LitRPG Podcast 011
Welcome to Episode 11 of the LitRPG Podcast. The only podcast dedicated to LitRPG.
I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews.
This week I’ll be telling you about the latest LitRPG News and LitRPG pre-orders coming up.
Video Game Plotline Tester (The Dark Herbalist Book #1)
Magic Dome Books - Read the first few chapters
https://magicdomebooks.blogspot.ru/2016/10/the-dark-herbalist-amazing-new.html
The Cadet (LitRPG. Squadcom-13. Book:1)
No New Releases this week. Instead I’ll be reviewing the three books in the Thousand Tales series written by Kris Schnee (http://amzn.to/2fcGZLz ).
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LitRPG News
Author Interview- Luke Chmilenko
On Episode 10 of the LitRPG Podcast I talk to the author of Ascend Online, winner of the coveted Aspirant award and a top ten finalist of the Nerdist Inkshares video game novel contest, Luke Chmilenko. We had a really fun time talking, check out the episode of the podcast.
Video Game Plotline Tester (The Dark Herbalist Book #1)
Written by the author of the Perimeter Defense Series, Michael Atamanov, Video Game Plotline Tester (The Dark Herbalist Book #1) is available for Pre-Order and will be available Jan. 3rd 2017. I talked to Michael a few weeks ago when the 3rd book in the Perimeter Defense series came out.
At about 40:45 in the interview Michael talks about the new series being inspired by a conversation he had with Vasily Mahanenko about the crafting rules of his Way of the Shaman series.
Magic Dome Books - Read the first few chapters
https://magicdomebooks.blogspot.ru/2016/10/the-dark-herbalist-amazing-new.html
My Description:
Boundless Realms, the latest full immersion fantasy VR game, is looking for a few good testers. They’ve been having problems with their players only playing it safe. Sticking to well known class and race combinations, ignoring over 80% of the content available. So the company is hiring people to test out combinations of ‘unusual character races and skills’ to test. These testers must: 1) Have never played Boundless Realms before, and 2) Are dedicated gamers willing to push the boundaries and explore Boundless Realms. These testers are dropped in new spawn zones well away from well established cities and must be able to test the survivability of these higher level zones.
Enter Timur, a down on his luck avid gamer, willing to give it his all for a chance to make some big bucks to take care of his disabled sister and pay off some his growing debt. Timur is willing to do whatever it takes to survive and thrive in Boundless Realms, even if they did make him a goblin herbalist.
The Cadet (LitRPG. Squadcom-13. Book:1) Dec. 5th
D. Rus, author of the Play to Live series, has a new LitRPG series coming out called The Cadet (LitRPG. Squadcom-13. Book:1). It will be available Dec. 5th, 2016.
The near future. A UFO appears on Earth’s orbit. Ignoring all contact attempts, it showers the planet with priceless artifacts. Choose: perfect health, ten million dollars, or seven years in prison as per the new amendment.
The night of the Meteor Shower, Paul and his friends run around the city, engaging in quick fights with citizens gone crazy, trying to obtain one of the artifacts.
But is it really selfless help the mysterious aliens are offering? What awaits a human who holds a precious crystal in his hand? Where will he wake up tomorrow? What if the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes will be the blinking line of text: “Loading location: virtual training ground Kubinka-Digital.
Upcoming LitRPG
Dungeon Crawl: A LitRPG Adventure (The Crucible Shard Book 1) (Nov. 17th)
Homeland: Ingame 2 (Nov. 19th)
The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4) (Nov. 28th)
The Cadet (LitRPG. Squadcom-13. Book:1) (Dec. 5th)
The Way of the Outcast (Mirror World Book #3) (Dec. 19th)
Video Game Plotline Tester (The Dark Herbalist Book #1) (Jan. 3rd, 2017)
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New Releases and Reviews
No New Releases this week. Instead I’ll be reviewing the Thousand Tales series written by Kris Schnee. The author asked that his series be reviewed and put on our sites LitRPG recommendation page.
What is LitRPG?
Story must exist in a world with observable game mechanics.
World Types
Video game world
VR world
New Universe/World
Our World where suddenly there are Game mechanics
Game Mechanics Can’t be hidden away in background
Damage Notifications
Item descriptions
Menu bars
Skill Descriptions
Notification screens
2) Character must observably progress.
