I like the VR genre and I have multiple story ideas for the genre however in terms of interesting mechanics ... I feel like I only have enough ideas to really support one of the three main ideas I currently have. And I certainly don't have the ability to do a good job one of the three. Land of Lore Basically this is the one I don't think I can do justice to. It has three main characters each taking a different sort of role or focus in the VRMMORPG, one more interested in fighting, one more interested in crafting, and one more interested in exploring. Ideally each characters story-line would be able to be read independently of the others and while there would/could be points where all three come together I doubt I would keep them all grouped together for the most part. The hook for this one is that they start out as Alpha testers and when they come back as Beta Tester they are part of the lore of the land. And after every major arc, the game would shut down, and progress forward in time (game time) so that the landscape of the game could change. With this one I would also want an element of reader interaction, something like a simple poll "Do you want good or bad things to happen to the main characters?" while allowing readers to change their vote and base the outcome of certain story events on the ratio of good/bad votes there are when I get to writing them. I know where this story starts, and I know where it can go for three arcs, but there is no ending in mind. The God Project In this one using AI's to run virtual reality projects is still experimental and in order to allow an AI to run a fantasy VRMMORPG the company creating it is required to hobble the AI's ability to function with certain core principles that would essentially make the game a huge failure. Either being too static to perform well over the long or too chaotic to be enjoyable by any but the most masochistic players. In order to combat this the AI suggests a layer of abstraction essentially creating two games that are played on top of each other. The larger player-base would play as if it were any other VRMMORPG. The smaller selected group of players would be responsible for creating and filling the roles of deities within the virtual world. They would be given access to an interface that would allow the to interact with the players, the world, and the AI, essentially acting as something of a DM for a DnD game. However, there would be limitations in place. The first arc would focus on one character entering the 'alpha test' which is actually the selection process for the would be deities and going through a series of tests and tutorials regarding the role they would play. For this one I have a solid idea of how I want to start, and at least one arc that I think would work really well, but there needs to be at least one arc between the two, and the later could in theory serve as a jumping board into another arc (the final one or otherwise), or the final arc itself. But most of the bridging arc is a barren void. The Fisher King My Arthurian lore isn't all that great but I once heard this said about the fisher king; he is one with the land and the land is one with him, if he is sick, the land will be sick, if the land is sick he will be sick. And it got me thinking about the idea of a kingdom building type VRMMORPG story where the character most specifically his stats and abilities are tied to various aspects of a kingdom/nation. So for example his knowledge might be dictated by the general education level of his people or the number of books in the kingdom, while his health could be determined based on the population. When I first had this idea Ark and LMS were big, so when I first got the idea I thought instead of going with he needs money for his sick aunt, why not have it be after all that. So my envisioned MC has already beaten another game, top of the world and all that shit, and he's decided he's tired and it's time to retire. So when a new VRMMORPG comes out he picks the most desolate and remote starting region he can and takes up fishing. Yes for the pun of it all. Anyway he somehow ends up gaining The Fisher King class which comes with the stiff effective penalty of a perma-ban should his kingdom be destroyed or conquered. Which wouldn't be a problem if the corporation running the game hadn't just taken over the gaming world and killed all the competition. This is the one with the poorest mental outline with only the beginning and a general direction decided.
Just so you know, there's an old but once very popular game series called Lands of Lore. If you went with Land of Lore on a VRMMORPG some people would think it's connected to those games and be disappointed if it isn't. For The Fisher King I'm a bit off-put by the premise of someone forced to be a king. With all the stories starting with the MC treated like trash, I'm sick of "Oh poor MC! Everyone feel badly for the MC!" beginnings. That said, I really like the idea of a kings stats being linked to his country's growth. Too many kingdom building stories where management gets neglected while the MC builds his strength, and once he gets OP enough management doesn't matter because he can just solve everything himself. Linking the king's strength to his country's sounds brilliant. It would be even more interesting if skills were linked to his style of ruling as well. For instance, creating a fair and impartial court system would unlock paladin skills. Or building a magic academy would unlock magic skills, more powerful magics being unlocked as the number and average strength of the students grow.
All three kind of have aspects that sound interesting, with the world of the Fisher King standing out the most. I'd look more into how you can make a specific world more interesting, then work on making the characters fit. The story of Land of Lore isn't interesting because there practically isn't one, and the setting of God Project just reeks of bad. The idea of skipping around with beta & alpha tester and moving between time periods in the world of the Fisher King sounds interesting, character and world development wise. Something from God Project might also fit in. Mesh them all together, and if it sounds good to you, someone else will like it.
