Discussion LitRPG as a "genre"

So for those that don't know, "LitRPG" seems to be what people are calling stories that revolve around a setting with RPG-like mechanics.
It's a setting that's growing mostly in the east (Japan, China, Korea, and Russia) and here in the west almost all published "LitRPG" stories (excluding translated works) are self-published.

What are everyone's thoughts on this particular "genre"?
It's a setting that should be reserved largely for stories that take place within a game. But then there's quite a number of these stories that are in a "Fantasy world" and just have RPG mechanics for convenience. You could call some of these applications of the setting, as lazy writing, and a lot of times, that's just what it is.
What's everyone else's thoughts on this topic?

 

While i believe the genre it's self is pretty cool, most authors end up taking some kind of twist that ends up ruining the elements, either by making their character extremely OP or adding in some silly stats that just.. ruins it..

I really feel that if people are going to be making these kind of stories they should at least make it so we watch the character fully grow from lvl 1 to whatever level they decided to end at. I think VRMMO's like LMS managed to make it seem semi realistic.. but still doesn't help that the main character ends up finding all this OP sh*

 

I would say it's fine not to be restricted solely to stories that take place inside of a game. If you take RPG literally not many stories really manage to be true to it, even among stories set within a game. How many stories do you read where the character is actually role playing inside the game. Usually they are just playing the game; at best you can make the argument they are playing the role of an adventurer in the game. However, even in that case they rarely immerse themselves in the role so I don't really count it. On that front stories where characters are reincarnated into a fantasy world with RPG mechanics are in some ways more true to the term RPG because they generally have memories and end up playing the role of a son or daughter. Also the only things a story set within a game and one where the setting has RPG elements have that are different is the ease of access to the 'real' world and the idea that death isn't permanent and both of those can or have been flip-flopped for some effect.

 

What comprises LitRPG as a genre is largely dependent on the author of the first book to claim it of that genre. Which I'm pretty sure was D.Rus of AlterWorld. There were books written 10 to 30 years ago that could claim LitRPG status, most of them terrible. Like the WOW & Diablo 2 published fan novels. Then you have the flip side of that with pen & paper rpg novels, like the popular Dragon Lance sagas. There's VRMMO novels like Tad Williams' Otherland books, and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. The authors who wrote those books (before we were born) didn't claim a separate genre, and many of those authors individual book sales outpace the entirety of the new LitRPG genre.
So, I guess the only thing the genre has to claim as its own would be the Floating Blue Text Boxes (when used for RPG purposes, regardless of RPG setting).
Then again, by technicality, we could claim just about anything for the genre with appropriate *'s. Like:
The Matrix movie trilogy is LitRPG because the majority of the movie takes place within a VRMMO setting and the main character gains power in a near RPG like fashion, with characters such as the Merovingian clearly showing digital immortality.
See, while having almost nothing to do with the genre LitRPG, it still manages to hit nearly every point that existed within D. Rus' book that we would use as an example for that genre.
So, pretty much anything in the sci-fi/fantasy genre(s) can be shoe-horned in.

 

I know nothing about AlterWorld; what was it about, and how was it any different from a general sci-fi or fantasy?
I get what you mean though. By the terminology, anything with an RPG-like progression (any sort of action-adventure story) can basically hit most of the points that a lot of stories you might consider "LitRPG" also hit.
Rather than calling it a genre, it's probably more apt to simply call it a "setting" (like how "Post Apocalyptic" is a setting, and not a genre), wherein characters (particularly the protagonist) experience the world through an RPG-like interface, and where generally, qualities of the character are quantified, (as stats) making the character's progress visually measurable.

At least, that's how I would try to describe it.

 

To be fair though, OP characters in an instant is also true for xianxia. For example, Linley's wyrm blood, violet sword, bebe's companionship, stone talisman from Wu Dong Qian, stone bead from Xian Ni, etc. In Xianxia, everything is narrated and its kinda vague to determine his/her powerlevel. In a LitRPG genre, you could see the numerical value of the item or stats and you could determine the powerlevel through it.

The only thing I don't like on some LitRPG is that stats becomes miscellaneous.

 

Isn't it already a Tag for that type of style of writing? In fact after checking a bit there seems to be two that could be used to describe that genre. Take So What If It's an RPG World? as an example it has RPG and Game Elements tags in its page. I don't particularly see a need to make a Genre just look for those tags and the related stories should show up without any troubles. Hope my thoughts help out and a quick opinion before I close I don't mind even if such a Genre were to be instituted.

 

Even if you can see how its op.. the main problem becomes "Why does this thing even exist.. how did it even happen, why does goddess-sama pay special attention to the MC.."

 

plot armor?
I didn't disagree to what you stated. It's just that having an OP MC is not limited to litRPG as you've stated.

 

Yea while its not limited to LitRPG it just starts to seem even more silly when there's some kind of "Random factor" or even because a cheat like character.. While I don't disagree that its silly in other types of genre that main characters become OP through training or some ancient mystical artificat they picked up.

 

Cheat like character? Can you provide examples like that? Maybe you're referring to jap MC characters? The only LitRPG I've read were from Russia, Korea, and some local ones. I didn't read SAO and I didn't read Overlord after the first volume.

Ark from Ark could be one but you will know why the 'goddess-sama' pays special attention to him later on.
LMS MC started as a level one and he progressed realistically. The only issue about him is that his abilities on the real world is transferred to the game world.
The King's Avatar is OP from the start since the game is skill based and he has been playing the game for 10 years.
Play to Live (Alterworld) also started realistically until encountering a bug/glitch in the system which the administrators fixed a moment later.
Only Sense is more of a support character rather than front liner.
Zhan Long, Shura's Wrath could be one though

Now, comparing it with other xianxia who picked up a random item/power up at the first chapter, they are more tame.

 

Can somebody explain what LitRPG is and give an example? I still don't get it.

 

My own definition of a literary RPG, litRPG for short, is that they rely on a stat based system. For example, getting items will show you the stat/numerical value of that item. You could also know a character's progression if he's going to be a warrior if he invested in STR or an assassin if he invested in AGI.

 

Legendary Moonlight Sculptor is my favorite Translated LitRPG. Others may like SAO (not that good) or Log Horizon (good). In the west, there are much fewer and they don't rely heavily on the gaming aspect of the genre.

 

Thanks you both!
In that case I think LitRPG deserves it? Though, it strongly depends on the story for me (I like japanese LitRPG more than chinese), I think it should be at least given a chance.

 

well, the discourse is good. I prefer to call them LitRPG though due to my own definition.

 

Well for me i mostly see the description litRPG as a convenient but not necessary thing.
the best examples for chinese LitRPG i know would be God and Devil world where the caracters get swept up in a zombi apocalypse and the world becomes RPG like with stats,skills,items and the like, more than that are mostly Fanfics on RoyalRoad like Change:its a new World and Apocalypse Now.

 

Let's not forget the Korean 'The Gamer'. Guy wakes up one day with the mystical power of being an RPG video game character in the real world. About as pure a LitRPG as you can get.

 

Yeah thats True. to be honest i enjoy those kinda novels more than traditional VRMMO cause the life and death battles and all the struggels feel much more tense than just being in a game and logging off if you lose.

 

So in the few others that I've read, it usually turns out that the main character has a special unique stat that no-one else has.. and its extremely unbalanced. Also.. Only Sense only is broken in the sense of crafting.. =P... but anyways It's usually a few things like X op stat like charisma, or X unique skill or passive. The ones you listed are pretty tame except zhan long and shuras. LMS and Ark both started with level one, but you can later see that they start having things happen to them that really no one else managed to get or have happen to them.