The Gamer Discussion, Fic Ideas, and Recommendation Thread

[Arlos]

Hmm, sounds interesting... well, right up until the "no supernatural" stuff, but I admit that's more personal bias.

Although if you wanted more grounded, why not use the same stat limits as say, DnD? Sure, the numbers wouldn't be as big, but it's an easy resource to work from.

Also... p sure most Gamer fics I've seen have the system just affecting the user, and just gamify anything that comes in contact with their body, a body that's upgraded to match the setting, which is understandable in my opinion.

Click to shrink...

Well, I said no supernatural because most universes I've tried to make a fic with it didn't have any.

I put in big number to try and take into account the large variance possible between peoples, since the system was created to work in somewhat realistic world I thought it would be good.

Well, Id create, loot, party system, Observe, all that kind of stuff that affect that gamify the world wouldn't be a thing, similarly, Gamer body and mind would go, so the character would be normal in this regard, except the fact he would be able to grow his skills/stats much more quickly and efficiently than everyone else, in fact, if the character put 10 stats points at once in a single stats, he'd definitely feel the sting.

 

[Anon-Echo98]

Well, I said no supernatural because most universes I've tried to make a fic with it didn't have any.

I put in big number to try and take into account the large variance possible between peoples, since the system was created to work in somewhat realistic world I thought it would be good.

Click to shrink...

Aaah, fair enough.

Well, Id create, loot, party system, Observe, all that kind of stuff that affect that gamify the world wouldn't be a thing,

Click to shrink...

Aah, a person of culture. Because yeah, no, ID Create, even without monsters, is still an useful skill, since it's essentially a pocket dimension you can hide in, and depending on how ID Escape works, it's essentially Blueno's Air Door, allowing you to get anywhere undetected.

And yeah, Observe is busted as all hell.

Gamer body and mind would go, so the character would be normal in this regard, except the fact he would be able to grow his skills/stats much more quickly and efficiently than everyone else, in fact, if the character put 10 stats points at once in a single stats, he'd definitely feel the sting.

Click to shrink...

Hmm, yeah, GB and GM are kinda cheap as skills go, since you p much can't get lasting damage and mental attacks are a joke.

 

[CircleTheSkies]

So I was driving back from Xmas dinner and my mind fastened on something from a quest I did for a little bit a long time back - "Surviving the Abyss", I think it was.

After that kind of fizzled, I spent some time thinking about how a "video game character" would work without the explicit interface. A major issue with the idea (to my mind) is that such an interface is usually a bit gratuitous to the setting and often raises the question of just how it works, where it came from and so on. So unless you want to have an actual "creator of the system", it's a bit jarring.

There's settings where there is, in fact, a "creator of the system" who set things up that way. "Kumo desu ka", for example, has a pair of gods who did it to more or less try and salvage the world from a past civilization that broke it. There's a "return to your youth" web novel/manga where a mage had created a spell that allows you to understand and numerically display your potential and actual capability with different schools of magic. One of the 'game system'/scifi xianxia stories had an ancient civilization that made a computer-like entity to systematically guide their citizens in cultivation to produce stronger armies (and said system then grew to dominate about all of reality and ganked them in the process, of course). The titular "Gamer" suggests that the form and specifics of Jii-Han's ability really comes from him, with Gaia fueling it as it does others who 'awaken' to powers.

But a lot just sort of put it up in the air - so I tried to decide how you could have the recognizable aspects of a "video game character" story without the ubiquitous interface.


So, for the first part, how the Gamer improves - they accumulate a kind of metaphysical energy (ie, an 'experience' equivalent). It's more subconscious than anything else, perhaps a very slight jitteriness at most. If the Gamer were the type to meditate regularly upon themselves and their feelings, they might find themselves resonating with the question "who do I want to be?" It's all in all a very vague sensation, really no different than what anyone else might feel when mildly unsatisfied with themselves.