So I really love the idea of three intertwined stories, but I feel like it'd be difficult to put in web novel form. If you do it, I think it could be the greatest of the three. The second one also sounds interesting, but there might need to be a lot of background explanation. Like a lot. I like the idea of the Fisher King as a great slow life into VRMMO adventures. Probably the easiest to pull off well is my opinion, but the key will be making it unique, since the guy is already a VRMMO king, yeah? In general, I'd give the MC(s) some character flaws, but not ones that steer or detract from the story. Ye Qiu from TKA is a good example of that, but the way you do it exactly is up to you
Probably The God Project. While I like kingdom building novels, my knowledge of kingdom building is ... limited, so that would probably be a weak element in The Fisher King which means I would either need to fudge it under the guise of it's a game or do a lot of research. Land of Lore on the other hand, I envision as being very much a character driven story. I did not know about that, but I think simply mentioning that it's not about that game should be enough. Or I could something like Land of Legends or Legends of the Land. I don't see where you are getting the trash MC bit from. I envision him as someone who is independently wealthy and a capable and famous gamer who has essentially retired of his own volition. Short of the he feels sorry for the NPCs route there isn't much reason for him come out of retirement unless something is forced on him, and the way I envision it happening, it's his own damn fault. So all he has to do is decide if he's done gaming altogether or if he's going to conquer the virtual world so he can keep playing. I hadn't thought too much about his skills but that is actually a really good idea and I might possibly steal it, if you don't mind. The way I view Land of Lore is as a character driven story. The reason there practically isn't a story is because I intentionally didn't put details into it. The characters have their own arcs going on while the game is a big part of the setting for those arcs. Which is also why it's the one I feel I can't do justice. As to The God Project you would need to be much more specific as to what about it is bad. The closest I can think of to what is out there is sort of a mix between The World Keeper and Dungeon Core Online. Mixing the alpha and beta elements and time skips into The Fisher King on the other hand sounds actually kind of horrible to me. The idea behind tying his stats to the strength of his kingdom is to limit his power and make the focus kingdom building instead of something else. Throwing in time skips that randomly boost or nerf his power totally destroys the whole point of tying his stats to the kingdom in the first place and makes it harder for any sort of reasonable conflict to occur. Plus the MC is supposed to be the top player from the last game, giving him the advantage of being involved in the alpha and beta of the game would make him way too overpowered to start with, the point is to put him behind in the central conflict, not ahead of the curve.
which one do you want to build on though? Like which one would you have fun in exploring the possibilities to and you would enjoy building on? Which idea is the most entertaining for you to elaborate on? And are you absolutely sure that you can pursue it? Which one can you elaborate on the best? Which one do you think would be interesting for you to try doing? Do you have any ideas for the character personalities in any of these stories and which ones are you the most attached to? What things do you want to be incorporated in whichever story you choose no matter what? Which one do you have a lot of ideas for? Do you plan on ever elaborating on the other two if you finish the one you choose? I feel like this isn't even good advice for your case, sorry.
All I'm giving are examples, you should think it out and do what sounds good to you. I'm just pointing out you have a lot of good ideas spanning the three stories that could work together. For God Project, I'm not saying it can't work, but an AI-run game just screams horrible, but who knows.
Perhaps at some point in writing one of those stories you might find that you would like to add elements from another story in your head to the one you finally decide upon. And that’s fine too. Just write “coherently” and so that you yourself enjoy it.
The first one sounds fun, but I would recommend starting with one character and gradually including more. You can make them encounter the first and then add the others. Just let us attach to one character before inundating us with others. I feel Kamachi Kazuma did this with Toaru Mautsu no Index and HEAVY OBJECT.
I definitely have a soft spot for the idea of the Land of Lore, which is kind of why I doubt I can do it justice. It's definitely the most fleshed out of the three even if I was sparse on the details. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by background explanation? Basically the company has spent years working on this project and what they want is a game set in a fantasy world where Gods and Goddesses hold sway. However they want the gods and goddess to behave like those in mythology. Sometimes they might bless a skilled weaver, but if they feel insulted or challenged by the weaver, maybe they turn them into a giant spider. It's this element of capriciousness that the AI is unable to simulate under the restrictions placed upon it. One of the big ones being about fairness and equal opportunities (if you've noticed an issue with that, it's the arc I have in mind for after the bridging arc.) In order to bypass that restriction by creating a game on top of a game and having humans play the role of the deities you can leave the decision in their hands. Maybe that guy who used a particular low level skill a million times naturally will get it evolved, but the guy after him who grinded it to a million on low level mobs won't. If you mean background for the virtual world that is part of what the whole tutorial/selection arc would be about. Rather than try to dump info all at once I thought it would be better to let the "deities" help be a driving force for the lore of game in the alpha/testing stages while learning about the types of things they would be capable of in their own 'game' and Gods and Goddesses would be credited with the creation of the world. ... That is kind of the whole point of The God Project. The game run solely by the AI would be horrible, which is why they are essentially recruiting humans to play as DMs/GMs, the story is about following one such character as he gets the job and beyond.
It is the point, but it's real hard sell in story form, or putting in a good story form would be real difficult. It sounds better as an action movie or something, it by itself is lacking. That's my entire point, you have strong points in each that kind of fill in the weak points of the others.
I will say that if not knowing any information about the series before, the chances are I will click on the God Project solely because of its name.