so I remembered that there was this pretty old novel called Epic by Conor Kostick which had everything from vrmmo to gender bender to a stat that no one uses which turns out to be op in the end and everything. There’s even a thing where if you die in game you basically die in real life. I don’t know why but it felt like a much better version of SAO. Has any one read it before?
I haven’t read it. I’ve read a few western vrmmo novels, but they are mostly older and out of date novels. Usually the technology is laughable. Think of Hackerman on an old computer with a CRT monitor, without the bonus of being an intentional parody. There are so many western VR books from over a decade ago! I think the one that got me into the genre that I liked was a children’s novel though. Heir Apparent (and it’s sister novels) by Vivian Vance Velde. I’d classify it as a sci-fi thriller. SAO is ironically similar to that series due to both having players stuck in a VR game with their real lives at risk. Granted, most of Vande Velde’s novels had the characters put their lives at risk using hacked equipment and copies of the game which is different than SAO. They also played on a smaller scale on older equipment. My point is that the genre isn’t all that new, just back in fashion with better technology. My question would be... is Epic worth a read without being compared to SAO? I wouldn’t want to reread something and only find it to be the same plot with better writing. Honestly, SAO was fine if you skipped the second volume of extras. (Including all of the girls from the extras into the anime kind of buried Asuna, made worse by their multiple seperations during the various arcs) I also liked where the Alicization Arc was trying to go, it was my favorite of all of them.
From what I remember (granted I read it a while ago), epic is about a world whose economy revolves around a hyper realistic and hyper advanced vr game called epic, I.e they earn rl money in it and if they wish to appeal to the government or something, they can do so through pvp in game. The plot revolved around a glitch that can kill you irl, corrupt governments, the bs of pay to win, ai, and stuff. The novel comments on how realistic the game is, how old it is, and how much of an impact it had on their society, but at the same time a key plot point is how there is literally a customisable stat for beauty which none of the real life motivated players actually care about. I felt it was pretty cool and it focused a bit on the more gamey elements of vrmmos, such as taking advantage of monster ai and whatnot, but it does handwaive some stuff like how in the hundreds of years of the games existence, why no one has ever tried what the Mc ultimately did
Hey i remember reading this, the mc decides to go female swashbuckler and max out beauty then gets a bunch of hidden quests cause he interacts with npcs