The Kiwifarms Unofficial Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club

[Andy Soying Out]

The whole idea of leveling is questioned and outright resented by everyone involved. Let’s be real, video game mechanics in a book series are fucking stupid and should never be accepted as common place by the characters who experience them. It shouldn’t be taken seriously by the people in that world that lieutenant Dumbfuck from Schnitzeland is just naturally better at fighting because he leveled up and got good gear and skills and went Ding!

Millennials and zoomers fried their brains on video games and now can't conceptualize a story without it literally being a video game.

 

[LordOfZhbagva]

Millennials and zoomers fried their brains on video games and now can't conceptualize a story without it literally being a video game.

What I'm interested in is - if we removed video games from the equation and just raised people on LitRPG's, how would their fiction look like? How many cultural and esthetic vestiges would they carry over and for how long?

 

[Ferryman]

What I'm interested in is - if we removed video games from the equation and just raised people on LitRPG's, how would their fiction look like? How many cultural and esthetic vestiges would they carry over and for how long?

I think pretty well all in all. LitRPGs are just fantasy come full circle, where modern computer RPGs evolved from tabletops which evolved from war/strategy games + fantasy novels, to where now you have fantasy novels that are inspired by RPG video games. If you take away the stat bricks and the video game mechanics LitRPGs are just fantasy formatted in a specific way that make use of specific tropes. Of course the quality of the writing matters but that's the case for any genre. You would still have a lot of them following the monomyth with the whole
> $HERO in $PLACE
> $EXTERNAL_FORCE perturb's hero's peace
> $CALL_TO_ACTION
> $UNCERTAINTY
> $MENTOR figure talks to hero
> $HERO leaves on $ADVENTURE to do $THING
cadence, so the aesthetics of classical fantasy would still endure. Most of them are medieval themed and carry many classical fantasy elements. I like LitRPG because it kind of dispenses with the pretence of trying to be super duper original, it just takes a trope-heavy skeleton and piles the originality on top of that, which all fantasy ultimately does but doesn't like to admit as readily.

 

[Safir]

Millennials and zoomers fried their brains on video games and now can't conceptualize a story without it literally being a video game.

Worse, millennials and zoomers are so blackpilled they can't even fantasize about success anywhere except a videogame. We went from there being real adventurers, heroes, explorers --> couch potatoes read stories / play games and imagine having adventures --> couch potatoes read books / watch Chinese cartoons and imagine winning a videogame.

---
Started reading The Lies of Locke Lamora last week (it came up for the voot twice but lost). I'm hatewatching the other Fat Pat from time to time, and pedditors brought up Scott Lynch's (allegedly) exemplary behavior regarding his unfinished trilogy. Well...

Spoiler

Ver archivo adjunto 9177743Ver archivo adjunto 9177743

"fuck this book with full force in pussy, mouth and ass"
This is now only the third book I've dropped in 5 or so years, and in one of the other two the "hero" had his dog pop the cherry of his girlfriend. I hate everyone. And I hate dropping books, but today being June 22 gave me some needed perspective.

 

[*Moonbaer*]

Fantasy Steam Punk is pretty neat

 

[Betonhaus]

Fantasy Steam Punk is pretty neat

It’s also the only genre that usually has niiice hardcover books. I got a copy of Clockwork Lives and Clockwork Destiny and they are absolutely beautiful books. One day I should read the first book in the trilogy but the cover is embarrassing in comparison with the other two.


Edit: well I went down a rabbit hole and now I'm checking out Mainspring by Jay Lake, where a clockmaker's apprentice was ordered by an archangel to find and rewind the main spring of the earth otherwise all life will cease

 

[Morridowfag]

Millennials and zoomers fried their brains on video games and now can't conceptualize a story without it literally being a video game.

I hope you're wrong. I enjoy LitRPGs as they are a good light read/listen for more tired day and there are some really good writers making those (Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Wandering Inn come to mind), I just can't help but think that this is the same thing that a lot of early 20th century pulp fiction came off back in the day to some people. I ain't saying the whole genre is perfect (with pulp fiction we have a century long filter ensuring the trash remained forgotten while the stars lived on) but it has proven me wrong enough times to make me give it the benefit of a doubt even if I dismiss those more times than I care to count. And that fucking awful romantasy smut trend that BookTok is constantly gooning over sure as hell gives it some points for at least not being more of that fucking shit.

Vidya and tabletop have their influences but ultimately it is used as a mechanical framework to further justify the story and setting, the writing itself tends to take it surprisingly seriously to the point where in some cases I wanna call it anti-millennial writing. Absurd situations but the protagonists take them completely seriously and try to understand the RPG system thrust upon them while doing their best to not die horribly in a new and unfamiliar world. It ain't just brainrot but a fun idea being executed well and being a fresh breath from the sea of middle aged woman's gooning material and politically driven slop at worst, and an actually interesting read at best.