Gamer Fic
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | gamer!fic, gamerfic |
| Related tropes/genres | The Gamer |
| See also | LitRPG, isekai |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
Gamer fic is a genre of fanfiction where the character experiences life as a game:
Gamer fic is fic where the protagonist suddenly experiences their life as being like a video game, with stat points, levels, and hit points they actually see and use. They have video game abilities, like the ability to pull objects into an inventory (or sometimes even "pause", literally stopping time). It's apparently based on a Korean webcomic, though most people are just using the basic premise of "life is now a video game".[1]
The Korean webcomic in question is 'The Gamer' by Sang-A, which started in 2013 and is ongoing. The mechanics of the game system in the original webcomic are sometimes copied directly in fics, with characters able to absorb skills from books and learn magic through allocating points, but the details are often changed to fit the author's needs.
Some fans use "gamer fic" to mean taking the mechanics or worldbuilding of specific, real-word video games, and make no references to The Gamer at all. E.g:
So here’s the idea: We’ve seen plenty of gamer fanfics, right? And often those gamer fanfics were based on various video games, although many prefer to go for a generic DND-like MMO kind of game. It makes for easier writing etc.But what if there was gamer fanfic based on having the stats and game mechanics from the entire sims series?[2]
Gamer fic is related to the broader genre of LitRPGs - fiction based in some way on (usually digital) RPGs. LitRPG works are more commonly original fiction.
Gamer fic is comparable to hanahaki, in that it is another trope based on a specific comic that became better-known than the original source material. While the Gamer ability itself does not necessarily make a character overpowered, many Gamer fics also feature overpowered or BAMF interpretations of characters.
Fandoms
Although the Gamer fic premise is not specific to a particular fandom, some fandoms are more represented than others among Gamer fic. My Hero Academia is one such fandom, to the point of "The Gamer Ability (The Gamer) as a Quirk (My Hero Academia)" being a canonical tag for the fandom on AO3.[3] Worm also has a relatively high number of Gamer fics.
Example Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Player One, Archived version by alohaflower -- MHA
- A Different Level System, Archived version by AmateurStoryCreator --Percy Jackson
Useful Links
References
- ^ Nonnie, here. April 5th, 2019.
- ^ " ". From the introduction of My Shining Plumbob--(Worm/Sims/Gamer), Archived version, a Worm gamerfic posted to SufficientVelocity and drawing on The Sims for its game mechanics.
- ^ The Gamer Ability (The Gamer Webcomic) as a Quirk (My Hero Academia) tag on AO3, with 63 works using the tag as of April 2023.
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