As this energy builds, it eventually 'crystalizes'. Again, not something seen or felt, but the Gamer starts to become more restless, with the above question (or similar ones) coming to mind more often, as the energy (call it raw potential) 'yearns' to transform. If the Gamer feels strongly enough that they want to be more in some particular way, then the answered question grants them a rush of satisfaction and focus as the raw potential transmutes into an appropriate form and the yearning restlessness subsides.

This could happen in high stress situations - "if only I were stronger/faster/luckier/smarter (etc and so forth" - and lo they seem to reach a bit further than they thought they could. Or it could happen through meditation, as they deliberately focus upon what they wish to become.


Second, how the Gamer acquires raw potential- they acquire it from others. People tend to accumulate a kind of karmic potential - how and why isn't clear even to the greatest sages (and even its existence is under dispute). This perhaps is, for those with the appropriate senses, a signal of "great destiny" or of having a strong soul (neither is necessarily true). They can't really use that energy, as it's more a kind of energy that's "attracted" to them and not "belonging" to them. And the Gamer's soul can consume that energy to produce raw potential.

In order to do so, however, a karmic tie must be made with the target. The setting perhaps has some mystical types that are quite adapt at identifying and using karmic ties - they might be usable for curses, divination and so on, but direct manipulation is rare. There might be some mystical rituals that harvest some form of power from karmic ties (that's actually coming from the difficult-to-sense karmic potential).

There's generally two main ways the Gamer can make a suitable connection - negative and positive. Negative is... well, killing them or the like - through the karmic tie the Gamer's soul can siphon away some portion of the karmic potential hovering around the target and produce raw potential. This corresponds to one of the standard ways to gain experience for a gamer-type character. Positive is by... well, doing favors. Some combination of gratitude, changing their 'fate' and what-have-you allows the Gamer's soul to, like before, suck up some of the hovering karmic potential for its own use.


Third, the Gamer's understanding of their power - it evolves. At first, it's not noticeable. They find themselves becoming restless, feeling uncertain, then find purpose and goals, and are able to push themselves to be more capable of achieving them. After it happening enough to notice the improvement as being significant, the Gamer starts to feel it's their dedication, their determination to be better that allows them to move forward so far (rah rah, the power of positive thinking!). With more time (and experience) passing, they start to make associations to whatever it is that they're gaining raw potential from - so they'll connect their growth to being challenged, to pushing themselves, taking risks, helping others or overcoming them.

All this time, their soul is becoming more... polished? Sensitive? Capable? Regardless of the specifics, they start to sense who has karmic potential (and can thus lead them to greater growth). Enemies will be seen as obstacles to overcome to grow stronger (hello battle maniacs), friendlies will be seen as an avenue to grow and learn. As this soul polishing continues, eventually the Gamer will start to recognize the metaphysical nature of what's happening (sooner if they're perceptive or mystically inclined to begin with) and act accordingly - the equivalent of being able to perceive the "quest rewards" for an interface-driven gamer.


Fourth, the Gamer's breadth of improvement - that is, improving more than "raw stats". As their "gamer capability" improves, the basic question of "who I want to be?" expands in what it can accomplish. Crystalized raw potential can start to act upon more than basic characteristics. You could also play more with karmic ties - for example, by digesting some product (probably not literally) of someone's wisdom, the Gamer's soul might well be able to trace the faint karmic tie back to the creator and 'echo' some of their knowledge to the Gamer's mind (ie, skill books or the like). They might, with the empowering of their soul, just naturally develop new innate abilities along the way (if you wish the story to have some kind of 'class'/'class ability' system). The Gamer may be able to sense their own karmic ties to others, and through them how others feel about them (if you wish there to be a 'relationship' system).


Thoughts on how to build this out further?

 

[Ardion Prosili]

So I was driving back from Xmas dinner and my mind fastened on something from a quest I did for a little bit a long time back - "Surviving the Abyss", I think it was.

