Metagame

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Some people get a second chance, late in life, and jump on it.

Other people are on their third before they turn twenty.

One was given everything they wanted, and threw it away on principle. One earned their place, but could never afford to pay the price. One never failed, right up until it mattered. One encountered nothing but failure, instead helping others achieve success. One never believed themselves worthy. One is crushed by the past, afraid of what might repeat itself. And the last never had a goal to begin with.

But while nobody cared and no one was watching, they each decided to carry on in their own ways, even when that made things worse- and they did, usually, get worse.

Arrows Through Reality, often called Arrows or ATR, is the world's first full-immersion Virtual Reality game, a MOBA by Granduon incorporated that didn't blow its competition out of the water, but did provide a new entry point that had millions trying their new game. Two years later, the player base has only grown, and everybody knows the most effective tactics... but while a cutting-edge AI supposedly runs the game's balance, it hasn't patched anything a single time.

Well, the most effective way to do anything is subjective, right?

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: Aetheo

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.5/ 5.0
Followers: 1
Views: 1,133

Reviews

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Community Reviews(3)

ModaghairRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In the gamer's lexicon, "Metagame" means the parts of the game that happen outside the actual matches: typically obsessed with patches, tier lists, and strategy guides as players religiously adhere to the Most Effective Tactics Available.
Book one dives deep into the character and struggles of six players who refuse to bow to convention and peer pressure. These people think differently, play differently, and for them, sometimes the hardest part of the game is the people they play with. It's fascinating to see events play out from each of their perspectives.
This story is different from any GameLit I've read before, and it is great because of those differences.
MoonRakeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really enjoy the dynamic that goes on between the characters. I don't typically enjoy stories with so many character perspectives, but I think in this case it works very well. The narrative doesn't feel bogged down, and advances consistently.
The video game aspect is handled in a way that I enjoy, which is another plus.
Perhaps if a revision is done or in a future chapter, the author could think about demonstrating a certain antagonistic carry with more relatable qualities to demonstrate that they are a person beyond their rude communication. I think this would add more depth to that character, and make that character more developed. To be fair though this review was written at Chapter 31, about 130 pages into the story. I enjoy it so far with things as they are regardless.
I think overall the story is fun, and would recommend.
5 stars for a good read, and as encouragement to the author.
ZadarRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This is a story about competitive gaming.
The story contains a lot of action. A result of this is that the speed of storystelling is rather slow.
A problem of the fights is that many basic terms are not explained. Some things you can figure out from context or own expierence others not.
For example the story mentions "carry" from the start. In chapter 27 a char states "Remember that you need item scaling to be a carry".
With my own MOBA expierence i still don't know why carries play against each other on the south lane in the story.
Other times chars talk over a game mechanics in a way of pure nerd talk. I is not exactly neccesary for the story to understand them but this happens just too much.
Too be fair some chars have good discussions about the mechanic. Other times one char mentions a concept or a idea and the other char should figure it out for themselfs. The problem here is that the reader knows not enough about the game and can only wait for the second char to come up with a result.
I would like to see something like small wiki entries between the early chapters or as a chapter prelude.
Something like. What is a carry? On which lane plays role X? What are the lanes etc.
Also i would like to see abilities that are first mentioned in a chapter outro.
Like:
Psychic Creation: Plane
Creates a plane at a cost of five concentration per square meter
Vulnerable to piercing damage.
Cooldown 8 seconds
With this the story would be more GameLit but i think it would help to understand the abilities better.