dlamp
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
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Just something I've been curious about for a while now. I've noticed a lot of Cultivation/Wuxia, Isekai, and LitRPG stories these past two-ish years from sites like this and I've always wondered about the appeal of the latter two. I'm admittedly still very new to this site and publishing web novels in general, but as both reader and writer I've been curious about the appeal of these genres.
Isekai I can understand because easy self-projection, good excuse for world-building exposition, and having an obvious and immediate audience surrogate has too many advantages on paper to resist at least trying. I've got my opinions about its abundance, but that is neither here nor there.
Cultivation and Wuxia I'm just ignorant on in terms of the appeal. From my understanding this genre started gaining traction as translations of Chinese web novels came in, but as far as Western appeal to this specific genre I'm clueless. I mean, I'm a fan of cheesy kung fu films and have a few martial arts stories in the works, but the concept of Cultivation and general Wuxia and Xianxia aside from the Ancient China aesthetic is just lost on me, at least as a Westerner. As a self-admitted weeb that drools over anything samurai/feudal Japan-focused I get the idea of its appeal, but I just don't see the story advantage like I do with Isekai aside from popularity.
And LitRPG... I'll admit, I'm confused by the very term, but from my understanding the idea is a story set in a game world like Sword Art Online or a game-like world like Danmachi. I... sort of get this one. I'm a huge gamer myself, but I just couldn't see the appeal in reading about someone gaming when I could do it myself, virtual reality or no. Stuff like Danmachi have an interesting, decontructive edge to it, but that's all I can think of in terms of appeal. But maybe that's the cynical side of me reeling its ugly head. This is a specific genre I'm more negative about due to me seeing too many bad/below average anime covering this genre, but I'm curious as to why people stick with it.
But yeah guys, if you guys wanna' explain why you like writing/reading these genres I'm all ears. I'm not trying to come at this like a cynic, I'm genuinely curious since this isn't my main interest but I see it in a lot of web novel sites. Sorry if this came off as pretentious or sarcastic.
Isekai I can understand because easy self-projection, good excuse for world-building exposition, and having an obvious and immediate audience surrogate has too many advantages on paper to resist at least trying. I've got my opinions about its abundance, but that is neither here nor there.
Cultivation and Wuxia I'm just ignorant on in terms of the appeal. From my understanding this genre started gaining traction as translations of Chinese web novels came in, but as far as Western appeal to this specific genre I'm clueless. I mean, I'm a fan of cheesy kung fu films and have a few martial arts stories in the works, but the concept of Cultivation and general Wuxia and Xianxia aside from the Ancient China aesthetic is just lost on me, at least as a Westerner. As a self-admitted weeb that drools over anything samurai/feudal Japan-focused I get the idea of its appeal, but I just don't see the story advantage like I do with Isekai aside from popularity.
And LitRPG... I'll admit, I'm confused by the very term, but from my understanding the idea is a story set in a game world like Sword Art Online or a game-like world like Danmachi. I... sort of get this one. I'm a huge gamer myself, but I just couldn't see the appeal in reading about someone gaming when I could do it myself, virtual reality or no. Stuff like Danmachi have an interesting, decontructive edge to it, but that's all I can think of in terms of appeal. But maybe that's the cynical side of me reeling its ugly head. This is a specific genre I'm more negative about due to me seeing too many bad/below average anime covering this genre, but I'm curious as to why people stick with it.
But yeah guys, if you guys wanna' explain why you like writing/reading these genres I'm all ears. I'm not trying to come at this like a cynic, I'm genuinely curious since this isn't my main interest but I see it in a lot of web novel sites. Sorry if this came off as pretentious or sarcastic.