After that kind of fizzled, I spent some time thinking about how a "video game character" would work without the explicit interface. A major issue with the idea (to my mind) is that such an interface is usually a bit gratuitous to the setting and often raises the question of just how it works, where it came from and so on. So unless you want to have an actual "creator of the system", it's a bit jarring.

But a lot just sort of put it up in the air - so I tried to decide how you could have the recognizable aspects of a "video game character" story without the ubiquitous interface.

Click to shrink...

In my thoughts regarding this subject, I've generally come up with this solution: there isn't a force making the system so much as the person in question seeing their supernatural adaptations, manifestations and evolution AS a game interface because that is what they, as someone who is SO obsessed with games to an actual supernatural degree, would see their power manifest as. In fact, I distinctly remember some RR story playing this aspect up. A gal from a sci-fi universe saw one planet's 'System' as an RPG interface whereas the inhabitants saw their interface more as chapters/acts akin to a book/play.

As for the rest, I really do like that. Granted, for the less spiritually inclined, you'll need someone to more or less spoonfeed them some spirituality and philosophy but I can really get behind this kind of a story.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

In my thoughts regarding this subject, I've generally come up with this solution: there isn't a force making the system so much as the person in question seeing their supernatural adaptations, manifestations and evolution AS a game interface because that is what they, as someone who is SO obsessed with games to an actual supernatural degree, would see their power manifest as. In fact, I distinctly remember some RR story playing this aspect up. A gal from a sci-fi universe saw one planet's 'System' as an RPG interface whereas the inhabitants saw their interface more as chapters/acts akin to a book/play.

Click to shrink...

You just described Fate/Stay Night. That's the actual reason why Shirou sees Servant abilities in gamified terms.

 

[Ardion Prosili]

You just described Fate/Stay Night. That's the actual reason why Shirou sees Servant abilities in gamified terms.

Click to shrink...

I've never seen FSN out of fanfic, so I wouldn't know.

 

[TheDivineDemon]

Part 1:Divine Ideas From a Demonic Mind [Snippet Thread]

An Unknown Game ch2 Rough Draft(Alt title: A Noob's Gameplay)

Mercifully his headache started to fade as he drove. Becoming a dull roar after he dropped off Arthur's phone than to a rolling echo as he pulled up to his parent's house.

Hiro's childhood home was a pale blue row house that was older than either one of his parent's, grandparents even, yet still managed to look relatively new. Under the constant care of his father's careful hands and his mother's critical eyes the building had been restored, renovated, and updated a dozen times over. The solar panels mounted to the roof were just the latest in a series of updates and add ons.

Hiro didn't bother with knocking, lugging his bags of laundry through the front door with barely a greeting. And why would he? He was home.

Tanya, his sister, waved as passed through the den. She didn't even bother to look up from her tablet.

"Hey." She called, nose deep in something. Her fingers jabbing at the screen feverishly, likely working on some new project. People in their family were always working on something.

Except for him.

"Dad's still working." She warned, "And Mom is in the kitchen cooking."

Meaning he would have no buffer, great. Exactly what he needed after a monster of a headache. He could already feel it pulsing back to life.

The door to the basement, thus the laundry area, was through the kitchen. There was no avoiding it, no escape. Not with her in there, practically in the middle of the kitchen, prepping dinner.

It smelled like lasagna.

He knew he could have just turned around right then. That he could head back into the town proper and find a laundromat, but more than a few things stopped him. Pride, money, the fact he was already there. With all that against him there was no way he could leave.

"Hey, mom." He said, deciding to dive straight into the deep end.

She smiled up at him as he stepped in, already near the doorway, and pulled him into a hug. Big, tight, and awkward she pulled him in for a hands free hug, her sauce stained fingers held high to avoid his shirt.

Tatsuki Hierro was a slim woman with a bobbed haircut and a severe face. And while Hiro wasn't exactly the tallest guy around he still had a good half a foot on her, Tanya took after her in that department. Hiro mostly got her facial features.

