I fully support authors doing more of the so-called Fair Play Strategy, but from what I've seen, it doesn't seem like readers care that much at all, which is a shame. In a way I can understand the difference: mysteries mainly revolve around the question of whodunnit, but LitRPGs may focus on other things like game system, world-building, drama, character journey, etc., so most of the time 'strategy' is given less weight.
Game-i-ness then is an essentially in-your-face application of( & often then invitation to the reader to apply) lateral thinking to a logical setup. The 'trouble' with some 'fair play strategy' is one of emphasis... if an author gives emphasis to that solvable mystery, because suspense in one aspect is going to be easy to kill off. In order to be a good story then any suspense cannot really be about whodunnit, but about how, for instance, an investigator will apprehend the murderer, or how the stolen artefact will be reclaimed. .. If the reader knows before the protagonist (and the author dwells) then the story will feel clunky at best. In the same fashion, a protagonist fighting an ent for 5 pages who never thinks to use his fire spells will annoy anyone who is awake whilst reading. It can(should) be applied to most everything in a tale, new things and characters will appear of which the reader has no prior direct experience, but a picture is built (a priori and throughout the story) and things should follow from one another...just as they do irl. Somebody who complains that 'the MC is stupid' is more often than not (....?) not saying an imaginary character is lacking mental faculty.. what they are saying is that the author treated the reader like an idiot. This can be done in a variety of ways..and a story doesn't need to be a mystery to give that feeling. Everything has cause & effect, and if a reader is feeling like an effect should be impossible within the scope of their own experience and the story (spells are quite reasonable, characters who behave in insane or an out-of-character manner are not) "She was stupid to forgive the handsome/rich/powerful/intriguing guy that routinely betrays everyone around him and treats women like dirt" does not require placing in any particular genre of story. Everything about an author's creation begins as a mystery to the reader.. and this process of offering a world (set of rules & behaviors) and navigating a logical path is not at all peculiar to litrpg. This post is, imo, an excellent example of illogical & bad storytelling...and proofreading..and editing.. and sleep patterns.
