar.

 

Personally, I don't mind cursing at all -- to the point that I didn't even put it on my list, since it's how people talk and if kids ever go out or turn on the tv they will hear this kind of language anyway. Not sure about what the acceptable standard is for YA, though.

 

YA in a LitRPG is tough, because kids are playing games like Splatoon at 5 or 6 or whatever - which is about destroying other guys with ink. The violence of a normal FPS is covered up by kiddy veneer but the mission hasn't changed. (I mean, it's more fun than CS, but hey, whatever).

LitRPG, Game Lit, or whatever, is about escapism, which is the same thing video games are about in general - living a story tied to a life that isn't your own. This can make it harder to use for YA - since you'd have to make a teen or child or whatever - who already isn't themselves,s then plop them into a world that is somehow vaguely PG13...with game stats...for a readership that's allllll over the board.

I dunno. Sounds tough.

I am working on one with an older teen, simply to challenge myself, butit's in the Continue Online world setting. But I can't imagine going younger.

 

I think quite a bit of Russian litrpg would qualify as YA. So would Elements of Wrath, Shadow For Hire(I think that’s the series name? Dunno, didn’t particularly care for the book), and probably The Land

 

Definitely not...

 

Elements of wrath would easily. Great read with no real issues.

 

I have it as a probably because the MC is an ass and there’s a load of violence. But to be fair, violence (even gratuitous violence) isn’t nearly as “mature” as it used to be.

The sophomoric humor and low brow crap author insert power fantasy bullshit would probably be the appeal for teens - especially teens who don’t know any better.

 

I get what you mean. I haven't read enough of the genre to have a clear view on what's standard, but I think something as simple as "clean fantasy with game elements" should appeal to YA readers? It doesn't have to be people playing games and you don't even need to have real life sections -- so you can just jump in where everyone simply lives in a game-like world and the main character is a kid (?)

And Continue Online is on my reading list

 

yes there was...

 

It's worth noting that a lot of books don't make sense with their inserts of modern cultural jokes into fantasy / non fitting settings.

The Land is bad in this regard. In theory the person isn't even on earth anymore, hasn't been, wasn't been, willn't be, yet he has a portal to the latest movies and so on. From a writer standpoint, I get it - from a true to character standpoint, it's utter nonsense and breaks any attempts at immersion.

The Iron Druid series is another example. It has a metric ton of pop culture references - from a character who's like 2 thousand years old. Like he has nothing but time in his brain to memorize stuff that a 30ish year old person can identify with. This seems strange considering the druid is so damn old.

There's two things that seem to typically result from this. Done right, it boosts the stories draw to anyone wanting self inserts. This is done by giving the "main character" thoughts that the reader very easily identifies with - despite how out of context (to the setting) that they may seem. This feeds into popularity, zealousness, and so on.

However, in the long run, it means the story either needs to be constantly updated with new material - or that it's bound to have primarily nostalgia value in 10 years. We can see this with Ready Player One - which changed between the book and the movie. They added in characters from more current games - like Overwatch - into the movie so that it was "updated".

To writers - this style of writing may not matter. The self publishing indie world moves to fast to care about the next Great American Novel or any works that can withstand time - such as Tolkeen or whatever (Or, more modern, use The Martian, which went from Web Serial, to Published book, to movie sensation). We, that is, nearly every writer here, has to at least vaguely consider nailing the "now" via humor or pop culture against long term value of a novel - which is low on a monthly basis. Given the fact that even lasting 10 years as a self published author is outside the norm, I can see why making choices for pop culture inserts out the wazoo has value verses, not including them and writing a work that stands on more than relatable one liners.