"You're early." She accused as they separated, a mock glare on her face.

"Laundry."

"Always here for something, never just to visit." She huffed and waved him off. "Well, get to it. The sooner you're done the sooner we can chat."

He gave her a smile he didn't really feel and moved on before she could say anything else. She still frowned as he passed.

His family's laundry room was more of a corner in the basement that had yet to be consumed by boxes of holiday decorations, old clothes, and tools. The washer and dryer were pushed against the wall closest to the stairs with a stack of baskets off to the side.

He took his time with it. Dividing clothes that had already been sorted and measuring out the exact amount of detergent to be used. Even with that he only killed a handful of minutes, not nearly long enough.

Hiro chanced a glance at the stairs, then he pulled out his phone. He could fake it for a few more minutes.

Hiro blinked as he unlocked his screen. Something was already open. An app he didn't recognize.

<Welcome to the Champions' Network!>
<Would you like a tour?>

The lines were written in green on a black background, some effect made the words seem deeper than they should. Some font that made each letter look like it was carved into his screen.

Did he want a tour? No, no he did not. What he wanted was to know how that appeared on his phone. When did it even have time to download? Was it a hack?

Hiro slid his finger across the screen, dismissing the thing so he could deal with the app itself. But it didn't go away, not really. It stayed as a mini icon, pulsating on the screen.

The golden "CN" rested within a green circle, a glaring little one gleaming in its upper right corner. Again, it was pulsing. A steady rhythm of expanding and shrinking that made it impossible to ignore as he hunted for its program. He could hear it in his skull, feel it in his chest. It even seemed to speed up with his heart when he made the connection.

All in his head of course. There was no way some random phone app could track his heartbeat. Right? Not without a Fitbit at least. His headache-addled brain was just playing tricks on him.

Like how the app was. The stupid thing was like the bastard love child of Bixby and Messenger. Refusing to go away when dismissed, impossible to find in his library. Meaning he was having a hell of a time trying to uninstall the thing, just like Bixby. Did this "Champions' Network " sneak in with a system update? A hack?

"Hiro? Are you done down there?" He jerked up at the sound of his mother's voice. He had spent his precious reprieve obsessing over a stupid app. Great, perfect.

"Almost! Got distracted!" He yelled back, pocketing his phone and starting the washer. The issue of the app pushed aside as he trudged up the stairs.

"I was beginning to think you fell in." She said, giving him a critical look.

"Just got distracted."

"Well, come here and help your old mom out." She said, gesturing to a bag of potatoes on the counter. "Grab a knife and start peeling."

Hiro huffed, even sighed, but made his way over with one a single comment. "Potatoes and lasagna? That's a lot of starch, don't you think?"

"A little extra starch isn't going to hurt you." She defended, though her eyes did take a quick look at his new paunch as she did. Hiro ignored that, washing off the potatoes and popping off the sprouts.

There wasn't even a beat of silence before she pushed on.

"So, how has work been?" She asked, not quite looking at him as she cleaned her own potatoes. "Are you still at that car job?"

"Which one? The dealership or the ride sharing? Either way, the answer is yes."

She clucked her tongue. "Two jobs? Still? If you need money that bad you could always move back in."

"I'm fine."

"I'm sure you are." She said easily, eyes still not on him as she skinned her potatoes with a practiced hand. "But so much work for so little money? You're a college graduate, there are better jobs out there for you."

He had an Associate's in General Studies after he dropped his major. Not exactly something that screamed opportunity.

"There are less put there than you'd think mom." He said, falling into a familiar rhythm with her. Familiar answers spilling from his pressed lips, replying to her questions with an automatic grace he did not feel.

Yes, he applied to all those exams and was just waiting for a date. No, he did not think he was ready to go back to school. And… he was very much unsure on how he was feeling.

Hiro, obviously, did not tell his mother this. Instead, he mumbled out a "fine" and focused on his potato. His second potato.

