What do you think about LitRPGs?

[gnarlygninja]

I broadly loathe it. DCC is a notable exception and even that can grate on me at times.

 

[nyvinter]

I like portal fantasies to a point. Amber is fine, and so are the transported to another real world. If it's transported to a world of fiction it has to overcome some hurdles. And if it's transported into a game, then no, it's not for me at all. To quote Katharine Ryan in Taskmaster season two about sports: “I don’t care where the ball goes!” and that's how I feel with transported into a game or using game mechanics as a shorthand in fiction. Feel free to love LitRPG but there's nothing about it that feels interesting to me.

Okay, I lied. Tron is kinda okay. So that's the exception there. The transported to unstable made up universes is where The Strange rpg lost me — it would have been so much better if the worlds had been real. Real universes influencing the imagination of authors in this one? Cool and gives something to work with. A universe created by an author and they don't know they're living on borrowed time? Far less cool.

At least to me.

 

[Tigris]

I like it in general but its a bit overused. Especially when its just a power fantasy and the main character gets stroger and stronger, knowing the effective skills abilities etc. hardly matters anymore.


I think it could often be used in more clever ways.

 

[TheHand]

It’s not for me, I find it too immersion breaking, and so I’m finding myself the odd man out in this Dungeon Crawler Carl craze.

 

[Umbran]

I'm curious to hear what folks have to say about LitRPGs.

I like Dungeon Crawler Carl. I've read DIE. Beyond that, I haven't engaged much with the genre.

I don't find the RPG portion of it, in and of itself, to be much of a draw. I don't expect to seek out works because they are LitRPG.

 

[nyvinter]

Oh yeah. I love DIE. But that's also because it's not wishfulfilment in the same way as LitRPG seem to be from outside.

 

[jian]

Portal fantasies of various kinds - especially in East Asian media - are very popular these days, aren't they? I generally use the Japanese term isekai ("different world") to refer to these, however inaccurately.

I quite liked the insight I saw on social media recently about the cultural differences between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese isekai media, which can be summarised as follows:

• Japanese isekai are more likely to start with a protagonist who feels useless in the modern world (is a NEET, ignored by family, worked to death by a black company, etc.) who then dies and is reincarnated in a world where they feel valued and where they can relax. So the main fantasy here is about getting away from your awful meaningless life in modern Japan and starting anew somewhere with possibilities.
• Korean isekai are more likely to be about surviving and levelling up in in your new reality, proving yourself by sheer hard work and repetition to get powerful. So the fantasy here is about hard work actually paying off (unlike in modern Korea) and gaining rewards from that.
• Chinese isekai are more likely to be about being overlooked and disrespected initially (whether in modern China or in the new world, usually both) and then gaining power and respect through your exploits, especially in terms of gaining helpful social relationships. So the fantasy here is about gaining the respect and notice of powerful people.

I don't think there's necessarily a 100% fit here - all three types are likely to influence each other and therefore produce a mixture of fantasies - but it's not a bad model.

LitRPG, as far as I can tell, mainly refers to non-Asian media that is influenced by isekai media, and often has specific game conceits, especially the ever-present status window. I think it's workable with but I do sometimes wonder, given all the other fantasy elements in the setting, why that part is necessary. Dungeon Crawler Carl would be totally fine if Carl couldn't see his status window.

 

[sevenbastard]

Not a fan.....but also I reffrence RPG terms all the time ( failed rolls, raising my stats, xp to level, etc.) in my life so maybe I am living in a LitRPG ???

 

[Autumnal]

Not a fan.....but also I reffrence RPG terms all the time ( failed rolls, raising my stats, xp to level, etc.) in my life so maybe I am living in a LitRPG ???

Sleep. Now.

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[Scribe]

I...think I dislike it. Quite a bit on first read of the concept.