Why are there so few video game fanfics?

RootBeerBert

Was definitely popular growing up
Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Messages
107
Points
83
I’ve scrolled through the fan fiction tag/ranking a few times and noticed there are almost no video games fanfics. Like, I can’t be the only one who thinks a fallout fanfic sounds at least a little interesting.
 

Lorelliad

If you love me, tie my hair 🎵
Joined
May 31, 2021
Messages
1,404
Points
153
I can imagine my MC being reincarnated as a god in a video game and be all happy about it....

Till he ended up reincarnating as a god in God of War...
Sees a white man with red tatoos and his son
 

Redemit

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 23, 2019
Messages
640
Points
133
I've actually been reading a few Mass Effect fanfics over on RR recently and they also have a decent selection of Pokemon Fanfics as well and one really good in my opinion fallout fanfiction but that's as far as I've really got down that particular rabbit hole
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/43534/shine-mass-effect-ai-si
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46401/an-elf-in-skyrim
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46050/borne-of-desire
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46961/mass-effect-knight-of-the-old-republic
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/39945/fallout-vault-x
 
Last edited:

BenJepheneT

Light Up Gold - Parquet Courts
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
5,344
Points
233
I’ve scrolled through the fan fiction tag/ranking a few times and noticed there are almost no video games fanfics. Like, I can’t be the only one who thinks a fallout fanfic sounds at least a little interesting.
allow me to change that

 

CheertheDead

The narcissist and Attention Whore :>
Joined
Nov 15, 2020
Messages
357
Points
103
If you think it was rare not having a fanfic about games, think about how frustrated for me that there is barely any fanfic for RTS games.

Supreme Commander
Starcraft 2 Coop
Red Alert
Impossible Creature
Age of Mythology

All of these games have interesting mechanics that could be used as theme for countless fanfics, isekai for example.

I have been wanting to write at least one epic saga for Age of Mythology but have to postpone.
 
Last edited:

Agentt

Thighs
Joined
Oct 8, 2020
Messages
3,384
Points
183
Most games don't have great lore.
I would say they do, but it is very spread out. Like RPGs have a lore of defeating demon lord, Horror games have lore to just survive. When it comes to games, it's the little events what matter more than the entire plot.

Kirby, for example, the plot is simply that you are a gumball who defeats villians. However, the characters we meet, such as a father who was corrupted by darkness to the point of mechanising his daughters, or the mirror world where we see the dimension where kirby didn't defeat the villians and now everything is in ruins,
 

Kilolo

I'm so kewl
Joined
Jul 1, 2019
Messages
419
Points
103
video game nowadays is works as a franchise. and sometimes the universe are actually connected with each other. which means to safely wrote a fanfiction about game without being bashed for being inaccurate, you had to play the whole series. otherwise people would mentioned a trivia from the sequel title you never played before.

just play the whole series then? it's not that easy. some of them having the audacity to released at different platform. also sometimes you need an at least 3k USD GPU card to play the latest series. or a brand new next gen console that you can't afford.

and even if someone is having enough time and money to play and afford all of those one series. those kind of people are mostly not the type who wrote a fanfiction.
 

ArcadiaBlade

I'm a Lazy Writer, So What?
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
880
Points
133
If you think it was rare not having a fanfic about games. Think about how frustrated for me that there is barely any fanfic for RTS games.

Supreme Commander
Starcraft 2 Coop
Red Alert
Impossible Creature
Age of Mythology

All of these games have interesting mechanics that could be used as theme for countless fanfics, isekai for example.

I have been wanting to write at least one epic saga for Age of Mythology but have to postpone.
I do have a story for the Starcraft universe and was brainstorming on different ideas. One being a hybrid, a terran that commands 3 races to battle different planets from an unknown monster and has to upgrade, evolve and unite each race and use a synergy between them to fight in like a coop RTS where one man controls 2 races at a time.
 

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
8,162
Points
233
You just haven't played actual good games then. There's a fuckton of good games with great lore.
I never said there weren't good ones out there. I'm mostly going off what my husband thinks about the games he's played because I haven't played enough to get a good sample size.
 

vaurwyn

Everyone dies someday, but I'm procrastinating
Joined
Nov 30, 2021
Messages
151
Points
103
I think it might have something to do with how much freedom a video gives you.
When reading a book or watching a movie, you have no input. The story follows the same regardless of what you want and do, so if you have some other ideas for it, you have to write your own version.
However, while playing a video game, you are in control. Not over everything, but if you want to abandon your world-saving quest to roleplay being a villager, you often can.
If you want to experience the video game world in a new way, you just need to change your game style. There are restrictions, but when you are playing a video game you are already writing your own personal story. Therefore, you don't get the same impulse to write fanfic.
This does not mean that there should be no video game fanfic, but it might explain why they are not as common as movie and novel fanfic.
 

Echimera

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 29, 2021
Messages
271
Points
103
There are tons of video game fanfics, it's just not really the niche SH gravitates to.
I'm honestly not surprised when there are older, well established sites that are dedicated to fanfics.
 

Zirrboy

Fueled by anger
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
1,135
Points
153
Because by the time you've invested the 50 or so hours to get knowledgeable about the game's world, you'd rather spend another 10 playing than writing a book about it.
Stories end hard, so you're like "damn, I want more but there isn't any left"
You can play the games until you don't want the material anymore

Unless you need to channel thirst, but that is drawn rather than written
 
Top