His mother kept peeling one after another, not even slowing as she gave him a bit of side eye. "Are you sure? You seem a bit pale." Which was an impressive feat considering he inherited his father's skin tone.

"Just a headache." He said, telling her a half truth.

"Have you taken anything for it?"

"Nah, I'm fine, I'm fine." He said it twice, to reassure them both. Though, going by the look on her face, it wasn't helping either of them much.

Before she could get another word in his sister, blessedly, came to his rescue. Still nose deep in her tablet she stomped into the kitchen.

'God yes' he thought even as he wiped his hands and more politely said, "Sure."

Turning the tablet over in his hands he was about to ask what she was working on when he froze. Not paused, froze. His hands didn't even shake, though every vein in his skull pulsed.

Just like the golden "CN" on his sister's screen.

It did not belong there, it forced itself to be there. He knew this as much as knew it was there for him, demanding to be seen.

All the same, he had to ask. He had to be sure. "When did you download this?"

"What? Java?" She asked, peering over at the screen. "Beginning of the semester I guess? Why? Is that why the code isn't working?"

Hiro honestly didn't even notice her project. His attention was too drawn to the beating of the gold on the green icon and the little red "1" glaring at him.

"No, no." He said, voice tight as he gestured to the icon. "I meant this. The Champion's Network."

"The what?" She squinted at the screen. "Huh, don't know. Jamie probably. Dude keeps recommending games and I keep forgetting about them."

That wasn't it, he knew it wasn't. He could FEEL the app looking at him. Waiting for him, impatiently, to click on it and take its tour.

He wanted to believe it was a coincidence, that the app was just some bug on the local wifi, but he could feel that it wasn't.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He blinked over at his sister, the room now a dull roar. "Huh?"

"You," his mother started, her hand landing firmly on his shoulder. "Are lying down."

There wasn't an ounce of fight in him to argue, not even for a token protest. All he could do was let his mother guide him to his old bedroom and let his head hit the familiar pillow.


An:
Not completely happy with it, I'm thinking that it could be merged with chapter 1 with editing in both halves.

I also wanted to have more fics up in this thread, kinda like marketing to gain attention, but, well, depression. Hope to get in the flow of thing's soon!

Also, aa always, let me k ow what you think and qhat snips you want to see more of.

 

[ltmauve]

Okay, so I've been thinking on and off about how why you would actually want to put a video-game-mechanics character into a story and what they benefit. Like, there's nothing that the numbers can say that you can't do with narrative descriptions anyway.

And a lot of times the system isn't explained. This is bad, because a video-game-like system, by its nature requires agency and thought in order to create it. Games do not spontaneously appear out of nowhere. Who designed this game and why did they give it to that person? It's a question without an answer that leaves a hole in the narrative.

So what's the narrative benefit of the video game logic? Well, good video game design attempts to use the mechanics of the game to get the desired behavior out of the player. See DOOM 2016, where every player quickly learns the correct way to handle getting hurt is to RIP AND TEAR even more, unlike every other shooter where you hide behind a wall. These mechanics are in effect a form of destiny that the game designer is attempting to impose on the gamer. To be granted a game system is to be granted a destiny by the person who created that system. It is one that is more concrete than a nebulous "tapestry of fate."

That, I think, is how you take the concept of "one person has a video game life" and make it into a bit serious of a story, instead of just a popcorn power fantasy.

This of course involves a lot more work, like coming up with a "benefactor" and enough of their motivations to explain why they're slapping that person with a destiny, and a video game system that reinforces that destiny. I honestly think another thing to do is not to constantly reference the numbers or mechanics.

 

[aattss]

One possible explanation I can see for the Gamer would be that the power is shaped by the MC's subconscious, so the power would be a metaphor for how they treat the world like a video game, or how they don't like the real world because it's not like a video game and wished it was more like one.

