This is a post I wrote a while back... Why Do I Love the LitRPG Genre? | LitRPG Reads Why do YOU love the genre? Thanks in advance.
Literal Character Progression. Like I said in another post, the tangible, quantifiable gains a character makes as they trudge through the game-world scratches just the right itch. If done well, the challenges raise steadily with the power/stat/ability progression, and you get that stabilized ascent to epic heights that I enjoy so thoroughly.
Because there's a different feeling to their types of protagonists. More than any other setting, seeking power for its own sake fits best, and can be treated most positively- if still not entirely positively- in a setting where it's "just a game". You can have protagonists do stupid things because the stakes are low- and sometimes these long-shots pay off. Even when they don't, it's a setting where the laws of reality are inherently different. One man army isn't really ever a plausible trope- but in LitRPG, that's less because one man can't match with an army, and more because one man means one place at a time. After all, an inherent conceit of video games is that one awesome protagonist can take out an army of lower leveled mooks, if not all in one go. Suddenly it's not in question that our protagonist is so powerful they can barely be threatened by an enemy that nearly crushed them last book, or that the next enemy is capable of doing the same to them. The character power levels and progression are documented throughout the series. This allows serial escalation to be done, and if performed correctly, this isn't a problem.
For me, a lot of it is simple geek appeal. Everything about the world, the characters, their skills etc is broken down into nicely accessible numbers. Even luck becomes quantified. Add that to a good story and you've got something that appeals to a certain type of person (eg me!)
1. World building. I like immersing myself in simpler times. 2. Geek appeal. I grew up with JRPG games so I'm always happy to see they're mechanics applied. 3. Seeing things from a different point of view. I always go for books that explore things from another angle, probably why I favor the dungeon core sub-genre.
1. I've always enjoyed portal fantasies of any types (even in sci-fi I prefer exploring alien worlds to any other trope) and since I've playing D&D since the 80's, the idea of stepping into a game world hits my sweet spot. 2. LitRPG tends to hew to a more classic Sword & Sorcery type of fantasy. I don't care for low-magic, grim & gritty "realistic" fantasy - if I want to read about politics and boring stuff, I'll read a newspaper. I like my fantasy FANTASTIC with plenty of monsters and magic, and that's gone out of style in mainstream fantasy. 3. With dungeon core stories especially, it appeals to me because I love the idea of having a little enclosed world you can craft & be creative as possible within your limitations - I have no idea WHY I like that so much, I'm sure a psychologist would have thoughts on it, but eh - it's something I've liked ever since I was a kid, where I'd build elaborate cities with legos, bristle blocks, lincoln logs and things and act out epic dramas with little tiny plastic toys. Hey, we moved around a lot and so I didn't have a lot of friends as a kid! As an adult this translated into playing things like the Sims and Dungeon Keeper, and now I'm grooving on dungeon core stories so much I'm writing one of my own.
we can double on that shrink's season. I heard the good ones charge a mint. I've been a fan of the sims, legos, playing house, choose your own adventure books for that same reason.
My reason might seem weird to some, but I started mmorpgs with UO back in 1998, and then moved on to EQ, and then EQ2... where I met my husband. In order to meet back in 2005 -- we both had to transfer servers exactly when we did and meet on Guk in the guild we were trialing for. So much had to happen for us to be at that crossroads... and after almost 13 years together, and almost 11 years of marriage -- that transfer was the best decision I ever made. Since then we have played so many games together -- Vanguard, AoC, Warhammer, D&D, WoW, Rift, Aion... I know I've left out others, but if it was an mmorpg, we've probably played it. For me, reading LitRPG it like a throwback to our gaming days, to our love for gaming. The intricacies of characters leveling up, or struggling to take down a boss mob, or delving into dungeons you know are probably going to kick your ass... right down to stunlocking mobs and hoping not too many mobs resist, to waking sleeping dragons and terrorizing the server LitRPG reads like it should be a part of my life, like it always has been. It might be why portal fantasy Gamelit is a little more difficult for me to get into. But being able to read an MMO? That, for me at least, is a simply amazing thing.
Past MMO nostalgia is a big part of it for me too. I didn't find the love of my life, but dodging the PKer's casting CorpPor while running for the safety of the crowd around Britan bank with my good friend so we could deposit our loot and save up to buy that house deed... thems were some good times.
Hmm this is a hard one for me 1) Portal fantasy this ones pretty easy i like portal fantasy because i like the idea of learning about a new different world with the MC 2) I think the reason I like LitRPG is twofold I like the meta aspects of the books that play with the idea of games like NPCs and i also quite enjoy the potential for game like aspects in a book I think an important part of litRPG for me is the characters cant just be playing another life if thats the case might aswell write a fantasy book or a scifi book the game or game like mechanics need to play a role in the book 3) Dungeon core So i really love Dungeon core books because they often represent learning and growing in a tangable way as the dungeons influence expands so does there knowledge i also quite like the idea of alien characters unlike most humans with a wildly different perspective aswell as the experementation and interaction with the rest of the world through messangers
It reminds me of the kind of books I grew up on - pulpy fantasy and sci fi from people like Brian Daley and Piers Anthony who didn't mind having sensuality in their stories. Plus, working in games and having written for most of my life, it's a natural fit for a next project. It's interesting how the character progression and stat growth meshes with the classic character arc in a novel - I'm looking forward to finding out more neat interactions as the book progresses.
