Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[f8butterfly]

Happens in Japanese and Korean media too though it's most obvious in Isekai stories where they bring Japanese/Korean food/products to the peasants of the new, vaguely European, world and are celebrated for their novel ideas.

I had to stop reading Isekai and transmigration stories that take place in those vaguely European countries or worlds because of this and historical inaccuracies (and the genres tends to not be impressive anyway). It's sadly common in a lot of fantasy or historical stories disregarding language or origin and its why they're extremely boring and easy to write. I think it's from people assuming it's easy to write fantasy and for historical works people assuming they know about Europe because they watched a vaguely historical fantasy film once and that looked about right to them so they didn't do any research and didn't think they had to either. Currently research is minimal for most writers regardless of genre.

 

[seneya]

those vaguely European countries

I always thought it's quite a shame. There are so many regions in Europe with their own unique culture you could base something interesting on. But I guess for many stories the setting is just the means to an end, the backdrop to romance/power fantasy/whatever.
At the same time I'd love to see more non-European fantasy.

 

[xeroxo]

I always thought it's quite a shame. There are so many regions in Europe with their own unique culture you could base something interesting on. But I guess for many stories the setting is just the means to an end, the backdrop to romance/power fantasy/whatever.
At the same time I'd love to see more non-European fantasy.

I think it wouldn't be easy to do that because just the character customisation along makes it inaccurate. What would a white man be doing in Wakanda? Fine, let's say he's settled there with his family; IF writers wouldn't mention how different the character would be from other characters based off their skin tones, which would help with immersion. They don't want to offend anyone so they just go with the mediaeval fantasy settings everyone is already used to

 

[f8butterfly]

I think it wouldn't be easy to do that because just the character customisation along makes it inaccurate. What would a white man be doing in Wakanda? Fine, let's say he's settled there with his family; IF writers wouldn't mention how different the character would be from other characters based off their skin tones, which would help with immersion. They don't want to offend anyone so they just go with the mediaeval fantasy settings everyone is already used to

I already gave examples of how to fix this. What you're saying is why it is boring to play them. An easy fix is a set main character with a set ethnicity. Yes, it wouldn't make sense for a white protagonist for a game set in a country or continent that they wouldn't realistically have been in at the time but the same should also apply to stories set in countries from Europe. Especially when they are explicitly said to actually take place in a country that is named, the most recent example I can think of is a IF that takes place in Romania but lets you play as anyone when it should probably only be limited to Romanians, Hungarians, and Roma. What authors typically go with is why they are boring!

 

[Parallax]

funny how these are all martial arts ifs lol. a true martial artist keeps grinding no matter what!

Too bad I hate martial arts. I barely have anything to read besides FH these days. Well, and Split mortal wound. They don't even have a Patreon as far as I know.

 

[seneya]

I think it wouldn't be easy to do that because just the character customisation along makes it inaccurate.

If you don't want to come up with separate backstories for different race/ethnicity MCs, then cut customization down to what makes sense.

I barely have anything to read besides FH these days.

As someone pointed out, martial arts IFs are not the only things getting updated. I just thought it funny that the mentality of grind apparently transcends to the authors of these works, too. Do you just not like the current WIPs?

 

[Parallax]

If you don't want to come up with separate backstories for different race/ethnicity MCs, then cut customization down to what makes sense.

As someone pointed out, martial arts IFs are not the only things getting updated. I just thought it funny that the mentality of grind apparently transcends to the authors of these works, too. Do you just not like the current WIPs?

Yeah most often. Even if one has an interesting idea, it's poorly written and there are a little choices. The opposite situation - a WIP that is regularly updated and the author tries to make it something that resembles interactive fiction, but I can't enjoy it because I don't like the genre/theme/ or the role the player is placed in.