 

[ScottotheUnwise]

This of course involves a lot more work, like coming up with a "benefactor" and enough of their motivations to explain why they're slapping that person with a destiny, and a video game system that reinforces that destiny. I honestly think another thing to do is not to constantly reference the numbers or mechanics.

Click to shrink...

I see your post here and I feel I should point you to Maincraft. Heh, Mine, I should mention. It is a game system based on Minecraft (and a wee bit of FF Tactics). Taylor has her locker but a few key facts are emphasized. Part of the garbage collected and dumped on her included grey industrial gunk, much of it inactive Nanotechnology made by Leet. It was working tech, never fully activated because it lacked an OS. While Taylor suffered in silence (duct tape covered mouth), Greg V. was describing this neat game he found online a beta instance of Minecraft that, without his knowledge, was being hosted by Uber and Leet. Greg was actually playing on his phone in class, but as it kept him relatively quiet the teachers allowed it. So the nanomachines activated on Taylor's trigger and sought out the link to the communication routines which was the only part they held, linking to Greg's phone and through it to the server. Her power essentially is control of the nanomachine infection which now patterns itself per the game. It was turning things and places into parts of the game, rewriting the materials into more nanomachines or in biology enscribing on bone as circuits of memory and WiFi only the same machines could perceive. Restrictions kept it from completely converting living biology but it could perfect it.

Okay, the game is referenced, xp is a thing but the numbers are not the focus only suggested at by improvements to powers, the amount of land farmed (infected/assimilated). It is an entirely beneficial effect, saving the opponents (skellies, pigmen, spiders, creepers) appearing…

No destiny, no outside of context benefactor involved. Taylor's "power" was still a Master base, administrative access on the nanomachine network.

The portals to other worlds in the game were simulations with the players hidden away in the walls while the simulation of the game world was active, things brought back —hell thing brought out of inventory period were manufactured on the spot, with the power fed into the network fed by the people with nanotechnology, as well as solar power gathered from all surface installation.

Take a look at it and realize it was not entirely spelled out IN the story on purpose.

It admittedly didn't focus on how the game worked or came to be, but on how playing it led to more widespread effects on the world.

 

[ltmauve]

One possible explanation I can see for the Gamer would be that the power is shaped by the MC's subconscious, so the power would be a metaphor for how they treat the world like a video game, or how they don't like the real world because it's not like a video game and wished it was more like one.

Click to shrink...

It's one thing for a person's subconscious to choose how a Patronus looks, for example. But video games aren't simple, and humans are bad at math.
Also, games are an interaction between game designers and a player. Turning that into "one person making stuff up" is removing the game designers from the equation, which strikes me as rude and entitled.

Take a look at it and realize it was not entirely spelled out IN the story on purpose.

Click to shrink...

Nice.
You're almost making me want to break my rule against trying any more Worm fanfic.
That said, it doesn't sound like it has any "destiny from mechanics" elements in it.

 

[aattss]

It's one thing for a person's subconscious to choose how a Patronus looks, for example. But video games aren't simple, and humans are bad at math.
Also, games are an interaction between game designers and a player. Turning that into "one person making stuff up" is removing the game designers from the equation, which strikes me as rude and entitled.

Click to shrink...

The human doesn't do any of the actual math themself, since the power is doing all the math, inspired/based off of the experiences the MC had with video games created by game designers.

 

[oakgem217]

I would say that the hypothetical game designer for the Gamer's power is an amalgamation of all the game designers they knew and loved, exactly in the way that they knew them and loved them, the same way that the author of that story does.

 

[Punchweasel]

I know this thread has been quiet since August, but I felt like this would fit better in a thread already built for the topic of Gamer fics.

I've been working on an interactive CYOA based on Gamer fic Systems, mostly because of how many of them I've been able to read for the past few years. The basic premise is that you're assembling together a Gamer System for either yourself or someone else, somewhat like the V6 Worm interactive CYOA does for Worm except for Gamer fics in general.

I've already updated it twice by now and I'm still thinking of choices and systems to toss in or tweak points wise.