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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025

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Some terms:

Cultivation Fantasy: typically means Western spin on Chinese/Eastern fantasy styles (Xianxia is one of the classic Chinese fantasy genres but not the only one).

Progression Fantasy: Fantasy with a focus on the character becoming stronger, learning magic, battles (and winning them) and other such stuff. Can be very addictive and lends itself to web serial formates well.

LitRPG: The world has some kind of game layer or something. I start out at level 1 with one level in one handed sword fighting. Kill a goblin. Now I have two levels in one handed sword fighting. Generally a sub genre of Progression Fantasy for the obvious reasons.

"The System": Often the name of or explanation for the game layer in a LitRPG. The "system" assigns you a class and tells you about your level ups or whatever. Genre often involves fighting, abusing, or changing the system.

Dungeon Crawler Carl (despite the weird sounding premise and name) is probably the "best" example of LitRPG/Systems.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is probably the "best" example of LitRPG/Systems.

*Worth the Candle enters the chat*

I loved WtC but come on, DCC is on another level (for example: hilarious and not 110% ratfic).

Seconding, DCC was my gateway drug into litRPGs and pound for pound, it's still the most insane,angsty,lol-worthy series in this genre that I've read.

Goddammit Donut!

I need a better elevator pitch for it. Any thoughts?

Every time I try I sound like that Always Sunny conspiracy board meme.