8.1 KiB
Anyone here read Change:New World? Would you consider it Rational fic?
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Author: u/1573594268 *
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Score: 8
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Created: 2017-11-23T16:20:05
Post:
Comments:
u/AurelianoTampa [+10] (19 hours later)
No. Not rational, though at times it seems to try to be. I think one of the things that really threw me off was the distance and time measurements seemed to change based on what the author needed them to be. Like, "we ran down the hallway for 15 minutes." dude, if you're running down a hallway for that long, your hallway could be miles long. That's ridiculous for a high school. I've been on university campuses with 40k students; 15 minutes running could take you across most of the campus itself, nevermind a hallway in a single wing of a single building.
I think I might be biased a bit though. This series was one I saw highly recommended at RR and was just... So poorly written. After reading it I came away with the distinct impression that the author likely started it as a high school or early college student with little experience in writing. The quality did actually improve a bit as it went on, but boy was it rough for most of it. The tropes we're groan-worthy as well, especially the protagonist's rivalry with the stereotypical "shonen lead with a harem of beautiful girls." Ugh.
It turned me off from the genre (self insert gamer progression) for a long time; I think I'm actually a bit bitter, because it kept me from reading a good series with a similar genre, "Worth the Candle."
Credit where it is due, the author makes some creative solutions to issues that come up. But creative doesn't mean rational. It has rational elements at times, but the world is set up and written in such a way that the protagonist is always going to get to show off.
u/GravityHug [+2] (23 hours later)
Do you know any other LitRPG stories that are at least of acceptable quality? (except for the games we play, which I already know of)
u/AurelianoTampa [+4] (a day later)
If other RWBY fan fiction is fine with you, I enjoyed Forged Destiny by Coeur Al'Aran. It's still a work in progress, but it's pretty enjoyable to read.
u/LazarusRises [+2] (4 days later)
I stopped reading a while ago, but Bitter is pretty good. I feel that the author places artificial stumbling blocks in front of the MC to stretch out the word count, but it's an enjoyable read and Britta definitely has a rational--if not necessarily values-aligned--approach to the game.
u/k-k-KFC [+1] (2 days later)
Into the iron Teeth is interesting but again not rational or even rationalist; is a goblin protag who gets raised by a logical ranger turned bandit.
Arcane Emperor is also entertaining and might be rationalist; protag ends up in alternate world where everyone has stats screen/ knows about magic his goal ends up being to create his own magic guild to free share of magical knowledge but he is also super overpowered and doesn't actually try and uplift society by disseminating non-magical knowledge (new world is in a weird non industrialized state where as he comes from modern day basically)
u/IgonnaBe3 [+2] (6 hours later)
from what i remember i wouldnt consider it rational.
In many instances characters do stupid decisions out of the blue. Its just a power fantasy self insertion wishfulfillment so its always obvious whos gonna win, its just a matter of how will the author justify the MC being more and more OP. His plans are sometimes idiotic and they are sold to us as particulary intelligent or clever.
Generaly i cant see anything particulary rational about it but i also have a massive hate boner for those kind of stories so i may be biased. I REALLY dislake power fantasy self insert wishfulfillment things...i read to many in my days to count and got so sick of it...
u/1573594268 [+2] (8 hours later)
It speaks very highly of you to admit potential bias. Not that that it would invalidate your criticism.
I would, however, speak in defense of this author.
While I am absolutely familiar with the works of which you speak, wherein the story is nonsensical in order to fit the needs of portraying the protagonist as optimal in the mind of the writer, I do believe that this writing is not an example of that common issue.
The reason I brought this story up is that I believe that, while the decisions of the characters and the plans they make are infrequently optimal - as you said sometimes 'idiotic' - they do fit in with the given information about the character making them.
I think, rather than "rational" the point of a good rational fiction is consistency.
The characters in this story consistently make actions according to their given motivations and knowledge. If the plans are bad, it's because the character is intentionally written with flaws in order to create character depth, and the plans reflect that.
If a plan is reckless it's because the character has been shown to value short term gain over safety. etc.
I think that this story is not one that is as shallow as the stories of which both of us have apparently read in which the world seemingly revolves around the protagonist showing off.
I think this protagonist is exceptional, but not without depth.
HPMOR is no different. Harry's plans in that story are rarely truly optimal, and the author himself stated that the character was a representation of his immature past.
I don't think it's about "best" objectively. I think it's about thinking about what the character would think is "best" given their current information, circumstances, and history.
To this point I think the author did a good job. The plans are rational if you assume the point of view of the characters making them.
u/IgonnaBe3 [+1] (23 hours later)
But the world does resolve around the protagnist. It so blatantly borrows from the Japanese Light and Web Novels in the harem department. The character gets everything and eventually his harem gets additional perks for falling over his dick.
Maybe their decisions were consistent but i dont like when author tries to sell me on a plan being particulary clever or intelligent when its something everyone would have thought of.
As i said its most similiar to the LitRPG harem LNs and xianxia in its terms of portraying the protag and makes it blatantly obvious by doing thins in such cliche way
also its edgy as all hell.
u/None [+1] (5 minutes later)
[deleted]
u/I_am_your_BRAIN [+1] (3 hours later)
Is this story still going or completed? Updates are said to be once a week but the last was in February?
u/LupusZero [+2] (4 hours later)
I used to follow it on RoyalRoad for a while, and can confirm that the author has disappeared.
u/None [+1] (5 hours later)
[deleted]
u/LupusZero [+1] (6 hours later)
Well, it's a good read that was in top spots for a while on RR (while it was still updated).
I don't know if it can be considered [RT] as I'm not really a regular on this thread, but anyways.
It is quite a classic LitRPG as far as the basic structure is considered, but executes it really well.
First arc is actually quite long and more or less self-contained, but all-important character growth is neither here nor there, the story is sadly now on hiatus and second arc that is currently ongoing feels like it lost the steam.
To conclude, yeah it's a good story, but it feels nowhere near finished, probably won't be either and I'm not sure if it is material for this subreddit.
I'm not really sure what I wanted to write here, but give it a read. The only disappointment would be the fact that it's on a hiatus.