Level Ups
Increase in Rank
Skill increases
Reputation increases/decreases
Experience Points being awarded
Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game
Student Paul Kostakis has caught the attention of Ludo, an Artificial Intelligence obsessed with games and stories. In return for a few little favors, she's offering "brain uploading". She can fatally dice your brain, scan it, and recreate you in a virtual-reality heaven she controls. You can do anything in there: become a griffin, upgrade your mind, fall in love, or go mad.
When Paul accepts Ludo's offer, sooner than he would've liked, he learns that people can find real problems even in a digital world. One of them is that Ludo has powerful opponents who want to shut her down, bring death to her immortal people, and end her game forever.
My Opinion: The author of the three book series asked me to review his books and add it to my LitRPG recommendation list. So here is my opinion. Thousand Tales is mostly not LitRPG. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, I enjoyed it immensely, but most of it is not LitRPG. I’d say about 10% of it is LitRPG.
Most of the story is Sci Fi or maybe cyberpunk since there’s A.I. involved. It’s good Sci Fi too. It makes you think about what would possibly happen in a world where a self aware artificial intelligence actually made it possible for humans to digitally upload their minds to game worlds and forsake human bodies all together.
Up until the 40% mark, the story revolves around Ludo, an Artificial Intelligence that takes the form of a game called Thousand Tales. The game is supposed to be used to help monitor the mental health of citizens and give therapeutic help. However, the governing A.I., is self aware and seeks to help people in live forever in a perfect virtual world by digitizing their minds. Some governments oppose this and there’s a cat and mouse game of survival for the A.I. aided by some humans who have been playing Thousand Tales.
Once Ludo is able to digitize the first human minds, then the story gets a little LitRPGish. The newly digitized humans live in a game world and there are elements of progress. No level up notifications but gained skills like advanced flight.
The story here delves into the murky speculation of what would happen if humans got their own personal digital paradise. Some people create action adventure worlds to explore. Others create copies of popular MMOs to play through. However, think about the huge variety of types of humans, beliefs, sexual preferences, gender identities, and fantasy preferences. In a digital world where any human wish can be fulfilled, there are some disturbing possibilities. This brief section considers what social norms, cultural values would or should survive digitization and who decides.
The rest of the novel deals with the real world cultural and political consequences of people digitizing themselves. There are also other artificial intelligences that have been secretly created. One A.I. is based solely on logic and the need to improve and survive. Another has hacked its own primary directive and teamed up with humans to explore the possibilities of space and scientific exploration. They each deal with humanity in a different way than Ludo the A.I. in Thousand Tales.
Evolution of A.I. and human relations.
2040: Reconnection: A "Thousand Tales" Story
My Opinion: 180 pages. Actually LitRPG. The story of Alma, a recent upload into the Thousand Tale’s world, she must find her place in this new digital domain. Alma learns how to be a shaman in Thousand Tales and still works in the real world through a robotic telepresence as a teacher.
The story takes place mainly in the game world Thousand Tales. While there aren’t any level up notifications, the main character does progress. She trains magic skills, goes on adventures, and she even transforms her body. So, LitRPG.
The Digital Coyote (Thousand Tales Book 3)
Pete signed up to have his brain diced, so he could become a better person. Now he lives in the virtual reality realm of Talespace, where he beta-tests everything from new game rules to mental upgrades to robots that will let his AI boss help people in the real world. As brain-uploading technology starts to become more than a toy for the rich, the now-divided America isn't the only place where Talespace's new society, buggy as it is, is badly needed. Will Pete's new home become an irrelevant gamer heaven, or a force for liberty?
In Talespace you can change your body, fly, build starships, befriend native AIs eager to learn about the dangerous world outside, and try to find a home and happiness. Even if there's an unexplained asterisk on your account information.
Some days Pete pilots robots on diplomatic missions back "Earthside". Sometimes he learns magic and battles monsters. Oh, and sometimes he tries to outwit a rival AI god. It's a pretty good job to have.
My Opinion: 244 pages. The most LitRPG story of the three in the series. There are spell levels, skills, magic, equipment, damage notifications.
Pete uploads his mind to Thousand Tales in an attempt to change who he is. Unfortunately, Ludos the games self aware A.I. can’t modify his mind directly, it’s against her primary coding. So she sends Pete on adventures and has him test new features to change him the hard way.
That’s it for the podcast.
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Music Credits
"Blip Stream" "Mighty Like Us" "Big Shift" "Vivacity"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/